The Republican presidential candidates debate tonight in North Charleston, South Carolina less than three weeks before the Iowa caucuses.
Carly Fiorina, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum will participate in the undercard debate, which starts at 6 PM EST on Fox Business Network. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) was bumped from the main even and will boycott the debate.
Donald Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Ben Carson, Jeb Bush, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Ohio Governor John Kasich will be in the main event.
Cruz and Trump are in a dead heat in Iowa. And both need to be careful to not alienate potential crossover supporters in the debate if they attack the other. Trump has raised the issue of whether Cruz is a “natural-born citizen” who is qualified to be President and Cruz has the chance to put the issue to rest on the national state. Cruz has been attacking Trump’s “New York values,” and it will be interesting to see whether Cruz goes for a knockout punch, which could also leave himself open to a counterpunch that could KO him, against Trump. Cruz needs to win Iowa in order to have as much momentum as possible going into the “SEC primary.” Cruz’s organization in the South puts him in a strong position to do well, but he needs to still be viable by then. Though Trump has a huge lead in New Hampshire, one can argue that it makes complete sense for his campaign to go all-in in Iowa and seek to effectively end the GOP primary with a big win there.
Messrs. Bush, Christie, Kasich, and Rubio are battling in New Hampshire to emerge as the trying to emerge as the establishment’s anti-Trump/Cruz alternative. And they may focus less on the frontrunners and more on highlighting their differences. Carson, who has faded after being at the top of the polls and whose campaign is on the ropes, must save his candidacy and needs a moment in this debate that will allow him to do so.
Because there are fewer candidates on stage, viewers may finally get a much more substantive debate/discussion devoid of much of the “freak show” elements of politics.
Trish Regan and Sandra Smith will moderate the undercard debate. Neil Cavuto and Maria Bartiromo will moderate the main event.
Stay tuned to Breitbart News for live updates.
6:38: Santorum is asked about how vulnerable America’s infrastructure is to terrorism. Santorum warns against electromagnetic pulse attacks and he says the best way to prevent that from happening is to make sure Iran doesn’t get a nuclear weapon so they can’t explode a device over out atmosphere. He says Obama has put Iran on a path toward a nuclear weapon while America has done nothing to harden our electric grid so American can survive an EMP attack.
6:35: Huckabee: Obama More Interested in ‘Protecting the Reputation and Image of Islam than He Is in Protecting Us.”
Huckabee says it’s time to look at America’s visa-waiver program. He points out that the European Union is a failure and is making Europe less safe. He says our first and foremost responsibility is to protect America and Americans and he says Obama who seems to be more interested in protecting the reputation and image of Islam than he is in protecting us.”
He says Obama needs to read his own FBI crime stats that say that 58% of religious hate crimes have been directed toward Jews last year while 16% were directed towards Muslims. He says maybe Obama should have spoken out against the the rise of anti-Semitic comments.
Huckabee says a slowed-down commerce that makes America more safe is worth it re: stopping the visa-waiver program.
He blasts Obama for promising Americans they can keep their doctors and insurance plans.
He says the latest is “if you like your gun, you can keep it, too. And frankly, we don’t buy it. We don’t believe it. He’s lost his credibility.”
6:31: Huckabee is asked if there is anything that can be done at the federal level to prevent guns from falling into the hands of criminals. He says the government should never do anything “idiotic” like “Fast and Furious” where the U.S. government put guns in the hands of Mexican drug lords that resulted in the death of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry.
Huckabee says there is no “gun-show loophole” and he blasts Obama for saying it is “easier to get guns than groceries.” He says it is much more difficult to purchase firearms than to get ingredients for a salad at the grocery store. Huckabee says Obama keeps retrying things that don’t work on gun violence and says that one common thing re: the mass shootings is that they happened in gun-free zones. And people who could have stood up and tried to stop the attacks were not allowed to under the law.
6:28: Fiorina is asked about Obama’s executive orders on gun control. She blasts Obama’s “lawless executive order” and says Obama is again trying to unilaterally override what he could not get passed in Congress.
“Sorry, Mr. President. Not the way the Constitution works,” she says.
Fiorina says we need to enforce the laws we have. She then takes the technology question that Santorum was asked. She says bureaucracies do not know how to innovate and there are specific things the private sector should be asked to do to help the government since it has the capabilities the government does not have.
She also says America must have a president who understands technology.
“Mrs. Clinton, you cannot wipe a server with a towel,” she says.
6:25: Santorum says a lot of technologists are very skilled but they are not “war fighters.” He says America need more leadership on how to go on the offensive against our enemies online. He says America’s enemies who launch cyberattacks are not punished. He says it is dicey for government to force companies like Facebook/Twitter to do the job that the U.S. government should be doing.
It’s interesting that so much of the “economic debate” has centered around foreign policy. If the questions focus more on the economy, I wonder if any of the candidates will mention the late, great Roger Milliken, who always put American workers first, especially since the debate is taking place in South Carolina.
6:18: Fiorina is asked about the savages who raped gang-raped German women on New Year’s Eve. Many of the perpetrators were asylum seekers, and she says “we cannot allow refugees to enter this country unless we can adequately vet them, and we know we can’t; therefore, we should stop allowing refugees in this country.”
Differentiating herself from Nikki Haley, Fiorina also says we do not need to be lectured about why we are angry/frustrated because we’ve had an illegal immigration problem for the last 25 years. She says Americans also have a right to be angry at politicians who promise change and never fulfill them.
6:13: Huckabee says radical Islam is a threat to “every civilized person on this earth.” He says we need to be equipping the Kurds and never spend a drop of American blood unless there is a clearly defined goal. He speaks about rebuilding our Navy and strengthening the military to win wars.
When Huckabee is asked whether America needs to be in Afghanistan, he says only if there is a concerted effort to destroy radical Islamists who are intent on destroying America. He says the role of the U.S. military is not to build schools but to kill our enemies and make Americans safe.
6:10: Santorum is asked about Saudi Arabia/Iran relations. Santorum says the Iran Deal needs to be torn up on the first day of the new presidency. He says that Iran has already torn up the agreement and has already violated the terms of the agreement by launching ballistic missiles. He says it is “pathetic” that Obama backed down on Iran sanctions. Santorum asks the Citadel cadets to stand and says he wants to tell each one of them if you choose to serve this country, “I will have your back. I will not let America be trampled upon anymore by these radical Jihadists.”
6:08: Fiorina says America has refused to respond to Iran’s provocations and those of North Korea. She says we’ll get more provocation and bad behavior if America continues to ignore bad behavior from its adversaries.
6:02 PM EST: Candidates are asked about their assessment of the economy.
Fiorina says she is honored to be standing with two former Iowa caucus winners. Fiorina says, unlike another woman in the race, “I actually do love spending time with my husband.”
Huckabee says President Barack Obama should have stood in line at the layaway counter and with those who clean his campaign headquarters in Arkansas to find out that there are a lot of people hurting in his economy.
Santorum says Obama needs to listen to the Democratic debate to find out how bad the economy is doing. He says Democrats have been in control for the last seven years and the jobs that “fill the middle” have been lost under Obama/Democrats.
No matter how hard Fiorina tries to frame herself as the “outsider” politician who will shake up the system, voters just aren’t buying it. They get the sense that she has “establishment”/”politician” written all over her. Her ridiculous Rose Bowl Tweet rooting against her alma mater in favor of Iowa, a football team she may have never even followed, just reinforced the suspicious voters have about her.
5:59 PM EST: Huckabee, Fiorina, and Santorum take the stage. Paul is absent, and he may regret it as he would have finally had the time to articulate his libertarian-leaning views on government surveillance and foreign policy and how they differ from those of his opponents. Paul missed a chance weeks before voters start going to the polls to get some crucial soundbites.
Comment count on this article reflects comments made on Breitbart.com and Facebook. Visit Breitbart's Facebook Page.