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| Republicans line up for first 2016 primary debate – live updates | Republicans line up for first 2016 primary debate – live updates |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| 5.52pm ET22:52 | |
| Iran questions! The first to Perry, about whether the US should align itself with Iran or Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other countries who have funded violent groups aroun the Middle East. | |
| Easy peasy, Perry says: “the side that keeps Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, that’s the side that we need to be on, and that’s the side of most of the Middle East.” | |
| Perry offers a strange couple of shouts to Fiorina and Graham, saying that the former would’ve made a better diplomatic negotiator than John Kerry, and that Graham is on the right side of the argument. | |
| “The first thing I’ll do is tear up that agreement with Iran.” | |
| Fiorina gets the question next, saying that “on day one” in the Oval Office she would call up Israel’s prime minister – “my good friend Bibi Netanyahu” – and the second to Iran with hardline inspection demands. | |
| 5.51pm ET22:51 | |
| Lindsey Graham normally cracks a joke every other sentence. Tonight, the three-term South Carolina senator is coming across as far more monotone and sober than usual. It feels like he’s been coached to seem far more of a generic politician than the Senate’s king of one liners. | |
| The candidate who makes cracks about being willing to show up to bar mitzvahs on the campaign trail and is a fixture on Sunday shows seems uncomfortable and awkward on stage tonight. Even his attack lines on Bill Clinton lost their edge. A line that referenced Graham’s fluency in “Clinton-speak” which was used to reference Monica Lewinsky in the New Hampshire forum Monday tonight had the edge taken off it on Thursday. | |
| —Ben Jacobs | |
| Updated at 5.52pm ET | |
| 5.51pm ET22:51 | |
| Jeb Lund | |
| It’s important to remember that while those of us covering these folks have heard all their zingers a half-dozen times already, most people watching this debate – and the main event – have not. | |
| So, for example, as groan-worthy as it is for political beat reporters to hear Lindsey Graham say that he’s learned how to speak Clinton over the last 20 years and words mean whatever they want and that Bill decides what “the meaning of ‘is’ is”, it’s still a pretty good zinger for the target audience. | |
| Ditto Rick Perry’s repetition about the border. Ditto Bobby Jindal saying, “They’re turning the American Dream into the European Nightmare” and “give Bernie Sanders credit for calling himself a socialist”. These are winners with primary voters, even if politics wonks might recognize them as days or thousands of years old already. | |
| 5.44pm ET22:44 | |
| Trying to get the candidates to answer questions is like drawing blood from the proverbial stone, the moderators are finding. | |
| Jindal finally answers a yes-or-no question when one of the moderators simply tells him he failed to answer it in the time he had. (Jindal says he wouldn’t expand Medicaid anywhere, unlike Ohio governor John Kasich.) | |
| 5.43pm ET22:43 | |
| FYI Senator Lindsey Graham is standing on a box right now #GOPDebate pic.twitter.com/GtIzZyc8fm | |
| Lindsey Graham took a shot at the “I’m not a scientist” crowd that constitutes most Republican presidential candidates. | |
| The South Carolina senator is one of the few Republicans who openly acknowledges that greenhouse gas emissions are contributing to global warming. Graham was asked to defend his work with Democrats and the Obama administration on legislation to address climate change, and how conservatives can trust his record on an issue that remains deeply unpopular with the Republican base. | |
| Invoking a hypothetical matchup between himself and the Democratic frontrunner, Graham said: | |
| You can trust me to do the following – that when I get on the stage with Hillary Clinton, we won’t be debating about the science, but about the solutions. | |
| In her world, cap-and-trade would dominate. That will destroy the economy in the name of helping the environment. In my world we’ll focus on energy independence and a clean environment. When it comes to fossil fuels, we’re going to find more here and use less. Over time we’re going to become energy independent. | |
| I am tired of sending $300bn overseas to buy oil from people who hate our guts. The choice between a weak economy and a strong environment is a false choice. That is not the choice I’ll offer America. | |
| Graham’s views on climate change put him in a minority of Republican candidates willing to embrace the role played by human activity in the warming of the planet. George Pataki, the former New York governor who also took part in the debate of low-tier candidates, has also acknowledged the science behind climate change.Graham has often argued that tackling climate change is critical to national security and energy independence, and would boost job creation in the United States. But his record is somewhat mixed – the senator worked on legislation with Democrats in the Senate in 2009 and 2010 to try and carve out a solution, but he ultimately abandoned the effort. | |
| And then there was this, comparing himself later in the runners-up debate to Clinton, but emphasizing his differences in energy policy: | |
| She’s not going to build a Keystone pipeline. I will. | |
| Graham has nonetheless been supported by some environmental groups. Most of his rivals, on the other hand, have been routinely hammered by environmentalists and Democrats for refusing to accept the science behind climate change – in large part because of the donations they receive from oil and gas companies. | |
| —Sabrina Siddiqui | |
| Updated at 5.45pm ET | |
| 5.41pm ET22:41 | |
| Graham is asked about the economy: “I think Americans are dying to work, you just need to give them a chance.” | |
| He then turns the whole the answer into a diatribe against Hillary Clinton, saying if Americans want work, “don’t vote for Hillary Clinton, you’re not going to get it. She’s not going to rebuild Obamacare and replace it, I will. She’s not going to build the Keystone pipeline, I will.” | |
| “I’m fluent in Clinton-speak, I’ve been doing this for 20 years.” | |
| Graham’s getting animated, and a ding interrupts him as he runs out of time. | |
| Santorum fields a question about whether Americans are too dependent on public benefits. He touts his record as a freshman senator (he only served one term) and then talks at length and without substance about making America “a manufacturing juggernaut.” | |
| Gilmore then talks about removing “the death tax”, stripping away regulations, and making the economy “explode”, which sounds more ominous than he likely meant. | |
| 5.34pm ET22:34 | |
| Santorum is asked about immigration. He spatters out a rambling, fairly insubstantial answer about his Italian immigrant father, about reform, and about how“we’re going to be different.” | |
| Perry doesn’t want to hear it. “Here’s the interesting position on this. Americans are tired of hearing” about immigration, he says. | |
| Why reform when you can shut it down, is Perry’s gist. He says he’ll throw in “strategic fencing”, 24/7 “aviation assets” that will fly “all the way from Tijuana”. He wants to know what everyone’s doing at the border, all the time. | |
| No one mentions how well the strategy worked out in cold war Berlin or seventh-century China. The moderators cut to commercial with an electrifying promise to talk about the economy after the break. | |
| 5.28pm ET22:28 | |
| Asked about cybersecurity and the balance of national security and privacy, Fiorina for her part says: “I do not believe we have to wholesale destroy every American citizens’ privacy.” | |
| She then recommends closer cooperation between the government and private tech companies – suggestions that sound awfully close to recent pitches from the Obama administration. | |
| Updated at 5.29pm ET | |
| 5.28pm ET22:28 | |
| Jeb Lund | |
| It’s worth noting that, even though the moderators’ questions are playing to the candidates’ schtick a bit more now (“Governor Jindal, Senator Graham, tell us about Islamic terror and why it’s bad”), the first battery was, essentially, “Tell us why you’re not forgettable.” | |
| Or as Matt Pearce of the LA Times put it: | |
| FOX NEWS REPUBLICAN DEBATE MODERATOR: You're terrible. Why are you terrible? CANDIDATE: We can make America great again. | |
| The degree to which each candidate was asked to dispute his or her irrelevancy only increased as we went from right to left across the state, ending with former Governor Gilmore, who was asked whether Rory should have wound up with Dean, Jess or Logan. | |
| (He said Logan, and he’s wrong. It’s Jess. It’s always Jess.) | |
| 5.27pm ET22:27 | |
| Pataki also takes a question about fighting terrorism. He opens by comparing radical preaching to ”shouting fire in a crowded theater” and says that “that is not protected speech”. (Not the best example.) | |
| He says he would “shut down” preaching in prisons or mosques if it encouraged “violence against Americans”. | |
| He then goes on to say that “we have got to destroy their training camps over there,” but doesn’t say how the US could root out such centers in Syria, for instance, where civil war has decimated the country and the US has extraordinarily little influence. | |
| Updated at 5.28pm ET | |
| 5.21pm ET22:21 | |
| A bit of context for the attention paid to “the elephant not in the room”, as a Fox moderator put it. | |
| Trump's not even in this debate and he's the top target #GOPDebate pic.twitter.com/bO8HWO9fBy | |
| 5.21pm ET22:21 | |
| Adam Gabbatt | |
| Independent Journal Review, a sort of rightwing Upworthy or Buzzfeed, has been getting some great access to Republican candidates. First they filmed Lindsay Graham destroying his Donald-Trump-compromised cell phone. Then they brought us Ted Cruz cooking “machine gun bacon”. Now, they bring us the pre-debate rituals of the GOP hopefuls. | |
| Scott Walker goes running. Carly Fiorina, who obviously won’t actually be in the proper debate tonight, plays solitaire. Jeb Bush says that he calls his mom. But really it’s just a set-up for this joke: “Hey mom! I can’t say that on television!” | |
| Maybe Barbara advised him to talk in sensible terms about immigration. | |
| 5.21pm ET22:21 | |
| The moderators toss out a question about Isis and the threat of international terrorism. Jindal dodges it and accuses the president of betraying America with incorrect nomenclature. He says he, at least, will call Isis a group of “Islamic terror”. | |
| Lindsey Graham is willing to go much, much further. He calls for ground troops in Iraq, and says that as president he would be willing to wage war for as long as necessary and at whatever cost in order to destroy Isis. | |
| 5.20pm ET22:20 | |
| Jeb Lund | |
| As I wrote earlier this week, all these candidates have so little time given the structure of these debates that nobody has much room or even incentive to get away from their stump speeches. | |
| And it appears – at least heading into this first medical-catheter ad break – that Fox’s moderators are playing to the candidates’ strengths and the core of their stumps. | |
| So, as shallow as it seems to focus on appearance and delivery, that may be the thin margin on which these candidates can win: A couple zingers can make a lot of difference for one person so long as he or she also sticks to the script, and the hoary cliché of “charisma” might be enough. | |
| Rick Perry came out flat (for him), Carly Fiorina was familiarly meticulous and sort of flatlined, Lindsey Graham fumbled through his reply, and even Jim Gilmore seems to be treating himself as an afterthought. | |
| But Rick Santorum was sharp and effortless, and Bobby Jindal is reclaiming the old praise he used to get for sounding like a smart guy. That could be all they need. | |
| Related: The secret to gaffe-free Republican debates: limit their speaking time | Jeb Lund | |
| 5.17pm ET22:17 | 5.17pm ET22:17 |
| Asked about Donald Trump, Rick Perry dives into a long diatribe about how the billionaire uses “his celebrity rather than his conservatism”. | Asked about Donald Trump, Rick Perry dives into a long diatribe about how the billionaire uses “his celebrity rather than his conservatism”. |
| Perry turns his answer into one about immigration – the issue that in part rocketed Trump to the top of the polls. | Perry turns his answer into one about immigration – the issue that in part rocketed Trump to the top of the polls. |
| “Nobody has done more,” Perry says “to deal with securing that border.” He says he’s sent “Texas ranger recon teams” and the national guard, but does not mention whether Chuck Norris took part in patrols. | “Nobody has done more,” Perry says “to deal with securing that border.” He says he’s sent “Texas ranger recon teams” and the national guard, but does not mention whether Chuck Norris took part in patrols. |
| He adds that he looked Obama in the eye and said, “Mr. president, if you won’t secure the border, Texas will.” | He adds that he looked Obama in the eye and said, “Mr. president, if you won’t secure the border, Texas will.” |
| “We need a president that doesn’t just talk a game but a president that gets results!” | “We need a president that doesn’t just talk a game but a president that gets results!” |
| The Fox moderator gives him something of a blank look. “All right,” she says. | The Fox moderator gives him something of a blank look. “All right,” she says. |
| Carly Fiorina meanwhile says about Trump’s lead: “good for him” | Carly Fiorina meanwhile says about Trump’s lead: “good for him” |
| “I think he’s tapped into an anger that people feel,” she says “The political class has failed you and that’s just a fact.” | “I think he’s tapped into an anger that people feel,” she says “The political class has failed you and that’s just a fact.” |
| 5.12pm ET22:12 | 5.12pm ET22:12 |
| Asked about “new blood” in politics by the moderators, New York governor George Pataki offers an astoundingly milquetoast speech about bringing people together. In retrospect, it’s not clear whether he said an actual sentence at all. | Asked about “new blood” in politics by the moderators, New York governor George Pataki offers an astoundingly milquetoast speech about bringing people together. In retrospect, it’s not clear whether he said an actual sentence at all. |
| Then former Virginia governor Jim Gilmore introduces himself, forgettably. | Then former Virginia governor Jim Gilmore introduces himself, forgettably. |
| 5.10pm ET22:10 | 5.10pm ET22:10 |
| 5.10pm ET22:10 | 5.10pm ET22:10 |
| South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham fields a question about climate change with a slow, rather awkward response – he’s visibly nervous, despite innumerable performances on cable shows and several happy ripostes to Donald Trump in recent weeks. | South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham fields a question about climate change with a slow, rather awkward response – he’s visibly nervous, despite innumerable performances on cable shows and several happy ripostes to Donald Trump in recent weeks. |
| As for the question, Graham says that Hillary Clinton will “destroy the economy” with her ideas about climate change. “In her world, cap and trade will dominate,” he says. “When it comes to fossil fuels, we will find more here and use less.” | As for the question, Graham says that Hillary Clinton will “destroy the economy” with her ideas about climate change. “In her world, cap and trade will dominate,” he says. “When it comes to fossil fuels, we will find more here and use less.” |
| 5.07pm ET22:07 | 5.07pm ET22:07 |
| A question to Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal notes that he’s floundering in the polls. | A question to Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal notes that he’s floundering in the polls. |
| Jindal doesn’t deny it, and rattles off an answer thanking the Fox News host for being kind enough to let him on camera. | Jindal doesn’t deny it, and rattles off an answer thanking the Fox News host for being kind enough to let him on camera. |
| “I think the American people are looking for real leadership, and that’s what I’ve done for Louisiana, and that’s what I’ll do for America,” he says. | “I think the American people are looking for real leadership, and that’s what I’ve done for Louisiana, and that’s what I’ll do for America,” he says. |
| 5.06pm ET22:06 | 5.06pm ET22:06 |
| The next question is for Carly Fiorina, the former CEO of Hewlett Packard. | The next question is for Carly Fiorina, the former CEO of Hewlett Packard. |
| “I think to be commander-in-chief in the 21st century requires someone who understands how the economy works,” she says, mixing up the president’s military authorities with the office’s few powers over the economy. | “I think to be commander-in-chief in the 21st century requires someone who understands how the economy works,” she says, mixing up the president’s military authorities with the office’s few powers over the economy. |
| Nonetheless, Fiorina continues, she “understands bureaucracies” and “technology”, and she insists that’s enough. | Nonetheless, Fiorina continues, she “understands bureaucracies” and “technology”, and she insists that’s enough. |
| Updated at 5.07pm ET | Updated at 5.07pm ET |
| 5.03pm ET22:03 | 5.03pm ET22:03 |
| First question goes to Rick Perry, asking him why voters should trust him when, four years ago, he couldn’t remember the name of a government agency he wanted to abolish. | First question goes to Rick Perry, asking him why voters should trust him when, four years ago, he couldn’t remember the name of a government agency he wanted to abolish. |
| After those four years of looking back and being prepared, the preparation to be the most powerful individual in the world requires an extraordinary amount of work. Not just having been the governor of the 12th largest economy in the world. | After those four years of looking back and being prepared, the preparation to be the most powerful individual in the world requires an extraordinary amount of work. Not just having been the governor of the 12th largest economy in the world. |
| He talks up his jobs record, and runs far away saying what he might actually do as president. | He talks up his jobs record, and runs far away saying what he might actually do as president. |
| Updated at 5.04pm ET | Updated at 5.04pm ET |
| 5.02pm ET22:02 | 5.02pm ET22:02 |
| Jeb Lund | Jeb Lund |
| The candidates are making statements just by how they arrive, and it’s very exciting. Trump, naturally, has his own plane, the TRUMP plane. Carly Fiorina has the one she shipped tens of thousands of jobs overseas with. Rand Paul is arriving in a train made of Rearden steel. Rick Santorum is pulling up to the front in a buckboard driven by Foster Freiss. And Ted Cruz is descending in a beautiful, fanciful blimp made of sewn-together Constitutions and inflated by him delivering just one speech into it. It was about America. That’s what it’s about tonight, folks, it’s about America. | The candidates are making statements just by how they arrive, and it’s very exciting. Trump, naturally, has his own plane, the TRUMP plane. Carly Fiorina has the one she shipped tens of thousands of jobs overseas with. Rand Paul is arriving in a train made of Rearden steel. Rick Santorum is pulling up to the front in a buckboard driven by Foster Freiss. And Ted Cruz is descending in a beautiful, fanciful blimp made of sewn-together Constitutions and inflated by him delivering just one speech into it. It was about America. That’s what it’s about tonight, folks, it’s about America. |
| Seriously, though, the Trump jet is perfect. | Seriously, though, the Trump jet is perfect. |
| Updated at 5.03pm ET | Updated at 5.03pm ET |
| 5.01pm ET22:01 | 5.01pm ET22:01 |
| Consolation debate begins! | Consolation debate begins! |
| Live in the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, the seven candidates who failed to make it into the main debate are at their podiums and smiling painfully into the glare of camera lights as the Fox moderators introduce them. | Live in the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, the seven candidates who failed to make it into the main debate are at their podiums and smiling painfully into the glare of camera lights as the Fox moderators introduce them. |
| Each will have a minute to answer a question and 30-second rebuttal opportunities. | Each will have a minute to answer a question and 30-second rebuttal opportunities. |
| 4.51pm ET21:51 | 4.51pm ET21:51 |
| A spokesperson for Kentucky senator Rand Paul has found a bit of distinctive flair lying around a Cleveland hotel. My colleague Paul Lewis suspects that someone might get fired for the slip up… | A spokesperson for Kentucky senator Rand Paul has found a bit of distinctive flair lying around a Cleveland hotel. My colleague Paul Lewis suspects that someone might get fired for the slip up… |
| Someone left their closing statement for tonight's @FoxNews debate in the hotel printer.Can you guess who?@LaCivitaC pic.twitter.com/p6rWhnFGAU | Someone left their closing statement for tonight's @FoxNews debate in the hotel printer.Can you guess who?@LaCivitaC pic.twitter.com/p6rWhnFGAU |
| The man of the hour himself meanwhile has just landed and disembarked off his charter jet in typically voluble fashion. | The man of the hour himself meanwhile has just landed and disembarked off his charter jet in typically voluble fashion. |
| 4.40pm ET21:40 | 4.40pm ET21:40 |
| Welcome to our live coverage of the first debates in the race to become the 2016 Republican nominee for president. Donald Trump will stand center stage at the main event in Cleveland next to Jeb Bush, Scott Walker and seven other Republicans eager to look good in front of American voters – or at least eager to avoid humiliating mistakes, awkward moments and the wrath of a certain billionaire. | Welcome to our live coverage of the first debates in the race to become the 2016 Republican nominee for president. Donald Trump will stand center stage at the main event in Cleveland next to Jeb Bush, Scott Walker and seven other Republicans eager to look good in front of American voters – or at least eager to avoid humiliating mistakes, awkward moments and the wrath of a certain billionaire. |
| The debate, scheduled by Fox News for 9pm ET, will follow an early debate for the candidates who failed to break into the top 10 of national polls – the kids’ table contenders of the primary election so far. | The debate, scheduled by Fox News for 9pm ET, will follow an early debate for the candidates who failed to break into the top 10 of national polls – the kids’ table contenders of the primary election so far. |
| The main debate will feature Trump, former Florida governor Bush, Wisconsin governor Walker, senators Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Marco Rubio, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, Ohio governor John Kasich and New Jersey governor Chris Christie. | The main debate will feature Trump, former Florida governor Bush, Wisconsin governor Walker, senators Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Marco Rubio, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, Ohio governor John Kasich and New Jersey governor Chris Christie. |
| The early debate includes South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham, Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal, former governor Rick Perry, former CEO Carly Fiorina, former governor George Pataki, former senator Rick Santorum and former governor Jim Gilmore. | The early debate includes South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham, Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal, former governor Rick Perry, former CEO Carly Fiorina, former governor George Pataki, former senator Rick Santorum and former governor Jim Gilmore. |
| Follow along for updates on every the quips, blunders and bombast, analysis on the bouts from Guardian reporters and columnists, and reporting from Cleveland by my colleague Paul Lewis (@paullewis). | Follow along for updates on every the quips, blunders and bombast, analysis on the bouts from Guardian reporters and columnists, and reporting from Cleveland by my colleague Paul Lewis (@paullewis). |