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Republican debate: Trump, Cruz, Rubio and Kasich square up – election live
Republican debate: Trump, Cruz, Rubio and Kasich get unusually serious – live
(35 minutes later)
2.04am GMT
2.38am GMT
02:04
02:38
First question is on jobs.
Jeb Lund
Have trade deals been good for the American worker? Trump has said no.
Guardian writer Jeb Lund is in Miami.
But for Kasich: have you helped corporations by boosting for trade deals?
It’s a testament to Donald Trump’s force in the Republican primary that we’re even having a discussion about whether free trade is anything other than always good. In 2012, the moderators would have asked each candidate about trade in a debate in, say, Ohio or Pennsylvania, not somewhere like Miami, and then it would have been forgotten. Now, the idea of protectionist tariffs is such a winner with working class white people flocking to Trump that all of these guys have to utter some kind of performative nonsense.
Kasich says 1 out of 5 Americans work in a job connected to trade. He calls for the somewhat anodyne free trade but fair trade. “We have to have an expedited process... when countries cheat and they take advantage of us, we need to blow the whistle.”
KASICH: My family was once blue collar, so we should have free trade but also fair trade. This makes no sense.
But, Kasich says, you can’t “lock the doors and pull down the blinds” on international trade.
CRUZ: I will create taxes to keep industry here. This is certainly a lie and almost certainly impossible.
Basically a call for trade deals, with policing.
RUBIO: Flowers from Colombia are good because it created millio – er, hundreds of jobs. We shouldn’t have free trade, because it’s bad, because other countries have tariffs. We need to negotiate away those tariffs, so we can have free trade.
2.02am GMT
TRUMP: [cheshire grin]
02:02
2.35am GMT
Opening statements
02:35
Kasich: I looked in people’s faces. They want to be hopeful. Let’s transfer power and money to where you live. “New partnership.” The best century ever.
Trump gives voice to the unity imperative. “We’re all in this together,” he says. “So far I cannot believe how civil it’s been up here.”
Rubio: Every election is important. This one is extra important. Our identity as a nation is at stake. We must make the right choice. Our children will be free. New American century.
He’s right. The night is unrecognizable from previous outings. Downright genteel.
Cruz: 59 years ago Florida welcomed my father. He was in the free-est land on the face of the Earth. This election is not about attacks. It’s about you and your children. Stop Washington.
2.34am GMT
Trump: The Republican party is growing. Millions are voting. Some have never voted before. We’re taking people from the Democrats. It’s very exciting. The Republican establishment or whatever you want to call it should embrace what’s happening. We’ll beat Clinton.
02:34
1.59am GMT
Cruz is on about inflation, and in his tax plan. “The answer can’t just be, wave a magic wand and say, problem go away. You have to understand the problems, you have to have real solutions.”
01:59
He says Hillary Clinton just asserts she would solve problems but that’s a typical “liberal” thing to say.
Tapper explains the rules. A bit of extra time to answer questions this round – a full 1:15 for each question. Tapper asks them not to talk over one another. Good luck.
The comparison to a certain someone standing next to him is unmissable.
1.58am GMT
Then Cruz draws a contrast between himself and “Clinton,” ie Trump.
01:58
“The less government, the more freedom. The fewer bureaucrats the more prosperity.”
And now the national anthem, by a group from the University of Miami called the Frost Singers. They’re good. Four-part harmony. Four candidates and four singers.
Then the first real attack of the debate so far: Cruz hits Trump over writing checks to Democrats.
Here comes the high note. For the la-a-a-nd of the fuh-reee-Hee! They covered it in honey. Hit the extra octave with gas (honey?) to spare. Well done.
“If you have a candidate who has been funding liberal Democrats and funding the Washington establishment...” Cruz says, it’s very hard to assert that you will clean the stables of the capital.
2.32am GMT
02:32
Megan Carpentier
On Trump’s statement that his companies use H1B visas, that’s true – but most of them come through his Trump Model Management business (and mostly did so in 2011). Model Alexia Palmer has been suing the agency since 2014 for failing to pay her the salary listed on the H1B application.
Another big user of H1B visas is youngest son Eric, who is responsible for seven H1B applications as part of Eric Trump Wine Manufacturing. Trump wine is manufactured in Virginia; it is not, however, manufactured by Trump Industries.
It also apparently sucks.
2.30am GMT
02:30
Lucia Graves
Guardian columnist Lucia Graves is watching the proceedings.
Did someone put something in the water this debate? The candidates’ answers have been uncommonly substantive and focused on policy. Trump, in particular, appears intent on having a more mature debate this time around, as evidenced by his opening statement, which sounded uncommonly prepared.
After a news cycle that has focused on the anger and violence present at his rallies, Trump argued that people are voting for him out of ‘enthusiasm’ and ‘love’. It’s an intelligent, if defensive, tack to take. And his first response to a question on trade was similarly well-marshalled – if arrogant – focusing on his superior bona fides on the subject as a businessman.
After a GOP debate that resorted to petty name-calling and Trump literally talking about his penis size, the new tone he seems to be cultivating tonight is a welcome reprieve. It makes you wonder what the race would look like if debates had looked like this all along – maybe Jeb! would still be on stage.
Updated
Updated
at 1.58am GMT
at 2.32am GMT
1.56am GMT
2.30am GMT
01:56
02:30
The candidates are being introduced. There they are. Moderator Jake Tapper announces a moment of silence for late first lady Nancy Reagan.
Rubio: Trump's 'numbers don't add up'
1.48am GMT
CNN moderator Dana Bash points out to Trump that studies have found that waste in social security amounts to like $3bn, whereas budget overruns amount to $150bn. So you can’t satisfy the latter by eliminating the former.
01:48
Trump gives a non sequitur answer about North Korea and US defense protections for Japan and elsewhere.
From the comments / topics to chew on
Rubio gently prods Trump:
What should we talk about meanwhile?Donald Trump?
“The numbers don’t add up,” Rubio says. Eliminating fraud is a drop in the bucket. “The numbers don’t add up.”
Any chance we can get through this one without reference to genitalia?
Trump declines to reply. “I’ve never seen anything like it,” Trump says. He says the government does not negotiate with big Pharma. Or with defense contractors. He is asserting possession of a magic anti-waste wand that in a snap corrects the Pentagon and HHS budgets.
If not, can the moderators at least start asking for some verification of whatever assertions might, um, arise?
2.26am GMT
Ladies and Gentlemen - The 'Circus' is about to begin!
02:26
Lock the children in their rooms, make some popcorn and get ready to be outraged and fall out laughing, too.
Trump is asked about his opposition to social security reform. How would he stop the system from going bankrupt?
Who will Trump insult first?Will Rubio still be fascinated by Trump's penis size?Will Ted Cruz's head spin and starts talking in tongues?Will John 'Doe' Kasich even be asked a question?
“The Democrats are doing nothing with social security,” Trump says. “I will do everything within my power not to touch social security,” he says.
To these and other questions, stay tuned for the best comedy on American TV.
Getting rid of waste and corruption would solve the debt issue, Trump asserts.
1.48am GMT
“It’s my absolute intention to leave social security the way that it is,” he says.
01:48
Then he starts to riff or rant about China and “our jobs our gone” and “make America great again.”
Republican debate about to begin
2.24am GMT
If you’re just joining us – welcome to our live coverage of the 12th Republican debate of the 2016 race for the White House.
02:24
The four candidates are meeting for the last time before voting in five states with about 350 delegates up for grabs on Tuesday.
Rubio is riffing on social security. He calls for delayed retirement to 68 years old. And for means testing for benefits. “These are not unreasonable changes to ask.”
The candidate to stop, as has been the rule, is Donald Trump. The candidates with the most to prove would seem to be Florida senator Marco Rubio, who won nary a delegate in voting this past Tuesday, and Ohio governor John Kasich, who is claiming momentum after a third-place finish in Michigan.
He says for his generation the retirement age would be 68. But his children would retire at 70. “The people who are on it now, we don’t have to change it at all.”
Both candidates go before the electorates in their home states on Tuesday, in contests that for the first time will award their entire slates of delegates to the victor. Illinois, Missouri and North Carolina also are in the mix.
He’s talking at once to the Republican fiscal hawks and the retired voters in Florida.
Senator Ted Cruz remains the only Republican candidate to have won multiple states, apart from Trump. He received his first senatorial endorsement Thursday, from Mike Lee of Utah. Former Republican candidate Carly Fiorina endorsed him on Wednesday.
2.21am GMT
They’re about to begin. Thanks for joining us and may the best debater win!
02:21
Updated
“Common core is a disaster,” Cruz says. As president, he says, he will order the department of education to end common core, the federal prescriptions for educational curricula, “that day.”
at 1.53am GMT
For good measure Cruz would “abolish the department of education.” He talks way through the 1:15 buzzer by getting started on school choice.
1.47am GMT
2.20am GMT
01:47
02:20
Reince Priebus, the Republican chairman, is onstage talking. “This party is going to support the nominee, whoever that is, 100%” he says. Why would he feel compelled to point that out?
Kasich has called opposition to Common Core “Hysteria.” Does he stand by that?
1.35am GMT
Kasich says he’s into what works. He talks in detail about the Ohio model, by which local school boards set the standards. “We need to start connecting [kids] to the real world” with vocational education starting in seventh grade, he says.
01:35
Mentoring programs. Local control. High state standards. That’s Kasich’s recipe for educational success.
As expected, 8.30pm ET – the advertised debate start time – has come and gone without the debate actually starting. Instead we are about to hear from Reince Priebus, the chair of the Republican National Committee. You can follow along with all this “action” on CNN.com.
2.18am GMT
1.23am GMT
02:18
01:23
Trump says education has been “taken over by the bureaucrats in Washington” and they are not interested in what’s happening in Miami or Florida.
Early Virgin Islands returns indicate unattached delegates headed for convention
2.17am GMT
Ben Jacobs
02:17
Initial returns from the Republican convention in the Virgin Islands indicate even more uncertainty in the GOP’s presidential primary, writes Guardian politics reporter Ben Jacobs from Washington, DC:
Trump announces Carson endorsement
With results in from the island of St. Thomas, initial numbers show a lead for three unpledged delegates as well as two pledged to Ted Cruz and one pledged to Donald Trump.
This is a bran-flakes dry debate so far, in comparison with the sloppy recents.
The limited electorate on the U.S. Virgin Islands, which will select six of the 2473 delegates to July’s Republican National Convention in Cleveland, is composed of residents of the islands of St. Croix and St. Thomas. The results from the more populous St. Croix are not yet in.
Then Trump drops an exciting point:
However, initial results made available to the Guardian showed that three of the six top vote getters in the Virgin Islands’ caucus are unpledged to any candidate. This means that these delegates are free to support any candidate they choose on the first ballot. In a potential contested convention, this means that these delegates have disproportionate influence as they would not be tied to any candidate on the first ballot.
“I was with Dr Ben Carson today, who is endorsing me by the way tomorrow morning.”
Further, Rule 40b of the Republican Party currently states that candidates need to win the support of a majority of the delegations in eight different states or territories to have their name placed into nomination at a convention.
2.16am GMT
Party insiders have long assumed that the rule, implemented solely to block Ron Paul’s name from being placed into nomination in 2012, would be modified before the 2016 convention. However, if that doesn’t happen, unpledged delegates, combined with the territory’s three RNC members, would be able to form a majority of Virgin Islands’ delegation. This means they could potentially serve as one of the eight states needed for a candidate to have their name placed into nomination.
02:16
Updated
Cruz jumps in. He’s asked how many new permanent legal immigrants and guest workers should be in the United States. Instead of answering, he talks about punishing sanctuary cities and attacks the Democrats.
at 1.25am GMT
“We need instead leadership that works for the working men and women of this country,” Cruz says.
1.15am GMT
Rubio says he is “grateful every day that America welcomed” his father, but 60 years later, the primary criteria for bringing someone from abroad should be what skills do you have, what can you contribute.
01:15
2.14am GMT
Here’s video documenting the other headline violence today at a Trump rally. Last night a white Trump supporter sucker-punched a black protester at a rally in North Carolina. The puncher, John McGraw, said he thought the protester, Rakeem Jones, might have been a member of Isis.
02:14
“The next time we see him, we might have to kill him,” McGraw told Inside Edition. “We don’t know who he is. He might be with a terrorist organization.”
Trump takes the H1-B question. “That’s something that I frankly use, and we shouldn’t be allowed to use, it’s very bad for workers.”
“The police jumped on me like I was the one swinging,” Rakeem Jones, the protester, said. “It’s just shocking … I was basically in police custody and got hit.” The alleged puncher, John McGraw, was charged with assault and battery.
But, “I’m a businessman, and we have to do what we have to do.”
Updated
There’s a smattering of applause for Trump’s this-is-terrible-but-the-profit-motive-ties-my-hands argument.
at 1.18am GMT
Trump makes the bell with a full 95-second response.
1.08am GMT
01:08
CNN is advertising the debate as moments away. It’s more like a half hour, at the earliest.
Commenters: What should we talk about meanwhile? The Carson Trump endorsement? Or Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski – who denied today that he had physically aggressed a reporter, and then attempted to assassinate that reporter’s character by calling her an “attention seeker.”
This despite an audio recording, a photo of her bruises and an authoritative witness account.
Here’s an audio recording, first obtained by Politico, of a conversation between the reporter in question, Breitbart’s Michelle Fields, and colleague Ben Terris of the Washington Post, following the incident:
Here’s a picture Fields tweeted of her bruises following a Trump campaign statement that the allegation was “completely false”:
I guess these just magically appeared on me @CLewandowski_ @realDonaldTrump. So weird. pic.twitter.com/oD8c4D7tw3
And here’s a bit of how Lewandowski himself responded on Twitter:
Michelle Fields is an attention seeker who once claimed Allen West groped her but later went silent. https://t.co/J86Ej42eYx
Updated
at 1.10am GMT
1.01am GMT
01:01
Red indicates counties where Trump was the most-searched candidate on Google in the last week. Both most-famous and most-searched – that’s traction:
A wall display at the Republican debate in Miami reveals the Trump obsessed nation. Room to flee in Alaska though. pic.twitter.com/5SrV65BdsK
12.55am GMT
00:55
Former top Carson operative: 'a lot of Dr. Carson fans will be heartbroken' by endorsement of Trump
Terry Giles, an old Ben Carson friend through the Horatio Alger Association who was instrumental to building Carson’s campaign and fundraising operations before being sidelined last fall in internal campaign disputes, said in a statement mailed to the Guardian that he was “completely surprised and disappointed” at the news that Carson planned endorsement of Trump.
“Let’s hope it is just a bad rumor, otherwise a lot of Dr. Carson fans will be heartbroken,” Giles said. Here’s his full statement:
I am completely surprised and disappointed--if it is true. If so, it sounds like a typical political move where Mr. Trump was the highest bidder. It certainly cannot be because Ben and Donald are in alignment on the issues, politically or spiritually. Let’s hope it is just a bad rumor, otherwise a lot of Dr. Carson fans will be heartbroken.”
With Ben Carson wanting to hit his mother on head with a hammer, stab a friend and Pyramids built for grain storage - don't people get it?
Updated
at 1.02am GMT
12.15am GMT
00:15
Hello, and welcome …
… to our live-wire coverage of the 12th Republican debate in the 2016 race for the White House.
This race feels like it’s about to change, a lot. If Donald Trump dominates voting this coming Tuesday – some 350 delegates are at stake in five big states, including the home states of two Trump rivals – the nomination could effectively be his.
The job of the three candidates onstage with Trump tonight – senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio and Ohio governor John Kasich – is to try to make something happen that could dampen Trump’s prospects in Ohio, Florida and elsewhere.
Anyone who doubts on principle that it could happen might talk to Rubio about his collapse in support after New Jersey governor Chris Christie torched him at a New Hampshire debate last month.
On the other hand, Trump’s rivals have been trying to knock him off balance for months, and that hasn’t worked.
Guardian Washington bureau chief Dan Roberts and politics reporter Sabrina Siddiqui are at the scene of the debate at the University of Miami. We’ll have comment along the way from bright lights Megan Carpentier, Lucia Graves and Jeb Lund.
Host network CNN says it will start at 8.30pm ET but they’ve been known to fib about start times to lure viewers for longer. Tsk, tsk.
Last time we did this, just one week ago, Rubio and Cruz tag-teamed Trump while Kasich tried to score points as the one above the fray. Then Rubio failed to win a single delegate in voting this past Tuesday, and said he regretted having indulged in Trump-style insult artistry. Cruz won in Idaho and did not express any such regret.
Carson to endorse Trump
There’s some breaking news as we go to press: retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who dropped out of the race last Friday, will endorse Trump in an appearance in Florida tomorrow.
The pair haven’t always been simpatico. In a riff once on Carson’s description of his childhood temper as “pathological”, Trump drew a child molester comparison. Water under the bridge now, it appears.
Ben Carson should lend some coherence to Trump's policy prescriptions.https://t.co/oDumnIDmec
Thanks a lot for joining us this evening, and as always, please pitch in in the comments with who you think is up, who’s down and who’s next on the way out. Twelfth time’s a charm!
