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Republican presidential debate: Trump and Bush clash but Fiorina stands out – as it happened
Republican presidential debate: Trump and Bush clash but Fiorina stands out – as it happened
(6 days later)
5.23am BST
5.23am BST
05:23
05:23
Good night
Good night
With that we are going to wrap up our live blog coverage for the evening. Thank you for joining us for the event and pitching in in the comments.
With that we are going to wrap up our live blog coverage for the evening. Thank you for joining us for the event and pitching in in the comments.
For a summary of the night’s action, read our snap debate reaction here, our full news wrap here and the Trump-Fiorina showdown here.
For a summary of the night’s action, read our snap debate reaction here, our full news wrap here and the Trump-Fiorina showdown here.
Plus! Jeb Bush on smoking pot, Marco Rubio on water bottles, Republicans on America the not-quite-planet .... and Margaret Thatcher on the $10 bill.
Plus! Jeb Bush on smoking pot, Marco Rubio on water bottles, Republicans on America the not-quite-planet .... and Margaret Thatcher on the $10 bill.
Updated
Updated
at 5.36am BST
at 5.36am BST
5.20am BST
5.20am BST
05:20
05:20
Rory Carroll in the spin room hears this about Ted Cruz:
Rory Carroll in the spin room hears this about Ted Cruz:
Cruz soared over the other candidates’ grubby mud-wrestling, according to Bob Smith, a former New Hampshire senator and spinner for the Texas senator.
Cruz soared over the other candidates’ grubby mud-wrestling, according to Bob Smith, a former New Hampshire senator and spinner for the Texas senator.
“He didn’t attack, he didn’t demean. He was very on point with the issues without in any way getting involved in the negativism and the nitpicking and the back and forth. And a lot of that went on tonight. I was proud of him for staying out of that.”
“He didn’t attack, he didn’t demean. He was very on point with the issues without in any way getting involved in the negativism and the nitpicking and the back and forth. And a lot of that went on tonight. I was proud of him for staying out of that.”
Smith said Carly Fiorina performed strongly. “She clearly did a good job, no doubt about that. She did well.”
Smith said Carly Fiorina performed strongly. “She clearly did a good job, no doubt about that. She did well.”
5.04am BST
5.04am BST
05:04
05:04
The Fiorina campaign has not sent anyone into the spin room -- feels like a mic drop
The Fiorina campaign has not sent anyone into the spin room -- feels like a mic drop
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5.02am BST
05:02
05:02
More from Rory Carroll in the spin room, where Ed Brookover, a spokesman for Ben Carson, said the campaign “surged on Wednesday even before the debate, gaining 300,000 new Facebook followers and raising $1 million.”
More from Rory Carroll in the spin room, where Ed Brookover, a spokesman for Ben Carson, said the campaign “surged on Wednesday even before the debate, gaining 300,000 new Facebook followers and raising $1 million.”
“Tonight Dr Carson once again showed he could be leader of the American people,” Brookover said.
“Tonight Dr Carson once again showed he could be leader of the American people,” Brookover said.
He said the retired neurosurgeon had stayed true to his desire to run a positive campaign. “His style is not to attack anybody.”
He said the retired neurosurgeon had stayed true to his desire to run a positive campaign. “His style is not to attack anybody.”
Carson’s awkward handshake in response to Trump’s attempt to high-five him reflected his surgeon’s training, said Brookover. “His first instinct is to protect his hands.”
Carson’s awkward handshake in response to Trump’s attempt to high-five him reflected his surgeon’s training, said Brookover. “His first instinct is to protect his hands.”
4.57am BST
4.57am BST
04:57
04:57
Rory Carroll is holding out in the spin room, where Robert O’Brien, a spinner for Scott Walker, “claimed the Wisconsin governor’s ideas dominated the debate even if he himself had relatively little time to speak,” Rory writes:
Rory Carroll is holding out in the spin room, where Robert O’Brien, a spinner for Scott Walker, “claimed the Wisconsin governor’s ideas dominated the debate even if he himself had relatively little time to speak,” Rory writes:
Other candidates “jumped on Scott’s bandwagon” by making bold promises about their first day in the White House and how they would treat China and other foreign powers, said O’Brien.
Other candidates “jumped on Scott’s bandwagon” by making bold promises about their first day in the White House and how they would treat China and other foreign powers, said O’Brien.
He admitted Walker did not land a knock-out blow but said that did not matter this early in the campaign. “I don’t think in early September a breakthrough moment is necessary. He had a flawless performance.”
He admitted Walker did not land a knock-out blow but said that did not matter this early in the campaign. “I don’t think in early September a breakthrough moment is necessary. He had a flawless performance.”
O’Brien put a positive interpretation on Walker being ignored for much of the debate. “Everyone else took a hit. Scott Walker did not take a hit. No one laid a glove on him.”
O’Brien put a positive interpretation on Walker being ignored for much of the debate. “Everyone else took a hit. Scott Walker did not take a hit. No one laid a glove on him.”
He said the candidate’s perspiration was the consequence of three hours under TV lights.
He said the candidate’s perspiration was the consequence of three hours under TV lights.
Walker’s spinner dished some anti-Fiorina flavor too:
Walker’s spinner dished some anti-Fiorina flavor too:
O’Brien said Carly Fiorina “had some good answers” and that her appearance was “great for the party” but noted the criticism of her record at Hewlett-Packard. “She took some hits.”
O’Brien said Carly Fiorina “had some good answers” and that her appearance was “great for the party” but noted the criticism of her record at Hewlett-Packard. “She took some hits.”
Updated
Updated
at 4.59am BST
at 4.59am BST
4.52am BST
4.52am BST
04:52
04:52
The Twitter primary:
The Twitter primary:
Most-Tweeted moments of #CNNDebate so far: 1. @CarlyFiorina responds to @realDonaldTrump on her looks 2. @CarlyFiorina on Planned Parenthood
Most-Tweeted moments of #CNNDebate so far: 1. @CarlyFiorina responds to @realDonaldTrump on her looks 2. @CarlyFiorina on Planned Parenthood
4.51am BST
4.51am BST
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04:51
Here’s an interesting breakdown of who got how much time, as of the fourth break:
Here’s an interesting breakdown of who got how much time, as of the fourth break:
Rory Carroll is mingling in the spin room. “Jeb Bush’s spinners said their man trumped Trump and won the night,” he writes:
Rory Carroll is mingling in the spin room. “Jeb Bush’s spinners said their man trumped Trump and won the night,” he writes:
“He managed to shut Donald Trump down on the issue of keeping America safe,” said Michael Steel. “He shut him down for about 40 minutes.”
“He managed to shut Donald Trump down on the issue of keeping America safe,” said Michael Steel. “He shut him down for about 40 minutes.”
Trent Wisecap, another spokesman, said Bush was the first candidate who managed to silence the billionaire. “It put him back on his heels.”
Trent Wisecap, another spokesman, said Bush was the first candidate who managed to silence the billionaire. “It put him back on his heels.”
They talked up Bush’s apology to his mother for admitting smoking pot and his defence of his brother George’s post 9/11 record as the debate’s highlights.
They talked up Bush’s apology to his mother for admitting smoking pot and his defence of his brother George’s post 9/11 record as the debate’s highlights.
“Jeb had the moment of humour and the moment of strength,” said Wisecap.
“Jeb had the moment of humour and the moment of strength,” said Wisecap.
4.47am BST
4.47am BST
04:47
04:47
We found a vote for Bush:
We found a vote for Bush:
.@brithume: "I think @JebBush had a pretty good night." #OReillyFactor pic.twitter.com/YYKECowfI8
.@brithume: "I think @JebBush had a pretty good night." #OReillyFactor pic.twitter.com/YYKECowfI8
From where we were sitting, Chris Christie participated in a new way, with strong points about fighting terrorism at home and an emotional recollection of September 11, and a well-timed dig at Fiorina and Trump for arguing about who had the worse career. Christie tried to guide the conversation to challenges facing the middle class.
From where we were sitting, Chris Christie participated in a new way, with strong points about fighting terrorism at home and an emotional recollection of September 11, and a well-timed dig at Fiorina and Trump for arguing about who had the worse career. Christie tried to guide the conversation to challenges facing the middle class.
Fiorina was noticeably strong, making emotionally powerful appeals in opposition to abortion and in favor of more support for mental illness and addiction cases. She also described a muscular foreign policy that would include breaking off communication with Vladimir Putin.
Fiorina was noticeably strong, making emotionally powerful appeals in opposition to abortion and in favor of more support for mental illness and addiction cases. She also described a muscular foreign policy that would include breaking off communication with Vladimir Putin.
If Marco Rubio got one word out of place we didn’t hear it. Challenged on his past support for a path to citizenship for some undocumented migrants, he said immigration was a personal issue and described multiple layers of the challenge. He spoke with special depth on foreign policy.
If Marco Rubio got one word out of place we didn’t hear it. Challenged on his past support for a path to citizenship for some undocumented migrants, he said immigration was a personal issue and described multiple layers of the challenge. He spoke with special depth on foreign policy.
Rand Paul was stronger than his dismal poll numbers might have suggested, especially on state’s rights and the need to avoid a new military expedition in Iraq.
Rand Paul was stronger than his dismal poll numbers might have suggested, especially on state’s rights and the need to avoid a new military expedition in Iraq.
Jeb Bush did not bad, tangling with Trump, defending his brother and, at the very end, coming up with a pretty good nickname for himself, Eveready. “It’s very high energy, Donald.” (But why didn’t he say Energizer?)
Jeb Bush did not bad, tangling with Trump, defending his brother and, at the very end, coming up with a pretty good nickname for himself, Eveready. “It’s very high energy, Donald.” (But why didn’t he say Energizer?)
Kasich and Carson do not seem to have left particularly strong impressions. Cruz and Huckabee were fine. Walker got more talking in than the last one but it’s unclear whether he managed to move away from the wallpaper.
Kasich and Carson do not seem to have left particularly strong impressions. Cruz and Huckabee were fine. Walker got more talking in than the last one but it’s unclear whether he managed to move away from the wallpaper.
Trump waved his arms around, got some good comebacks in but seemed to tire at the end, or grow bored, or something. Somewhere around minute 150 the thrill of the night seemed to fade in his eyes.
Trump waved his arms around, got some good comebacks in but seemed to tire at the end, or grow bored, or something. Somewhere around minute 150 the thrill of the night seemed to fade in his eyes.
4.33am BST
4.33am BST
04:33
04:33
Republican strategist Liz Mair:
Republican strategist Liz Mair:
OK, I will say that Carly edged Rubio-- not equal. But the main reason I say that is she didn't make the dumb water joke upfront.
OK, I will say that Carly edged Rubio-- not equal. But the main reason I say that is she didn't make the dumb water joke upfront.
Conservative outlet Washington Free Beacon editor:
Conservative outlet Washington Free Beacon editor:
Fiorina was the standout http://t.co/KONNnLC376 But Jeb, Rubio, Cruz, Christie all had good nights
Fiorina was the standout http://t.co/KONNnLC376 But Jeb, Rubio, Cruz, Christie all had good nights
Conservative outlet HotAir editor:
Conservative outlet HotAir editor:
If I had to pick one winner, it would be Fiorina. Sharp, prepared, detailed, responsive, and assertive when needed.
If I had to pick one winner, it would be Fiorina. Sharp, prepared, detailed, responsive, and assertive when needed.
4.28am BST
4.28am BST
04:28
04:28
OK: who won? At least one colorful chart charts positive reaction to Fiorina’s performance:
OK: who won? At least one colorful chart charts positive reaction to Fiorina’s performance:
#CNNDebate: @CarlyFiorina takes the win with 71.8% positive sentiment - pic.twitter.com/OC5P9XSZTe
#CNNDebate: @CarlyFiorina takes the win with 71.8% positive sentiment - pic.twitter.com/OC5P9XSZTe
4.13am BST
4.13am BST
04:13
04:13
Carson says he was a “radical Democrat” before he started listening to Reagan. He envisions a more unified country. America would lead in the Middle East. “Real leadership is what I would hopefully bring.”
Carson says he was a “radical Democrat” before he started listening to Reagan. He envisions a more unified country. America would lead in the Middle East. “Real leadership is what I would hopefully bring.”
Trump: “We will make this country greater than ever before.” More jobs. “More of everything.” “The world will respect us like never before and it will actually be a friendlier world.”
Trump: “We will make this country greater than ever before.” More jobs. “More of everything.” “The world will respect us like never before and it will actually be a friendlier world.”
Bush: Poverty is growing, middle incomes are shrinking, business are failing. He see 4% growth, tax reform, repaired regulatory and energy systems, entitlements, debt, dreams, consensus, “and then we’ll be able to lead the world.”
Bush: Poverty is growing, middle incomes are shrinking, business are failing. He see 4% growth, tax reform, repaired regulatory and energy systems, entitlements, debt, dreams, consensus, “and then we’ll be able to lead the world.”
Walker says Reagan told people how America was going to be better. No more radical Islamic terror, a better economy, and a smaller federal government. And no more stinking unions.
Walker says Reagan told people how America was going to be better. No more radical Islamic terror, a better economy, and a smaller federal government. And no more stinking unions.
Fiorina deploys to a metaphor from her latest book, Lady Liberty and Lady Justice. She says Lady Justice holds a sword because she’s a fighter. The blindfold says in this country it doesn’t matter who you are, every American’s life must be filled with possibility.
Fiorina deploys to a metaphor from her latest book, Lady Liberty and Lady Justice. She says Lady Justice holds a sword because she’s a fighter. The blindfold says in this country it doesn’t matter who you are, every American’s life must be filled with possibility.
Kasich says the nation will solve problems. He envisions rebuilt relationships and alliances. “America’s great because we’ve run America from the bottom up.” He calls for revived citizenship.
Kasich says the nation will solve problems. He envisions rebuilt relationships and alliances. “America’s great because we’ve run America from the bottom up.” He calls for revived citizenship.
Christie, going last. He says his first vote was for Reagan in 1980. He says a Christie presidency will “not be about me, it will be about you.” He speaks to the camera and says “our presidency will be about ending” unfairness and enforcing justice. Plus he won’t shake hands with Iran.
Christie, going last. He says his first vote was for Reagan in 1980. He says a Christie presidency will “not be about me, it will be about you.” He speaks to the camera and says “our presidency will be about ending” unfairness and enforcing justice. Plus he won’t shake hands with Iran.
That’s it. Applause. Waves of applause. They did it!
That’s it. Applause. Waves of applause. They did it!
4.06am BST
4.06am BST
04:06
04:06
Jeb Lund
Jeb Lund
From Guardian US columnist Jeb Lund:
From Guardian US columnist Jeb Lund:
I think if nothing else, this three-hour debate format should never happen again. You can tell that these people are loopy. Everyone is loopy.
I think if nothing else, this three-hour debate format should never happen again. You can tell that these people are loopy. Everyone is loopy.
I sincerely marvel that Jake Tapper isn’t just sitting with his laptop and playing YouTubes. “Seriously, you have to listen to Therapy? – ‘Screamager’ is such an underrated song.”
I sincerely marvel that Jake Tapper isn’t just sitting with his laptop and playing YouTubes. “Seriously, you have to listen to Therapy? – ‘Screamager’ is such an underrated song.”
Nobody’s brain is functioning properly. That might be kinda/sorta a test of these guys in a high-stress environment as presidents, but those will be real circumstances. This is just an exhausting simulation, with more pandering.
Nobody’s brain is functioning properly. That might be kinda/sorta a test of these guys in a high-stress environment as presidents, but those will be real circumstances. This is just an exhausting simulation, with more pandering.
No more. Spare us. I don’t remember what my family looks like; all I know is that I have values for them.
No more. Spare us. I don’t remember what my family looks like; all I know is that I have values for them.
4.03am BST
4.03am BST
04:03
04:03
Finalish question, it seems: You’re in front of Reagan’s plane. How would the country be different after your presidential plane is parked?
Finalish question, it seems: You’re in front of Reagan’s plane. How would the country be different after your presidential plane is parked?
Paul talks about peace through strength and well-chosen war.
Paul talks about peace through strength and well-chosen war.
Huckabee says the world would be safer and the military would be stronger. Also no more IRS or abortion.
Huckabee says the world would be safer and the military would be stronger. Also no more IRS or abortion.
Rubio says Reagan understood the USA was unique. He says his plane would visit allies but China and Moscow too. And one day land in a free Cuba.
Rubio says Reagan understood the USA was unique. He says his plane would visit allies but China and Moscow too. And one day land in a free Cuba.
Cruz says “Reagan believed in America.” The bust of Churchill would be back in the Oval Office. Isis will be defeated. Students will find jobs. No more IRS, or Obamacare.
Cruz says “Reagan believed in America.” The bust of Churchill would be back in the Oval Office. Isis will be defeated. Students will find jobs. No more IRS, or Obamacare.
(These answers seem to be getting longer as they go.)
(These answers seem to be getting longer as they go.)
3.59am BST
3.59am BST
03:59
03:59
Fun question number two: What should your Secret Service code name be?
Fun question number two: What should your Secret Service code name be?
Christie: Trueheart
Christie: Trueheart
Kasich: Unit 1. or Unit 2
Kasich: Unit 1. or Unit 2
Fiorina: Secretariat
Fiorina: Secretariat
Walker: [inaudible]
Walker: [inaudible]
Bush: Eveready. “It’s very high energy, Donald”
Bush: Eveready. “It’s very high energy, Donald”
Trump: Humble
Trump: Humble
Carson: One Nation
Carson: One Nation
Cruz: Cohiba
Cruz: Cohiba
Rubio: Gator
Rubio: Gator
Huckabee: Duckhunter
Huckabee: Duckhunter
Paul: Justice Never Sleeps
Paul: Justice Never Sleeps
3.57am BST
3.57am BST
03:57
03:57
Hammer question: What woman would you like to see on the $10?
Hammer question: What woman would you like to see on the $10?
Paul: Susan B Anthony
Paul: Susan B Anthony
Huckabee: My Wife
Huckabee: My Wife
Rubio: Rosa Parks
Rubio: Rosa Parks
Cruz: I’d change the $20, not the $10. Rosa Parks
Cruz: I’d change the $20, not the $10. Rosa Parks
Carson: My Mother
Carson: My Mother
Trump: My daughter Ivanka. Or Rosa Parks
Trump: My daughter Ivanka. Or Rosa Parks
Bush: Margaret Thatcher (?!?)
Bush: Margaret Thatcher (?!?)
Jeb Bush said he'd put UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on the $10. Were there no U.S. women available? #GOPDebate pic.twitter.com/ZAguSwINJf
Jeb Bush said he'd put UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on the $10. Were there no U.S. women available? #GOPDebate pic.twitter.com/ZAguSwINJf
Walker: Clara Barton
Walker: Clara Barton
Fiorina: Don’t mess with the bills, just give everyone the opportunity “to live the life she chooses”
Fiorina: Don’t mess with the bills, just give everyone the opportunity “to live the life she chooses”
Kasich: Mother Theresa
Kasich: Mother Theresa
Christie: Abigail Adams
Christie: Abigail Adams
Updated
Updated
at 4.11am BST
at 4.11am BST
3.51am BST
3.51am BST
03:51
03:51
Another break. Tapper promises talk of Ronald Reagan to come. The crowd is still clapping. A little wilted, some of them, but showing gusto.
Another break. Tapper promises talk of Ronald Reagan to come. The crowd is still clapping. A little wilted, some of them, but showing gusto.
3.50am BST
3.50am BST
03:50
03:50
Trump now comes out as something of an anti-vaxxer. He says there is an epidemic of autism and then correlates it with vaccinations. He says that vaccines should be delivered “over a longer period of time, same amount but just in little sections.”
Trump now comes out as something of an anti-vaxxer. He says there is an epidemic of autism and then correlates it with vaccinations. He says that vaccines should be delivered “over a longer period of time, same amount but just in little sections.”
“Dr Carson, you just heard his medical take,” Tapper says.
“Dr Carson, you just heard his medical take,” Tapper says.
“He’s an OK doctor,” Carson jokes. “But the fact of the matter is, we have extremely well documented evidence that there’s no autism associated with vaccinations.”
“He’s an OK doctor,” Carson jokes. “But the fact of the matter is, we have extremely well documented evidence that there’s no autism associated with vaccinations.”
“Dr Paul I’d like to bring you in,” says Tapper.
“Dr Paul I’d like to bring you in,” says Tapper.
“A second opinion?” quips Paul. Then he says there should be a way to space vaccines out. But all his kids are vaccinated.
“A second opinion?” quips Paul. Then he says there should be a way to space vaccines out. But all his kids are vaccinated.
Paul has previously flirted with anti-vaccination views, describing the importance of personal choice.
Paul has previously flirted with anti-vaccination views, describing the importance of personal choice.
3.47am BST
3.47am BST
03:47
03:47
Cindy Casares
Cindy Casares
From Guardian US contributor Cindy Casares:
From Guardian US contributor Cindy Casares:
Chris Christie said that marijuana was a “gateway drug” and, once again, Jake Tapper failed to confront the lie.
Chris Christie said that marijuana was a “gateway drug” and, once again, Jake Tapper failed to confront the lie.
Recent reports from the National Institute on Drug Abuse show that, while early marijuana use can prime the brain to tolerate other, heavier drugs, the vast majority of people who use marijuana do not go on to use harder drugs. (And I don’t even like marijuana – so pro-marijuana people, don’t email me.)
Recent reports from the National Institute on Drug Abuse show that, while early marijuana use can prime the brain to tolerate other, heavier drugs, the vast majority of people who use marijuana do not go on to use harder drugs. (And I don’t even like marijuana – so pro-marijuana people, don’t email me.)
And, guess which other drugs also prime people’s brains for harder drugs – and are typically used before a person uses something harder? Alcohol and tobacco. Where are the politicians speaking out on those drugs? Oh, right. They wouldn’t dare speak out against the alcohol and tobacco lobbies.
And, guess which other drugs also prime people’s brains for harder drugs – and are typically used before a person uses something harder? Alcohol and tobacco. Where are the politicians speaking out on those drugs? Oh, right. They wouldn’t dare speak out against the alcohol and tobacco lobbies.
3.44am BST
3.44am BST
03:44
03:44
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03:44
Rubio denies being a climate skeptic. He says he’s just a skeptic of “the changes the left wants us to make”.
Rubio denies being a climate skeptic. He says he’s just a skeptic of “the changes the left wants us to make”.
They will make America a more expensive place to create jobs.
They will make America a more expensive place to create jobs.
America's not a planet -- Rubio
America's not a planet -- Rubio
Updated
Updated
at 3.49am BST
at 3.49am BST
3.43am BST
3.43am BST
03:43
03:43
160 minutes in, a question about climate change.
160 minutes in, a question about climate change.
Question for Rubio: why not take out “an insurance policy” to respond to climate change?
Question for Rubio: why not take out “an insurance policy” to respond to climate change?
Rubio says working families can’t afford new costs related to emissions offsets. “America is not the planet. We’re not even the largest carbon producer.
Rubio says working families can’t afford new costs related to emissions offsets. “America is not the planet. We’re not even the largest carbon producer.
“I am not in favor of making America a harder place to work, or to live, or to raise their families.”
“I am not in favor of making America a harder place to work, or to live, or to raise their families.”
Another applause line for Rubio.
Another applause line for Rubio.
Updated
Updated
at 4.27am BST
at 4.27am BST
3.40am BST
3.40am BST
03:40
03:40
Trump takes a question about rich people taking Social Security. “Speaking for myself,” I don’t need it, he says. He says he would leave it up to rich people to write off their benefits.
Trump takes a question about rich people taking Social Security. “Speaking for myself,” I don’t need it, he says. He says he would leave it up to rich people to write off their benefits.
Christie says a voluntary program is not a good idea. But he says reform of social security, Medicare and Medicaid is a necessary conversation to have.
Christie says a voluntary program is not a good idea. But he says reform of social security, Medicare and Medicaid is a necessary conversation to have.
3.36am BST
3.36am BST
03:36
03:36
Fiorina jumps in. She refers to the death of her stepdaughter Lori from drug addiction and says she knows the dangers from personal experience.
Fiorina jumps in. She refers to the death of her stepdaughter Lori from drug addiction and says she knows the dangers from personal experience.
She says that “the marijuana kids are smoking today is not the marijuana Jeb Bush smoked 40 years ago.”
She says that “the marijuana kids are smoking today is not the marijuana Jeb Bush smoked 40 years ago.”
3.33am BST
3.33am BST
03:33
03:33
Paul makes a serious point. Privileged people don’t get punished for drug use, he says. Poor people go to jail.
Paul makes a serious point. Privileged people don’t get punished for drug use, he says. Poor people go to jail.
Christie is up now, because he has said he would stop legal marijuana in Colorado and elsewhere.
Christie is up now, because he has said he would stop legal marijuana in Colorado and elsewhere.
Christie says he’s against incarceration of first-time drug offenders but he’s against “legalizing gateway drugs.”
Christie says he’s against incarceration of first-time drug offenders but he’s against “legalizing gateway drugs.”
Paul says you can’t enforce federal law on the issue over state laws. “I would let Colorado do what the 10th amendment says,” Paul says. “Colorado has made their decision.”
Paul says you can’t enforce federal law on the issue over state laws. “I would let Colorado do what the 10th amendment says,” Paul says. “Colorado has made their decision.”
3.30am BST
3.30am BST
03:30
03:30
Paul takes a question about marijuana legalization.
Paul takes a question about marijuana legalization.
“I personally think that this is a crime in which the only victim is the individual,” he says. He calls for “more rehabilitation and less incarceration.”
“I personally think that this is a crime in which the only victim is the individual,” he says. He calls for “more rehabilitation and less incarceration.”
Paul had referred to someone who had admitted smoking marijuana in high school.
Paul had referred to someone who had admitted smoking marijuana in high school.
Who was that, asks Tapper.
Who was that, asks Tapper.
Bush pipes up. “He was talking about me.” Then he turns it nicely into a humorous moment:
Bush pipes up. “He was talking about me.” Then he turns it nicely into a humorous moment:
So forty years ago I smoked marijuana, and I admit it. I’m sure other people may have and don’t want to say it in front of 25m people. I’m sure my mom’s not happy that I just did.
So forty years ago I smoked marijuana, and I admit it. I’m sure other people may have and don’t want to say it in front of 25m people. I’m sure my mom’s not happy that I just did.
Updated
Updated
at 3.40am BST
at 3.40am BST
3.23am BST
3.23am BST
03:23
03:23
A quick break now – stay tuned for the grand finale!
A quick break now – stay tuned for the grand finale!
3.16am BST
3.16am BST
03:16
03:16
Jeb Lund
Jeb Lund
From Guardian US columnist and reality show expert Jeb Lund:
From Guardian US columnist and reality show expert Jeb Lund:
If this debate was going to be three hours, it should have been an elimination debate.
If this debate was going to be three hours, it should have been an elimination debate.
After hour one, boot someone off. Rand Paul – bye. You’re done.
After hour one, boot someone off. Rand Paul – bye. You’re done.
After hour two? Scott Walker. No more.
After hour two? Scott Walker. No more.
We’re going to cull the field so we can talk in more detail about how we’re all going to die.
We’re going to cull the field so we can talk in more detail about how we’re all going to die.
3.16am BST
03:16
Rand Paul jumps in and describes an unpopular, with the GOP base, position of foreclosing on any US reentry to Iraq.
“There will always be a Bush or Clinton for you if you want to go back to war in Iraq,” he says.
Paul says he will not send “our sons and daughters” back to war in Iraq.
“The boots on the ground need to be the people who live there,” he says. “Why are we always the world’s patsies and we need to fight their wars for them.”
3.12am BST
03:12
Carson says that George W Bush “was a great friend of ours.” He says he used to go to the White House all the time but he hadn’t gone in the last seven years “and I’d probably need a food tester.”
Then he says something about the space race and how he would have scared allies of Osama bin Laden into handing the terrorist leader over.
Christie almost scoffs.
“These people were out to kill us,” Christie says. “What you need is a strong American leader who would take the steps that are necessary to protect the nation... That’s what president Bush did in 2001.”
Carson says “aggression is not needed in every circumstance.” He says “you have to use your intellect.”
It’s a tricky position; he appears to be second-guessing the Afghanistan invasion in addition to Iraq, without describing a difference between the conflicts.
Rubio jumps in. “Terrorism cannot be solved by intellect.” He says Afghanistan was an operating space for terrorists and as such had to be invaded.
“You cannot allow radical jihadists to have an operating space anywhere in the world,” Rubio says.
3.11am BST
03:11
Here’s that Trump-Carson embarrassing handshake moment:
White Man Fails At Handshake https://t.co/A1ccFXjWta
3.07am BST
03:07
Christie is asked about Carson saying that he would not have gone to war in Afghanistan after September 11.
Christie says he didn’t know whether his wife, who worked next to the World Trade Center, had survived the attack for three-and-a-half hours afterward.
“We lost friends that day. We went to funerals. And I will tell you what those people wanted. And what they deserved was for America to answer back what had been done to them.”
3.06am BST
03:06
Rubio says that the Syrian conflict proves that America retreating does not make the world safer. He calls it “a direct consequence of an inability to lead and of disengagement.”
Then Carson jumps in, after a quiet stretch.
He says he suggested in 2003 to George W Bush “that he not go to war.”
Trump, standing next to him, tries to high-five him, and Carson gives him a kind of handshake. He’s not a high-fiver, Ben Carson.
He says that Iraq fell apart because of America’s withdrawal.
Trump offers high-five to Carson over opposing Iraq invasion. Carson responds with hand-shake.
Updated
at 3.08am BST
3.02am BST
03:02
Trump then lays out a foreign policy credential: He’s the only one up there, he says, who opposed the Iraq war.
“I’m a very militaristic person, but you have to know when to use the military.”
Rand Paul tries to jump in. Then Bush gets in.
Bush accuses Trump of a “lack of judgment and lack of understanding about how the world works” that’s “really dangerous.”
Trump replies: “Your brother’s administration gave us Barack Obama. The last three months were so bad, not even Abraham Lincoln could get elected.”
Jeb defends George W.:
“As for my brother. There’s one thing I remember. He kept us safe. He sent a clear signal. He would keep us safe.”
Huge applause line. It’s a pro-W crowd.
.@JebBush: "As it relates to my brother ... He kept us safe" http://t.co/jcEf6bW9ja #CNNDebate #GOPdebate http://t.co/0yUiiyOb51
Updated
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2.59am BST
02:59
Question for Bush about having the last name Bush.
Why, he’s asked, are all his adviser leftovers from his father and brother’s teams?
Bush says, “First of all, if you’re looking at Republican advisers, you have to go to the last two administrations,” which, he points out, were family affairs.
Then he soliloquizes on the theme of needing the strongest military possible and a “need to restore America’s presence and leadership.”
“I’ll have a team that will be following the doctrine that I set up, and it will be peace through strength,” he says.
2.57am BST
02:57
Trump replies. “I am not sitting in the United States senate with by the worst voting record there is, number one... I am doing business transactions. And I will know more about this.
“I will know more about the problems of this world by the time I sit... and you look at what’s going on, this world is a mess.”
Rubio replies to the dig about his absenteeism as a voter in the Senate. “You’re right, I have missed some votes, and I’ll tell you why, Mr Trump.... because I am leaving the Senate, I am not running for reelection.” He implies he’s spending time with people in real America.
2.55am BST
02:55
Rubio then cranks into the question of foreign threats facing the United States. But he won’t hit Trump directly.
“You better be ready to lead America on the first day,” he says.
2.54am BST
02:54
They’re back!
Trump is asked about an interview with Hugh Hewitt - also one of the hosts tonight - in which the businessman failed to identify leaders of foreign terrorist organizations. Rubio had criticized him for it.
Trump says Hewitt mispronounced the names and beside he would have advisers.
Hugh was giving me name after name. Arab name, Arab name. And there are few people anywhere who would have known them.
Then Trump says he would have a “great team”.
In Derry, New Hampshire, Ben Jacobs says Trump’s answer drew snickers. Local Republican Patricia Dancey exclaimed audibly: “What a strange guy.”
Updated
at 2.58am BST
2.48am BST
02:48
Commercial break two. Run for your popcorn refills.
2.47am BST
02:47
Kasich takes a question about the tone of his campaign. He says he feels as if he still needs to introduce himself to voters.
Fiorina, standing next to him, looks kind of bored.
“We’ll get to the point when will talk about Hillary Clinton or whoever,” Kasich says. “But right now I want to give people hope.”
Then he says, “I’m from Ohio. She will not beat me there, I will tell you that.”
Fiorina has no problem badmouthing Clinton. “She does not have a track record of accomplishment,” Fiorina says.
“If you want to stop a Democrat, ask them to name an accomplishment of Mrs Clinton.”
Then Christie says, as a formal federal prosecutor, “I will prosecute Mrs Clinton in those debates.”
2.46am BST
02:46
Jeb Lund
From Guardian US columnist and referee Jeb Lund:
That fight between Fiorina and Trump there was really rather breathtaking.
‘You fired tens of thousands of people!’
‘You declared bankruptcy multiple times!’
‘No, you!’
‘No, YOU!’
Well, at least the first part. But, honestly, I don’t know how any normal person is supposed to care about whether a billionaire’s escutcheon was blotted by someone with a golden parachute worth $40m in cash, stocks and pension benefits.
It’s like watching two pure snow-white pomeranians with diamond collars fighting over t-bone on a bed made of money.
2.42am BST
02:42
Carson takes a question about the flat tax, which he supports, based on the concept of tithing on the Bible. Why is that better than a graduated system?
“It’s all about America,” Carson says. Taking more from rich people, he says, is “called socialism. That doesn’t work so well. Let’s create an environment that’s even more conducive” to earnings, Carson says.
Trump says we’ve had a graduated tax system for many years and it’s not socialism. He announces a tax plan to be released in a couple weeks. He says it will be tough on hedge funders.
“I know people who are making a tremendous amount of money and paying almost no tax, and it’s not fair,” Trump says.
2.36am BST
02:36
Christie is up. “While I’m as entertained as anyone by this personal back-and-forth about Donald and Carly’s careers,” he says, the 50-year-old construction worker at home doesn’t care.
Fiorina starts in.
“No,” says Christie. “You can interrupt anybody else on this stage. You can’t interrupt me.
“You’re both successful people, congratulations... Let’s start talking about those issues tonight, and stop this childish back-and-forth between the two of you.”
“Actually, I think track records are very important,” Fiorina says. She sounds considered and methodical.
2.36am BST
02:36
Jessica Valenti
From Guardian US staff writer Jessica Valenti and Guardian US opinion editor Megan Carpentier on the Planned Parenthood moment:
MC: First things first – I’ve watched the Planned Parenthood videos; you’ve watched the Planned Parenthood videos. Did Carly Fiorina watch them? Because she described a scene that wasn’t in them.
JV: Nope, that scene was not in it. But lying about Planned Parenthood has been a Republican hobby for a while – why stop now? But she went for a visceral reaction, and she got it.
What I love is that in all that talk about Planned Parenthood, women were only mentioned once, when Trump said that he would “take care of us.” I think a collective shiver went down the spines of women across America.
Mentions of the word "women": ZERO #GOPDebate
MC: I definitely prefer that Trump not take care of anything related to my reproductive healthcare.
The whole abortion debate is always about erasing women, because when people think about reproductive rights in terms of the women who need them, they are supportive. When you erase women from the equation and talk about the fetuses that need to be protected from evil, Megele-like doctors, you side with the fetuses.
JV: Right, and if you talk about women at all, it’s as victims of evil abortion doctors ... who are also – shocker – women!
MC: Republicans don’t care if the videos were fake, if the results of their actions mean more unwanted pregnancies, more disease, more impoverished women or even more breast cancer. I’m not sure if Republicans even care if their actions will actually impact the overall number of abortions.
JV: But I can’t help but think that the glee with which so many of these mostly-men declared they would defund Planned Parenthood is going to rub a lot of women the wrong way.
MC: I think the whole point of swearing that doctors were killing fetuses for the brains was to make sure no one noticed the glee.
JV: Also, just how few people does John Kasich know, that he can declare that everyone he knows wants to defund Planned Parenthood?
Updated
at 2.38am BST
2.34am BST
02:34
Cindy Casares
From Guardian US contributor Cindy Casares:
Donald Trump brought up his immigration “plan” to build a wall again. The Mexican border is 1,989 miles long. This country cannot afford to build a wall that long nor is it feasible to deport 11 million people.
If Donald Trump is such an amazing job creator (as he is wont to say), why doesn’t he invest in the bi-national economic development (Bined) initiative coming together on both sides of the border near the Rio Grande Valley of Texas?
The Bined study found that, at this point, boots-on-the-ground and bigger walls have outlived their cost-effectiveness because they do not address the core reason for illegal immigration – financial insecurity.
Has Trump put any thought into solving the immigration crisis, not through increased security, but through increased wages for communities on both sides of the border? We’d know if Jake Tapper was an actual moderator.
2.34am BST
02:34
Fiorina takes a question about her performance at Hewlett-Packard, which hemorrhaged jobs and stock point in the six years she was CEO.
She said it was bad years for the tech industry but she made changes that led to long-term growth for the company.”
“The man who led my firing, Tom Perkins, just took out a full-page ad in the New York Times to say he was wrong, I was right,” she says.
Trump says that the head of Yale business just wrote a paper ranking Fiorina as an all-time bad CEO.
“She bought Compaq, it was a terrible deal. Carly was at Lucent before that and that turned out to be a catastrophe.”
“She can’t run any of my companies,” he says.
Fiorina hits back with an attack on Trump’s business practices.
“I find it quite rich that you would talk about this,” she says. Then she accuses Trump of running up “mountains of debt” in running his casinos and points out he filed for bankruptcy four times.
“I never filed for bankruptcy,” Trump says. His companies did.
Updated
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2.30am BST
02:30
Paul: “I hate to say it but Donald Trump has a bit of a point here.”
He says the 14th amendment has not been completely adjudicated. Paul wonks out on the Constitution. He’s in the early 19th century. Now he’s done. We haven’t heard much from Paul tonight either.
2.28am BST
02:28
Fiorina’s turn. She asks why Democrats have not solved the problem. She says Obama had congressional majorities and did nothing “because the Democrats do not want this issue solved.”
“The truth is you can’t just wave your hands and say the 14th amendment is going to go away,” she says on birthright citizenship.
She says “we’ve been talking about illegal immigration for 18 years” to no result.
“I agree 100% by the way with Carly that the Democrats do not want to solve this problem,” Trump says.
2.27am BST
02:27
The Washington Post points out that the US is the country with the second-largest number of Spanish speakers in the world.
The top 10 Spanish-speaking nations pic.twitter.com/qYmwGqjBnq
Related: US now has more Spanish speakers than Spain – only Mexico has more
2.27am BST
02:27
On to birthright citizenship. Trump has called for its end.
Fiorina has accused Trump of pandering on the issue.
Trump says the 14th amendment is unclear on the issue of birthright citizenship. Then he describes a pregnant women “walking across the border to give birth”.
“We’re the only ones dumb enough, stupid enough to have it...” he says of birthright citizenship. “And by the way this is not just from Mexico. They’re coming from Asia to have babies here.”
Updated
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2.25am BST
02:25
Question for Carson: Why is your plan not amnesty?
Carson says he’s talked to farmers who say Americans won’t do the agricultural work he means.
Then he says the workers with permits would not get voting rights or other privileges of citizenship.
2.24am BST
02:24
Tapper tosses to Rubio.
“Illegal immigration is not an issue I read about in the newspaper,” he says. He’s lived it.
Rubio calls for multiple legislation packages to address multiple aspects of immigration, from who’s admitted to border security to undocumented migrants.
2.22am BST
02:22
Carson describes an immigration plan in which some undocumented migrants would get work permits in the agricultural sector.
Tapper asks Cruz if that’s amnesty.
Cruz says thank goodness for Donald Trump because now the media is talking about immigration.
“I am the only candidate on this stage who has never supported amnesty,” Cruz said.
Looking at you, Rubio.
2.21am BST
02:21
2.20am BST
02:20
Rubio said his grandfather taught him life lessons in Spanish. And he does interviews in Spanish with people who also might want to hear about the promise of America, “because I want them to get that from me, not from a translator on Univision.”
2.19am BST
02:19
Trump is asked about criticizing Bush for speaking Spanish.
Trump said “we have to have assimilation to have a country.”
“This is a country where we speak English, not Spanish,” Trump says.
Bush defends having spoken Spanish at a campaign event.
“The high school kid asked me aquestion in Spanish,” Bush said. “I’m going to show respect, and answer that question in Spanish, even though they do speak English.”
2.17am BST
02:17
Tapper tries to encourage debate between Carson and Trump about the viability of the deportation plan.
Carson won’t take it. He says he’s willing to listen to ideas if there’s a good one.
Then Tapper succeeds in getting a debate, out of Trump and Bush.
Trump had implied Bush was soft on immigration because his wife was born in Mexico.
Bush demands that Trump apologize to his wife. “You’re proud of your family just as I am,” Bush says. So leave them out of “this raucous political debate”, he says.
“I hear phenomenal things” about your wife, Trump assures Bush.
But he won’t apologize: “I won’t do that because I said nothing wrong but I do think she’s a lovely woman.”
Bush says “my wife loves this country as much as anyone”.
Updated
at 2.20am BST
2.17am BST
02:17
Jeb Lund
Guardian US columnist Jeb Lund has a prediction regarding Trump:
Just for the record: Sometime in the next day we’re going to find out that Donald Trump had his fingers crossed behind his back when he complimented Carly Fiorina’s appearance. It will take up two minutes per speech for the next week.
2.17am BST
02:17
Cindy Casares
Guardian US contributor Cindy Casares, in Texas, where the anti-Planned Parenthood efforts may as early as this year shut down nearly all of the state’s clinics, also has questions for Tapper:
Why doesn’t CNN moderator Jake Tapper confront Ted Cruz on the lies he’s spreading about Planned Parenthood committing felonies and selling body parts? The DHS told Congress they found no violations of fetal tissue laws by Planned Parenthood after those videos were spread by rightwing interests who want to take Constitutional rights away from American women.
The American media is to blame for refusal to hold politicians accountable for the lies they perpetuate. Now the Republicans are openly saying they just want to shut Planned Parenthood down and they don’t care that the organization broke no laws.
This is the issue about which Tapper and his colleagues should be confronting the candidates: why do they want to take health care rights away from American women?
2.15am BST
02:15
Ben Jacobs
Fiorina’s strong performance tonight is already having an impact, writes Ben Jacobs.
One voter in Derry, New Hampshire, Deb Gowins, is now considering supporting the former Hewlett Packard CEO. She was a Trump supporter before the debate started but now is “on the fence”.
There is less good news for moderator Jake Tapper. The consensus in the room here in the top floor of a New Hampshire bar is that he is doing a poor job.
As one voter, Jeff Odhner, told the Guardian: “It’s just divide and conquer.”
2.14am BST
02:14
Now it’s to Carson, from whom we haven’t heard too much tonight.
“First of all, recognize that we have an incredible illegal immigration problem,” he says. He says he went to Arizona and saw untended short fences that anyone could jump.
He calls for a double fence with a road.
“If we don’t seal the border, the rest of this stuff really doesn’t matter,” he says.
He says photographers who were with him at the border slipped through the fence to photograph him from the Mexican side, “and they were not physically fit people.”
2.13am BST
02:13
Christie says the deportations “is an undertaking that almost none of us could accomplish” giving funding and resource shortages.
He calls for fingerprinting every person who comes on a visa and “tap them on the shoulder” when the visas are up and tell them to leave.
2.12am BST
02:12
Moving on to immigration, there is a question for Trump. How are you going to deport 11-12 million undocumented migrants? How much will it cost?
“First of all, I want to build a wall, a wall that works,” Trump says.
“Second of all, we’ve got a lot of really bad dudes ... Gangs all over the place. Chicago, Baltimore.”
Then Trump says the reason the immigration debate is happening in the race is because of his incendiary comments on the issue. He brought it up first, he says.
He does not address the mechanics and logistics issue of how to deport all the people.
“We’re going to have a country again,” he says.
Updated
at 2.13am BST
2.09am BST
02:09
Commercial break. Now it’s over. They’re back!
2.08am BST
02:08
Tapper asks Fiorina about a Rolling Stone interview in which Trump was quoted as saying “Look at that face!” in arguing she could not be president.
“I think women all over this country heard very clearly what Mr Trump said,” Fiorina says.
Big applause. The crowd is with her.
“I think she’s got a beautiful face, and I think she’s a beautiful woman,” Trump says.
Carly gives the camera scowl of absolutely zero amusement.
Updated
at 2.21am BST
2.05am BST
02:05
Trump says he would be strong on women’s health.
“I will take care of women. I respect women,” he says.
Then he says, “Somebody better start thinking about North Korea.”
“You have somebody right now in North Korea who has got nuclear weapons and says every day, I’m ready to use it.”
Back to Bush, who goes back to women’s health funding. He says there are 13,000 local clinics for women’s health across the country and they don’t take federal funding.
2.03am BST
02:03
Fiorina interposes a discourse on Iran policy.
Then she dares Clinton and Obama to watch videos that depict Planned Parenthood officials discussing fees and fetal body parts.
Here’s how Fiorina describes the video:
“A fully formed fetus on the table. Its heart beating. Its legs kicking. And say we have to keep it alive to harvest its organs. This is about the character of our nation.”
She speaks with conviction and emotion and gets the biggest response of the night so far.
2.01am BST
02:01
Ted Cruz is back. He says that funding Planned Parenthood represents a surrender of Republican principle. He is defending the idea that Senate Republicans should be willing to shut down the federal government in two weeks in an attempt to defund Planned Parenthood.
Christie jumps in and says the real villain here is Hillary Clinton.
“She believes in the systematic murder of children in the room ... to maximize value of their body parts for sale. It is disgusting,” Christie says.
But pressed by Dana Bash, Christie won’t quite say he’d shut down the government over it.
Updated
at 2.03am BST
1.57am BST
01:57
Trevor Timm
From Guardian US columnist Trevor Timm in California:
Only a few minutes into talking about foreign policy, it seems that most of these candidates are declaring war on diplomacy (in addition to everyone else).
Carly Fiorina says that ‘we should not talk to’ Vladimir Putin at all, despite the fact that even in the darkest days of the Cold War, the leaders of the United States and Soviets were in direct contact.
Ted Cruz blared that he would ‘rip [the Iran deal] to shreds’ on the first day.
After confirming that he said we should cancel the Chinese president’s visit to the United States, Scott Walker was bragging about being the ‘first’ person to call for the deal to be ripped up on day one.
If this is what they’re all going to be doing on day one, how many other countries will we be at war with in the first 100 days?
1.56am BST
01:56
Bush says “there needs to be accommodation for someone acting on their faith” in the Kim Davis case.
But he calls for “respect for the rule of law.” But “there should be some accommodation for her conscience.” But “this should be solved at the local level.”
What’s that mean though?
Bush says that someone else in Davis’ office should be able to issue a license if Davis can’t.
1.54am BST
01:54
Dan Roberts
Washington bureau chief Dan Roberts on the Trump-Bush showdown, now with more volume:
If proof were needed of Rand Paul’s claim that Donald Trump is living in junior high school, it came swiftly when the school bully turned on his favourite target: Jeb Bush.
Trump and Bush have been sparring since the primary race began, but the wounded look on the Florida governor’s face and the glee with which his persecutor keeps jabbing away at him is increasingly uncomfortably to watch.
This time Bush tried to fight back, resisting Trump’s attempt to interrupt him. Instead, it became another chance to needle the Florida governor for ‘lacking energy’.
‘More energy tonight, I like that,’ said Trump with all the patronising contempt he could muster, before seizing the air time anyway and tossing it back condescendingly when he was finished.
It’s almost enough to make you feel sorry for the race’s dynastic princeling.
Updated
at 2.39am BST
1.54am BST
01:54
Huckabee is asked about Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk with whom Huckabee has appeared after she went to jail for denying marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
Huckabee accuses the Supreme Court of legislating from the bench on same-sex marriage. He digs in hard on an issue that is trickier for potential nominees hoping to make a play for the center in a general election to embrace.
Updated
at 2.05am BST
1.52am BST
01:52
Kasich bulls into the conversation. He is kind of pepped up. He insists that the Iran agreement can be policed.
Cruz hits back: “This agreement lets the Iranians inspect themselves. That makes no sense whatsoever.”
1.51am BST
01:51
Ted Cruz: “If you vote for Hillary, you are voting for the Ayatollah Khamenei to possess a nuclear weapon.”
1.49am BST
01:49
Trump is damning on Obama’s failure to enforce a red line on Syrian president Assad using chemical weapons.
“Somehow he just doesn’t have courage. There’s something missing with our president,” Trump says.
“If he had gone in there with tremendous force, you wouldn’t have millions of people displaced.”
Rubio jumps in. He points out the president talked about a pinprick attack on Assad. And the US military wasn’t built for a pinprick.
Rubio gets another round of applause, his second, in a debate when not many candidates have earned same.
1.48am BST
01:48
Jeb Lund
Scott Walker is sweating MORE than Nixon! pic.twitter.com/mGbf0B87kw
Guardian US columnist Jeb Lund, from the humidity capital of the US: Florida.
How did they not dump three air conditioner vents onto these candidates as a default? We’ve all conceded that everyone has to look perfectly coiffed and composed at all times, because, well: superficial is the new default, but far too many of these people are moist.
Not just high-energy moist, this is Nixon-moist.
At this point if Walker and Rubio rubbed their foreheads, it would squeak like dragging a wet palm against an inflated balloon.
1.47am BST
01:47
Huckabee on Iran:
“This is really about the survival of Western civilization... this threatens Israel immediately.
“This is a government that for 36 years has killed Americans. It has kidnapped Americans... and they’ve threatened the very essence of Western civilization.”
Then Huckabee indulges his penchant for derriere imagery (look it up). He says Obama treats the Iran deal like the Magna Carta while Iran treats it like toilet paper.
1.45am BST
01:45
Bush says “it’s not a strategy to tear up an agreement,” on Iran. A strategy, he says, would be to back up our ally Israel.
1.44am BST
01:44
Walker defends his call for canceling the China state dinner. They cyberattack us, he says.
Then he says the Iran deal should be scotched.
“I’d love to play cards with this guy, because President Obama folds with everything on Iran,” Walker says.
1.43am BST
01:43
Paul takes a question about canceling the China state dinner next week, which Walker has called for.
Paul points out that the US talked with the USSR throughout the Cold War and says Fiorina was wrong to say let’s not talk with Putin.
Now it appears Paul is making an argument against international isolationism. So that’s a new look for him.
1.41am BST
01:41
Kasich says it’s a bad agreement, the Iran deal, but says “we don’t know what’s going to happen in 18 months” with the agreement.
He then describes keeping the deal but policing it. “If they cheat, we slap the sanctions back on,” he says.
1.40am BST
01:40
This debate is humming. Now Ted Cruz has declared the Iranian nuclear deal “catastrophic” and said it will make Iran the world’s leading international financier of terrorism.
“If I am elected president, I will rip to shreds this catastrophic Iranian deal,” Cruz says.
1.39am BST
01:39
Jeb Lund
I can’t even think of a good enough caption for this. pic.twitter.com/r5T770NY2s
From Guardian US columnist Jeb Lund:
Journalists love it when Donald Trump burns the other candidates, as he first did with Rand Paul’s polling numbers – and then Rand Paul’s looks.
Then he just burned Jeb Bush, because basically anyone will read a headline and an article about a good zinger, and because it’s fun.
But for the most part, they’re just generic insults about weakness and appearance and being a loser.
That said, hitting Scott Walker on job growth just absolutely bodied the dude, and it was so accurate that we found out that facts are something that belong to Democrats.
1.39am BST
01:39
Rubio is up. He has called Putin a gangster.
“I have an understanding of exactly what it is Russia and Putin are doing,” Rubio says, which is resurrect Russia as a global geopolitical force.
Then Rubio says Putin is trying to replace the USA as an ally of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and others.
That’s an applause line.
Fiorina says she’s met Putin but wouldn’t talk more to him. She says she’d send troops to Germany and build up the US navy.
She hits Trump, not by name, for having been unable in an interview to identify Qassem Suleimani, head of the Iranian revolutionary Quds force.
Updated
at 1.39am BST
1.36am BST
01:36
Tapper asks Trump how to eject Russians from Syria (he did say Syria, not Ukraine or Crimea).
Number one, they have to respect you, Trump says. He says he would talk to Putin and get along with him. He says he get along with China and “the heads of Mexico,” too.
“We would have a much more stable world.”
1.35am BST
01:35
Bush accuses Trump of inviting Hillary Clinton to his wedding. Trump said he did so because it was his job as a businessman to get along with everybody.
Bush talks over him.
“I like this,” Trump says, mocking Bush. “More energy tonight.”
That’s a laugh line.
'more energy tonight, i like it.' trum's put-down of jeb gets big laugh in press room.
Bush returns to the attack. “When he asked Florida to have casino gambling, we said no,” Bush says.
“Wrong,” Trump says.
Updated
at 1.37am BST
1.33am BST
01:33
Question for Bush: Are you a puppet for your donors, as Trump has said?
“No. Absolutely not,” Bush says. He says he has a proven record of leadership, cutting taxes, fixing schools and increasing the bond rating of the state of Florida.
Then Bush implies Trump tried to work Florida while he was governor to get casino gambling into the state but that he, Bush, stopped it because he doesn’t play like that.
Trump, standing next to Bush, says that he never wanted casinos in Florida.
“I promise, if I wanted it, I would’ve gotten it,” he says.
1.33am BST
01:33
Paul Lewis
My colleague Paul Lewis writes:
The first segment was dominated by the question of whether Trump could be trusted with a nuclear weapon. I asked Trump in August under what circumstances he would use his nuclear weapon. Here was his answer:
“Well, I don’t even want to talk about that question. That’s a very serious question. Hopefully you never have to use a nuclear weapon – hopefully. But you have to be prepared – the world hates us.”
1.31am BST
01:31
Fiorina says politicians don’t understand what’s wrong with Washington because they’re a fish in water. And as such they can’t appreciate water.
Fiorina says “this is about far more than replacing a D with an R. This is about changing the system.”
1.30am BST
01:30
A tip for Trump:
why isn't Trump hammering the "Reagan was an entertainer too" nail into these people
1.30am BST
01:30
Tapper turns to Carson. Who were you talking about with that dig at politicians?
Carson: “Typically politicians do things that are politically expedient.
“That is not the reason that I have gotten into this thing. I am extraordinarily concerned about the direction of this country.”
He says he fears the next generation will not have the “chance that we have now.”
1.28am BST
01:28
Tapper turns to Christie. He uses a Carson quote about politicians who lie.
Is that a fair description of you? Tapper asks Christie.
“I’m sure he was talking about one of the other guys,” Christie says. That gets laughs.
Carson smiles too.
Updated
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1.27am BST
01:27
Now Kasich jumps in. He says if he were at home he would be inclined to turn off the TV.
Because voters, he says, want to talk about the budget and the military and debt.
Tapper assures Kasich “we are going to get to the issues.”
1.26am BST
01:26
Trump keeps after Walker. “When the folks in Iowa found out the true facts of the job you did in Wisconsin,” you tanked in the polls, Trump says.
“When the people in Iowa found that out, I went to number one, you went down.”
Walker gets applause with his reply. “Just because he says it doesn’t make it true,” he says.
1.25am BST
01:25
Tapper asks Bush if Trump is qualified.
Bush says that’s for voters to decide.
Walker jumps in. “Mr Trump, we don’t need an apprentice in the White House, we have one now.”
Trump hits back: “In Wisconsin you’re losing $2.2bn right now, I would do so much better than that.”
1.24am BST
01:24
Tapper asked Trump if he’s really qualified to be president.
Trump says George Pataki was a failed governor of New York who wouldn’t be elected dog catcher. Then he says he got out of Atlantic City at the right time and his timing is impeccable.
1.23am BST
01:23
Paul accuses Trump of a non sequitur.
“I think really there’s a sophomore quality that is entertaining about Mr Trump,” Paul says. But there is a character issue, he says. “His attacking people on their appearance, short, tall, fat, ugly - are we in junior high?”
Trump’s reply: “I never attacked him on his look, and believe me there’s plenty of subject matter right there.”
Proved him wrong.
Updated
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1.21am BST
01:21
Here’s Trump’s rebuttal: “Rand Paul shouldn’t even be on this stage. He’s number 11.”
Then he says he’s a businessman as much as an entertainer.
“Believe me, my temperament is very good, very calm, but we will be respected outside this country.”
1.20am BST
01:20
First question is looking for blood. Tapper asks Fiorina:
“Would you feel comfortable with Donald Trump’s finger on the nuclear codes”?
Fiorina says Trump is a wonderful entertainer. She says the character of “all of us will be revealed over time, under pressure.”
She won’t answer the nuclear button question. She says it’s for the voters to answer.
1.19am BST
01:19
Chris Christie pulls a trick. He tells CNN to point the camera at the audience and asks how many of them think the next generation will have a better life.
Nobody raises her hand or his hand.
“See,” says Christie. “That’s why I’m running for president.
He may have just swiped the lead from Kasich.
1.19am BST
01:19
Jeb Lund
Marco Rubio: “I brought my own water.” pic.twitter.com/UZxdUmyIyn
From Guardian US columnist Jeb Lund, comedy critic:
The water jokes about Marco Rubio getting parched during his State of the Union reply were always pretty hacky, and they had a shelf life of 24 hours.
That has now been overrun by about three years.
So it was great that Rubio made a joke about his water bottle addiction, to totally tepid applause, in the middle of a state that is being devoured by an unbelievable inferno during the most severe drought in the last 500 years.
1.18am BST
01:18
Jeb Bush says he believes the greatest days for America are yet to come.
Scott Walker, the Wisconsin governor, pays tribute to Reagan, and then says the US needs a leader who will “go big and bold.”
Carly Fiorina says her husband started out driving a towtruck and that the country must tap everyone’s potential. “I am prepared to lead the resurgence of this great nation,” she says.
John Kasich, the Ohio governor and former congressman, says Hi to his family and then says he actually flew on the Reagan plane behind them.
He’s ahead so far.
1.15am BST
01:15
“I’m Donald Trump. I wrote the Art of the Deal. I say not braggadaciously, I’ve made billions and billions of dollars.”
– Donald Trump
Updated
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1.15am BST
01:15
Marco Rubio, the Florida senator, says he’s married, too.
“I’m also aware that California has a drought, and that’s why I made sure I brought my own water.” That’s a joke about the state of the union response in which he had to duck out to drink.
Cruz says he is married with kids, too, and “we can bring America back.”
Ben Carson says he’s a pediatric neurosurgeon, and the pediatric part is important, because they depend on leaders ensuring the future of the country.
Carson welcomes Fiorina.
Updated
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1.13am BST
01:13
Introductions. Rand Paul first. He says he’s an eye surgeon from Kentucky who spends his days defending the Constitution.
Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, says that “none of us onstage are socialists” and “none of us are under investigation by the FBI.”
Applause line, that.
1.11am BST
01:11
Big noise in the room as the main event gets going. Loud whistling and standing applause. Even the candidates start to applaud. Good times tonight in Simi Valley.
1.09am BST
01:09
1.07am BST
01:07
The top-tier debate
We’re moments away from the main event, an 11-sided die of ambition, fear and courage, rolled by the hand of god, played tonight by CNN anchor Jake Tapper.
Tom McCarthy here in the room in Simi Valley, California, with Guardian West Coast correspondent Rory Carroll and our team of analysts and commentators pitching in from points distant.
It is a gorgeous evening in California, with beautiful late-afternoon views down the valley from the Ronald Reagan library just now beginning to take on streaks of shadow.
We’re going to be chasing the conversation, but the challenge we put to you is to help us break through it, to the deeper dynamics of the race.
The field may shrink after tonight, as more candidates are faced with numbers that won’t move or donors that won’t budge. Pitch in below the line and tell us who’s in, who’s out, and who was best at making the second presidential debate count.
1.03am BST
01:03
Adam Gabbatt
Adam Gabbatt writes:
There was an elephant in the room during the pre-debate debate. Or at least there was one lurking outside it: a big, noisy, weird-haired elephant called Donald Trump.
The four candidates’ opening remarks were dominated by Trump, who is leading in the polls. Bobby Jindal was the first one to stick it to him. Jindal “doesn’t have a reality TV show”, he said. This would have been more effective if Trump still had one – his “Mexican rapists” obsession brought an end to his NBC career earlier this summer.
Jindal went back for more a little later. “He’s a narcissist who only believes in himself!” the Louisiana governor declared of Trump.
Rick Santorum said the candidates shouldn’t be criticising each other. But no one listened. Former New York governor George Pataki continued the beating. He pointed out that Donald Trump bankrupted casinos in Atlantic City. (In Trump’s defence he it was actually only corporate bankruptcy he filed for. And he has only filed for it four times.)
There was a lull in the middle where everyone stopped having a go at Trump and talked about a homophobic woman. But then the criticism came roaring back. Graham said “our leading candidate got his foreign policy from watching television”. Jindal reminded everyone that he had once called Trump an “egomaniac”. It was great. And now we get to see Trump slagged off to his face!
1.01am BST
01:01
Watching Twitter so you don’t have to, Nicky Woolf and Kayla Epstein report on how the Republicans on the big stage have been preparing to debate today:
The first Republican debate in August had a record-breaking 24 million viewers, and CNN’s debate tonight is set to reach even more people. For a prospective presidential candidate, how can a candidate prepare for such intense pressure?
Your mind must be clear; your heart light.
Many of the candidates found ways of achieving the level of zen required for a barnstorming debate performance – some more peculiar than others.
Donald Trump has reportedly been reading up on his foreign policy. Two weeks ago he was caught out on the Hugh Hewitt show mistaking ‘Quds’ for ‘Kurds’. Hewitt is asking questions of all the candidates tonight, so Trump is leaving nothing to chance.
Trump camp says he has been prepping for this debate and foreign policy is a focus. #nbc2016
Meanwhile, Jeb Bush, whose plummet in the polls has been mirrored by Trump’s inexorable rise, took to heart to maxim ‘know thy enemy’. That can mean only one thing: study his bombastic rival in his natural habitat ...
In the Snapchat GOP Debate story: @JebBush watching The Apprentice in debate prep @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/sTFwcpmk3c
For Kentucky senator Rand Paul, there is, of course, only one way to reach competitive political rhetoric nirvana. Yes: printing out the 80,000-page US federal tax code, putting it into boxes, and then shooting it with a modified AR-15 assault rifle.
He also took the time to hang out with some Second Amendment fans.
After shooting the tax code @RandPaul poses with some gun enthusiasts pic.twitter.com/3PExI5jHuR
Ben Carson, meanwhile, had time to drop in for a quick schmooze in the spin room at the Reagan Library.
@RealBenCarson stops by the press filing room before the debate to the surprise of all. pic.twitter.com/u7BEMTnmJg
Many of the candidates needed to pace the stage and familiarise themselves with their podiums.
Just finished my walkthrough of tonight’s stage. Tune in at 8:00 p.m. ET! #Carly2016 #CNNDebate pic.twitter.com/pELwM1azkc
Got my game face on! Ready to have some fun tonight at the #CNNDebate. -John pic.twitter.com/sztZQwJ0AD
Lindsey Graham, readying himself to defend his proposition of putting American boots on the ground in Syria, knows that an army always marches on its stomach. For him, that means chicken nuggets and ’slaw.
For those curious:: Graham's pre-debate menu today was Chick-fil-A chicken nuggets and cole slaw
On the opposite end of the scale, Wisconsin governor Scott Walker knew that a healthy body means a healthy debate.
Enjoying my pre #GOPdebate ritual. Grabbing a quick jog before tonight's #CNNdebate - SW #Walker16 pic.twitter.com/DiCXjSUIC0
Only time will tell whose strategy proves best.
12.53am BST
00:53
As we wait for the main event, here are the full names and professional backgrounds of the 11 candidates participating. They are, in alphabetical order:
CNN's #GOPDebate is free 3 hour ad for Democratic party. Please don't tell Republicans, or they cancel it. #CNNDebate pic.twitter.com/srliwAo0cV
Updated
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12.51am BST
00:51
Twitter thinks the debate went either to Graham or Jindal. Graham by entertaining the audience, going pithy where others went long and keeping up a steady drumbeat of red-meat militarism for the base. Jindal by going after the Republican establishment and calling for fresh blood in Washington.
Even though he mostly talks about invading countries and how we’re all gonna die at least Graham seems to be having fun.
Good night for Lindsey Graham (showed humor, feistiness, tough on nat sec) & Jindal (clear, crisp conservative msg against DC & party stab)
The early #GOPDebate debate: replay the event in @Google search http://t.co/jibKarWBUZ pic.twitter.com/TP2bfY3TNj
Updated
at 1.14am BST
12.47am BST
00:47
Google reports that interest in Lindsay Graham has at times overtaken that for Donald Trump during this debate.
12.47am BST
00:47
Graham’s last.
He says “I would win a war we can’t afford to lose. Then he calls radical Islam “religious Nazis.” Then he makes fun of Trump: “Our leading candidate gets his foreign policy from watching television. And from what I understand it’s the cartoon network.”
Graham repeats the line about winning a war we cannot afford to lose.
Ooh! Tapper announces a group photo with all 15 candidates to happen between the two debates. Great fun.
12.45am BST
00:45
Here’s Jindal:
“Jake, I’m a doer not a talker.”
He follows that almost immediately with, “Planned Parenthood is selling baby parts across this country and Senate Republicans have given up.”
Then he calls Obama a socialist and promises this:“I will give every ounce of blood energy and sweat that I’ve got to save the idea of AMerica as the greatest country in the world.”
If Obama is a socialist, what is Sanders? A super duper socialist?
Updated
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12.43am BST
00:43
Santorum’s next.
“I went to Washington in the most unlikely way,” he says. No argument there. “I only planned on being there for one term,” he says, not mentioning his embarrassing double-digit reelection loss. “I shook things up,” he says.
Tapper is repeatedly saying “thank you senator. Thank you senator.”
OK he’s done.
12.42am BST
00:42
Last question: what sets you apart from the 11 candidates in the upcoming debate?
Pataki goes first. He says first you have to win and then govern effectively. He says he has done both in one of the most liberal states in America. True that. Thrice-elected in New York.
“Once I won, I would put in place a sweeping conservative agenda,” Pataki says. He wraps and is applauded nicely.
Who’s predicting a Pataki bump in the polls off this?
12.39am BST
00:39
Sabrina Siddiqui
Sabrina Siddiqui is with Hillary Clinton’s team in Brooklyn, where they have put up a series of posters contrasting Reagan’s positions on key issues with those of current GOP candidates.
Clinton camp HQ contrasting Reagan vs. current GOP candidates on the issues at its debate filing center pic.twitter.com/ZaFCGiyRa0
Both this time and last, the campaign has set up its own center for the media to observe the Republican debates.
Updated
at 12.48am BST
12.39am BST
00:39
My colleague Megan Carpentier notes in relation to the hot Republican topic of “anchor babies”, which was covered earlier.
FYI, only 9% of all births to undocumented immigrants from 2008-2010 were born to people who arrived 2008-2010: http://t.co/r0ysLrucvq
12.37am BST
00:37
Jeb Lund
Once more into the Jeb Lund:
I don’t expect Rick Santorum to NOT demonize Iranians and Shiites. I don’t expect him not to be paranoid.
I DO wish he could just change up his rhetoric from condemning all Iranians as evil lunatics just because he believes that they are deeply religious people who believe that they face deadly external opponents while living in the early days of the end times of their theology’s own apocalypse.
Because, read the room, Rick: that’s like condemning the Cure’s jangly guitars at a Smiths concert.
12.36am BST
00:36
Final questions are next. We’re rounding toward the finish of debate number 1.
12.33am BST
00:33
Graham is asked about Vladimir Putin. Let’s see if he can summon some vigor on this one.
“Do you think Putin would be in the Ukraine or Syria today if Ronald Reagan were president?” he says. “No. This is what happens when you have a weak, unqualified commander-in-chief who doesn’t understand America’s role in the world.”
UPDATE: Graham has a Twitter caddy sending out his top quotes:
Situation in Russia is what happens when you get a weak, unqualified Commander in Chief who doesn't understand America's role in the world.
Then Graham says “the next 9/11, which is most likely to occur in an attack from Syria,” has deepened as a danger as a result of Obama’s foreign policy.
Pretty vigorous.
Updated
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12.33am BST
00:33
12.32am BST
00:32
12.30am BST
00:30
Santorum says he’s been focused “like a laser” for 12 years on Iran’s nuclear program because “I understand who they are.
“Yes they’re radical Islamists, which is true. But they’re a particular version of it. .. They’re a death cult.. They believe in bringing about the end of times because that’s their goal.”
Updated
at 12.39am BST
12.28am BST
00:28
Graham says Iran is “on track to get a bomb even if they don’t cheat.”
Question for Pataki: would you keep the assassination of Iranian scientists on the table?
Not on the table, Pataki says, but possibly up for future discussion. Then he calls for arming Israel with next-wave bunker buster bombs to get at Iranian nuclear facilities, need be.
12.26am BST
00:26
Iran question for Graham: would you authorize a strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities?
“If I believed they were trying to make a bomb, absolutely,” Graham says. “And here’s the important thing: they know I’m serious.”
12.25am BST
00:25
Ok time’s up on the question of whether anybody’s changing your mind. They’re back.
12.21am BST
00:21
Second commercial break. What do you think of the debate so far? Anybody changing your mind on anything?
12.21am BST
00:21
On to the federal minimum wage. Tapper asks Graham if he supports raising it.
Graham doesn’t, and makes an argument that economic uplift for wage earners has to come from growing businesses.
“I know this, when my mom and dad owned the restaurant, the bar, the pool room, that if you increased the minimum wage it would be hard to hire more people,” he says.
Santorum jumps in with pepper in his breeches. He says a 50 cents an hour increase over three years makes sense.
“Republicans are losing elections because we’re not talking about them,” Santorum says, meaning workers.
Sounds like Bernie Sanders up there.
12.20am BST
00:20
Lauren Gambino
Lots of Bernie and O'Malley supporters at #allowdebate rally pic.twitter.com/GzE47szCie
Guardian US reporter Lauren Gambino reports from a rally in Washington:
While Republicans indulge in their second face-off, some Democrats have been left asking why their candidates haven’t yet had a chance to take the debate stage at all.
At a protest outside of the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, dozens of Democrats shouted and chanted at the leaders of their party’s governing body, demanding they schedule more than the scheduled six debates.
I spoke to several protesters saying the current debate schedule is, to use their word, ‘rigged’ to protect Hillary Clinton.
The protesters got creative with their chants, and some worked better than others. One chant singled out Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
‘DNC chair,’ they shouted. ‘If you don’t want the job / Someone else will sit there.’
My colleague Ben Jacobs, on the trail in New Hampshire, noted that the protesters also sang a song written by Brooklyn songwriter Jonathan Mann demanding more Democratic debates. They did not include the lyrics which explicitly mentioned Vermont senator Bernie Sanders.
When asked if Wasserman-Schultz had listened to the song or watched the accompanying music video, DNC spokesperson Holly Shulman told the Guardian:
‘I have no specific YouTube video watching to read out at this time.’
The DNC has schedule the half-dozen debates in the party’s Democratic Primary, 22 fewer than the number held in 2008. The first one will be held on 13 October in Las Vegas.
As the protest wrapped up, an organizer announced that they would all be heading to a nearby bar to watch the Republican debate, ‘because at least they are having one’.
12.16am BST
00:16
The next question is for Santorum about Jeb Bush calling for a limit on tax deductions for housing.
Santorum says he is about to introduce a “20/20 plan perfect vision for America.”
It’s a flat tax that he says would create so many manufacturing jobs the country would run out of applicants.
Updated
at 12.18am BST
12.14am BST
00:14
Now here’s the tax question. Should hedge fund managers pay a higher tax rate?
Pataki says he’d throw out the whole tax code. And yes he would close loopholes for “Wall Street fat cats.”
It’s as if he were a three-term moderate governor.
Updated
at 12.40am BST
12.14am BST
00:14
Jeb Lund
From Jeb Lund:
“That’s the first thing I’ma do as president. We’re gonna drink more.”
Look, I don’t agree with Lindsey Graham, but the man has a point.
Updated
at 12.35am BST
12.12am BST
00:12
Graham says the first thing he’s going to do as president is “drink more” and cooperate with Democrats, putting the country ahead of his party.
12.11am BST
00:11
Jeb Lund
From Jeb Lund:
Depressing but obvious: Rick Santorum said the US supreme court’s ruling on same sex marriage is unconstitutional, though the constitutionality of anything is actually defined by how the supreme court rules on it.
Now Santorum wants to pass the First Amendment Defense Act, an act that would be interpreted via the First Amendment to the constitution. And when pressed by George Pataki, who said that there is no rule of law when the president defies the supreme court, Santorum said that he hoped the next president would go ahead and defy it.
12.10am BST
00:10
This debate is content-rich. Chunky conversations about issues from immigration to Iraq to the Supreme Court with up to five minutes and more spent on each. Each candidate given time to talk and then to respond. References by the candidate’s to each other’s records on the issues going back 15 years.
Graham is the only one who has succeeded in cracking the crowd up. Jindal may be winning for sheer word count. Pataki has succeeded in coming across as actually being a candidate in the race, which is not totally common knowledge. Santorum is punchy without seeming nasty or growly, as he sometimes can.
12.10am BST
00:10
Cindy Casares
From Cindy Casares:
George Pataki had to explain to Rick Santorum that Kim Davis went to jail because she in contempt of court and not because she’s under fire for her religious beliefs. Why you gotta be making southerners look so dumb, Gov’nah?
12.06am BST
00:06
Tapper asks about Supreme Court chief justice John Roberts who has written two opinions upholding Obamacare, the president’s health care law.
Were Santorum and Graham’s votes in favor of Graham a mistake?
Jindal says yes.
Graham replies that Roberts “is one of the most qualified men to come before the Senate,” and he doesn’t agree with his Obamacare decisions but in sum he thinks Roberts gets it right.
Graham then says “the court’s at stake” in the 2016 election.
Santorum said he stands by his vote for Roberts, who he says “has a long, good record.”
“I don’t regret at all supporting John Roberts,” Santorum says.
12.02am BST
00:02
Tapper is really letting them talk. Pataki is now deep into a discourse about the difference between civil disobedience and plain law-breaking.
12.01am BST
00:01
How will Santorum respond to Pataki?
He quotes Martin Luther King’s letter from a Birmingham jail. Touché.
12.00am BST
00:00
Pataki responds to Santorum. “Wow” he says. We’re talking about a president who defies the Supreme Court?
Santorum appears to vow that he would defy the court “if they’re wrong.”
Pataki points out that that’s tantamount to kicking the rule of law to the curb.
“When you’re an elected official, and you take an oath of office to uphold the law, you cannot pick and choose,” Pataki says.
11.59pm BST
23:59
Aand they’re back.
Tapper kicks the tax question aside to extend a conversation of Kim Davis.
Santorum recalls the story of a victim of the 1999 Columbine High School massacre in Colorado who was asked by a shooter about her faith in god and did not deny it.
He says Davis, the Kentucky clerk who has denied marriage licenses to same-sex couples, has exhibited similar courage of conscience.
11.57pm BST
23:57
It’s off to commercial break. Tapper teases discussion when they come back about what Jeb Bush and Donald Trump have in common in their tax policy recommendations.
Carried interest? Stay tuned.
11.57pm BST
23:57
Cindy Casares
From Cindy Casares:
Bobby Jindal’s response to 14 year-old Ahmed Mohamed being arrested in Texas for bringing a homemade clock to school. “We don’t discriminate against anybody based on the color of their skin or their creed.” President Uncle Tom Jindal, ladies and gentlemen.
11.56pm BST
23:56
Jeb Lund
Lindsey Graham and Rick Santorum clashed over immigration and birthright citizenship: http://t.co/xGpHW6FEXv
Guardian US columnist Jeb Lund weighs in on the Santorum-Graham spat over immigration:
I am dying laughing at Lindsey Graham’s Walter Sobchak routine (from the Big Lebowski), where he keeps interrupting his exasperating friend Rick Santorum with details. I expected him to finish with: ‘Am I wrong? Am I wrong? I’m stayin’. I’m finishing my coffee.’
Graham’s answer on immigration was such a roller-coaster of emotions. He took us from wealthy Asians having children in expensive hidden hotels in the United States, to saying that he calls Hispanics “Americans”, to insisting on a pragmatic immigration policy to shore up Social Security.
I don’t know what happened here, but this was the most comprehensive tour of needling another candidate in a while.
11.55pm BST
23:55
Tapper brings up the case of Ahmed Mohamed, who was handcuffed after his school called police over the digital clock which “looked like a bomb” to a teacher.
Jindal reels off a list of demands for Islamic leaders in America to adhere to. He is pressed on this case. He says it seems wrong but pivots to talk about defiant clerk and gay-marriage protester Kim Davis and discrimination against Christians.
Graham says “young men from the Mid East are different from Kim Davis”.
Pataki says we have one rule of law in America, and “I think she should have been fired”. He gets some applause for this.
Pataki says: imagine if it was a Muslim that said that. There is a place where religion supercedes the rule of law - it’s called Iran, he says, in one of the best lines so far.
11.51pm BST
23:51
Graham asks how Obama sleeps at night and says he blames the president for the refugee “mess” and wants to fix it.
Bash asks him about his plan for US ground forces to be deployed against Isis.
Graham says he has learned what works in war. If we don’t destroy Isis, they’re coming here, he says. We need 10,000 more troops in Iraq, and a regional army to attack Isis, paid for by Middle Eastern allies, with 10% American troops, to “pull up these bastards by the roots”.
Santorum says he wants 10,000 extra troops to attack Isis, and maybe more.
Jindal says we need to do “whatever is necessary”.
Pataki recalls 9/11, when he was governor of New York. He says the US is at greater risk of attack now than at any time since then.
He says we have to directly arm -- and is then cut off.
11.48pm BST
23:48
Cindy Casares
From Guardian contributor Cindy Casares in Texas:
“Immigration without assimilation is invasion,” said Bobby Jindal, with an impressive twang that would fool George Bush’s momma. He bragged – in his best Southern accent – that his parents came to the US legally and spoke English. What is the Hindi word for Uncle Tom?
Governor Pataki spoke rationally about immigration: “We can’t send back 11 million people”, and advocated that undocumented immigrations perform community service in exchange for citizenship. But showing his Yankee roots will surely get him axed from the GOP field.
Someone, though, needs to tell Lindsey Graham that the United States has no official language and its up to each person what language they want to speak.
Updated
at 11.55pm BST
11.46pm BST
23:46
Jindal is asked about the prospect of 10,000 Syrian refugees being let in to the US. Does the US have an obligation to do this?
Jindal says there is a “direct line” between this refugee crisis and Barack Obama’s decision not to follow up his “red line” on chemical weapons with military action.
We should be clear that we are going to replace Assad and destroy Isis, he says.
Jindal says his parents arrived to assimilate. He wants to insist on that of new refugees.
11.44pm BST
23:44
Santorum and Graham get into a bit of a spat over the failure of a previous Santorum immigration plan. Santorum ends up saying he wants to focus on Americans, not Hispanics.
“Hispanics are Americans,” Graham says, to some applause.
Updated
at 11.45pm BST
11.42pm BST
23:42
Pataki is asked about birthright citizenship - the right for anyone born in the US to be an American citizen. “I don’t think we should tell that child born in America that we are going to send them back,” he says.
He also says he would require illegal immigrants to come forward and give them community service before they got legal status.
Graham is asked about the same issue. He says he wouldn’t throw out 11 million illegal immigrants, but he would throw out the felons. He says they’d need to speak English - he can’t speak it that well, he jokes, but he has got pretty far.
He adds that he has never seen an “illegal Canadian”. This is an economic issue, he says.
11.39pm BST
23:39
Ben Jacobs
Rick Santorum the only candidate singing the national anthem #GOPDebate #whatdoesitmean
From New Hampshire, Ben Jacobs on a national anthem row, from sea to shining sea ... and then another sea:
Rick Santorum has clearly been paying attention to UK politics.
Our friends across the pond have been in a tizzy over newly elected Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn failing to sing along to God Save the Queen at a service on a memorial service for pilots who flew in the Battle of Britain.
But Santorum was the only candidate who sang along to the Star-Spangled Banner in the undercard debate on CNN tonight.
Santorum has followed British politics in the past, telling reporters in 2013: ‘I’ve worked with [former Conservative Party leader] Iain Duncan Smith for a while’ on issues of civil society.
The Santorum campaign did not, however, explicitly respond to a request for comment from the Guardian as to whether he was inspired to sing along by Corbyn’s failure to do so earlier this week.
Meanwhile, on immigration, he says: ‘American workers are getting hurt by immigration, and that’s why they’re upset.’
11.39pm BST
23:39
Dana Bush asks Santorum about a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, which Jindal supports.
Santorum says the debate should be about what is in the best interest of hard-working Americans.
Jindal says we need to secure the border “period”. He says he will get it done in six months. He is not for an amnesty, he says. Immigration without assimilation is invasion, he says, repeating a line he has used before.
Santorum says just because you don’t call it an amnesty doesn’t mean it isn’t one. American workers are getting hurt by immigration, he says.
Jindal is pressed on his position. He says after the border is sealed, people will be dealt with “compassionately”. And he adds that he wants to criminalize and jail the mayors of so-called “sanctuary cities” which are seen as failing to crack down sufficiently on illegal immigrants.
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Tapper says Trump, Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina are all doing well because they are outsiders - in contrast to the four on stage now. Is service in government now a liability and not an asset?
Graham says Republican voters will look for someone to lead us in a new direction - particularly in foreign policy. Syria is hell on earth, he says, returning the focus to his military record and his plans to take on Isis. It’s obvious he believes this is his unique selling point and he is determined to drive his message home.
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Hugh Hewitt tells Pataki he has broken his pledge to support the eventual nominee by tweeting that he would not support Trump.
Trump’s not going to be the nominee, Pataki says. And he complains that the first four questions have been about Trump.
Trump is unfit to be the nominee or the president, he says. He brings up Trump’s casino history in Atlantic City. “He will do for America what he did for Atlantic City.”
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Graham is asked why so many voters seem to favor Trump. He says that it’s too early for the polling numbers to be meaningful.
He turns the conversation back to the fight against Islamic State. Graham asks the other candidates to commit to ground troops against Isis.
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Jeb Lund
poll order = height order #GOPDebate pic.twitter.com/TwykzJHXZr
Guardian US columnist Jeb Lund is back:
I feel bad for these guys: they have wedded themselves and their followers to a view of the world that says that anything that the market doesn’t value clearly sucks. There is no redemption there. So just by dint of being on this second-class stage, these candidates are implicitly telling the audience, ‘We are a second-class product.’
But what actual distinctions exist between the second-tier and the top-tier candidates are razor thin or really inconsequential.
Bobby Jindal is almost certainly as smart as Ted Cruz, if not smarter, and neither one is more or less performatively crazy than the other.
Rick Santorum is no more or less odious on social issues than Mike Huckabee.
You could swap George Pataki and Kasich and not push the needle too far in any direction.
OK, I grant you, Lindsey Graham should go home to his cats and yarn and DVD sets of Midsomer Murders, but no analogy is perfect.
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Santorum says personal attacks only please Hillary Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner. There are plenty of policy differences to focus on, Santorum says.
Jindal says the Democrats are gift-wrapping the election to the Republicans. Clinton is weak and Sanders is a socialist. But you can’t just attack Trump on policy - he’s all about personality, Jindal says.
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Jindal is asked why he has attacked Trump. Why did he attack his fellow Republican?
Because Trump is not a Republican or a conservative, Jindal says. He seems determined to come across as energetic and forceful.
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Host Jake Tapper says he wants to have a real debate about policy. (Has he been following this campaign at all?)
Pataki introduces himself first, recalling Reagan’s “tremendous smile” and his optimism. That type of leadership is why he is running for president, he says.
Santorum says he led the fights against partial-birth abortion and welfare, and worked for sanctions against Iran. He says he has a disabled daughter, six other children and a wife who is the love of his life.
Jindal says he doesn’t have a famous last name or a reality TV show. He says he doesn’t want the American dream to turn into the European nightmare.
Graham starts with a joke about the fact that there is an audience for the kids’ table debate this time. He says he is running for president to destroy radical Islam. He says he is most qualified to be commander-in-chief because of his three decades of military experience.
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About your moderators:
Related: Hugh Hewitt: is he Donald Trump's arch nemesis – or the antidote to Fox News?
Preps for @DanaBashCNN and @hughhewitt #CNNDebate pic.twitter.com/50LBwvRrzB
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23:21
Actor and singer Natalie Hill performs the national anthem. Santorum sings along, while the other three stand silently with their hands on their hearts.
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It's kids' table time!
The debate begins, in front of the striking and rather surreal backdrop of Ronald Reagan’s Air Force One airplane.
Graham, Jindal, Santorum and Pataki take their places.
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Just a reminder that the four debaters in this slightly humiliating pre-debate, which is just about to begin, are:
The event is being hosted by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Dana Bash and conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.
You can watch the debate live online here.
11.09pm BST
23:09
Ben Jacobs
Guardian US political reporter Ben Jacobs, who will be hanging out with a pseudo-focus group of voters at a bar in New Hampshire tonight, takes a look at the early debate field. Who will be the standout among all four early candidates?
With only a handful of candidates on stage in the undercard debate tonight, there will be plenty of opportunity for the second-tier politicians to shine.
They will have one hour and 40 minutes to speak directly to the American people – or at least those watching – with minimal interruption ... and without the presence of Donald Trump.
In the last debate, Carly Fiorina used the pre-debate debate opportunity to shine and catapult herself into prime time tonight.
The best bet to make a similar kind of leap tonight at the so-called “kids’ table” is the South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham – at least as we see it out of here in the early voting state of New Hampshire.
The ardent hawk has a reputation for not taking himself too seriously – at least as far as elected officials in Washington go – so expect some one-liners.
Last time around, he was stilted ... almost as if he had been coached to be less funny. Tonight, Graham gets the chance to make up for that, albeit on a far less crowded stage.
Related: Carly Fiorina: how to be the only woman on the GOP debate stage
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Jeb Lund
Guardian US columnist Jeb Lund writes in from Tampa, Florida:
So guys, it’s just you and your honey, Lady Liberty.
The setting is perfect: Simi Valley. The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. But then electile dysfunction happens again.
Who’s George Pataki? And Jindal is here? That guy’s polling lower than a boozed septuagenarian after accidentally rubbing himself down with lidocaine.
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22:49
Hello and welcome to the Ronald Reagan presidential library and museum in Simi Valley, California, where we are in the room for what we don’t think we’re foolish to hope will be a positively historic night in American politics: the second Republican presidential debate.
Never have so many politicians come together to try to say so much in so little time. The crowd onstage tonight could field an entire NFL team.
Who would play center though?
Conventional wisdom has it that the job tonight for most of the candidates is to take frontrunner Donald Trump down a notch. Who will mount the best attack? How will Trump hit back? Will any policy debates accidentally break out?
Who are you rooting for? We want you to tell us which answers you think crackled with wit and which fell flat. We want to hear who you think is #winning. Let us know in the comments and we will decorate the most poignant and incisive entries with sparklers.
We have a full slate of Guardian columnists and news writers on hand to try to make sense of whatever’s about to happen. Don’t let them eat up all the blog inches, though – throw your opinion in!
The debate’s scheduled to begin at 5pm local time, or 8pm ET, and run for ... well it’s unclear just how long it will go. Host network CNN has three hours blocked off on its schedule, but they’re not saying how much of that will be post-debate analysis. The moderators are Jake Tapper and Dana Bash of CNN, plus conservative talk radio host Hugh Hewitt.
Here are the candidates’ surnames and where they will be standing:
The 2 stages are set for the Sept. 16 #CNNDebate. Who makes the main stage? http://t.co/75Pm4p32nP pic.twitter.com/fuSq6ZiLkW
Candidates will have one minute each to reply to questions posed by the moderators plus 30 seconds for any rebuttals. Little warning lights will expose time-clock scofflaws.
The main event follows an undercard debate featuring four candidates – George Pataki, Bobby Jindal, Rick Santorum and Lindsey Graham – whose polling numbers place them at the back of the pack.
May the best Washington outsider with a plan to restore American glory by getting corrupt money and special interests out of politics while destroying Isis, Hillary Clinton and Obamacare win.
The last main GOP debate had 10 candidates on stage. pic.twitter.com/nayCShP6ER
Before the main debate is an undercard at 6pm ET featuring four candidates who did not qualify for the top-tier group: former senator Rick Santorum, former New York governor George Pataki, Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal and South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham. We’ll cover that one, too, but not in quite so much detail as the main event.
