Kasich: "I'm going to send a lot of power,
money and influence back to where we all live...The lord made all of us
special. The lord wants us to be connected. I believe we're part of a very big
mosaic and I'll send the power back and whoever gets elected president here
hopefully we'll take care of the issue of jobs and wages and Social Security
and the border but the spirit of America rests in all of us, it's in our guts,
its taking care of our children, it's taking care of the lady next door who
just lost her husband, it's fixing the schools where we live and telling kids
to stay off of drugs. You see I think what the lord wants is for us to
engage."
Carson: "We the people can stop that
decline starting right here in South Carolina. If all the people who say, 'I love
Ben Carson and his policies but he can't win' vote for me, not only can we win
but we can turn this thing around. We have this manipulation by the political
class and by the media telling us who we're supposed to pick and how we're
supposed to live. We the people are the only people who determine that and if
you elect me as your next president I promise you that you that you will get
somebody who is accountable to everybody and beholden to no one."
Bush:"The next president's going to be
confronted with an unforeseen challenge. That's almost certain. It could be a
pandemic, a major national disaster or an attack o our country. The question
for South Carolinians and Americans is who do you want to have sitting behind
the big desk in the Oval Office? It's not the things that we're talking about
today, it's the great challenge that may happen..I believe I will have a steady
hand as president of the United States."
Rubio: "This a difficult time in our
country. Our economy is flat, it's not creating the jobs it once did, people
struggle living paycheck to paycheck. Our culture's in trouble. Wrong is now
considered right and right is considered wrong and all the things that once
held our families together are now under constant assault and around the world
America's reputation's in decline. Our allies don't trust us, our adversaries
don't fear us...these are difficult times but 2016 an be a turning point.
That's why I'm running for president."
Cruz: "South Carolina you have a
critical choice to make. Our country literally hangs in the balance. Do you
want another Washington dealmaker who will do business as usual, cut deals with
the Democrats, grow government, grow debt and give up our fundamental liberties
or do you want a conservative, a proven conservative who will stand and fight
with you each and every day?...If we get this wrong, if we nominate the wrong
candidate, the Second Amendment, life, marriage, religious liberty, every one
of those hangs in the balance."
Trump: "Politicians are all talk, no
action. You've seen where they've taken you to. We owe 19 trillion dollars
right now it's going to be increased with that horrible budget from a month ago
that was just approved by politicians. We need a change, we need a very big
change, we're going to make our country great again."
10:41 p.m.
Bush and Trump clash
again as Bush brings up Trump's record of his businesses filing for bankruptcy.
"Just like the biggest business leaders in this country, I've used the
laws of the land...I use the laws to my benefit," he said. Then he accused
Bush of being a bad governor because he "put so much debt on
Florida." In his response, Bush said, "We led the nation in job
growth seven out of eight years. When I left there were 9 billion dollars of
reserves...during my time, we were one of two states to go to triple-A bond
rating. We didn't go bankrupt like Trump did."
10:37 p.m.
Trump is asked if he
has ever listened to someone who has told him he was wrong. "My wife tells
me I'm wrong all the time and I listen," he said. But he demurs when asked
for a specific topic. Then he added, "I do listen to experts. I listen to
top, top people." "Sometimes, they're wrong," he said. When
Dickerson questioned his use of profanity, Trump said sometimes, "in order
to really highlight something," he will use some profanity. But he also
said he is sometimes accused of using foul language on the campaign trail even
though he hasn't.
10:27 p.m.
Trump and Cruz tussle next after Cruz criticizes
Trump for supporting taxpayer-funded abortion. "You are the single biggest
liar. You probably are worse than Jeb Bush," Trump shouted. He called Cruz
a "nasty guy" and criticized Cruz for telling Iowans that Carson was
dropping out of the race during the caucus. Cruz fired back."It is fairly
remarkable to see Donald defending Ben after he called him pathological and
compared him to a child molester. Both of which were offensive and wrong,"
he said. "You notice that Donald didn't disagree with the substance that
he supports tax payer funding for Planned Parenthood. And Donald has this weird
pattern of when you point to his record, he screams 'liar, liar. When he noted
that Trump once said Planned Parenthood did "wonderful things," Trump
said that's true -- on everything except abortion. As they continue shouting
over each other, Dickerson admonished, "Gentlemen, I'm going to turn this
car around!"
10:17 p.m.
Garrett asked Trump
about his promise earlier this week to levy a tax on a company like Ford if
they move their factories to Mexico. "Where do you derive that
power?" Garrett asked. "Do you see the presidency as a perch from
which you can cajole or threaten private industry?" "I would build
consensus with Congress and Congress would agree with me," he said.
"I don't like the idea of using executive orders like our president."
10:15 p.m.
Carson was asked about
fines for financial companies who contributed to the mortgage crisis: Should
financial executives be held responsible? And are fines an effective way to
deter companies from taking too much risk? "We've got all these regulators
and all they're doing is running around looking for people to fine," he
said. "I think what we really need to do is start trimming the regulatory
agencies rather than going after the people who are trying to increase the
viability, economic viability of our society." While he said that there
are sometimes bad actors, "I'm not sure that the way to solve that problem
is by increasing all the regulatory burden."
10:11 p.m.
Bush said he feels like
he has to "get into his inner Chris Christie" and repeats one of Christie's
arguments from previous debates - that he gets tired of listening to senators
argue about "two arcane plans that didn't pass." Bush then said that
people who come to the U.S. are just trying to provide for their families,
"but that doesn't mean it's right." "They're not all rapists as
you-know-who said," he added, nodding toward Trump. "We should show a
little more respect for the fact that they're struggling." Trump then took
credit for raising the issue of illegal immigration when he ran for president.
"The weakest person on this stage by far on illegal immigration is Jeb
Bush," he said. "He is so weak on illegal immigration it's
laughable." "You want to talk about weakness? It's weak to denigrate
women. It's weak to denigrate Hispanics," Bush said. Trump responded by
saying that earlier in the week Bush said he would take down his pants and moon
people.
10:08 p.m.
Cruz is asked whether
he would use the database of addresses provided by young immigrants brought to
the U.S. illegally when they applied for a reprieve from deportation to deport
young people. He ducked the question and instead criticized Rubio for his role
in crafting the Senate immigration reform bill. Rubio begins rehashing an old
debate between the two, pointing out that Cruz spoke in favor of legalization
during the Senate debate. "He either wasn't telling the truth then or
isn't telling the truth now." "Marco right now supports citizenship
for 12 million people here illegally. I oppose citizenship," Cruz said. "Marco
has a long record when it comes to amnesty. In Florida, as speaker of the
House, he supported in-state tuition for illegal immigrants." He also said
that Rubio said he would not rescind Obama's executive action on immigration
during a Spanish-language interview on Univision. "I don't know how he
knows what I said on Univision because he doesn't speak Spanish," Rubio
said. Then Cruz said a few words to him in Spanish.
10:03 p.m.
Trump is asked about
the RNC's Spanish-language response to the State of the Union address, where
Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Florida, said the GOP must offer "a permanent
and humane solution to those who live in the shadows." "What does
that mean to you?" Dickerson asked. "I want everybody taken care of
but we have to take care of our people in this country," Trump said.
9:55 p.m.
Bush said his plan to
force hedge fund managers to pay normal income tax rather than the lower
capital gains tax will not get in the way of economic growth. He also said the
special capital gains rate is "not appropriate" for them. "They
should be paying ordinary income, that's their business, they're grateful to be
able to make a lot of money," he said. "It's not the end of the world
that private equity and hedge fund folks that are right now getting capital
gains treatment pay ordinary [taxes] like everybody here in this room."
9:52 p.m.
Kasich defends his
decision to expand Medicaid in Ohio and argued that it saves money to treat
people for problems like drug addiction rather than letting them to prison or
lives on the streets. Bush criticizes that decision while praising Kasich's
motives. "Expanding Obamacare is what we're talking about and Obamacare's
expansion, even though the federal government is paying for the great majority
of it, is creating more debt on the backs of our children and
grandchildren," he said.
