Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing - January 15, 2016
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Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential Briefing was sponsored by the Leadership Project for America. | ||||
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Friday's Leading Stories
- On Thursday night, the GOP candidates took the stage in Charleston, S.C. for the Fox Business debate. For in-depth analysis of the debate, see what Ballotpedia’s Insiders had to say here. (Ballotpedia)
- In a survey of more than 70 Republican political Insiders surveyed by Ballotpedia, 40 percent thought Marco Rubio was the “biggest winner” of last night's debate. Another 18 percent thought that Jeb Bush earned that distinction. But close behind, 15 percent thought that Trump was the best in show in this first GOP presidential debate of 2016. (Ballotpedia)
- On Friday morning, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) endorsed Jeb Bush. He said, "Last night I heard from Jeb Bush the right answer. He demonstrated somebody in my view who is ready on day one to be commander-in-chief." Graham also commented on why he chose to endorse Bush and not Marco Rubio. He said, "I like Marco. … At 44 I wasn't ready to be president." Graham added that he thinks Rubio will be president someday, just not in 2016. (NBC News)
- According to the Washington Post, “the co-chairs of the Commission on Presidential Debates told ‘The Open Mind’ public television series that they are giving serious thought to the inclusion of a third-party candidate — something that hasn’t happened since 1992, when Ross Perot joined Republican President George H. W. Bush and Democratic nominee Bill Clinton onstage.” Commission co-chair Michael McCurry said, “The dynamic in the electorate right now and the dissatisfaction with the two major political parties could very conceivably allow an independent or a third-party candidate to emerge, and we are very clear that they would be welcome in these debates.” To earn a spot in the debate, a candidate would have to earn 15 percent support in national polls. (Washington Post)
- On Thursday, Hillary Clinton’s campaign accused Bernie Sanders of “going negative” in his new ad, “Two Visions,” which presents two Democratic visions of how to reform Wall Street. When Sanders launched his campaign, he promised he would not run negative ads, and he reiterated that on Thursday night saying, "I have never run a negative radio or television ad in my life. It is my very strong hope that I never will.” Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook said, “We were very surprised today to see that Bernie Sanders had launched a negative television advertisement against Hillary.” Sanders replied, “This is not a negative ad. Everybody knows that there are two visions within the Democratic Party. There is the vision with those people who fought to deregulate Wall Street, who are very tight with Wall Street, and those who fought very hard against that deregulation and want to break up the banks. That is what that ad says. And it clear which side I am on." (ABC News, CNN)
Democrats
Hillary Clinton
- Hillary Clinton tweeted her thoughts during the GOP debate on Thursday night. Here are a few of her tweets: (Bustle)
- “On Supporting Planned Parenthood, the ACA, and Supreme Court justices who will protect Americans' rights? Count on it. #GOPdebate.”
- “Nobody's attacking the Second Amendment. We can protect Americans' rights—and also protect families from gun violence. #GOPdebate.”
- “Comprehensive background checks would ensure those who can responsibly own guns do—and those who can’t, don't. #GOPdebate.”
- On Thursday, Priorities USA, a pro-Clinton outside group, released the ad “Cruz Control.” The ad criticizes Cruz for his stances on Planned Parenthood, Social Security, gun control and foreign policy. The ad reads: "If you think Donald Trump is dangerous. Watch out for Ted Cruz." (CNN)
Martin O’Malley
- Although there was some uncertainty whether Martin O’Malley would meet the criteria for Sunday night’s Democratic debate in Charleston, S.C., NBC announced that he will appear onstage with Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. (USA Today)
- According to the Baltimore Sun, “The Anne Arundel County state's attorney is investigating former Gov. Martin O'Malley's discounted, tax-free purchase last year of taxpayer-owned furniture from the governor's mansion in Annapolis.” O’Malley “paid $9,638 for 54 mansion furnishings that originally cost taxpayers $62,000. The discounted sale was authorized by outgoing O'Malley administration officials after each item had been classified as ‘junk.’” (Baltimore Sun)
Bernie Sanders
- Bernie Sanders’ campaign announced that it “had raised $1.9 million as of Thursday morning, following attacks this week from Clinton and her surrogates.” According to the USA Today, “About 66,000 people have donated to Sanders' presidential campaign since Tuesday afternoon when his camp sent out a fundraising appeal, highlighting Clinton's denunciations of his universal health-care plan.” (USA Today)
- Sanders criticized Republicans for their claims about Social Security during Thursday night’s debate. He tweeted: “Republicans on stage claim Social Security is going broke. They are dead wrong. … Social Security has a $2.8 trillion surplus. It can pay every benefit owed to every eligible American for the next 19 years. ... So, yes, we are going to expand, not cut, Social Security benefits.” (Twitter)
- Former Sen. Paul Kirk (D-Mass.), who also served as Democratic National Committee chairman, endorsed Sanders on Thursday. He commended Sanders for his "outspoken and courageous leadership, his candid and consistent pledge of allegiance to that All-American ideal.” He added, "I am proud to be here to join this 'untiring effort'; and, as a former chairman of the National Democratic Party, to endorse Bernie Sanders for our party’s nomination for President of the United States of America.” (The Hill)
Republicans
- The following comments from last night’s GOP undercard debate and main debate are from transcripts prepared by the Washington Post.
Jeb Bush
- On preventing mass shootings: “The first impulse of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton is to take rights away from law- abiding citizens. That's what they do, whether it's the San Bernardino attack or if it's these tragedies that take place, I think we need to focus on what the bigger issue is. It isn't law-abiding gun owners. Look, I have an A plus rating in the NRA and we also have a reduction in gun violence because in Florida, if you commit a crime with a gun, you're going away. You're going away for a long, long while. And that's what we should focus on is the violence in our communities. Target the efforts for people that are committing crimes with guns, and if you do that, and get it right, you're going to be much better off than creating a political argument where there's a big divide. The other issue is mental health. That's a serious issue that we could work on. Republicans and Democrats alike believe this. The president's first impulse is do this by executive order, power he doesn't have. Why not go to Congress and in a bipartisan way, begin to deal with the process of mental health issues so that people that are spiraling out of control because of mental health challenges don't have access to guns.”
- On restoring the military: “Well, first of all, under President Jeb Bush, we would restore the strength of the military. Last week, Secretary Carter announced that the Navy's going to be cut again. It's now half the size of what it was prior to Operation Desert Storm. The deployments are too high for the military personnel. We don't have procurement being done for refreshing the equipment. The B-52 is still operational as the long range bomber; it was inaugurated in the age of Harry Truman. The planes are older than the pilots. We're gutting our military, and so the Iranians and the Chinese and the Russians and many other countries look at the United States not as serious as we once were. We have to eliminate the sequester, rebuild our military in a way that makes it clear that we're back in the game.”
- On how Trump’s plan to ban Muslims from entering the country would prevent the U.S. from building a coalition to defeat ISIS: “Donald, Donald -- can I -- I hope you reconsider this, because this policy is a policy that makes it impossible to build the coalition necessary to take out ISIS. The Kurds are our strongest allies. They're Muslim. You're not going to even allow them to come to our country? The other Arab countries have a role to play in this. We cannot be the world's policeman. We can't do this unilaterally. We have to do this in unison with the Arab world. And sending that signal makes it impossible for us to be serious about taking out ISIS and restoring democracy in Syria. So I hope you'll reconsider. I hope you'll reconsider. The better way of dealing with this -- the better way of dealing with this is recognizing that there are people in, you know, the -- Islamic terrorists inside, embedded in refugee populations. What we ought to do is tighten up our efforts to deal with the entry visa program so that a citizen from Europe, it's harder if they've been traveling to Syria or traveling to these other places where there is Islamic terrorism, make it harder -- make the screening take place. We don't have to have refugees come to our country, but all Muslims, seriously? What kind of signal does that send to the rest of the world that the United States is a serious player in creating peace and security?”
Ben Carson
- On restoring values and principles in American society:“Well, there's not question that we should be able to look at past president whether they're married to somebody who's running for president or not in terms of their past behavior and what it means. But you know, here's the real issue, is this America anymore? Do we still have standards? Do we still have values and principles? You know, you look at what's going on, you see all the divisiveness and the hatred that goes on in our society. You know, we have a war on virtual everything -- race wars, gender wars, income wars, religious wars, age wars. Every war you can imaging, we have people at each other's throat and our strength is actually in our unity. You know, you go to the internet, you start reading an article and you go to the comments section -- you cannot go five comments down before people are calling each all manner of names. Where did that spirit come from in America? It did not come from our Judeo-Christian roots, I can tell you that. And wherever it came from we need to start once again recognizing that there is such a thing as right and wrong. And let's not let the secular progressives drive that out of us. The majority of people in American actually have values and principles and they believe in the very things that made America great. They've been beaten into submission. It's time for us to stand up for what we believe in.”
- On defeating ISIS: “Well, there's no question that ISIS is a very serious problem, and I don't believe that this administration recognizes how serious it is. I think we need to do a lot more than we're doing. Recognize that the caliphate is what gives them the legitimacy to go out on a jihadist mission, so we need to take that away from them. The way to take that away from them is to talk to our military officials and ask them, "what do you need in order to accomplish this goal?" Our decision is, then, do we give them what we need. I say, yes, not only do we give them what they need, but we don't tie their hands behind their backs so that they can go ahead and get the job done. In addition to that... we go ahead and we take the oil from them, their source of revenue. You know, some of these -- these engagement rules that the administration has -- "we're not going to bomb a tanker that's coming out of there because there might be a person in it" -- give me a break. Just tell them that, you put people in there, we're going to bomb them. So don't put people in there if you don't want them bombed. You know, that's so simple. And then we need to shut down -- we need to shut down their mechanisms of funding and attack their command-and-control centers. Why should we let their people be sitting there smoking their cigars, sitting in their comfortable chairs in Raqqa? We know (ph) to go ahead and shut off the supply routes, and send in our special ops at 2:00 a.m. and attack them everywhere they go. They should be running all the time, then they won't have time to plan attacks against us.”
- On his tax plan: “Well, I would suggest a fair tax system, and that's what we have proposed. A flat tax for everybody -- no exemptions, no deductions, no shelters, because some people have a better capability of taking advantage of those than others. You know, and then the other thing we have to do is stop spending so much money. You know, I -- my -- my mother taught me this. You know, she only had a third-grade education, but -- you know, she knew how to stretch a dollar. I mean, she would drive a car until it wouldn't make a sound, and then gather up all her coins and buy a new car. In fact, if my mother were secretary of treasury, we would not be in a deficit situation. But... you know, the -- the -- the fact of the matter is -- you know, if we fix the taxation system, make it absolutely fair, and get rid of the incredible regulations -- because every regulation is a tax, it's a -- on goods and services. And it's the most regressive tax there is. You know, when you go into the store and buy a box of laundry detergent, and the price has up -- you know, 50 cents because of regulations, a poor person notices that. A rich person does not. Middle class may notice it when they get to the cash register. And everything is costing more money, and we are killing our -- our -- our people like this. And Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton will say it's those evil rich people. It's not the evil rich people. It's the evil government that is -- that is putting all these regulations on us so that we can't survive.”
Chris Christie
- On the use of military force: “Military action, Maria, would be used when it was absolutely necessary to protect American lives and protect American interests around the world. We are not the world's policeman, but we need to stand up and be ready. And the problem, Maria, is that the military is not ready, either. We need to rebuild our military, and this president has let it diminish to a point where tinpot dictators like the mullahs in Iran are taking our Navy ships. It is disgraceful, and in a Christie administration, they would know much, much better than to do that.”
- Responding to attacks from Marco Rubio: “I stood on the stage and watched Marco in rather indignantly, look at Governor Bush and say, someone told you that because we're running for the same office, that criticizing me will get you to that office. It appears that the same someone who has been whispering in old Marco's ear too. So the indignation that you carry on, some of the stuff, you have to also own then. So let's set the facts straight. First of all, I didn't support Sonia Sotomayor. Secondly, I never wrote a check to Planned Parenthood. Third, if you look at my record as governor of New Jersey, I have vetoed a 50-caliber rifle ban. I have vetoed a reduction this clip size. I vetoed a statewide I.D. system for gun owners and I pardoned, six out-of-state folks who came through our state and were arrested for owning a gun legally in another state so they never have to face charges. And on Common Core, Common Core has been eliminated in New Jersey. So listen, this is the difference between being a governor and a senator. See when you're a senator, what you get to do is just talk and talk and talk. And you talk so much that nobody can ever keep up with what you're saying is accurate or not. When you're a governor, you're held accountable for everything you do. And the people of New Jersey, I've seen it.”
- On protecting the Second Amendment: “See, here's the thing. I don't think the founders put the Second Amendment as number two by accident. I don't think they dropped all the amendments into a hat and picked them out of a hat. I think they made the Second Amendment the second amendment because they thought it was just that important. The fact is in New Jersey, what we have done is to make it easier now to get a conceal and carry permit. We have made it easier to do that, not harder. And the way we've done it properly through regulatory action, not buy signing unconstitutional executive orders. This guy is a petulant child. That's what he is.”
Ted Cruz
- On his million dollar Senate campaign loan: “So you know the New York Times and I don't have exactly have the warmest of relationships. Now in terms of their really stunning hit piece, what they mentioned is when I was running for senate -- unlike Hillary Clinton, I don't have masses of money in the bank, hundreds of millions of dollars. When I was running for senate just about every lobbyist, just about all of the establishment opposed me in the senate race in Texas and my opponent in that race was worth over 200 million dollars. He put a 25 million dollar check up from his own pocket to fund that campaign and my wife Heidi and I, we ended up investing everything we owned. We took a loan against our assets to invest it in that campaign to defend ourselves against those attacks. And the entire New York times attack -- is that I disclosed that loan on one filing with the United States Senate, that was a public filing. But it was not on a second filing with FDIC and yes, I made a paperwork error disclosing it on one piece of paper instead of the other. But if that's the best the New York Times has got, they better go back to the well.”
- On whether he is a natural-born citizen: “You know, back in September, my friend Donald said that he had had his lawyers look at this from every which way, and there was no issue there. There was nothing to this birther issue. Now, since September, the Constitution hasn't changed. But the poll numbers have. And I recognize -- I recognize that Donald is dismayed that his poll numbers are falling in Iowa. But the facts and the law here are really quite clear. Under longstanding U.S. law, the child of a U.S. citizen born abroad is a natural-born citizen.”
- On preventing mass shootings and ending violent crime: “You prosecute criminals. You target the bad guys. You know, a minute ago, Neil asked: What has President Obama do -- done to illustrate that he wants to go after guns? Well, he appointed Eric Holder as attorney general. Eric Holder said he viewed his mission as brainwashing the American people against guns. He appointed Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, someone who has been a radical against the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. He launched Fast and Furious, illegally selling guns to Mexican drug lords that were then used to shoot law enforcement officials. And I'll tell you what Hillary Clinton has said: Hillary Clinton says she agrees with the dissenters -- the Supreme Court dissenters in the Heller case. There were four dissenters, and they said that they believe the Second Amendment protects no individual right to keep and bear arms whatsoever, which means, if their view prevailed and the next president's going to get one, two, three, maybe four Supreme Court justices, the court will rule that not a single person in this room has any right under the Second Amendment and the government could confiscate your guns.”
Carly Fiorina
- On the economy: “I'm standing here because I think we have to restore a citizen government in this country. I think we have to end crony capitalism. The crony capitalism that starts with both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. You know, Hillary Clinton sits inside government and rakes in millions, handing out access and favors. And Donald Trump sits outside government and rakes in billions buying people like Hillary Clinton. The state of our economy is not strong. We have record numbers of men out of work. We have record numbers of women living in poverty. We have young people who no longer believe that the American dream applies to them. We have working families whose wages have stagnated for decades, all while the rich get richer, the powerful get more powerful, the wealthy and the well-connected get more connected. Citizens, it's time to take our country back.”
- On President Obama’s executive actions on gun control: “First of all, it is yet another lawless executive order. You see, he doesn't like the fact that Congress has rejected his ideas twice on a bipartisan basis, so he's decided he just gets to override them. Sorry, Mr. President, not the way ‘The Constitution’ works. Secondly, he basically admitted in that speech that he hasn't been paying much attention to enforcing the laws we have. He said, gee, we need a few more FBI agents. That would have helped, perhaps, stop a tragedy here in South Carolina with Dylann Roof, a guy who clearly never should have been sold a gun. In other words, Mr. President, you're right, we need to enforce the laws we have. Let's enforce the laws we have. There are criminals running around with guns who shouldn't have them. We don't prosecute any of them. Less than 1 percent.”
- On the government working with tech companies to fight terrorism: “As CEO of Hewlett Packard, I was asked very specifically for some very real help. The help I was asked to provide, this is now public information. So I am not revealing what -- something that was -- was classified. We had a very large shipment of equipment, software and hardware, headed to a retail outlet. And I was called by the head of the NSA, who had an urgent need for that capability, to begin laying out a program to track terrorists. We turned that truck around on a highway and it was escorted to the headquarters in San Jose. In World War II, our government went to the private sector and said, help us do things that we cannot do. The private sector has capabilities that the government does not have. There are some legal authorities that are required. The Sony attack could have been detected and repelled, had legal authorities been passed in Congress allowing private networks and public networks to work together. Those legal authorities have not yet been passed. Yes, I was asked to help. I know the technology industry. They will help again. But they must be asked by a president who understands what they have.”
Mike Huckabee
- On whether the United States should be in Afghanistan: “Only if there is a concerted effort to destroy the advance of radical Islamists who are against us. As far as what are we going to make it look like. Frankly, I don't know what we can make it look like. You can't create for other people a desire for freedom and democracy. And frankly, that is not the role of the United States. The role of the United States military is not to build schools, it is not to build bridges, it is not to go around and pass out food packets. It is to kill and destroy our enemy and make America safe and that is the purpose we should be there if we're going to be there.”
- On preventing gun violence: “Is there anything that can be done at the federal level to prevent guns from falling into the hands of criminals? Well, why don't we start by making sure the Justice Department never does an idiotic program like Fast and Furious where the U.S. Government put guns .in the hands of Mexican drug lords and end up killing one of our border agents. You know, they want to talk about law abiding citizens, I just find it amazing the President keeps saying the gun show loophole. There is no gun show loophole. I promise you I've been to more gun shows than President Obama. And, I've bought more weapons at them, and you fill out forms. … What the President keeps pushing are ideas that have never worked. … Of course, we want to stop gun violence, but the one common thing that has happened in most mass shootings is that they happened in gun- free zones where people who would have been law abiding citizens, who could have stood up and at least tried to stop it and we're not allowed to under the law.”
- On Social Security: “Well, first of all, let's just remember that Social Security is not the government's money, it belongs to the people who had it taken out of their checks involuntarily their entire working lives. For the government to say, well it is fault of working people that we have a Social Security problem, no. It is the fault of a government that used those people's money for something other than protecting those people's accounts. So let's not blame them and punish them. But here is a fact, and I sometimes hear Republicans say well, we're going to have to cut this and extend the age. You know what I think a lot of times when I hear people say, well, let's make people work to their 70. That sounds great for white-collar people who sat at a desk most of their lives. You ever talk to somebody that stood on concrete floor for the first 40 years of their working life? Do you think they can stand another five years or 10 years, many of them will retired virtually crippled because they worked hard. And we're going to punish them some more? I don't think so. Here's the fact. Four percent economic growth, we fully fund Social Security and Medicare. Our problem is not that Social Security is just too generous to seniors. It isn't. Our problem is that our politicians have not created the kind of policies that would bring economic growth.”
John Kasich
- On job creation: “Look, it takes three things basically to grow jobs. … It's a simple formula: common sense regulations, which is why I think we should freeze all federal regulations for one year, except for health and safety. It requires tax cuts, because that sends a message to the job creators that things are headed the right way. And if you tax cuts -- if you cut taxes for corporations, and you cut taxes for individuals, you're going to make things move, particularly the corporate tax, which is the highest, of course, in the -- in the world. But in addition to that, we have to have fiscal discipline. We have to show that we can march to a balanced budget. And when you do that, when you're in a position of managing regulations; when you reduce taxes; and when you have fiscal discipline, you see the job creators begin to get very comfortable with the fact that they can invest.”
- On Syrian refugees: “I've been for pausing on admitting the Syrian refugees. And the reasons why I've done is I don't believe we have a good process of being able to vet them. But you know, we don't want to put everybody in the same category. And I'll go back to something that had been mentioned just a few minutes ago. If we're going to have a coalition, we're going to have to have a coalition not just of people in the western part of the world, our European allies, but we need the Saudis, we need the Egyptians, we need the Jordanians, we need the Gulf states. We need Jordan. We need all of them to be part of exactly what the first George Bush put together in the first Gulf War. It was a coalition made up of Arabs and Americans and westerners and we're going to need it again. And if we try to put everybody in the same -- call everybody the same thing, we can't do it. And that's just not acceptable. But I think a pause on Syrian refugees has been exactly right for all the governors that have called for it, and also, of course, for me as the governor of Ohio.”
- On free trade: “I'm a free trader. I support NAFTA. I believe in the PTT because it's important those countries in Asia are interfacing against China. And we do need China -- Donald's right about North Korea. I mean the fact is, is that they need to put the pressure on and frankly we need to intercepts ships coming out of North Korea so they don't proliferate all these dangerous materials. But what he's touching -- talking about, I think has got merit. And I'll allow putting that tariff or whatever he's saying here...For too long -- no, for too long, what happens is somebody dumps their product in our country and take our people's jobs, and then we go to an international court and it takes them like a year or two to figure out whether they were cheating us. And guess what? The worker's out of a job. So when they -- be found against that country that's selling products in here lower than the cost of what it takes to produce them, then what do we tell the worker? Oh, well, you know, it just didn't work out for you. I think we should be for free trade but I think fair trade. And when countries violate trade agreements or dump product in this country, we need -- we need to stand up against those countries that do that without making them into an enemy.”
Rand Paul
- Rand Paul’s decision to skip the GOP undercard debate “has resulted in far more airtime and significantly larger audiences than Paul could possibly have hoped for at the Fox Business Network debate,” according to CNN. Instead of focusing on debate prep, Paul has appeared on "The Dr. Oz Show," Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," Fox News, CNN and MSNBC. He has also been on Glenn Beck’s and Laura Ingraham’s radio programs. Commenting on his decision to skip the debate, Paul told CNN's Alisyn Camerota, "People have to realize that what the media is doing here is pre-deciding an election. I have an important voice. What do you think the liberty movement, the liberty voters in the Republican Party, are thinking now? That the Republican Party in league with the media networks is saying we're not going to let the liberty candidate on the stage.” (CNN)
- On Thursday, Rand Paul discussed Iran’s detainment of American sailors this week with CNN's Wolf Blitzer. Paul said it was important to watch Iran "like a hawk." He added, "I still wonder whether or not they want to be part of the civilized world. But you still wonder about a nation that is using what appears to be video of our soldiers as pawns in a propaganda war." (CNN)
Marco Rubio
- On defeating ISIS: “When I'm president of the United States, we are going to win this war on ISIS. The most powerful intelligence agency in the world is going to tell us where we are, the most powerful military in the world is going to destroy them. And if we capture any of them alive, they are getting a one-way ticket to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and we are going to find out everything they know.”
- On President Obama and the 2nd Amendment: “Look, the Second Amendment is not an option. It is not a suggestion. It is a constitutional right of every American to be able to protect themselves and their families. I am convinced that if this president could confiscate every gun in America, he would. I am convinced that this president, if he could get rid of the Second Amendment, he would. I am convinced because I see how he works with his attorney general, not to defend the Second Amendment, but to figure out ways to undermine it. I have seen him appoint people to our courts not to defend the Second Amendment, but to figure out ways to undermine it. Here's my second problem. None of these instances that the president points to as the reason why he's doing these things would have been preventive. You know why? Because criminals don't buy their guns from a gun show. They don't buy their guns from a collector. And they don't buy their guns from a gun store. They get -- they steal them. They get them on the black market. And let me tell you, ISIS and terrorists do not get their guns from a gun show.”
- On China: “We are all frustrated with what China is doing. I think we need to be very careful with tariffs, and here's why. China doesn't pay the tariff, the buyer pays the tariff. If you send a tie or a shirt made in China into the United States and an American goes to buy it at the store and there's a tariff on it, it gets passed on in the price to price to the consumer. So I think the better approach, the best thing we can do to protect ourselves against China economically is to make our economy stronger, which means reversing course from all the damage Barack Obama is doing to this economy. It begins with tax reform. Let's not have the most expensive business tax rate in the world. Let's allow companies to immediately expense. It continues with regulatory reform. Regulations in this country are out of control, especially the Employment Prevention Agency, the EPA, and all of the rules they continue to impose on our economy and hurting us. How about Obamacare, a certified job killer? It needs to be repealed and replaced. And we need to bring our debt under control, make our economy stronger. That is the way to deal with China at the end of the day.”
Rick Santorum
- On whether tech companies should be required to help the government fight terrorism: “Look, Facebook and Twitter can teach us things. We can cooperate with them. We can share ideas and information. But this is a -- and this is a very dicey area for the government to go in and require the industry to do its job. It needs to develop that capability. We need to be -- have responsible dialogue, but I don't think requirements are the order of the day.”
- On immigration: “Almost all of the people who are here illegally, and most of the people who came here legally over the last 20 years, they're working in wage-earning jobs. That is why wages have flat-lined. And we have unfortunately two political parties with most of the candidates in this field for some form of amnesty, some form of allowing people to stay here even though they're here illegally and for increasing levels of legal immigration. I'm someone who believes that we need to be the party that stands for the American worker. And when we say we need to send people back, I mean we send people back. And let me just make one point. I was in Storm Lake, Iowa, the other day, near a Tyson's plant, 91 percent of the kids that go to the elementary school there are minority kids. And they said, well, what are you going to do with all of these people, their families, they've lived here for a long time? I said, I'm going to give them a gift. I'm going to give them a gift of being able to help the country they were born in. And I'm going to export America, the education they were able to see. They learned English language. They learned about capitalism. They learned about democracy. You want to stop flow of immigrants? Let's send six million Mexicans, Hondurans, Guatemalans, El Savadorians back into their country, so they can start a renaissance in their country so they won't be coming over here anymore.”
- On the government encouraging the formation of families: “The reality is that if you're a single parent -- a child of a single parent, and you grew up in a single parent family neighborhood, you went to that single parent family school, the chance of you ever, ever reaching the top 20% of income earners is 3% in America. At least -- I don't know about you, but that's not good enough. And, we have been too politically correct in this country because we don't want to offend anybody to fight for the lives of our children. ...let's have a national campaign to rebuild the American family, and give every child its birthright which is a Mom and a Dad who loves them. That will change this economy.”
Donald Trump
- On Cruz’s citizenship: “The fact is, there is a big overhang. There's a big question mark on your head. And you can't do that to the party. You really can't. You can't do that to the party. You have to have certainty. Even if it was a one percent chance, and it's far greater than one percent because I mean, you have great constitutional lawyers that say you can't run. If there was a -- and you know I'm not bringing a suit. I promise. But the Democrats are going to bring a lawsuit, and you have to have certainty. You can't have a question. I can agree with you or not, but you can't have a question over your head.”
- On Nikki Haley calling him “angry”: “I'm very angry because our country is being run horribly and I will gladly accept the mantle of anger. Our military is a disaster. Our healthcare is a horror show. Obamacare, we're going to repeal it and replace it. We have no borders. Our vets are being treated horribly. Illegal immigration is beyond belief. Our country is being run by incompetent people. And yes, I am angry. And I won't be angry when we fix it, but until we fix it, I'm very, very angry. And I say that to Nikki. So when Nikki said that, I wasn't offended. She said the truth. One of your colleagues interviewed me. And said, well, she said you were angry and I said to myself, huh, she's right. I'm not fighting that. I didn't find it offensive at all. I'm angry because our country is a mess.”
- On the 2nd Amendment: “I am a 2nd amendment person. If we had guns in California on the other side where the bullets went in the different direction, you wouldn't have 14 or 15 people dead right now. If even in Paris, if they had guns on the other side, going in the opposite direction, you wouldn't have 130 people plus dead. So the answer is no and what Jeb said is absolutely correct. We have a huge mental health problem in this country. We're closing hospitals, we're closing wards, we're closing so many because the states want to save money. We have to get back into looking at what's causing it. The guns don't pull the trigger. It's the people that pull the trigger and we have to find out what is going on. We have to protect our 2nd amendment and you cannot do this and certainly what Barack Obama was doing with the executive order. He doesn't want to get people together, the old-fashioned way, where you get Congress. You get the Congress, you get the Senate, you get together, you do legislation. He just writes out an executive order. Not supposed to happen that way.”
Third Party Candidates
Gary Johnson (Libertarian Party)
- On Thursday, Gary Johnson commented on Rand Paul being excluded from the main GOP debate because of his poll numbers. He posted the following on his Facebook page: “Rand Paul finds himself arguing with a debate sponsor over polling percentages that are, in reality, within the margins of error. I can sympathize. Thanks to a percentage here or there, a legitimate candidate, who would offer a more libertarian view, is being kept off the stage. That's unfortunate, but not surprising.” (Facebook)
See also
- Presidential election, 2016
- Presidential candidates, 2016
- Presidential debates (2015-2016)
- Important dates in the 2016 presidential race
- Polls and Straw polls
- 2016 presidential candidate ratings and scorecards
