and we have more news to give you at 9:00 and 11:00. we would like to see you then. take care. bye-bye. this is an abc news special. tonight -- >> our country is being run by incompetent people. >> after iowa, everything changed. >> god bless the great state of iowa. >> tonight, we have taken the first step, but an important step. >> now, just days before new hampshire -- >> new hampshire, we love new hampshire. >> cast their first votes. >> we don't need more of the same solutions. >> we have to win the presidency. >> we have to come together as a country. >> for your next president. >> you're going to be calling me mr. president. >> the republicans face off. and this time, the front-runner is here. >> it will be huge. >> the top seven candidates, all in one room. the time is here. >> we are going to preserve this nation for our children and grandchildren. >> it's make or break. >> we are not waiting any longer

to take our country back. >> so, what will happen tonight? >> we will make america great again. >> on the eve of the biggest football game of the year, the biggest debate of the season. from abc news and wmur-tv, live from st. anselm college in manchester, new hampshire, the republicans debate. moderated by david muir and martha raddatz. now reporting, george stephanopoulos. >> good evening. and welcome to manchester for this pivotal debate before the new hampshire primary. it has been a scramble since iowa. and with less than three days to go before the voting here, this is what the race looks like right now. donald trump, still on top, despite falling short in iowa. there at 28%. marco rubio climbing into second on the strength of his third place finish in iowa. he's had a lot of momentum all week long. ted cruz tied for third here with ohio governor john kasich and jeb bush at 9%. the debate is just minutes away.

we're here to break down the action tonight. matt dowd, i want to begin with you. donald trump tweeting again, he said, "so many things to say, so much at stake." especially for donald trump. he saw the lead evaporate in iowa after skipping the debate. he can't afford that again. >> the surprise wasn't that he tweeted. the surprise is that he didn't attack somebody in the tweet that came in. i'm amazed about the tone of that tweet. he seems more excited about this debate than any other. i think this debate for donald trump -- it's pivotal for everybody. it's crucial for everybody. i think donald trump has the most to lose. he comes into this debate tonight having been ahead in 70 straight polls in new hampshire since july. and if he comes out of here and doesn't do well tonight and loses on tuesday night, it's very hard to put that back together after two losses. >> hard to see how he can go forward. marco rubio has the momentum, jon karl, and that means he's going to be the big target tonight. >> i think this is rubio's moment. he's not the front-runner.

that's clearly trump. but rubio is the hottest candidate in this race right now. he has zoomed to the fastest rising, second place in new hampshire, and that means he is the biggest target. and i think the harshest attacks may come from the guy right next to him, jeb bush. lindsey graham said, if jeb bush gets at him tonight, marco rubio is toast. >> big swings at the last minute here in new hampshire. a third of the voters here say they could make their minds up in the next couple of days. >> and go to either primary. the saturday before the tuesday primary in 1980, ronald reagan came into his debate with his internal polls showing him 21 points behind george bush, who had just won iowa. they had a very contentious debate that night. where reagan famously said, i am paying for this microphone. and from there on, he took off and won new hampshire by more than 20 points. >> enormous changes in the last

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my favorite thing to do on the day of the debate is play plants versus zombies on my iphone. >> what questions will david muir be asking at the hp hn debate? >> i call my mom for advice. >> i'm ready. >> i take these hundreds of pieces of paper. they have all the advice that people have given me and light them on fire. >> i try to talk to every single voter in new hampshire. >> get those teleprompters out of here. we're going to have some fun. >> candidates going through some of their pregame prep with "the independent journal review." i'm here with bill crystal, editor of "the weekly standard." donna brazile, former campaign manager for al gore. what are you watching for tonight? >> above all, donald trump.

the man that was not there in iowa. remember this, some of us thought, it's probably a mistake not to show up a couple of days, in the state, before the caucus. and oh, no, trump has changed all the rules of the game. he's decided it's a good idea to show up. there's a lot of pressure on him now. >> he's never had that kind of pressure on him. on the democratic side, donna, the two democrats, bernie sanders and hillary clinton really going at it. bernie's got a double-digit lead here. they set the themes for what could be a long campaign going forward. >> there's no question. senator sanders is not just what i call the next door neighbor. he's the favorite son of progressives and liberals in this state. hillary clinton knows she has to close the gap with young people. she's out there with one message to young people, and that is, i'm going to fight for you, i'm going to stand up for you. we are expecting a big turnout on tuesday. >> matthew dowd, seven candidates up on that stage tonight, but realistically, only three, maybe four will be viable candidates after this primary

here on tuesday. >> i think there's four tickets out of this debate tonight and out of new hampshire and the voting goes forward as it goes forward. i think the one person, also to watch in this, is john kasich. john kasich has put all of his chips on the table here in new hampshire. he's done 100 town halls. and i think you see, and you feel, there's, can he break through? and there is a possibility, if john kasich does well tonight, that he breaks into the top three and gets a ticket out. >> he was making a plea to democrats. >> today, he said, i should be running in the democratic primary. because he sees so many people say, i'm a democrat, but you're the one republic i can support. and actually, in new hampshire, you can. because democrats and independents can vote in the republican primary. >> democrats, it has to be an dependent on the day coming in, not a democrat, but he is hoping they can come out for him on tuesday. debate's just a second away. we'll be right back. abc news live coverage of the new hampshire republican debate will continue in a moment. daredevil in all of us.

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another presidential debate. >> i don't think one will be very good. >> why is that? >> because we're not in it. >> lindsey graham and john mccain gave it their best. now it's time for the seven candidates on the stage. let's send it to martha raddatz and david muir. take it away, guys. >> thank you, george. and welcome to you at home and our audience of more than 1,000. mo martha and i, along with wmrt are honored to be here. the candidates are all here and the new hampshire republican debate starts now. >> the time is here. it's make or break. starting now. the republicans debate. live from st. anselm college in manchester, new hampshire. david muir and martha raddatz. >> good evening, again. everyone. this is the first time since iowa and the only time before the new hampshire primary that the republican candidates will have the opportunity to face each other. the people of iowa have been

heard. now it's new hampshire's turn. in just three days, voters here will decide who they think should be the republican nominee for president. >> questions of leadership and character have dominated the news ever since the iowa caucuses a few days ago. here with us to question the candidates this evening, josh mckelvin from wmur here in manchester, and author and commentator mary katherine hamm. >> let's welcome the candidates for the republican nomination for president. new jersey governor chris christie. >> dr. ben carson. >> texas senator ted cruz.

>> businessman donald trump. >> florida senator marco rubio. >> former florida governor, jeb bush. >> and ohio governor john kasich. >> ladies and gentlemen, the republican candidates. >> and dr. ben carson, please come out on the stage. he's standing there, as well. dr. carson. >> and donald trump. >> and lastly, we welcome back to the debate stage, donald trump.

>> i can sintroduce kasich? >> yes, yes, we're going to introduce ohio governor john kasich. >> the applause so loud here in the hall. >> the applause you couldn't hear, we couldn't hear, either. that's a good sign for the excitement this evening. gentlemen, thank you for being here tonight, just days before voters here in new hampshire make their decisions. the rules are simple. and have been agreed to by all the campaigns. there will be 60 seconds to answer and if another candidate is mentioned in that answer, that candidate will have 30 seconds to respond. there are green, yellow and red lights that each candidate will see to signal when time is up and they will also hear this sound.

>> so, let's get started. we welcome you all to the debate stage here tonight. we're going to tackle the issues americans are most concerned about, the economy, isis, homeland security. and here in new hampshire, some of the most heated rhetoric yet over who is best suited to step in on day one, who has the experience, who has the temperament to be commander in chief. mr. trump, senator cruz has said about you right here in new hampshire this week, quote, i don't know anyone who would be comfortable with someone who behaves this way, having his finger on the button. we're liable to wake up one morning, and if he were president, he would nuke denmark. saying that's temperament to keep this country safe. >> i think i have the best temperament. i built a massive corporation. i employ thousands and thousands of people. i've gotten along with people for years and years, have tremendous relationships with many people, including politicians on both sides. and no matter how you cut it,

when i came out, i hit immigration, i hit it very hard. everybody says, oh, the temperament, because i talked about illegal immigration. now, everybody's coming to me, they're all trying to say, well, he's right, we have to come to him. i hit other things. i talked about muslims. we have a problem. nobody else wanted to mention the problem. i brought it up. i took a lot of heat. we have to have a temporary something, because there's something going on that's not good. and remember this, i'm the only one up here, when the war in iraq -- i was the one that said, don't go, don't do it, you're going to destabilize the middle east. i'm not one with the trigger. i'm not one with the trigger. other people up here, believe me, would be a lot faster. but i'll build the mill arbitrary stronger, bigger, better, and nobody is going to mess with us. that, i can tell you. >> mr. trump, thank you. i want to bring this to senator cruz then. you did said of trump's behavior, that's not the tempt program of a leader to keep this country safe. why not? >> well, the assessment the

voters are making here, they are evaluating each and every one of us. they are looking to our experience. they are looking to our knowledge. they are looking to our temperament and judgment. they are looking to our clarity of vision and our strength of resolve. the world is getting much more dangerous. we've had seven years with barack obama in the oval office, a commander in chief that is unwilling even to acknowledge the enemy we're facing. this is a president who, in the wake of paris, in the wake of san bernardino, will not even use the word radical islamic terrorism, much less focus on defeating the enemy. i am convinced, every individual standing on this stage, would make a much better commander in chief than barack obama or hillary clinton or bernie sanders. and the primary voters are making the assessment for each of us, who is best prepared to keep this country safe, to rebuild the military, to rebuild our navy, our air force, our army, our marines, and to ensure

that we keep america safe. >> senator cruz, i did ask about mr. trum. you said he doesn't have the temperament. do you stand by those words? >> i think that is an assessment the voters are going to make. they are going to assess who is level-headed. who has clear vision. who has judgment. who can confront our enemies, who can confront the threats we face in this country. and who can have the judgment when to engage and when not to engage, both are incredibly important for a commander in chief, knowing how to go after our enemies. in the case of iran, for example, who has the clarity of vision to understand that the ayatollah, when he chants death to america, he means it. we need a president with the judgment and resolve to keep this country safe. >> senator cruz, thank you. we're going to continue on this notion of readiness -- >> am i allowed to respond? i have to respond. >> if you would like to. >> i respect what ted just said, but if you noticed, he didn't

answer your question. and that's what's going to happen -- it's okay. that's what's going to happen with our enemies and the people we compete against. we're going to win with trump. we're going to win. we don't win anymore. our country doesn't win anymore. we're going to win with trump. and people back down with trump. and that's what i like and that's what the country is going to like. >> mr. trump, thank you. and we're going to continue on this notion of readiness and on experience, but i want to ask about a headline that was back in the papers again this morning. dr. carson, on the day of the iowa caucuses, the cruz campaign sentous messages saying dr. ben carson will be planning to suspend his campaign following tonight's caucuses. please inform any carson caucus-goers of this news. as we can all see, you are still standing here tonight. late this week, your campaign sent this e-mail, quote, this kind of deceitful behavior is why the american people don't trust politicians. if senator cruz does not act,

then he clearly represents d.c. values. what kind of action do you think senator cruz should take? >> well, you know, when i wasn't introduced number two, as was the plan, i thought maybe he thought i already had dropped out, but -- but you know, today is the 105th anniversary, or -- 105th birthday of ronald reagan. his 11th commandment was not to speak ill of another republican, so, i'm not going to use this opportunity to savage the reputation of senator cruz. but i will say -- i will say -- i will say that i was very disappointed that members of his team thought so little of me that they thought that after having hundreds, if not thousands of volunteers and college students who sacrificed their time and were dedicated to

the cause, one even died, to think that i would just walk away ten minutes before the caucus and say, forget about you guys -- i mean, who would do something like that? i don't think anyone on this stage would do something like that. and to assume that someone wo d would, what does that tell you? so, unfortunately, it did happen. it gives us a very good example of certain types of washington ethics. washington ethics, basically says, if it's legal, you do what you need to do in order to win. that's not my ethics. my ethics is, you do what's right. >> senator cruz -- dr. carson, thank you. senator cruz, you have said that dr. carson and his wife have become friends of yours. i'm curious why you didn't call ahead of time to either the doctor or his wife or had your

campaign check in before sending out those messages. >> ben is a good and honorable man and ben and candy have become friends. he has an amazing life story that has inspired millions including me. when this transpired, i apologized to him then and i do so now, ben, i'm sorry. let me tell you the facts of what occurred for those who are interested in knowing. on monday night, about 6:30 p.m., cnn reported that ben was not going from iowa to new hampshire or south carolina, rather, he was, quote, taking a break from campaigning. they reported that on televis n television, cnn's political anchors, jake tapper and dana bash and wolf blitzer said it was highly unusual and highly significant. my political team saw cnn's report breaking news and they forwarded that news to our volunteers, it was being covered on live television. now, at the time, i was at the caucuses, i was getting ready to

speak at the caucuses just like ben was, just like everyone else was. i knew nothing about this. a couple hours later, i was told that ben was unhappy. i called him that evening because i respect him very, very highly. i didn't reach him that evening. i reached him the next day and apologized. he asked me then, he said, ted, would you make this apologize in public. i said, yes, i will. and i did so. i regret that subsequently, cnn reported on that, they didn't correct that story until 9:15 that night, so, from 6:30 p.m. to 9:15, that's what cnn was reporting. subsequent to that initial report, ben's campaign put out a statement saying that he was not suspending his campaign, i wish that our campaign staff had forwarded that statement, they were unaware of it, i wish that they had, that's why i apologized. >> senator cruz, thank you. we're going to move on here. back to the issues -- >> since i was mentioned -- >> dr. carson -- >> this is great. i want you all to mention me when you say something.

in fact the timeline indicates that initial followed by another one within one minute that clarified that i was not dropping out, so, what happened to that one, it is unclear. but the bottom line is, we can see what happened, everybody can see what happened and you can make your own judgment. >> dr. carson, thank you. thank you, doctor. senator rubio. i want to stay on the issue of readiness to be president and experience and questions about you being a first-term senator. governor christie warning voters here in new hampshire against voting for another first-term senator as america did with barack obama in 2008. arguing that you are, quote, not ready to be president of the united states. and senator santorum, who we all know, dropped out of the race and endorsed you, had a hard time when asked on national television, listing your accomplishments as senator.

tonight, what are your accomplishments in the senate that demonstrate you are ready to be president of the united states? >> from protecting the people of florida, to bringing accountability to the v.a., to the girl's count act, to sanctioning groups, i'm proud of my work. i will say, if politics becomes and the presidency becomes about electing people that have been in the senate the longest, we should all rally around joe biden. he's been around 1,000 years. i don't think any of us believe joe biden should be president of the united states. and let's dispel once and for all with this fiction that barack obama doesn't know what he's doing. he knows exactly what he's doing. barack obama is undertaking an effort to change this country, to make america more like the rest of the world. that's why he passed obama care and the stimulus and the deal with iran. it is an effort to change america. when i'm president of the united states, we are going to re-embrace all the things that made america the greatest nation in the world, and we are going

to leave our children with what they deserve, the single greatest nation in the history of the world. >> senator rubio, thank you. i do want to ask governor christie, you said, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. you heard senator rubio make the case that he has the experience. your response? >> sure. first, let's remember something. every morning when a united states senator wakes up, they think about what kind of speech can i give, or what kind of bill can i drop? every morning, when i wake up, i think about, what kind of problem do i need to solve for the people who actually elected me? it's a different experience. it's a much different experience. and the fact is, marco, you shouldn't compare yourself to joe biden. and you shouldn't say that's what we're doing. here is exactly what we're doing. you have not be involved in a consequential decision where you had to be held accountable. you just simply haven't. and the fact is -- when you talk about hezbollah sanctions act that you list as

one of your accomplishments, you weren't even there to vote for it. that's not leadership. that's truancy. the fact is that what we need to do, what we need to do in this country is not to make the same mistake we made eight years ago. it does matter when the challenges don't come on a list of a piece of paper of what to vote yes or no every day. when the problems come in from the people that you serve, i like marco rubio and he's a smart person and a good guy, but he simply does not have the experience to be president of the united states and make these decisions. we've watched it happen, everybody. for the last seven years, the people of new hampshire are smart. do not make the same mistake again. >> thank you. >> senator rubio? >> i think the experience is not just what you did, but how it worked out. under chris christie's governorship of new jersey, they have been downgraded nine times in their credit rating. this country already has a debt problem. we don't need to add to it.

but i would add this. let's dispel with this fiction that barack obama doesn't know what he's doing. he knows exactly what he's doing. he is trying to change this country. he wants america to become more like the rest of the world. we don't want to be like the rest of the world. we want to be the united states of america. and when i'm elected president, this will become once again, the single greatest nation in the history of the world, not the disaster barack obama has imposed upon us. >> senator rubio, thank you. i want to bring in governor bush on this. >> excuse me -- >> if you would -- >> he mentioned my record in there. i get a chance to respond. you see, everybody, i want the people at home to think about this. this is what washington, d.c. does. the drive-by shot at the beginning with incorrect and incomplete information and then the memorized 25-second speech that is exactly what his advisers gave him. see marco -- marco, the thing is this. when you're president of the united states, when you are a governor of a state, that

memorized speech doesn't solve one problem for one person. they expect you to plow the snow. they expect you to get the schools open. and when the worst natural disaster in your state's history hits you, they expect you to rebuild their state, which is what i've done. none of that stuff happens on the floor of the united states senate. it's a fine job, i'm glad you ran for it, but it does not prepare you for president of the united states. >> senator rubio? >> chris -- chris, your state got hit by a massive snowstorm two weeks ago. you didn't even want to go back. they had to shake you into going back. you stayed there for 36 hours and then he left and came back to campaign. here's the bottom line. this notion that barack obama doesn't know what he's doing -- >> there it is. there it is. the memorized 25-second speech. >> that's the reason why this campaign is so important. because i think this notion -- i think this is an important point. we have to understand what we're going through here. we are not facing a president that doesn't know what he's doing.

he knows what he is doing. that's why he's done the things he's done. that's why we have a president that passed obama care and the stimulus, all this damage that he's done to america is deliberate. this is a president that's trying to redefine this country. that's why this election is truly a referendum on our identity as a nation, as a people. our future is at stake. this election is not about the past. it is about what kind of country this is going to be in the 21st century and if we exelelect som like barack obama, bernie sanders, hillary clinton, our childrens are going to be the first to inherit a diminishes country -- >> you know what the shame is, mar marco? the shame is that you would actually criticize somebody for showing up to work, plowing the streets, getting the trains running back on time when you are never been responsible for that in your entire life. >> he didn't want to go back. >> and the fact is, i went back, it got done and here's -- >> you didn't want to go back, chris. >> oh, so -- wait a second. one of the skills you get as a

united states senator esp also? i don't think it is. >> you said you weren't going to go back. he told everyone he wasn't going to go back. they had to shame him into going back. and when he decided to go back, he criticized the young lady, s saying, what am i supposed to do, clean it up with a mop? >> it gets very unruly when he gets off his talking points. >> thank you, governor. >> it's your record. it's not a talking point. >> governor bush, i'll mention your name so you can come in on this. >> i really do appreciate it. >> i want to bring you in on this, because you made this central to your campaign right here in new hampshire in the last couple of days, but four years ago, you said of senator rubio, he was ready to be vice president, you spoke of his experience, as well. you said he has the fortitude to be a good president. but just this week, you said senator rubio accomplished, quote, nothing in the senate. how do you square the two? >> well, first of all, he said the exact same thing about me, that i would make a great vice presidential nominee when myitt romney was considering. i think we were both right at the time and mitt picked somebody else.

so, let's move onto the 2016 race. who has the leadership skills -- who has the leadership skills to lead? and i'm proud of the fact that i have 12 medal of honor resimilar yents, 30 who believe in me. we cut taxes in the state of florida and reduced government. i took on very powerful interests, fought for my beliefs, implemented them. we had eight hurricanes and four tropical storms in 16 months. the whole state was turned upside down. it required a steady hand. leadership. you learn this. you learn it by doing it. it's not something that you just show up on the job doing. it's not to same -- let's be clear. marco rubio is a gifted, gifted politician. and he may have the skills to be a president of the united states. but we've tried it the old way with barack obama, with soaring elegance and we got someone who

wants to divide the country up. the next president is going to have to forge consensus to bring about a set of common purposes so we can move forward again. >> we're going to continue with leadership now, and -- >> senator cruz, you are a first-term senator, as well. your opponents say you, like senator rubio, are not prepared to be commander in chief. you have talked tough about threats we face in the middle east. it was reported just moments ago that the north koreans test launched an intercontinental ballistic missile. north korea has nuclear weapons and conducted another nuclear test just last month. the missile that was launched is the kind the north koreans hope could some day carry a nuclear weapon capable of reaching the united states. how would you respond if commander in chief to that launch? >> well, i would note initially the fact that we're seeing the launch and we're seeing the launch from a nuclear north korea is the direct result of

the failures of the first clinton administration. the clinton administration led the world in relaxing sanctions against north korea, billions of dollars flowed into north korea, in exchange for promises not to build nuclear weapons. they took those billions and built nuclear weapons. and i would note, also, the lead negotiator in that failed north korea sanctions deal was a woman named wendy sherman, who barack obama and hillary clinton recruited to come back to be the lead negotiator with iran, so, what we are seeing with north korea is foreshadowing of where we will be with iran. with respect to north korea and what we should do now, one of the first things we should do is expand our missile defense capacity. we ought to put missile defense in south korea. one of the real risks of this launch, north korea wants to launch a satellite. one of the greatest risks of the satellite, they would place a nuclear device in the satellite as it would orbit around the earth. as it got over the united

states, it would set off what is called an emp, an electron magnetic pulse. that would take down the entire electrical grid of the eastern seaboard. we need to harden the grid to defend ourselves and we need missile defense to protect ourselves against north korea. >> well, let me ask you this. if you were commander in chief, tonight, would you have ordered the u.s. military to destroy that missile preemptively, on the launch pad, to prevent north korea from becoming an even graver threat? >> at this point, i'm not going to speculate on that without the intelligence briefing that any commander in chief would have, knowing exactly what is there. one of the real problems -- >> let me tell you this. you have talked tough about mideast. you haven't gotten the intelligence briefings about that. why wouldn't you preemptively streak a missile on an launch pad -- >> i have gotten the intelligence briefings on the mideast. those have been going on for

many years. i haven't gotten the briefing tonight on what north corey is doing because i'm here in new hampshire. and when you are responding to an immediate incident, you need to know the untell jens intellit is occurring. it is different, dealing with a country, once they have nuclear weapons. it is why you prevent them from getting them in the first place. because your hands are somewhat tied once they have nukes. it's why this iranian nuclear deal is so catastrophic and it's why i pledged on the very first day in office to rip to shreds this iranian nuclear deal, so we're not sitting here in five years, wondering what to do about an iranian missile launch when they have nuclear weapons, the stakes are too high for that. >> okay. senator cruz, i will say that missile has been sitting there for quite some time and they have had eyes on it. >> just to clarify on that point, because he's right. it is standard procedure of the united states to shoot down those missiles once launched if they -- >> senator rubio, i'm talking about a presemiive strike on the launch pad. >> i understand.

but it is important to note that it is, and senator cruz, i think, was alluding to this, as well, it is the standard procedure of the united states, if those missiles pose a threat to land, civilians, allies or any of our assets to shoot down that missile. i understand your question was about a preemptive strike, but my point is, there is in place now a contingency to avoid that strike from going errant and destroying any assets of the united states or implicating or hurting any of our allies or any of our assets in the region. >> thank you, senator rubio. governor kasich, how would you respond to tonight's launch? >> well, we have to step up the pressure. and i have to say, after being here, every one of my 100 town hall meetings in new hampshire were a lot more fun than what i saw here today, were so much more positive. look, in terms of north korea, martha, we have to make sure that we intercept both the ships and their aircraft, because what they're trying to do is to proliferate this very dangerous material, along with the

technology, the instruments that can be used for mass destruction. that's what i worry about the most, frankly, is nonstate actors, people who don't have a uniform, people don't have a country, who can spread this, who are not subject to the -- to the mutual assured defense. in other words, you strike us, we strike you. some of these radicals, they %-p my children, and for their children, going forward. so, we have to be very tough and we should tell the chinese, look, if you are not going to do this, ballistic missile defense to the koreans, to japan, and we should impose the sanctions on north korea that we imposed on iran. they are able to send and receive money. we have to be tough on this. and i think we could have -- i think we could have let the japanese know that if you want to take action on that missile that is rising, you want to take action -- you will have our support, if that's what you think is the best thing to do. we cannot continue to be weak in

the face of the north the rest of the world. >> thank you, governor. i will get to new a moment. >> the obama administration comes up with the great marketing terms. what they do is pull back. and voids are filled. they are filled with nation states on the run. the next president of the united states is going have to get the united states back in the game and if a preemptive strike is necessary to keep us safe, then we should do it. >> thank you, governor bush. mr. trump. do you have a red line with north korea? would you consider military action and how far would you let them go? >> well, let me say a couple of things. first of all, marco said earlier on that president obama knows exactly what he's doing, like we have this president that really knows -- i disagree, respectfully, with marco. i think we have a president who, as a president, is totally incompetent and he doesn't know what he's doing.

i think he has no idea what he's doing. and our country is going to hell. so, i just wanted to say, we disagree on that. is that okay? >> yeah, i have -- i got mentioned, can i respond? >> i'd like you to finish the question, please. specifics as to north korea. >> we have -- tremendous has been just sucked out of our country by china. china says they don't have that good of control over north korea. they have tremendous control. i deal with the chinese all of the time. i do -- largest bank in the world is in one of my buildings in manhattan. they tell me. they have total, absolute control, practically, of north korea. they have sucking trillions of dollars out of our country. they are rebuilding china with the money they take out of our country. i would get on with china, let china solve that problem, they can do it quickly and surgically. that's what we should do with north korea. >> senator rubio? you were mentioned. >> here's the broader point, as

well, and i think it touches on what donald just mentioned. this is a president that views this country as a country that's been too powerful in the world and we create problems around the world. for example, it is one of the reasons why he has betrayed israel. because he believes if we create separation from israel, it will help our relations in the islamic world. the same is happening in the asia pacific region, with accommodations to north korea. north koreans should be back on the list of terrorist nations, as an example. and donald is right. china does have a lot of influence over north korea and he should be leveraging our relationship with the chinese to ensure that north korea no longer has access to the resources that have allowed a country with no economy to develop long range missiles already capable of reaching the west coast of the united states potentially. >> thank you, senator rubio. governor bush, another problem facing the commander in chief right now is that north korea is currently detaining an american college student.

what would you do to get that college student back home? >> well, first of all, it is interesting that happened literally days when this hostage release took place in iran. a day or two days afterwards, north korea took a -- held an american student hostage. i think it's when we send a signal of weakness, when we are negotiating to release people that committed crimes in our country for people that didn't commit crimes that are held hostage in iran. we've saw the shameful treatment of our sailors, that this sends a signal of weakness around the world. the next president of the united states is going to have to get back in the game. where the united states' word matters. we don't send signals of weakness. we need to use every influence possible to get this student back. and i think john is right about this, there are crippling sanctions that are available, as it relates to the two or three banks that north korea uses to illicit trade. we ought to re-establish sanctions, not just because of

the student, but because of the actions they are taking right now, as it relates to building this missile capability. >> governor christie, i want to go to you on the same question. would you negotiate with north korea -- >> let's make something very clear. i learned seven years as a federal porosecutor in dealing with situations like we're talking about in north korea, where criminals take people hostage. you never pay ransom to the criminals. ever. you never pay ransom to the criminals. everyone out at home watching tonight understands that principle. and so, what you need to do is to engage in a much different way with these folks. they do not understand anything but toughness and strength. and we need to engage the chinese to deal with the north koreans, but we need to make sure they understand, there's a commander in chief who will not pay ransom for any hostage. this president and his former secretary of state are for paying ransom for hostages. when do that, you endanger even more americans around the world to be the subject of this type of hostage taking and illegal

detention. you need a strong commander in chief who will say, we will not put up with this and we will take the actions we need to take, not only to get our people home safely, but to punish those who believe they can violate the law and violate american's sovereign rights to travel the world. this is unacceptable. and this is why this president is so weak and why the secretary of state, who is embracing a third barack obama term would be even weaker. >> thank you very much, governor christie. david? >> martha, we're going to turn to immigration now. and i want to bring in governor kasich. you told us in an abc interview, quote, it is completely ridiculous to think we are going to grab people out of their homes and ship people back to mexico. adding, quote, that's not where the party is. the party is not for departing 11.5 million people. but mr. trump and senator cruz, who have made deportation central to their campaigns, top the national polls. so, my question for you, are you not where the voters are? >> well, you know, david, i

spent a lot of time here in this state, as i mentioned earlier, and we have to have practical solutions, just like we were just talking about a few minutes ago on north korea. look, the situation is, we need to finish the border. it has to be completed, just like we lock our doors at night, the country has to be able to lock its doors. and we can have a guest worker program, where people can come in and out in and orderly way. for the 11.5 million that are here, if they have not committed a crime since they've been here, i believe they ought to pay some taxes, pay a fine. never get on the path to citizenship, but get legalization. it is -- i couldn't even imagine how we would even begin to think about taking a mom or a dad out of a house when they have not committed a crime since they've been here, leaving their children in the house? i mean, that is not, in my opinion, the kind of values that we believe in. and secondly, i think at the end of the day, that americans would support a plan like this. i think congress would pass a

plan, to finish the border, guest worker, pay a fine, a path to legalization, and not citizenship. and we've got to get this done. and i will tell you this, within the first 100 days that i am president, i will put that proposal to the congress and i will tell you, as a former congressman, and an executive, in ohio, i can promise you that i believe you'll get the votes to pass that and we can move on with that issue and protect our border. that's what i think. >> governor kasich, thank you. i want to bring this next to senator cruz. you heard what the governor said. he said we need practical solutions. and you've saw, i don't intend to send jack boots to knock on doors. that's not how we enforce the law for any crime. so, what is your plan? how will you deport 11.5 million undocumented people and be specific. how would you do it? >> in terms of practical solution, i've laid out the most detailed plan for solving illegal immigration. it's 11 pages, single spaced, chapter and verse. it's on tedcruz.org. in short, we're going to build a

wall. we're going to triple the border patrol. we're going to increase -- and actually, since donald enjoyed that, i will simply say, i've got somebody in mind to build it. we're going to increase four-fold, the fixed wing and rotary wing aircraft so that you have technology monitoring an attempted incursion to direct the boots on the ground, where they're occurring. we're going to put in place a strong e-verify system in the workplace, so you can't get a job without proving you are here legally. we'll put in place a system on visas. 40% come in on visas and overstay. we will end sanctuary cities by cutting off taxpayer dollars to any jurisdiction that defies federal immigration law and we will end welfare benefits for those here illegally. >> governor kasich was talking about the families and what you do with the families that you have to send home. can you tell the american people

tonight how you would do that? >> what you do is, you enforce the law. under the constitution, the president has an obligation to, quote, take care that the laws be faithfully executed. federal immigration law provides if someone is here illegally, they are to be deported. we saw just this past week the head of the border patrol union testify before congress that president obama had given the order to the border patrol to stand down, not to enforce the law. that is wrong. i will enforce the law and for everyone who says, you can't possibly do that -- i would note that in eight years, bill clinton deported 12 million people. in eight years, george w. bush deported 10 million people. enforcing the law, we can do it. what is missing is the political will. and when they were deporting the people, the border wasn't secure, so, they'd come right back. once you secure the border, enforcing the law will solve this problem and that will benefit american workers. >> senator cruz, thank you. i want to bring in senator rubio. this question is about immigration, it is also about

leadership. you're aware of the criticism from many candidates on this stage tonight, that you coauthored the so-called gang of eight bill that would have created a path to citizenship. governor christie said, as soon as you felt the heat, you turned tail and run. governor bush has said, i don't think we need people cutting and running anymore. did you fight for your own legislation, senator, or did you run from it? >> here's the bottom line. we can't get that legislation passed. the american people will not support doing anything about people that are in this country illegally until the law is enforced first, and you prove it to them. this has been clear. every effort over the last ten years to do those has failed. and it has failed because the american people have zero trust that the federal government will enforce our laws. that's why since then i have said, if you are serious about immigration reform, then the key that unlocks the door to being able to do that is not just to pass a law that says it is going to enforce the law, but to actually do it. to hire the 20,000 new border agents, to finish the fencing and walls, to put in place

mandatory e-verify. an entry/exit system. and once that is in place and that's working, i believe the american people will support a very reasonable, but responsible approach to people who have been here a long time, who are not dangerous criminals, who pay taxes and pay fines for what they did. but until then, none of that is going to be possible. >> did you fight for the legislation at the time or did you run from it -- >> well, the legislation passed, but it has no support. it couldn't pass in the house, it will never pass in the united states until we secure the border and it is not the way we're going to do when i'm president. when i'm president, we are going to enforce the law first, prove to people that illegal immigration is under control and then we'll see what the american people are willing to support when it comes to people that are not criminals who have been in the this country for a long time and who would like to say. >> governor christie? >> david, just listen, again, everybody. this is the difference between being a governor who has to be responsible for problems and not answering a question.

the question was, did he fight for his legislation. it's abundantly clear that he didn't. it's abundantly clear that he didn't fight for the legislation. when the teachers unions attacked me with $20 million of ads because i wanted to reform teacher tenure, i fought them and fought them and fought them and i won. when they didn't want -- when people wanted to raise taxes in my state at democratic legislature and threatened to close down the government, i said, fine. close down the government. i'll order a pizza, open a beer and watch the mets. you can call me when the government reopens. and guess what they didn't do? they didn't pass a tax increase, because i vetoed it they never closed the government because they knew i would fight for what i believed in. the fact of the matter is, a leader must fight for what they believe in. not handicap it, say, maybe because i can't win this one, i'll run. that's not what leadership is. that's what congress is. >> senator rubio? >> leadership -- leadership is

ultimately about solving the problem. and the approach that was tried and has been tried now repeatedly over ten years to do this all at once in a massive piece of legislation has no chance of passage. it is not leadership to continue to try something that has no chance of happening. i want to make progress on this issue. it has been discussed now for 30 years and nothing ever happens. and i am telling you that the only way forward on this issue that has any chance of happening, meaning gaining the support of the american people, you cannot do this without the support of the american people. is an approach that begins by proving that once and for all, illegal immigration is under control. >> senator rubio, thank you. we want to turn to health care in this country, and mary katherine. >> thanks, david. good evening, guys. >> good evening. >> mr. trump. >> yes. >> in the democratic primary, hillary clinton has criticized bernie sanders' plan for single payer government health care, noting it would require big across the board tax increases for americans. in doing so, she's doubling down on obama care, despite its

persistent unpopularity. you have said you want to appeal obama care. you have said, quote, everybody's got to be covered, adding, quote, the government's going to pay for it. are you closer to bernie sanders' vision for health care than -- >> i don't think i am. i think i'm closer to common sense. we are going to repeal obama care. we're going to repeal obama care. we are going to replace obama care with something so much better. and there are so many examples of it. and i will tell you, part of the reason we have some people laughing, because you have insurance people that take care of everybody up here. the only one they're not taking care of is me. we have lines around each state. the insurance companies are getting rich on obama care. the insurance companies are getting rich on health care and health services and everything having to do with health. we are going to end that. we're going to take out the artificial boundaries, the artificial lines. we're going to get a plan where people compete, free enterprise. they compete. so much better.

in addition -- in addition to that, in addition to that, you have the health care savings plans, which are excellent. what i do say is, there will be a certain number of people that will be on the street dying and as a republican, i don't want that to happen. we're going to take care of people that are dying on the street because there will be a group of people that are not going to be able to even think in terms of private or anything else and we're going to take care of those people. and i think everybody on this stage would have to agree, you're not going to let people die, sitting in the middle of a street in any city in this country. >> senator cruz, to that point, mr. trump has said that your position on health care means that maybe you've got, quote, no heart. there is a question here, though, about uncovered folks. you suggested replacing obama care.

any major change in health care policy carries with it the risk that some people will lose their insurance coverage or have to change it. how do you reassure those people that repealing and replacing obama care is still in their best interest? >> let me take two different parts of that. let me start with socialized medicine. socialized medicine is a disaster. it does not work. if you look at the countries that have imposed socialized medicine, that have put the government in charge of providing medicine, what inevitably happens is rationing. you have a scarcity of doctors. you have rationing. and that means the elderly are told, we're going to ration a hip replacement, we're going to ration a knee replacement. we're going to ration end of life care. we're right now heading into a medical system with about a 90,000-doctor shortage in america and socialized medicine, whether proposed by the democrats or proposed by a republican would hurt the people of this country. what should we do on health care? if i'm elected president, we will repeal every word of obama care. and once we do that, we will

adopt common sense reforms, number one, we'll allow people to purchase health insurance across state lines, that will drive down prices and expand the availability of low cost catastrophic insurance. we'll expand health savings accounts. and we will delink health insurance from employment so that you don't lose your health insurance when you lose your job and that way, health insurance can be personal, portable and affordable and we keep government from getting in between us and our doctors. >> dr. carson, you have some experience with this matter. in the past, you have said that obama care should be replaced, before it is repealed. how and why? >> well, thank you. you know, i was hoping to get a chance to talk about north korea. i was the only one who didn't get to do that and i have some tough to say about it, let me tell you. but at in rate, you have to replace it with something that makes sense. it doesn't make sense. and the reason that i dislike obama care is because the

government comes in and tells the people, which, the nation is supposed to be centered on, we don't care what you think, if you don't like it, too bad. that's a problem. and we can't afford to do that, because that will change america. i have proposed a health empowerment account system. everybody gets an account the day they are born, they keep it until they die. they can pass it on. we pay for it with the same doctors that we pay for traditional health care with, recognizing that we spend twice as much as many countries and health care and don't have as such access. we give people the ability to shift money within their health empowerment account, so that each family basically becomes its own insurance company without a middleman that saves you a lot of money. and that will lower the cost of your catastrophic insurance tremendously, because the only thing coming out of that is catastrophic health care. and in terms of taking care of the indigent, we have another whole system and i can go ahead and explain it, but i don't have

the time, but i'd be happey to. but go to bencarson.com, read about it. you can read about everything that's been discussed here in great detail. >> thank you, dr. carson. david, martha, back to you. >> mary katherine, thank you. we want to turn now to the issue of eminent domain. and josh, go ahead. >> thank you, david. and good evening, candidates. mr. trump, you have said, quote, i love eminent dom main the seizure of private property for the greater good. you tried to use the measure in prison. you supported it for the keystone pipeline. here in new hampshire, the northern pass would bring hydro-electric power from canada. do you see eminent domain as an appropriate tool to get that done? >> let me just tell you about eminent domain. so many people have hit me with

commercials and other things about eminent domain. eminent domain is an absolute necessity for a country, for our country. without it, you wouldn't have roads. you wouldn't have hospitals. you wouldn't have anything. you wouldn't have schools. you wouldn't have brujs. you need eminent domain. and a lot of the big conservatives that tell me how conservative they are, thiey al want the keystone pipeline. the keystone pipeline, without eminent domain, it wouldn't go ten feet, okay? you need it. it a good thing, not a bad thing. what a lot of people don't know, oh, you're going to take their property -- when somebody -- when eminent domain is used on somebody's property, that person gets a fortune. they get at least fair market value and if they are smart, they'll get two or three times the value of their property. but without eminent domain, you don't have roads, highways, schools, bridges or anything. so, eminent domain, not that i love it, but eminent domain is absolutely -- it's a necessity

for a country. and certainly it's a necessity for our country. >> so, that is yes on the northern pass project? >> yes. >> the ducifference between eminent domain for public purpose, roads and pipelines, that's for public purpose. what donald trump did was use eminent domain to try to take the property of an elderly woman on the strip in atlantic city. that is not public purpose. that is down right wrong. here's the problem with that. the problem was, it was to tear down -- >> jeb wants to be a tough guy tonight. i didn't take the property. >> the net result was -- >> you tried. >> the woman ultimately didn't want to do that. i walked away. >> that's not true. to turn this into a limousine parking lot for his casinos is not public use. and in florida, based on what we did, we made that impossible. it is part of our constitution. that's the better approach. that is the conservative approach. >> mr. trump?

30 seconds. >> he wants to be a tough guy. a lot of times you'll have -- you'll have -- and it didn't work very well. >> how tough it is to take property from an elderly woman. >> let me talk. quiet. a lot of times -- a lot of times -- that's all of his donors and special interests out there. so -- it's what it is. that's what it is. and by the way, let me just tell you, we needed tickets. you can't get them. you know who has the tickets -- to the television audience? donors, special interests, the people that are putting up the money. that's who it is. the rnc told us. we have all donors in the audience. and the reason they're not loving me -- the reason they're not -- excuse me. the reason they're not loving me is, i don't want their money. i'm going to do the right thing for the american public. i don't want their money. i don't need their money. and i'm the only one up here that can say that. eminent domain, the keystone pipeline. you consider that a private job?

>> i consider it a public use. >> let me ask you, jeb. do you consider it private? >> it's a public use. >> public use? no, it's a private job. >> it's a public use. that was by the courts, federal, state courts. >> you wouldn't have the keystone pipeline that you want so badly without eminent domain. >> gentlemen -- >> you wouldn't have massive factories without eminent domain. >> gentlemen? we do have to move forward. david, martha? >> when we come back here, jobs, isis, and what it means to be a conservative. the republican debate continues right here from new hampshire on abc. we'll be right back. abc news live coverage of the new hampshire republican debate is connected by blackberry priv.

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hampshire, here again is george stephanopoulos. >> candidates taking a quick break. i'm here with jon karl right now. and boy, jon, marco rubio came into this debate with a head of steam. ran right into chris christie. >> i have never seen marco rubio more rattled. he repeated himself three times, precisely when chris christie's criticism because, you always repeat yourself. this was a tough moment for rubio. >> donald trump started out more subdued. got a pass for most of the debate, right up until that first section and jeb bush was ready. >> makes you wonder where would we be if jeb bush had been that forceful in going after trump from the start? >> he has been hitting donald trump. >> not as effectively. >> he seemed to draw some blood and seemed to have the crowd on his side, at least for part of that answer tonight. we'll be right back. the candidates on the stage in just a minute.

live from st. anselm college in new hampshire, here again are david muir and martha raddatz. >> and we welcome you back to the republican debate from new hampshire tonight here on abc. we're going to turn now to what it means to be a conservative. i want to turn to governor kasich. governor, while campaigning here in new hampshire, you were asked by abc about groans from some conservatives after your endorsements from "the new york someti times" and "the boston globe." you said, conservatives have to say, isn't it nice to have a conservative like me liked? if i get elected president, the republican party and the definition of conservatism is going to change. how could you change conservatism? >> well, first of all, look. he's certainly not a moderate, but he can bring people together to solve problems. and the fact of the matter is,

i've cut taxes more than anybody in the country. this year. i have -- i have balanced budgets, the federal budget, the state of ohio budget. we're running a $2 billion surpl surplus. and in washington, we were able to have significant job growth. when we balanced the budget, of which i was the architect. it's not just balancing the budget. it's about jobs. when i was a kid growing up in a neighborhood where dad went home at night and said, i lost my job today, it just killed the family, it just -- it just was a devastating affect. so, we have to have economic growth. but once we have economic growth, i believe we have to reach out to people who live in the shadows. i believe we need to help the mentally ill, the working poor. we need to help the developmental disabled to rise and we need to help our friends in the minority community develop entrepreneurship. in america, conservatism should mean not only that some rise with conservative principles, but everybody has a chance to rise, regardless of who they are so they can live their god-given

purpose. that's what conservatism should be. >> governor kasich, thank you. mr. trump, you've heard the argument that you are not a true conservative. tell the voters watching tonight why you are. >> well, i think i am. and i view the word conservative as a derivative of the word conserve. we want to conserve our money. we want to conserve our wealth. we want to conserve, we want to be smart. we want to be smart, where we go, where we spend, how we spend. we want to conserve our country. we want to save our country. and we have people that have no idea how to do that and they are not doing it. it's something i believe in very, very strongly. >> mr. trump, thank you. senator rubio, you have said yourself that you don't think donald trump is running as a conservative. did he convince you? >> well, i think conservatism is about three things. the first is conservatism is about limited government.

especially at the federal level. the federal government is limited by the constitution, which delineates its powers. if it is not in the constitution, it does not belong to the federal government. it belongs to states, communities. it is about free enterprise. it allows everyone to survive without pulling anyone down. the reason why free enterprise is the greatest economic model in the history of the world is because it is the only economic model where you can make poor people richer without making rich people poor. it's about a strong national defense. it's believing that the world is a safer and better place when america is the strongest military and the strongest nation on this planet. that's conservatism. >> senator rubio, thank you. i want to go to the economy now. mr. trump, governor christie has said, if you get to ask a question, just ask him how. christie said, i don't care what he talks about, just ask him how. you have said that you'd be the greatest jobs president god ever created. tell americans watching tonight how many jobs you would create

in the first term and how. >> well, before i go there, i will tell you, i will bring jobs back from china. i will bring jobs back from japan. i will bring jobs back from mexico, where new hampshire, by the way, has been virtually wiped out, they lost so many businesses, going to mexico because of horrible trade deals and now we are about to sign another trade deal, tpp, which is going to be a disaster for this country, because they don't talk about monetary manipulat n manipulation. it is going to be a disaster. i'm going to bring jobs back and i'll start bringing them back very fast. under my tax plan, right now, we're the highest taxed country in the world. under my plan, we cut not only taxes for the middle class, but we cut taxes for corporations. we will bring back trillions of dollars, that's offshore, right now, $2.5 trillion and in my opinion, it's much more than that, that's what the government says. all of that money is going to come back. we're not going to lose pfizer which is now leaving, and other great companies, and they are all leaving. we have many, many companies

that are leaving this country. we're not going to lose them. we're going to have a tax structure that is going to keep them in our country. >> mr. trump, thank you. there are a lot of governors on this stage tonight and governor christie, governor kasich said of you, quote, in ohio, we balanced a budget. they don't have one in new jersey. we've got more jobs. how important are those met ickes in choosing the next president and is his job -- is his record on jords, i should say, actually stronger than yours? >> well, he deserves credit. he's done a very good job as governor of ohio. never said john hasn't. he's done a great job. but unfortunately, john's been so busy doing over stuff, he's using old statistics. that's okay. new jers new jersey has cut spending over $2.3 billion and we have 10,000 fewer employees than we had when i walked in the door. john has a bigger government now, and more employees than he

had when he walked in the door. all that doesn't matter. what really matters is this. that executive experience matters. we heard it said on the stage that president obama knows what he is doing. i would like to ask the veterans out there tonight, who are waiting in line for health care who are literally dying because the veterans administration doesn't work, do you think barack obama knows what he's doing? i don't. and i'll tell you something. anybody who evaluating him as know ing what he's doing doesn' know how to manage a government themselves. and one last thing, david, which i think is really important. i listen to senator rubio's answer on his bill. he said his bill couldn't pass on the gang of eight. he acted as if he was somehow disembodied from the bill. it was his bill. he said that didn't work. it was his idea. see, when you are a governor, you have to take responsibility for these things. you can't just act as if it happened out of nowhere. we have to take responsibility as executives. i take responsibility for my record in new jersey. we rebuilt the economy and rebuilt after the second-worst natural disaster in american

history. i'm proud of my record. and i like kasich's record, too. he's a good governor. >> david? >> governor kasich? >> look, i'm not here -- i lik chris. let me just tell you, first of all, we have the lowest number of state employees in 30 years. secondly, we have grown government at the rate of inflation. and i went from an $8 billion hole to a $2 billion surplus. and we've grown jobs by 400,000, that's one of the fastest growing states in the country. our pensions are secure. and our credit is rock solid. now, i've learned that, what makes things work, what gets the economy going, not just in ohio, but in washington? and it's three things. common sense regulations, which we have, lower taxes, which we have, the lowest taxes, tax cuts in the country, and thirdly, a fiscal plan to balance the budget. when you go from $8 billion in the hole to $2 billion in the blax when you cut taxes by $5 billion and you grow over

400,000 jobs, that is a record that i can take to washington, using the same formula that i used in washington when i was part of the effort to balance the budget to give us a surplus and to create jobs. that's what i did and i'll do it again. >> governor kasich -- >> i was mentioned -- >> i'm going to come to you next with a question, anyway. going from jobs to taxes, and here's -- >> let me respond to that question. >> to the gang of eight bill first? >> here's the response. i think anyone who believes that barack obama isn't doing what he's doing on purpose doesn't understand what we're dealing with here, okay? this is a president -- this is a president that is trying to change this country. when he talked about change, he wasn't talking about dealing with our problems. obama care was not an accident. the undermining of the second amendment is not an accident. the gutting of our military is not an accident. the undermining of america on the global stage is not an accident. barack obama is, indeed, trying to redefine this country. we better understand what we're dealing with here, because that's what hillary clinton and

bernie sanders want to double down on. >> the governor wasn't talking about the president -- >> he talked about barack obama. >> let me ask you about taxes, senator rubio. a recent poll, 68% of americans favor raising taxes on people making more than $1 million a year. are they wrong? >> i don't know of any problem in america that's going to be fixed with a tax increase. we have an economy today, an economy today that is not creating jobs that pay enough. and one of the reasons why is because we have one of the most expensive business tax rates on the planet. our combined rate puts us among the highest in the industrialized world. and we are the only one that has a worldwide system of taxation. an american company who makes money abroad has to pay taxes where they made the money and a second time when they bring it back. the combination of these two things has stranded over $2 trillion, the equivalent of the size of the russian economy, $2 trillion of american corporate money, stranded overseas, combined with all of these inversions of companies leaving us.

the solution to the problems we have today are not a tax increase. it is to lower our taxes on both people and on companies so we can make america globally competitive again. >> senator rubio, thank you. i want to bring in governor bush. 68% of americans favor raising taxes on people making more than $1 million. what do you say to those people tonight? >> i would like to see more millionai millionaires. we need to create a prosperity society where people can rise up. this notion that somehow we're undertaxed as a nation is just fool hearty, when we have entitlements growing faster than our ability to pay for it. a conservative, because that's the point of this, believes in limited government, believes in a strong national defense. but we need to reform things. in my town hall meetings, i went to a place where a woman described her neighbor who has a better economic deal by not working than her struggling to mauck e make ends meet. we need to be on the side of

working people. the problem with the left is, another tax, another regulation, another mandate makes it harder for them to rise up. everything that we should do should be focused on high sustained economic growth, where the middle class gets a raise for the first time and where people are rewarded for work, rather than nonwork. and i know how to do this. if people are interested in the specifics, go to jeb2016.com. >> knew that was coming. >> david? david? i actually have experience with raising taxes on millionaires in my state, it was done. it was done by my predecessor. i want people to know the truth. you're wrong. here is why you're wrong. after new jersey raised taxes on millionaires, we lost, in the next four years, $70 billion in wealth, it left our state, to go where it would be treated more kindly. if the united states raises taxes any further, that money will leave the united states, as well. we won't have better jobs. let new jersey be the canary in

the coal mine. it is a failed idea and a failed policy, it's class warfare. it happened in my state. i've stopped it from happening again. but we cannot do it. the 68% of the people are wrong about that, it will hurt the american economy. we tried it in hj hnew jersey. it did not work. >> governor christie, thank you. martha? >> senator cruz, you advocate what you call carpet bombing, or saturation bombing, to defeat isis, citing the more than 1,100 air attacks a day, the u.s. carried out during the first gulf war in 1991. explain how a strategy to defeat a standing army would work against an unconventional terrorist group that is now hiding amongst the population. >> well, sure. it starts with a commander in chief that sets the objective. and the objective has to be utterly and completely destroying isis. obama hasn't started with that objective and everything else flows from there. once you set that objective, we have the tools to carry that out.

the first tool is overwhelming air power. it is one of the blessings of the united states of america, having the greatest military on the face of the earth, is, we have the ability to use that air power, as you know, the first persian gulf war, 1,100 air attacks a day. obama is launching between 15 and 30. now, when i say saturation carpet bombing, that is targeted at oil facilities, targeted at the oil tankers, command and control locations, targeted at inf infrastructure, communications, it's targeted at bombing all of the roads and bridges. it's using overwhelming air power. you know, couple of weeks ago, it was reported that a facility is open called jihadist university. now, the question i wonder, why is that building still standing? it should be rubble. and if you had a president, though, i will say this -- i would be willing to wait until freshman orientation before launching those bombs. >> senator cruz, would you like to expand or loosen the rules of

exgaugement? i was just in a command center, and they said they thought the rules of engagement worked. because you have so many civilians in those populated areas, they don't want to hit civilians. >> martha, i'll tell you, i have visited with active duty military, with veterans over and over and over again in town halls all over the state of new hampshire. what we are doing to our sons and daughters, it is immoral. we are sending them in to fight with their arms tied behind their back. they cannot defend themselves. and it is wrong. and i will tell you this. look. america has always been reluctant to use military force. it's the last step we take. but if and when we use it, and when it comes to defeating isis, we should use it. we should use overwhelming force, kill the enemy, and then get the heck out. don't engage in nation-building, but instead, allow our soldiers to do their jobs instead of risking their lives with politicians, making it impossible to accomplish the objective. >> so, loosen the rules of

engagement? >> absolutely, yes. >> senator rubio, you said in the last debate that isis is the most dangerous jihadist group in the history of mankind. and that will it take overwhelming u.s. force to defeat them. can you specifically tell us what you mean by overwhelming force? >> well, first, we need to understand who they are. isis is not just a jihadist group, they're an apocalyptic group. they want to trigger a showdown between the west and themselves, which they believe will trigger the arrival of their figure. i'm not saying what's going to happen. the reason why it's important to understand that is because these are not groups that are just going to go away on their own. they are going to have to the defeated. and i believe they need to be defeated and the ground, by a ground force, made up of sunni arabs. it will take sunni arabs to reject them and defeat them militarily. that will require coalition of iraqis and syrians that are also sunnis, but the cooperation of jordanians, egyptians, that will need to be backed up with u.s.

special operation forces alongside them and it will have to be backed up with increased air strikes. we are going to have to strike them in iraq and syria and every other part of the world where they have hubs of operation. they have affiliates in a dozen countries on this planet. it all begins by taking away their they operating spaces. >> again, senator rubio, you've already said isis is the most dangerous jihadist group in the history of mankind. so, that would make it more daung rou dangerous than al qaeda, the insurgents in iraq. we committed hundreds of thousands of u.s. troops to fight those groups. so, if isis is the most dangerous group in history, why not commit a large u.s. ground force? >> because they currently occupy sunni cities and villages. sunni cities and villages can only truly be liberated and held

by sunnis themselves. if they are held by shias, will start sectarian violence. kurds do not want to liberate and hold sunni villages and towns. it will take sunni fighters toe take those villages and cities and to avoid the sectarian violence that follows in the past. and why that is important is because if sunnis are not able to govern themselves in these areas, you are going to have a successor group to isis. isis is a successor group of al qaeda. in fact, they broke away from al qaeda, as horrible as al qaeda is, isis thought al qaeda was not radical enough. this is who we're dealing with and they have more money than al qaeda ever had. >> what would you do differently to try to get the sunni forces? they have not been coming forward. >> well, the problem with the sunni forces in the region is they don't trust this administration. this administration cut a deal with their mortal enemies, the shia, in iran. it poisoned the well with these countries. it makes it very difficult to

cooperate with them. they understand what real u.s. air power looks like. they saw the iraq war. they saw afghanistan. na they know what air power looks like when the united states is committed to the cause. they see the air strikes conducted now and they say to themselves, that's not real commitment. we know what real commitment looks like. the jordanian king was in washington three weeks ago. he told everyone who would listen that they have begged for permission from the coalition to target car have a rcaravans. they will not allowed to proceed. >> mr. trump, thank you very much, senator rubio, mr. trump. you have said you will vigorously bomb isis. you've said, we've got to get rid of isis, quickly, quickly. how would you get rid of them so quickly and please give us specifics. >> well, four years ago, i said, bomb the oil and take the oil. and if we did that, they wouldn't have the wealth they have right now. now, i still say the same thing.

because we're doing little pinpricks, we're not even bomb, if somebody is driving a truck, they give notice, we're going to bomb. if they don't get out of the truck, the truck sails away with the oil. we don't want to bomb the oil, because we don't want to hurt -- pollute the atmosphere. can you imagine, general patton saying, we can't bomb because we're going to hurt the atmosphere. you have to knock the hell out of the oil. you have to take the oil. and you have also back channels of banking. you have people who think are our friends, in the middle east, that are paying tremendous numbers of -- tremendous amounts of money to isis, so, we have to stop those circuits. nobody knows banking better than i do. they have back channels. tremendous amounts of money is coming in through the banking system. so, between the oil and the banking, you will dry them up. but it should have been done four years ago, not now. >> and what would you do in those city where there are people who we are trying to help

who isis is essentially holding hostage? >> you have to go in -- first of all, when you take away their money and wealth, that will weak weaken. it will last for a year. but when you stop the banking channels and when you stop the oil and take the oil, not just bomb it, take it, when you do that, it's going to dry up very quickly. they're going to become a very weakened power quickly. >> thank you very much, mr. trump. let's turn to libya. governor bush, it is a country in chaos, there is no government. this week, defense officials said there are now 5,000 isis fighters there, roughly doubling previous estimates. we know you and others have been critical of the administration's handling of libya after the initial air strikes that you supported. but this is a problem you would stand to inherit if you're the next president. reports this week said the administration is considering new air strikes, possible

special operations raids. would you support renewed air strikes or any u.s. involvement on the ground? >> i would. and i would do it in concert, again, with our arab allies and with europe, most particularly, in this case. this is the lesson learned, in history, if you bomb something and not do anything as it relates to deal with the aftermath of this, if you don't have a stable government, you get what we have in libya. and this is not leading from behind. it's not an effective policy. we have to lead. without the united states, nothing seems to work. europe doesn't have the ability to lead forwardly in this regard. and so, dealing with the caliphate is important, because it now has spawned other areas. there have been 70-plus attacks in 17 countries, either inspired by isis or organized by isis. libya being the most important one now. we have to deal with the caliphate with building a sunni army there, but we have to deal with it in libya. i think the united states, ultimately, is going to play a significant role in this.

the problem with the obama administration is that they see this incrementally. they're reluctant. they don't lead. no one knows if we're serious and when we do it, we do it in increments you can barely see. the united states has to lead in a much more aggressive way than we're doing right now. >> thank you very much, governor bush. dr. carson. >> i want to say something about this, because i'm not here just to add beauty to the stage. you know, i've been talking about libya for quite a long time. i think i was the first one to start talking about it. i say, we have to have a pro active foreign policy strategy. and, of course, the next place that isis is going to attack to is libya. if you want to expand your caliphate and increase your influence, then, you're going to go to a place that's tra teejicily located. you go north, across the mediterranean. you're into southern europe. you go south, you are into chad and sudan and niger. not to mention the fact that you have much more oil than you do

in iraq. that's the kind of place that they're going to go to. therefore, we need to be thinking about how do we prevent them from attacking over there. they are already sending their fighters there. we need to be consulting with our military experts and asking them, what do they need in order to prevent isis from being able to take over libya. that's going to have enormous consequences. >> would you support renewed air strikes? >> i would support the possibility of renewed air strikes if in conjunction with our joint chiefs and our military people, they felt that that was an appropriate strategy. the fact of the matter is, none of us up here is a military expert. and we sometimes act like we are, but we're not. if we actually sit down and talk with them and get them to understand our plan and get their impression of what needs to be done, i think we're going to make a lot more -- >> we're going to move on. >> martha, thank you. we're going to stay on isis here and the war on terror, because there's been a debate in this

country about how to deal with the enemy and enhanced interrogation attempts. senator cruz, you have said, torture is wrong, period. civilized nation do not engage in torture. some of the other candidates say they don't think waterboarding is torture. mr. trump has said, i would bring it back. senator cruz, is waterboarding torture? >> well, under the definition of torture, no, it's not. under the law, torture is excruciating pain that is equivalent to losing organs and systems, so, under the definition of torture, it is not. it is enhanced interrogation, it is vigorous interrogation, but it does not meet the generally recognized definition of tort e torture. >> if elected president, would you bring it back? >> i would not bring it back in any sort of widespread use. and indeed -- i senator mccain in legislation that would prohibit line officers from employing it, because i think bad things

happen when enhanced interrogation is employed at lower levels, but when it comes to keeping this country safe, the commander in chief has inherent constitutional authority to keep this country safe. and so, if it were necessary to, say, prevent a city from facing an imminent terrorist attack, you can rest assured that as commander in cheech,ief, i woul whatever methods we could to keep this country safe. >> nor cruz, thank you. mr. trump, you said not only does it work, but you would bring it back. >> well, i'll tell you what. in the middle east, we have people chopping the heads off christians. we have people chopping the heads off many other people. we have things that we have never seen before, as a group, we have never seen before, what's happening right now. the medieval times, i mean, we studied medieval times, not since medieval times have people seen what's going on. i would bring back waterboarding and i would bring back a hell of

a lot worse than waterboarding. >> mr. trump, thank you. governor bush, you said you won't rule it out. congress has passed laws banning the use of waterboarding by the military and the cia, as you know. would you want congress to change that? >> no, no, i wouldn't. it was used sparingly, congress has changed the laws and i think where we stand is the appropriate place. but what we need to do is to make sure that we expand our intelligence capabilities. the idea that we're going to solve this fight with predator drones, killing people somehow is more acceptable than capturing them, securing the information. this is why, closing guantanamo is a complete disaster. what we need to do is make sure we are kept safe by having intelligence capabilities, both human and technological. that's how you get a more safe place, is by making sure that we're fully engaged. right now, this administration doesn't do that. >> governor bush, thank you. senator rubio, i do want to ask

you, you have said that you do not want the telegraph to the enemy what you would do as commander in chief. but for the american people, do you believe waterboarding is torture? >> well, when people talk about interrogating terrorists, they are acting like this is some sort of law enforcement function. law enforcement is about gathering evidence. anti-terrorism is about finding out information to prevent a future attack. so, the same tactics do not apply. and it is true, we should not be discussing in a widespread way the exact tactics that we're going to use, because it allows terrorists and others to practice how to evade us. but here's the bigger problem with all of this. we're not interrogating anybody right now. began tone m began on the mow is being emptied. we shouldn't be releasing these killers who are rejoining the battlefield. >> senator rubio, thank you. we want to turn now to executive orders. and let's go back to mary katherine. >> david, thank you. senator cruz, on the campaign

trail, you've promised voters a lot, and fast. if you are elected president, you said you'd end common core, abolish the irs and do away with sanctuary cities. you've been a critic of president obama's executive overreach. how do you intend to implement this aggressive agenda within your constitutional authority, especially given that it would require working with congress and washington players with whom you are happy to say you have a strained relationship. >> well, thank you for that question, you know, there are three avenues of presidential authority to change the direction of this country. the first is executive power. the second is foreign policy. and the third is legislation. executive power, as we all know, has been the preferred vehicle of president obama, abusing his authority, abusing his constitutional authority. now, the silver lining of that is, everything done with executive power can be undone with executive power. so, i have pledged, on day one, i will rescind every single

illegal and unconstitutional executive action barack obama has done. that means on day one, his efforts to restrict the second amendment go away. that means on day one, his illegal executive amnesty goes away. the reason i can end common core at the federal level is because obama is abusing executive power using race to the top funds to force it on the states. that's one avenue. the second avenue of change is foreign policy. and foreign policy can change the fastest. it's worth remembering that iran released our hostages the day reagan was sworn in. and the third is legislation, and that can only be done with the people behind you, which is why the two big legislative initiatives i'm campaigning on are repealing obama care and adopting a simple flat tax to abolish the irs. >> mr. trump. if senator cruz is known for

opposing deals, you literally wrote the book on making them. senator cruz has mentioned that on the trail. what would you say to those conservatives who are concerned that a dealmaker will just perpetuate the same deems in washington, the way that things run now. >> no, a good dealmaker will make great deals. but will do it the way our founders thought it should be done. people get together, they make deals. ronald reagan did it with tip o'neill. you didn't hear so much about executive orders, if you heard about it at all. you have to be able to get a consensus. now, the real person, like it was mentioned about the deal with iran, how bad a deal is that? it doesn't get any more amateurish than that. with congress, you have to get everybody in a room, and you have to get them to agree. but you have to get them to agree with what you want. and that's part of being a dealmaker. you can't leave the white house, go to hawaii and play golf for three weeks and be a real

dealmaker. it doesn't work that way. you have to get people in, grab them, hug them, kiss them and get the deal done. but it's got to be the deal that you want. >> governor kasich. is the problem with washington that there are too many deals or too few? >> well, right now, the deals -- there's no leadership. a lot of the things that we're talking about here tonight, you know, on the border and so many of the things, you know, what we should be doing on foreign policy, the problem is, mary katherine, there's not a leader that gets somebody to rise up. you have to have a leader that can inspire. i mean, actually, some of what donald is saying is true. look, you know how hard it was to -- >> some? >> to get the federal budget balanced? you have to plead with people. to do what we've done in ohio, you have to plead with people. then, you go back down to washington and do the same thing. we have to remind people, we're americans before we're republicans and democrats. and when we wait and when we

delay, what we end up doing, mary katherine, is, we make the united states weaker. in fact, it's a foreign policy issue, because people look at american, not solving problems and they say, what are they doing over there? so, the point is, you have to work with people. the problem with executive authority for the president, it's really bad news for this reason. since he's given up on working with congress, he thinks he can impose anything he wants. he's not a king. he's a president. and executive orders should be used, frankly, in consolidation and consulting with the leadership in the congress. i've done it in ohio, i consult, i can use executive orders, but i don't trump the legislature. because if you do, you aggravate them, you anger them and then the long-term prospects get bleak. we have to solve problems in america by coming together, republicans and democrats, americans first, party and ideology second, in the second back seat of this country. that's what we need to do. and we can do it.

and we can do it. >> this is a -- this is an important subject. i agree with everything that's been said here about repealing unconstitutional rules and rules that are creating real burdens for investing that creating jobs. but we also ought to get back to being a tenth amendment country, as well. a country that respects the states to be able to make more decisions. and in the bush administration, we would shift transportation dollars back to the states. i trust kasich and christie to build the roads and the inf infrastructure of their states than washington, d.c. epa delegated authority, back to the states. education dollars, back to the states. i would like to see reform take place all across the country, where there's more vouchers, more freedom. if we did that, we would shrink government's power in washington, d.c., and we would have a much more effective government, where people would begin to trust our government again, because now, no one believes it works. >> mary katherine, let me just say this to you. you must have an agenda that you are ready to move on in the first 100 days.

jeb is right. if you delay and you wait, the washington operators will take you down. i can tell you this, in the first 100 days, i will have legislation to freeze federal regulations, have them reviewed by the vice president, reduce state taxes on individuals, reduce taxes on corporations, have a fiscal plan to balance the budget, get the border protected and begin to fix social security in the first 100 days, so, anybody who is here tonight, if i get elected president, head out tomorrow and buy a seat belt, because there's going to be so much happening in the first 100 days, it's going to make your head spin. we're going to move america forward. i promise you. we're going to move us forward. >> you mentioned me. >> he mentioned me. along with repealing obama care, we need to shift all of this power of health care, which is the most egregious, allow governors to have the medicaid plans so they can create 21st century medicaid insurance for

people who are stuck in poverty. there are so much that can be done, but i don't trust washington to do it. i trust the states to be the source of innovation and reform in this country. >> thank you, governors. martha and david, back to you. >> mary katherine, thank you. we want to turn to something the governor of new hampshire said -- >> jeb mentioned me. time for me to go again! >> i didn't mention him the second time. >> he says he didn't mention me the second time. i thought i heard it, jeb. thank you all very much for listening and being patient with all of us tonight. thank you. >> connection here on the stage. we're going to move on to what the governor of new hampshire said just this week, and that is second-leading cause of death in this state. 48% of the people here in this state knows someone who abuses heroin. josh? >> this is a very deadly problem here in new hampshire.

last month, new hampshire senat senators went down to washington, along with the police chief of the state's largest city to testify before the judiciary committee in d.c. senator cruz, you did not attend this. even so, the police chief called your absence now ray jooutrageo the problem. you talked about a family members problem with addiction. what can you say now that you understand the severity of the problem and you are not just saying what you think people want to hear? >> well, josh, as you noted, this is a problem that, for me, i understand first-hand. my older sister, myriam, who is my half-sister, struggled her whole life with drug and alcohol addiction. my father and her mom divorced when she was a little girl and she was angry her whole life. and she ended up marrying a man who had been in and out of jail.

she then became a single mom and she herself went to jail several times and she ended up spending some time in a crack house. i still remember my father and me driving up to get myriam out of that crack house to try to convince her, she needed to be a mom to my nephew, joey. she wasn't willing to listen. she was not willing to change the path she was on. she was angry. i was -- had just gotten my first job coming out of law school. i took a $20,000 loan on a credit card to put my nephew, joey, in valley forge military a acade academy. he was in sixth grade at the time, to pay his way through that. and about five, six years ago, myriam died of an overdose. it was the -- she went to one night, had taken too many pills, and joey walked in, found her dead. this is an epidemic. we need leadership to solve it. solving it has to occur at the

state and local level with programs like aa and counciling and churches and charities. but it has to be securing the borders. mexican cartels are struggling heroin into this country. we know how to secure the borders. what is missing is the political will to do it. and as president, i will secure the border, we will end this deluge of drugs that is flowing over our southern border and that is killing americans across this country. >> governor christie, you talked a lot about this issue here in new hampshire, state reforms, criminal justice reforms, access to treatment. to senator cruz's point, let's take it a step further. would you be willing to engage into enforcement into mexico, a place where law enforcement in new hampshire has traced the supply back to, would you engage in cross-border enforcement without the cooperation without the mexican government? >> of course i would. as a former united states attorney that spent seven years of my life fighting this, i would do that. we need to do more. let me tell you what we've done in new jersey.

we are working with the folks in new hampshire right now to show them how we're helping to solve this problem in hj hnew jersey. three years ago, i proposed a law that we sign into effect, which said anyone who was a nonviolent, nondealing first-time drug offender no longer goes to prison in new jersey. they go to mandatory in-patient drug treatment. what's happened is, crime has gone down 20% in there's years. the prison population has gone down 10%. we're now closed the state prison, closed a state prison and turning it into a drug rehabilitation center. listen, everyone out there knows this in new hampshire. this is a disease. it's not a moral failing. it's a disease. and weapon need to get people the treatment they need. and let me tell you why. because i'm pro-life. and i'm pro life, not just for the nine months in the womb, when they get out and it's a lot more complicated. 16-year-old heroin-addicted drug girl on the floor of a county lockup, the 42-year-old who

his own family. and the last thing is this. these efforts taken over the last three years, 2015 in new jersey, for the first time in four years, drug overdose depths have gone down, not up, i'll bring the same solutions to the country. >> governor christie, thank you very much. david, martha, back to you. >> thank you, governor christie. thank you, josh. our partner in this debate, the independent journal review, has collect eed questions from some prominent conservatives around the country. here's a videotaped question from radio host larry o'connor. >> in 2008, we saw how motivated and electorate can be when they think their vote is making history. you'll be running against the prospect of the first woman president. how will you change that narrative and motivate the electorate behind your condition si? >> mr. trump, i'm going to give that question to you. you took it away anyway. >> it looked like he was looking right at me right there.

i think that -- i look at what's going on, i look at all of the polls, i do very, very well against hillary clinton. i can tell you, i'm the last person that she wants to run against. and i think you can see what we've done in terms of galvanizing. i've been all over the country. we're -- last night, i was in south carolina, we had 12,000 people. it set up in about four days. we have galvanized and created a movement. a lot of it has to do with -- josh's question on drugs, i'm the first person that said, build a wall. not a toy wall that they have right now. a real warm. you'll solve lots of problems. but we will galvanize the people of this country and we will beat hillary clinton. assuming that she runs, by the way, how she gets away with the e-mail stuff, but on the assu assumption that she runs, and if she runs, she's running for one reason. he's going to be able to run for one reason, and that's because

the democrats are protecting her. because so many people have done so much less than her and they were absolutely, their lives have been destroyed. but on the assumption they protect her, i will win the election and we will win it by a lot. we will win it. we cannot have another four years of essentially barack obama. >> thank you, mr. trump. i'm going to go to senator rubio. how would you change that narrative? >> i think it's already happening. look at the turnout in iowa. historic numbers. look at the rallies that people on this stage are having. much higher numbers than you used to see in the past. here is why. people are starting to understand, very clearly, that this election is going to be a turning point. that 2016 is not just a voice between republican or democrat. it is a referendum on our identity as a nation and as a people. here is what hillary clinton needs to understand. we're going to have our pree mare, our debates, twice as many as the democrats have been having to have themselves.

we're going to bring this party together. and we are going to defeat hillary clinton, because she is unqualified to be the president of the united states. she put classified information on her computer because she thinks she's above the law and anyone who lies to the families of people who have lost their loved ones in the service of our country like she did in benghazi can never be the commander in chief of the united states of america. >> thank you, senator rubio. dr. carson, i want to go to you. would you change the narrative? >> same question? >> yes. >> yes. well, first of all, i think it would be pretty easy contrast, quite frankly, between myself and hillary clinton. in one case, you have someone who is known as a deceitful individual. an individual who at benghazi, which i will never let go, quite frankly, because i think of those two men who went up there on the top of that compound with

machine guns, firing away, allowing their colleagues to escape, and i'm sure, in the back of their mind, they were just saying, if we can just hold on, help is on the way, but help was not on the way. when did we in the united states not send people to help our own people? you know, this is not who we are. and -- i would simply make it a referendum on honesty and integrity versus deceit and the washington way. martha? >> i'm going to go back to david. >> when we come back, questions about race, our veterans, and what younger conservative voters, as we continue with new hampshire with the republican debate, right here on abc. abc news live coverage of

the new hampshire republican debate will continue in a moment.

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stephanopoulos. >> two-thirds of the way through this debate. candidates making their way back to the stage. here with jon karl again. and jon, in that second section, you really saw all the governors rise to the top there on issues of jobs, executive power, addiction. >> this is something else. this is the revenge of the governors in this debate. you look at what happened with jeb bush, john kasich and chris christie, they came in sixth, eighth and tenth in iowa. they were the also-rans. in this debate, i think all three of them have put in their best debate performances of the campaign. >> and john kasich, who is doing the best in most of the polls right now, really trying to strike himself out as the most positive candidate up there on the stage. >> he's the one trying to get the independents that can be so important here in new hampshire. and he is presenting the optimistic vision of, we're angry, but we're angry about the anger. we want to get beyond that. >> and the better they do, maybe the better donald trump does. >> yeah, and trump has had -- this has been a great debate for trump. nobody's gone after him.

jeb bush went after him a little bit of imminent domain. >> okay, one more section to go. we'll be right back.

live from st. anselm college in new hampshire, here again are david muir and martha raddatz. >> welcome back to new hampshire, abc news coverage of the republican debate and it is great to have you back at the podiums and we want to turn to race in america. and mr. trump. there are many who argue cell phones and smartphones are just now exposing what's been happening in this country for years. cases of excessive force against minorities. as you know, mr. trump, on the

other side, the fbi director recently said there's a chill wind blowing through law phone,ment, because phone enforcement. you have said police are the most mistreated people in america. how do you bridge the divide? >> well, there is a divide, but i have to say that the police are absolutely mistreated and misunderstood and if there is an incident, whether it's an incident done purposely, which is a horror, and you should take very strong action, or if it is a mistake, it's on your news casts all night, all week, all month, and it never ends. the police in this country have done an unbelievable job of keeping law and order. and they're afraid for their jobs. they're afraid of the mistreatment they get and i'm telling you that not only, me speaking, minorities all over the country, they respect the police of this country and we have to give them more respect. they can't act. they can't act. they're afraid for losing their pension, their job. they don't know what to do. and i deal with them all the

time. we have to give create respect, far greater than we are right now, to our really fantastic police. >> mr. rump, i did ask about bridging the divide, though, as president. what would you say to the american families who say, we have seen excessive force? >> well, they do. and they sue. everybodysues, right? we have so much litigation. i see the courts, i see what they're doing. they sue, and, you know what? we don't want excessive force, but at what point? you know, either you are going to have a police force that can do its job -- i was just up in manchester, i met with the police officers yesterday, tremendous people. they love the area. they love the people. they love all the people. they want to do their job. and you're going to have abuse and you're going to have problems and you have to solve the problems and you have to weed out the problems. but the police in this country are absolutely amazing people. >> i want to ask -- >> governor kasich? >> i wanted to say, there can be

a win-one here. i have formed a collaborative between police and community leaders. because people have to respect law enforcement. the family didn't want dad or mom going home in a box. and for our community leaders, many of them think the system not only works -- not only doesn't work for them, but it works against them. and i created a big collaborative in ohio, made up of law enforcement, community leaders, the head of my public safety and a former democrat, liberal senate senator run it. they got together, they made recommendations on recruiting, hiring, the use of deadly force and what we're about to do is to bring community and police together so we can have a win-win. we need more win-wins in america and we don't have to pick one over another. we love the police, but we've got to be responsible to the people in the community. >> senator rubio, i want to ask you next, president obama visited a mosque this week in america for the first time in his presidency.

president george w. bush visited a mosque after september 11th. you said of president obama, quote, he is always pitting people against each other. so, i'm curious, how are the two visits different and would you visit a mosque as president? >> i would. but that's not -- the issue -- my problem with what he did is, he continues to put out this fiction that there's widespread discrimination against muslim americans. first of all, let's recognize this. if you go to a national cemetery in this country, you will see stars of davids and crosses, but you see crescent moons. there are brave men and women who happen to be muslim americans who are serving this country in uniform and who have died in the service of this country. and we recognize that and we honor that. but by the same token, we face a very significant threat of home grown violent extremism. we need to have strong, positive relationships in the islamic communities in this country so they can identify and report this activity. especially mosques, for example, that are participating not just in hate speech, but inciting violence and taking acts against us. i do believe it is important to recognize, you want to talk

about religious discrimination in america. i don't think barack obama's being sued by any islamic groups, but he is being sued by the little sisters of the poor. we have facing christian groups, traditional values who feel and in fact are being discriminated against that try to force them to vie to violate their conscience. >> senator rubio, thank you. martha? >> governor christie, earlier this week, the world health organization declared the zika virus a global emergency. the same kind of mosquitos that carry the zika virus in latin america are found here in the united states. and the virus has been linked to severe birth defects. governor christie, at the peak of the ebola outbreak in west africa, you ordered an american nurse who landed at newark airport be detained and quaranti quarantined. as fear spreads noult of the zika virus and the rio olympics just months away, is there a scenario where you would quarantine people traveling back from brazil to prevent the spread in the united states?

>> you belt i would. and the fact is that because i took strong action to make sure that anyone who was showing symptoms -- remember what happened with that nurse. she was showing symptoms and coming back from a place that had the ebola virus active and she had been treating patients. this was not just someone, we picked her up just for the heck of it. we did it because she was showing symptoms. and the fact is, that's how we should make these decisions. you make the decisions based upon the symptoms, the medicine and the law. she turned out to test negative after 48 hours and we released her back to the state of maine. but i want to add something on the issue of mosques. now, i'm the only one up here who has a law enforcement background and was the u.s. attorney after september 11th. i went to mosques to build bridges between our community and law enforcement to get intelligence and information from these folks. i had the experience of working with them as governor of new jersey, as well. we cannot mix the radical islamic jihadist with every day

muslim americans. new jersey has the second-largest muslim american population in america, of any state. these are good, law-abiding, hard-working people. what they need is our cooperation and our understanding. they do not need just broadsides against them because of their religious faith. >> governor christie, thank you. i'm going to move to dr. carson and go back to the zika virus. is that going too far, quarantining? you are a doctor. what would you do? >> it's not a simple issue. and now, you know, we've got evidence that there can be active viruses in other bodily fluids, like is a lsaliva and u. this is going to be a big deal, obviously. do we quarantine people, if we have evidence that they are infected and that there is evidence that that infection can spread by something that they're doing, yes. but you know, just willy nilly going out and quarantining

people because they went to brazil, i don't believe that's going to work. we really need to talk about, how do we get this disease under control? and this is where we need rapid response. we needled rapid responed rapidr ebola. we need it for zika. other things will come up. and these are the kinds of things that the nih, the cdc, can be very effective at. we need to give them the appropriate support for those kinds of things. >> thank you very much, dr. carson. i want to move onto the military. senator rubio, all restrictions on women in combat have been lifted, as long as they qualify, to six poe s positions like navy s.e.a.l.s. the military leaders of the army and marine corps said they believe young women, just as young men are required to do, should sign up for selective service in case the draft is reinstated. many of you have young daughters. senator rubio, should young

women be required to sign up for selective service in case of a national emergency? >> well, first, let me say, there are women today serving in roles that are like combat, that, whose lives are in very serious danger. so, i have no problem whatsoever with people of either gender serving in combat, so long as the minimum requirements are not compromised. but i support that. and now that that is the case, i do believe that selective service should be opened up for both men and women in case a draft is ever instituted. i think the more fundamental challenge is what's happening to the u.s. military. it's important to start paying attention to this. our air force is about to be the smallest it's been in our history. the army is set to be smaller than it's been since the second world war. and our navy is about to be the smallest that it's been in 100 years. we need to begin to refocus on rebuilding our military. every time we have cut our military, we have had to come back later and rebuild it, it costs more, it's a lot more

chaotic and dangerous. when i'm president, we are rebuilding the u.s. military. >> thank you, senator rubio. governor bush, do you believe young women should sign up for selective service, be required to do so -- >> i do, i do. and we should not impose any kind of political agenda on the military. there should be, if women can meet the requirements, the minimum requirements for combat service, they ought to have the right to do it, for sure. it ought to be focused on the morale, as well. we have to make sure we have readiness. we need to eliminate the sequester, which is devastating our military. we can't be focusing on the political side of this. we need to realize the military force is how we project our word in the world. when we are weak, militarily, doesn't matter what we say. we can talk about red lines and isis being the jv team and reset buttons and all this. if we don't have a strong military, then no one fears us and they take actions that are against our national interests. >> tell me what you'd say to american people out there who

are sitting at home, who have daughters, who might worry about those answers and might -- >> why would they worry? >> the draft is reinstituted. >> it's not going to be, but if women -- >> do you just do away with that? >> no. you asked the question, not about the draft. you asked about registering. if women -- >> you register for the draft. if it's -- >> i'm not suggesting we have a draft. what i'm suggesting is that we ought to have readiness being the first priority of our military, and secondly, that we make sure that the morale is high. and right now, neither one of those are acceptable, because we've been gutting the military budget. we also need to reform our procurement process. we need to make sure there are more men and women in uniform than civilians in our defense department. there are a lot of things we need to reform to bring our defense capabilities into the 21st century. i can do that. that's why i have the support of generals, of admirals, of 12 medal of honor recipients and

people know that i would be a steady commander in chief and rebuild our military. >> martha? >> thank you very much. >> can i be really clear on this, because i am the father of two daughters. one of them is here tonight. what my wife and i have taught our daughters right from the beginning, that their sense of self-worth, their sense of value, their sense of what they want to do from life comes not from the outside, but comes from within. and if a young woman in this country wants to go and fight to defend their country, she should be permitted to do so. part of that needs to be part of a greater effort in this country no reason why women should be discriminated against for registering for the selective service. the fact is, we need to be a party and a people that makes sure that our women in this country understand anything they can dream, anything that they want to aspire to, they can do. that's the way we raise our daughters. that's what we should aspire to. >> governor christie -- one

second, dr. carson. >> something about the draft. very quickly. >> very quickly. >> you know, 14% decrease in the number of people applying for voluntary military service, and i think part of it is because of the way we treat our veterans. you know, we wouldn't be a free country if it wasn't for them. and we have 22 veterans per day committing suicide. so, i think what we should do is have an external support system for people once they volunteer and it should follow them throughout their career. should follow them for three years, five years afterwards, a year before they get out, should be working on integrating them back into society, so that they quit on friday and they start their new job, they should have health empowerment accounts that are subsidized so they can go to any medical facility and be taken care of. they can go to a v.a. if they want to. if we take carol of our veterans the right way, we won't have to ever worry about a draft again. >> thank you very much for bringing up that subject, dr.

carson, of our veterans and for another question about our veterans, we go back to josh from wmur. josh? >> thank you, martha. none of you on stage tonight have ever worn a uniform as a member of the armed services, that's the reality of it. as commander in cheecief, you a charged with the care of veterans in this country. some have suggested privatizing the v.a. is a way to enhance care and increase the quality of the care. and access. others say that veterans should carry i.d. cards, allow them access to any hospital of health care provider. governor bush, what specifically would you do to ensure those who have sacrificed for us are cared for? >> i totally agree that we need to give veterans more choices. veterans card to be able to go to a private provider will enhance the quality of the service inside the department of veterans affairs. we need career several service reform. only three people were fired after a waiting list were dropped where veterans didn't get care and people died. it is outrageous. and hillary clinton says that

that's acceptable? because she is captive of the public service uniforms. the next president could fire people that are showing sheer incompeten incompetence. someone told the story of their father who looked like he was 85, he got a bill eight years later from an operation he had, eight years, it took, they couldn't resolve the dispute and then he was told that he died. literally, the veterans administration sent a death certificate to this guy. and it took nine months to clarify the guy -- i met him. he's voting for me. and he is -- likely to be alive. this is -- this is outrageous. it is completely outrageous. so, giving veterans more choices. creating centers of focuses on the true problems that exist. dr. carson is right. we need to focus on this earlier, before they become veterans so there's a customized

plan so people don't fall f through the cracks. we can do this. >> governor kasich, do you have a favored approach? >> josh, i mean, clearly, when a veteran comes home, they should get health care anywhere they want to go. in our state, which is what we should do in the country, you know, if they drive a truck from kabul to kandahar in afghanistan, we say, you can drive a truck from columbus to cleveland and we don't have to go get a license. we're going to hand you one. and if you got expertise in the military, we're going to give you college credit or community college credit for the things that you did for our country. and in addition to that, i'll tell you, one of the biggest things i think has to be done and i would do it as president, the pentagon has got to work with the returning soldier, sailor, along with the family, and they're the most valuable employees in the country. i call them golden employees. everybody wants to hire a veteran. but there is a disconnect between the job openings and the veteran when the veteran comes

back. the veteran is a leader. the veteran is strong. the veteran is drug free. there should be no unemployment among veterans. if the pentagon will work with the veteran services agencies across this country, josh, we can get people jobs and we can get them jobs quickly, get health care, college education. let's lift them. they're the greatest people defending the united states of america and we need to take care of them and we will. we will. >> senator rubio? >> well, my brother's a veteran. we're very proud of him in our family. he served as a green beret from 1968 through 1971. and as part of his training he jumped out of an airplane and he lost his two front teeth. for years he has dental claims. when he goes to get one filled, the v.a. says, how do we know you lost your teeth in the army? he said, well, it's the only time i've jumped out of a plane. i worked in a bipartisan way, we

passed a v.a. accountability bill that for the first time allows us to fire, allows the v.a. secretary to fire someone who is not doing a good job, who is a senior executive. and the governor's right. they have only fired three people up until now. more people will be fired if i'm president. but the portability part of it is incredibly important. veterans should be able to take their benefits to any hospital or doctor they want to go to. when i am president of the united states, veterans will be able to take their benefits to any hospital or doctor that they choose. >> senator rubio, thank you very much. got to move forward now. david, martha, back to you. >> josh, thank you. i want to turn to a family that new hampshire voters know quite well, and senator cruz, the issue of hostages has been a very real and painful one here in this state. as we all know, james foley was killed, his mother said our government should be willing to negotiate. arguing that families should be allowed to raise money for ransom. what would you say to diane foley tonight? should families be allowed to raise money for ransom for their loved ones? >> well, i recognize it is an

agonizing experience when anyone is facing a loved member who has been kidnapped, but at the same time, putting in place legal regimes that encourage the payment of ransom has the affect of putting a bounty on other americans. there is a reason it has been long-standing u.s. policy that we don't negotiate with terrorists, we don't pay ransoms. if you look at what president obama has done over and over again, whether it was the james bergdahl deal that was absolutely shameful, releasing five senior taliban terrorists to bring bergdahl back. or if it was this recent deal with iran, where, again, up to 21 terrorists or potential terrorists were released or not prosecuted in order to bring back four americans, what that does is, it effectively puts a bounty on american servicemen and women serving aboard, on

american tourists traveling aboard, and the proper approach is a president and commander in chief that defends this country and that goes after -- goes after the terrorists rather than showing them weakness and encouraging them to target more americans. >> senator cruz, thank you. mr. trump, what would you say to diane foley? should families be allowed to raise money for ransom? >> well, i know diane very well. her husband and -- these are tremendous people. i spoke for them, i raised a lot of money for the foundation. i fully understand james, one of -- that was really the first that we saw, really visually saw, it was so horrible, and i will tell you, with all of that being said, you can not negotiate this way with terrorists. if you do, you are going to have many, many more james foleys. james was a great young man. his parents are incredible people. they've done such a good job, since his death, but you just cannot negotiate that way with terrorists, or you are going to have so many other james foleys.

and one thing on the vets, during the last debate, i raised $6 million for the vets and i will tell you something -- i will tell you that i think nobody here, nobody on this stage, gets along with the veterans groups in new hampshire better than i do, with all of the people that i deal with, and these are great people. the one thing that we're not mentioning, there's tremendous fraud, waste and abuse in the veterans administration and if i'm running things, that's going to disappear and it's going to disappear quickly. >> mr. trump, thank you. we want to turn now to social issues, and young voters and for the question from mary katherine. >> thank you, david. senator rubio. one of the lazier pieces of political conventional wisdom is that so-called social issues are hurting republicans with young people. but on the two-most prominent social issues, polling with millennials moves in different directions. on one hand, it is clear, young people across the political spectrum favor same sex marriage. young voters have not moved to the left on abortion.

in fact, large numbers of them favor at least some modest restrictions that conservatives have supported. how do you speak to millennials on both these issues while democrats will charge intolerance and extremism? >> well, first of all, i don't believe that believing in traditional marriage the way i do makes you a big got on a hater. it means that you believe that this institution that's been around for mill len ya is an important cornerstone of society. i believe, deeply, that marriage should be between one man and one woman. on the issue of life, to me, the issue of life is not a political issue. it's a human rights issue. it puts in conflict two competing rights. on the one hand is the right of a woman to choose what to do with her body, which is a real right. and on the other hand is the right of an unborn human child to live. and they're in conflict. as a polly mipolicymaker, i mus. i have choosen to err on the side of life. here's what i find outrageous. five democratic debates. the media has not asked them a single question on abortion and

the democrats are extremists. why doesn't the media ask hillary clinton why she believes all abortion should be illegal why does she believe that partial birth abortion, which has been outlawed in this country, she thinks that's a right. they are the extremists when it comes to the issue of abortion and i can't wait to expose them in a general election. >> governor bush? i want to come to you. your allies have attacked senator rubio for being too pro life to be elected in november. you made a similar charge in an interview. this is a pro life party. do you stand behind that criticism? >> i'm pro life. on this stage, i'm the most pro life person because i acted on it for eight years in the state of florida. where we abolished partial birth abortion, where parents have the right to be notified when their teenage child is having an

abortion. we were the first state to do a choose life license plate. we were the first state to have state moneys go to crisis pregnancy centers, which recently was just increased to $4 million a year. we created greater regulation on abortion clinics, where there were horrific procedures. i'm pro life. but i believe there should be exceptions. rape, incest and when the life of the mother is in danger. and so, that -- that belief, and my consistency on this, makes me, i think, poised to be in the right place, the sweet spot for republican nominee. and others may have a different view and i respect it. but i think we have to be cognizant of the fact, there's a lot of people that are concerned about having a pro life position without any exceptions. >> i do support -- i just believe deeply that all human life is worthy of protection. if i'm president, there's a bill that's passed that saves lives but there's exception, i'll sign

it. i believe that all human life is worthy of protection. the issue of life is not a political issue. i want to be frank. i would rather lose an election than be wrong on the issue of life. >> governor christie. you, too, have talked about senator rubio's position on the life issue. some conservative activists have called this line of attack harmful to the pro life cause. >> i've been pretty helpful to the pro life cause in one of the most pro-choice states in the u union. we defended planned parenthood. for six years as governor, planned parenthood does not receive the money. $50 million is not going to do exactly what hillary clinton wants to have done, has advocated for. she believes that organization, which engages in the murder of children in the womb, in order to maximize the value of their body parts for sale on the open

market, is an acceptable position. i don't care if you are a millennial or in your 90s, no one is for that type of activity, unless you are the most radical type of extremist on this issue, like senator clinton and her party is on this issue. i'll say one other thing. fact is, that i believe that if a woman has been raped, that is a pregnancy that she should be able to terminate. if she is the victim of unzesin this is not a woman's choice. this is a woman being violated. the fact is, we have always has believed, as has ronald reagan, that we have self-defense for women who have been raped and impregnated because of it or the subject of incest and been impregnated for it. that woman should not have to deliver that child if they believe that violation is now an act of self-defense by term nafting that pregnancy. >> thank you, all. back to you, david and martha. >> mary katherine, thank you. we're going to have closing statements in a moment, but a quick lightning round. come november, two battleground states, but face off tomorrow in

the super bowl. governor kasich, who wins? >> oh. carolina's going to win that one. i hate to say it. they're going to win that one. >> governor bush? >> peyton manning is supporting me. i'm for denver. >> nor rubio? >> well, i was going for peyton manning, but now i'm rooting for carolina. >> mr. trump? >> carolina. >> with an eye to february 20th, carolina. >> all right, dr. carson? >> with 100% certainly, i will predict the winner, it will either be denver or carolina. >> governor christie, the last word? >> denver. >> denver. thank you so much, gentlemen. closing statements in just a moment, right here, as the abc news republican debate continues from new hampshire right after this.

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there you see, the top issues of facebook tonight. immigration, isis, the economy, health care, size of government. here with jon karl. we saw the candidates talked about most, donald trump, marco rubio. not surprising when you look at the issues. those are the issues that have been animating them all the way through. >> right there on the top, the number one issue discussed on social media, immigration. we've seen debates where immigration dominated more than it has here, but even so, that is the issue that is resonating with this republican electorate. >> the first issue that donald trump talked about right out of the box tonight, as well. he is the most searched candidate tonight. in every state expect new hampshire, where more people are searching for marco rubio. >> it is interesting that none of the issues pertain to what

was rubio's tough start in this, the question of barack obama and barack obama know what he's doing. that didn't seem to be -- >> and the question is, the voters love to see him bashing -- republican voters love to see him buashing the united states. >> he did that over and over and over again. >> he did. closing statements coming up. we'll be right back. abc news coverage of the new hampshire republican debate will continue in a moment.

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i've loved every second of it. it's been the greatest thing in the world. and i want you to know that you've changed me. because i've listened to your stories and i've had your hugs and i've seen your tears. and i've seen you walk away and say, i now have hope. you know, i've had a conservative message, but a positive message, not just a conservative message, but a positive message about how we can bring people together. how we can restore america's strength, lift everyone. new hampshire, please give me a chance to carry this message forward to the united states of america. and then, i will come back. thank you, loved it. and god bless you. >> governor christie. >> thank you. i spent the last 13 years of my life focused on one thing. serving the people who have given me the opportunity to serve them.

not about politics. not about partisanship. but putting the people of my state and our country first. i'm proud to have stood on the front lines of fighting the war on terrorism after september 11th. i'm proud to have rebuilt my state after hurricane sandy. and i'm incredibly proud to be on this stage tonight with these men, asking for your vote. new hampshire, i spent 70 days here with you. you've gotten to know my heart. my heart is to help you solve the problems of your state and the problems of our nation. if you give me your vote on tuesday, i will do just that. >> governor bush? >> i want to thank the people of new hampshire and i want to celebrate the birthday of a great president, ronald reagan, would have been 105 today. and president reagan believed in the future of our country. had a hopeful message. drew people towards our cause. we need someone who has a proven

record to take our case to the american people. because our philosophy is, by far, the best one, of limited government, of entrpeace throug strength. i believe i have the skills to take our party to victory in november. i ask for your support on tuesday to keep america and make america, safer, stronger and freer. thank you all very much. >> dr. carson? >> for many months, the political class, pundits, the media have tried to ignore or bury me. they say that politics is too complex and too sleazy. you can't survive. well, guess what? i'm still here. and i'm not going any place, either. and i believe there is still a place in our country for faith, integrity and common sense. hundreds of thousands of you drafted me to run for president and i am going to, with the help

of god and you, once again place the american people at the pinnacle with the government there to serve it. >> thank you, dr. carson. senator rubio? >> thank you. you know, this week, i had the great pleasure of having my kids join me on the campaign trail. i hadn't seen them in awhile. it was great to have them. but the most important part, it reminded me of what's at stake here in new hampshire, in less than 72 hours. we are literally deciding what kind of country we will be like when they're my age. what country they will raise their families in. that's why i'm asking you for your vote. you vote for me and we will unite this party. we will grow the conservative moment. we will defeat hillary clinton and we will leave our children what our parents left us. the single greatest nation in the history of all mankind. thank you. >> senator cruz? >> you know, every candidate

running for president says they will stand up to washington. the natural followup question is, when have you ever stood up to washington? last week, we saw a powerful illustration of that. i campaigned in the state of iowa four square against the ethanol mandate. something else said was political suicide. my two leading competitors both attacked me for it. the governor of the state said, vote for anyone but cruz, and lobbyists spent millions of dollars in attack ads, but i said, we should have no mandates, a level playing field, and the people of iowa put country and our children above the corporate welfare. we can turn this country around if we get back to the constitution and i will always stand with the american people against the bipartisan corruption of washington. >> thank you. mr. trump. >> that's because he got ben carson's votes, by the way, but we won't say that.

our country that we love so much doesn't win anymore. we don't win with the military, we don't win on the border. you look at new hampshire, with the tremendous problem we have we heroin. number one thing i hear from the people of new hampshire, who i love and developed such relationships, we don't win with health care, we don't win with trade. you look at what other countries are doing to us, china, everyone. they're killing us on trade. if i'm elected president, we will win and we will win and we will win. thank you. thank you very much. >> mr. trump, thank you. thanks to all the candidates on the stage here tonight. thanks to the people of new hampshire for having us for this debate and to everyone at home, the new hampshire primary is tuesday. george stephanopoulos and the powerhouse political team standing by, take it away, george. >> thank you, david and martha. the debate is over. donald trump got the first word tonight, he got the last word, as well. says he's going to win, of course, he is leading in new hampshire. coming into this.

i want to go straight to tom llamas in the spin room. you have been covering the trump campaign, covering all the republican candidates what are you getting in that room tonight? >> george, the headline is, what happened to senator marco rubio? he was so prepared for all of the debates. he knew he had a fight tonight, and he was not ready for chris christie, who had been attacking him all week. from my conversations earlier with the rubio campaign, they were prepared for an attack with jeb bush. bush didn't have to do it. christie did it right. george? >>ing okay, tom. i'm here with matt dowd. you could see the wheels turning for jeb bush after the exchanging between rubio and christie right at the start. he didn't have to go there. >> i'm amazed at the turn of events in one week time. the favorite son from the last debate, marco rubio, who by everybody's accounts had won that debate, came in tonight and the favorite son was on the run, big chased by chris christie when everybody thought he was going to be chased by jeb bush.

i thought this debate tonight was marco rubio's worst at a time where he needed probably his best and i think it's hard to say who won, but i think rubio lost. >> let me take that point to bill kristol. what rubio's team will say, okay, maybe that exchange with chris christie was a little shaky, but republican primary voters want to hear someone bash president obama. that's what marco rubio did and he recovered over the course of the night. >> i like marco rubio. but people want to be sure he's ready to be president. repeating the same answer and not realizing that he was repeating himself two or three times, really, in the course of a couple of minutes. >> when he was being accused of repeating himself. think it damaged him. i think -- malmatt's right. cruz wins iowa. he did well. certainly wasn't dominant here. rubio soaring out of iowa, i think a pretty big stumble for him. john kasich, who ran, what, eighth in iowa or something like that, i think did very well tonight. christie -- the governors all

did well. christie and bush were effective. kasich stuck with the positive message. a establishment-oriented message. that could work in new hampshire, where there are a lot more moderate voters. >> and coe kekie, you saw donal trump hit a lot of different kinds of notes tonight, not simply out there bashing. some humor, modesty -- think it was a good night for donald trump. i think he was rational. he seemed, you know, humorous at times. there were tweets that even his hair seemed more controlled. and he really was someone that people could look to and not be frightened by and bullying, except for a few little jabs at cruz and the carson thing. i think it was a good night for him. >> donald trump acted like a front-runner tonight. maybe for the first time in one of these debates. he's been the front-runner in all of them, but tonight, he acted like one. he doesn't lash out at anybody. his harshest attack of the night

was on the audience. and the audience wasn't with him in this debate. he rose above it. >> which i think is going to benefit him. most of the voters that he has are working class voters that feel left out of the system, that feel the establishment is control of the process. when he is booed by an audience who said were contributors, donors, part of the system, i think getting booed by the audience is going to help. >> i thought the mood tonight -- maybe i'm overreading, who knows, but was, who can govern. >> which is why the governors were good. >> the governors saying for the last week, being in new hampshire, which is a less angry state, i think, apparently than iowa. i think it's help eed kasich an christie -- >> if people are truly are undecided, really looking around for an alternative, that's one of the big questions. that's what's going to address when we come back. going to find out what the democrats are saying tonight, from seal see ya vega, who is covering them. we'll be right back.

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less than three days away. democrats on the ballot here, as well. bernie sanders and hillary clinton. cecilia vega covers those campaigns. what are you hearing from them tonight? >> privately, there were a number of democrats who were concern -- concerned about a mar dco rubio surge. the dnc chairmanwoman sent out a tweet earlier tonight, saying marco rubio, #notreadyforprimetime. hillary clinton's team is firing back on immigration and health care. these are going to be fights in the general election. the one thing i was struck by tonight, seeing this stage, was how few times hillary clinton's name actually came up compared to past debates. >> you are right about that. i was struck by that, as well. donna brazile here, as well. it is true that most democrats think that marco rubio would be the toughest candidate to beat, pretty early to count him out, though. >> marco rubio did not come prepared tonight to make closing arguments in a time when there are still a lot of undecided

voters. tonight, he decided to run against president obama in 2008, not the president who may come. so, i thought this was a failed opportunity for him tonight. i thought democrats came off pretty good, because, you know what, they didn't really talk about us. >> does this change your assessment coming into the debate, we were talking about earlier, three, four tickets out of new hampshire. if everybody's bunched up in that third, fourth and fifth place, does everybody stay in? >> well, i think it is interesting to me. what happens now is, there was a -- this race was -- donald trump had a double-digit lead. four people jumped up around second place. out of this, donald trump keeps his lead. he didn't do anything to damage himself. but there is no way to tell who is going to finish second, third, fourth or fifth in the course of this thing. and i think what rubio did tonight, by not doing well, kept a lot more people in this race that would have gotten out. i think jeb bush, watching that tonight, if jeb bush finishes fourth or fifth, jeb bush is

thinking, this guy is not going to last. >> and jeb bush has his brother, former president george w. bush, going to campaign for him in south carolina next week. >> and of course he had his mother here. i think chris christie in many ways was the dominant player in this debate. the question is, did he do more than take out marco rubio? he went at rubio very effectively. is that going to bring people to say, i'm going to vote for chris christie, or did he open up the opportunity for the other governors? >> he had been a little bit further back, coming in tonight. >> i think we're going to see south carolina now be the place where we all turn to, say, maybe this is what determines who the nominee is or who the top two are, because i think that this debate tonight is going to have new hampshire looking at several of these people again and putting them in a higher position. >> and the more people stay in, maybe even beyond south carolina, you have all the votes on super tuesday, march 1st, the longer everybody stays in, the more possibility that this could go to the convention. >> well, we know there's a lot of volatility in the final three

days. i was witness to it when i worked for george w. bush in 2000, when we went from eight points down to losing to 19 in all of three, four days. i think new hampshire is going to play a fundamental role in this on tuesday night. we don't know. the difference between somebody finishing second and somebody finishing fifth is huge in raising money and all the things you have to do. and i think there's a bunch of people that could be second or fifth. >> governor kasich clearly did himself a really bit of good tonight. he looks like the guy tonight who can go after independents and consolidate more republicans. >> and his message is pitch perfect for new hampshire. and for trying to draw over those independent voters that can, you know, be decisive. certainly were for you in 2000 when mccain came in and won the independents. >> we don't know how he's going to finish here. one of the questions for him, any of the candidates coming out of it, where do they win next? and with john kasich, will he be able to hold onto ohio, march 15th. >> a long way to go. winner take all state.

he can get a lot of delegates by winning it, but where is he going to take that message, as we talked about at the top. he said today, i should be running in the democratic primary. he was joking, but i know you guys fear him probably more than anybody else on that stage but can he get through a republican primary? >> that's the kwee poiney point. tonight, he had an opportunity to say, i care about cops, but also believe they should be held accountable for their actions. he's more of a general election candidate. >> george, i think -- i don't think any of the republican establishment is ready for these words on new hampshire night. donald trump just won the new hampshire primary. that is very, very possible after this. >> that is true. >> when those words come out, we don't know what that does. >> only a few seconds left. we had been dropping a little bit each day coming into this, you think he stopped that? >> i think he did. right now, he's going to win unless something happens. >> more coverage on abcnews.com. see you tomorrow on "this week."

>> hey, everybody, i'm chris harrison. today should be a lot of fun, because we're playing with some old friends of mine from my other shows, "the bachelor" and "the bachelorette." and best of all, everything they win is going to charity. it's "bachelor" fan favorites week right here, on "who wants to be a millionaire." [cheers and applause] [dramatic music] ♪ hey everybody, i'm chris harrison welcome to the show. are you guys ready to play "millionaire" today? [cheers and applause] me too. and this one is near and dear to my heart. america first fell in love with today's "bachelor" fan favorite on "the bachelorette," and he's been baking cookies and warming hearts ever since. playing for make-a-wish, southern nevada chapter today, from las vegas, please welcome marquel martin. [cheers and applause]