REPUBLICANS ATTACK OBAMA AND EACH OTHER AT 2ND GOP DEBATE

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Key differences emerge in foreign policy stances

By Miriam Raftery

September 18,2015 (Simi Valley) -- Eleven Republican presidential candidates held their second debate Wednesday night at the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley:  real estate tycoon Donald Trump, Senators Marco Rubio (Florida), Rand Paul (Kentucky), and Ted Cruz (Texas); ex-Florida Governor Jeb Bush, current Governors Scott Walker (Wisconsin), Chris Christie (New Jersey), and John Kasich (Ohio), retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, and Hewlett Packard’s ex-CEO Carly Fiorina. The debate was hosted by CNN.

On some issues the candidates held similar stances.  All want to defund Planned Parenthood, repeal Obamacare and seal the U.S.-Mexico border.  But some key differences emerged in their positions on foreign policy, with some calling for boots-on-the-ground troops in the Middle East and others warning of the dangers of such intervention. Candidates also had diverse stances on the Iran nuclear concern. Candidates’ views also differed on economic issues, Social Security and more.  View the transcript of the full 3-hour debate here or scroll down for highlights of the Republican debate, as well as responses from leading Democratic candidates.

Dollars and Sense: The economy and temperaments

Trump made his case for restoring economic prosperity: “I’ve made billions and billions of dollars dealing with people all over the world, and I want to put whatever that talent is to work for this country so we have great trade deals, we make our country rich again, we make it great again.”

Fiorina argued that her experience “from secretary to CEO” has prepared her to lead. “You know what a leader does? They challenge the status quo, they solve problems that have festered for a long time and they produce results. That is what my whole life has been about.”

Candidates sparred verbally over both leadership issues and temperament. The latter is a point shared by some other candidates regarding Trump’s bombastic and often bullying style.  After Trump insulted Senator Paul, stating he “shouldn’t even be on this stage” due to polling 11th, Paul said of Trump, “ I’m very concerned about him — having him in charge of the nuclear weapons,” adding,”his visceral response to attack people on their appearance — short, tall, fat, ugly — my goodness, that happened in junior high. Are we not way above that? Would we not all be worried to have someone like that in charge of the nuclear arsenal?”

When Trump criticized Walker for presiding over debt in Wisconsin (a point Walker disputed), Walker fired back, “ You took four major projects into bankruptcy over and over and over again. You can’t take America into bankruptcy.”

When Trump, a billionaire self-funding his campaign, accused Bush of taking special interest money, Bush responded, “The one guy that had some special interests that I know of that tried to get me to change my views on something — that was generous and gave me money — was Donald Trump. He wanted casino gambling in Florida.”  Trump denied this adding that if he’d wanted a casino, he would have got one.

Asked about Trump’s contention that she ran Hewlett-Packard into the ground and laid off many workers before being fired herself, Fiorina deflected the criticism by noting that her leadership occurred during the tech crash that sent the NASDAQ down 80 percent and forced competitors out of business. She insisted that her tough choices “saved 80,000 jobs” and allowed the company to rebuild.  She also said that the executive who fired her, Tom Perkins, has taken out an ad in the New York Times to say “ he was wrong, I was right. I was a terrific CEO, the board was dysfunctional. And he thinks I will make a magnificent president of the United States.”

The moderator gave Fiorina a chance to respond to Trump’s recent insult. Trump stated in a Rolling Stone interview, “Look at that face. Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?”  Trump later claimed he wasn’t referring to her appearance, but rather her persona.

Fiorina drew applause with her response: “You know, it’s interesting to me, Mr. Trump said that he heard Mr. Bush very clearly and what Mr. Bush said. I think women all over this country heard very clearly what Mr. Trump said.”

The remaining candidates generally touted plans to balance budgets by vetoing spending bills and in some cases also cutting taxes, though none provided specifics on how they would achieve both goals.  Governor Christie added, “Every morning I get up, I veto 400 bills from a crazy liberal Democratic legislature, not one of them has been overridden. I’ve vetoed more tax increases than any governor in American history, according to Americans for Tax Reform.”

But Carson sees partisan divide as part of the problem. “I’m extraordinary concerned about the direction of this country, the divisiveness that is going on, fiscal irresponsibility, the failure to take a leadership position in the world.”

Governor Kasich chided fellow candidates for their bickering. “If I were sitting at home and watching this thing back and forth, I would be inclined to turn it off,” he said, adding, “I think it’s important we get to the issues, because that’s what people want, and they don’t want all this fighting.”

Social security – or insecurity

The moderator asked Trump to respond to Christie’s call for a cut in Social Security to wealthy Americans like himself.  Trump said he would favor a voluntary program to let wealthy individuals decline to accept the benefits, adding, “ But the fact is that there are people that truly don’t need it, and there are many people that do need it very, very badly. And I would be willing to write mine off 100 percent, Dana.” 

Christie retorted, “This government doesn’t need more money to make Social Security solvent. We need to be not paying out benefits to people who don’t really need it.” 

The moderator did not ask other candidates their views on Social Security, though the Republican Party in the past has called for privatization or elimination of the program that cut poverty from 50% of older Americans before Social Security to 10% after the program was first adopted under President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

You can read the views of many of candidates and their past statements on Social Security here: http://www.ontheissues.org/Social_Security.htm. For instance,  Ted Cruz has called for raising the age, and Marco Rubio wants to reduce benefits. Of the GOP candidates, only Trump has taken a stand to protect social security, stating. “Social Security isn't an "entitlement"; it's honoring a deal.”  Democratic candidates have also pledged to protect Social Security or strengthen it.

Foreign policy

On foreign policy issues, the knowledge and experience of those who have served on key Senate committees cast a clear contrast against most Washington “outsider” candidates.  While all candidates criticized the Obama administration’s approaches as weak or inadequate, Senators  generally had clearly articulated and detailed positions on hot spots such as Iraq, Iran, and Syria, while the outsiders mostly had vague responses. 

Asked how he would get the Russians out of Syria, Trump called Syria “a mess” adding “Why are we fighting ISIS in Syria? Let them fight each other…” He insisted he would “get along” with Putin and other world leaders. This led moderator Jake Tapper of CNN to add, “Just to clarify, the only answer I heard to the question I asked is that you would –reach out to Vladimir Putin and you would do what?” Trump merely repeated his belief that he will get along with world leaders and that “we won’t have the kind of problems that our country has right now with Russia and many other nations.”

Senator Rubio, by contrast, said Putin “wants to reposition Russia, once again, as a geopolitical force…He’s trying to destroy NATO…He is exploiting a vacuum that this administration has left in the Middle East.” Rubio predicted Russians will fly combat mission in the region to prop up Assad in the coming weeks.  He also predicted that Putin will try to paint America as no longer a reliable ally and seek to urge other nations to rely on Russia.  “What he is doing is he is trying to replace us as the single most important power broker in the Middle East,” Rubio said.

Fiorina took an aggressive stance.  Though a political outsider, she had done some research. “Having met Vladimir Putin, I wouldn’t talk to him at all…What I would do, immediately, is begin rebuilding the Sixth Fleet. I would begin rebuilding the missile defense program in Poland. I would conduct regular, aggressive military exercises in the Baltic states. I’d probably send a few thousand more troops into Germany. Vladimir Putin would get the message.” She also called for providing intelligence to the Egyptians, echoing Rubio’s point, and arming the Kurds.

But Senator Paul pointed out, “We continued to talk with the Russians throughout the Cold War” adding that Reagan doing so had an impact. He favors continued talks with Iran and called cutting up the deal “absurd” though saying he opposed the agreement. He also called for engagement with Russia and China to keep talks going.

In an earlier pre-debate among four candidates polling lower in the polls, Senator Lindsey Graham took the most hawkish view, arguing that candidates are only serious about fighting ISIS if they’re willing to send 10,000 U.S. troops to Iraq, 10,000 U.S. troops as part of a coalition to Syria.

Kasich said he supports "boots on the ground," adding, "We need the strongest military on the face of the planet, and everyone has to know it. And, specifically, what that means is we need about 50 Army brigades, we need about 36 Marine battalions, we need somewhere between 300, and 350 naval ships, we need to upgrade every leg of the nuclear triad."

Senator Paul took the most pacifist approach. "If you want boots on the ground, and you want them to be our sons and daughters, you got 14 other choices...But the thing is, the first war was a mistake. And I’m not sending our sons and our daughters back to Iraq. The war didn’t work. We can amplify those who live there. The Kurds deserve to be armed and I’ll arm them. We can use our Air Force to amplify the forces there. But the boots on the ground need to be the people who live there."

As for the Iranian nuclear deal, Senator Cruz took a hard line. “If I am elected president, on the very first day in office I will rip to shreds this catastrophic nuclear deal.” 

By contrast, Governor Kasich said while he would not have approved the agreement, it’s important to give it time to work and if Iran cheats, slap sanctions back on while keeping the military option “on the table” if Iran appears to be developing a nuclear weapon. He emphasized, “We are stronger when we work with the Western civilization” noting other nations also approved the deal, “our friends in Europe, and just doing it on our own I don’t think is the right policy.”

Trump, under his breath, squawked “Chicken.”

Bush also opposed tearing up an agreement with Iran but called for affirming U.S. commitment to Israel “and make sure that they have the most sophisticated weapons to send a signal to Iran that we have Israel’s back.”

Huckabee called the Iran deal “really about the survival of Western civilization” noting that in the past Iran has sponsored terrorism and taken American hostages.  “It’s toilet paper” he said adding the agreement should not be honored. 

Rubio does not belief Khamenei will comply, adding he led a chant of “death to America” by the massese.

On to China, Governor Walker has called on Obama to cancel a state dinner with China due to China’s alleged cyber attacks on the U.S. and currency manipulation.  But Paul responded, “I don’t think we need to be reckless.”

Bush, whose father was chief diplomatic envoy to China back when President Nixon opened relations with China, also opposed canceling the dinner. But he said, “We need to be strong against China. We should use offensive tactics as it relates to cyber security, send a deterrent signal.”

In a followup question on Syria and the refugee crisis, several candidates faulted Obama for not using force.

But Senator Paul spoke on the “wisdom on when to intervene and when we shouldn’t.  Had we bombed Assad (Syria’s leader) at the time like President Obama wanted, like Hillary Clinton wanted and many Republicans wanted, I think ISIS would be in Damascus today.  I think ISIS would be in charge of Syria…Sometimes both sides of the civil war are evil, and sometimes intervention makes us less safe…Every time we have toppled a secular dictator, we have gotten haso, the rise of radical Islam, and we’re more at risk.”

Senator Rubio cautioned, “If the United States military is going to be engaged by a commander-in-chief, it should only be engaged in an endeavor to win.” He said he opposed bombing Syria because the President couldn’t answer the question “what do you do if chemical weapons end up in the hands of radical Islamic terrorists like Al Qaida, like ISIS?” 

Dr. Carson says he once urged President Bush to set a national goal to become petroleum independent as a means of reducing our dependence on the Middle East oil after the 9-11 terrorist attacks. “There are smart ways to do things and there are muscular ways to do things. And sometimes you have to look at both of these to come up with the right solution,” Carson concluded.

Climate change

Another clear contrast between the Republicans and Democrats is on climate change.  Every  Republican candidate either denies or voices skepticism over climate change, and not a single one supports the federal government taking any action to reverse climate change despite 97% of the world’s climate scientists agreeing that the problem is real and that man’s activities contribute to global climate change nearing a point of no return.

Rubio stated, “America is not a planet. And we are not even the largest carbon producer anymore. China is.”

Christie alone has said he believes climate change is real and that humans help contribute to it, but he wants to leave action up to states.  He touted his record in New Jersey of reaching clean air goals even afater pulling out of a regional cap and trade deal.  He calls for expansion of nuclear power and touted New  Jersey’s use of solar and natural gas, apparently oblivious to the fact that natural gas is a fossil fuel which pumps out greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change.

Immigration

Trump called for deporting all undocumented immigrants, 11 to 12 million people, but when challenged by Christie how he would cover the enormous cost to do so, failed to offer a plan. He also wants a border wall.

Christie wants to use drones and electronics to monitor the border and fingerprint immigrants so those who overstay visas can be deported. Carson wants to seal borders but is not convinced deporting all immigrants is feasible.

Bush asked Trump to apologize to Bush's wife, who is Mexican-American, for suggested she would influence Bush's policies on immigrant. Trump refused to apologize. Bush said, "She loves this country as much as anybody in this room and she wants a secure border." He said Amreica is at a crossroads and asked if we should take the "reagan approach, the hopeful optimitic approach, the approach that sways that you come to our country legally, you pursue your dreams with avengeance, you create opportunities for all of us? Or the Donald Trump approach. The approach taht says that everything is bad...I'm on the Reagan side of this."

Cruz opposes any amnesty and wants more secure borders.

Rubio notes that is family and neighbors are all immigrants.  "So I've seen every aspect of it."  He says America has three immigration problems: first, people continuing to enter the U.S. illegalyl, second, a legal immigration system that no longer works, based on whether you have a relative here instead of merit, and third, the 11-12 million people living in the shadows.  "We must deal with all three of these problems," he says.  To do that means securing borders with  a wall, having an entry and exit tracking system, mandatory e-verify, modernization of legal immigraiton "so you come to America on the basis of what you can contribute economically, not whether or not you have a relative living here."  If would deport criminals but not otherwise law-abiding people.

Some candidates including Trump also want to eliminate birthright citizenship despite constitutional protections under the 14th amendment.

Abortion and Planned Parenthood

All candidates voiced support to completely defund Planned Parenthood, which means eliminating money for healthcare beyond abortion -- since federal law already prohibits federal dollars from funding abortion. Several touted their records as Governor in already defunding Planned Parenthood in their states.  Mike Huckabee, who scarcely was asked any questions, said he would go further and have a litmus tests for Supreme Court justices.

"Number one, I’d ask do you think that the unborn child is a human being or is it just a blob of tissue? I’d want to know the answer to that. I’d want to know do you believe in the First Amendment, do you believe that religious liberty is the fundamental liberty around which all the other freedoms of this country are based? And I’d want to know do you really believe in the Second Amendment, do you believe that we have an individual right to bear arms to protect ourselves and our family and to protect our country. " He also wants judicial candidates who will protect states' rights.

Democratic responses to the Republican debate

Prominent Democrats criticized the Republican debate for focusing largely on negatives without offering positive solutions to problems Democrats view as important.

Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton issued a video mocking the GOP debate for its silence on issues such as paid family leave, making college more affordable, providing childcare, equal pay for women, and supporting voting rights.

Women’s organizations voiced disappointment in Fiorina for blasting Planned Parenthood over controversial undercover videos while failing to speak up for women’s rights on issues such as access to affordable healthcare services such as PAP smears, mammograms and birth control that Planned Parenthood provides, as well as keeping abortion legal (all GOP candidates have voiced support to severely restrict or outlaw abortion nationwide.)

Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders live-tweeted his responses to the debate and also appeared on major news outlets faulting Republicans for ignoring the wealth gap in America, calls to raise the minimum wage, and endangering future generations through inaction on climate change.

At #DebateWithBernie, Sanders tweeted, “Rich get richer. Everyone else gets poorer. And all these guys can talk about is war and defunding Planned Parenthood.” Another tweet read, “Can these guys talk about anything other than their desire to go to war?”

The first debate among Democratic candidates is scheduled for October 13th.  For a full list of debates scheduled for candidates on both parties click here: http://www.2016presidentialdebateschedule.com/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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Comments

Within the first hour

Probably 30 or 45 minutes into it.   Our story has a link to the written transcript, up near the top.  you can read it, mark the passage and find it in the video if you wish.

"Chicken"?

Have proof of your assertion that Mr. Trump said "chicken"?