Won't commit to GOP, Trump says

Billionaire, immigration fuel debate

The candidates in the first Republican presidential debate take their positions Thursday night at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland. From left are New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, businessman Donald Trump, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
The candidates in the first Republican presidential debate take their positions Thursday night at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland. From left are New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, businessman Donald Trump, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.

CLEVELAND -- A combative Donald Trump, the billionaire businessman turned presidential candidate, kicked off the first Republican debate of the 2016 campaign by warning he might run as an independent if denied the GOP nomination.

Reader poll

Which GOP presidential candidate do you think performed best in Thursday night's debate?

  • New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie 3%
  • U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida 13%
  • Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson 11%
  • Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker 4%
  • Businessman Donald Trump 24%
  • Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush 6%
  • Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee 11%
  • U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas 9%
  • U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky 4%
  • Ohio Gov. John Kasich 15%

272 total votes.

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AP

Earlier, other GOP candidates who were not ranked high enough in the polls to be part of the debate arrive for a pre-debate forum at the arena. Republican presidential candidates from left are Jim Gilmore, Lindsey Graham, Bobby Jindal, Rick Perry, Rick Santorum, Carly Fiorina, and George Pataki.

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AP

Mike Huckabee speaks during Thursday night’s debate in Cleveland and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas waits his turn.

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AP

Donald Trump reacts to Huckabee’s closing remarks later in the debate.

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AP

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Dr. Ben Carson talk during a break.

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AP

U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky was aggressive in taking on Trump and his refusal to commit to supporting a party nominee besides himself.

Asked in the debate's opening minutes whether he could rule out a third-party run, Trump declared Thursday night, "I will not make the pledge at this time." He also refused to apologize for making crude comments about women, defended his changing policy positions and repeatedly tangled with the debate moderators.

Fighting for the spotlight alongside Trump, most of the other contenders quarreled over immigration, terrorism and gay marriage, each casting himself as the strongest to take on the Democratic Party, particularly Hillary Rodham Clinton.

On immigration, one of the main topics of the night, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush defended his call for a path to legal status for some of the people living in the U.S. illegally, an unpopular position among some Republican voters who equate legal status with amnesty.

"The great majority of people coming here have no other option," Bush said.

Trump in particular has pushed the issue of immigration throughout the summer, drawing criticism for saying Mexican immigrants are rapists. He said Thursday that he had been told that by border patrol agents, and he took credit for immigration being an issue in the campaign.

Fox News host Chris Wallace challenged Trump to provide evidence of that charge during the first GOP presidential debate.

"If it weren't for me, you wouldn't even be talking about illegal immigration," Trump said. Immigration has been a hot-button issue in presidential campaigns for years.

Sen. Marco Rubio of Flordia said many U.S. citizens feel taken advantage of when it comes to immigration.

"This is the most generous country in the world when it comes to immigration," he said.

He took issue with Trump's putting blame on Mexico. Most illegal immigrants, Rubio said, are coming from countries such as Guatemala and El Salvador and are overstaying their welcome, as opposed to sneaking over the border.

Seventeen Republicans are seeking the party's nomination, but only 10 were invited by debate host Fox News to participate in the main event based on their showing in recent polls. The remaining seven were relegated to a pre-debate forum.

On stage in his home state, Ohio Gov. John Kasich sought to raise his profile by striking an optimistic tone on the economy, saying all Americans need an opportunity to "share in this great American dream." He said that while he favored traditional marriage, he had recently attended a same-sex wedding and would support his children if they were gay.

A raucous crowd cheered the candidates on throughout the debate in Cleveland, the same city where Republicans will nominate their general election candidate next summer.

The first debate highlighted divisions within the party, with Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky representing a segment of GOP voters frustrated with military action overseas and what they see as infringements on personal liberties.

Paul at one point had a heated exchange over the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

Christie, a former U.S. attorney, said he was the only person on the stage who had filed applications under the USAPATRIOT Act and gone before secretive courts for authority.

"I will make no apologies ever for protecting the lives and the safety of the American people," he said, arguing the government needs more tools, not fewer.

"You fundamentally misunderstand the Bill of Rights," Paul shouted across the stage to Christie: "Use the Fourth Amendment! Get a warrant! Get a judge to sign a warrant!"

He said Christie's embrace of the counterterrorism policies amounted to "hugging" President Barack Obama, a reference to the governor's embrace of the president in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy in the days before the 2012 election. "I know you gave him a big hug. If you want to give him a big hug again, go right ahead," Paul said.

Christie then retorted that the hugs he remembered were with 9/11 families.

Paul was also the most aggressive in taking on Trump, challenging him early on his refusal to commit to supporting the party nominee.

"He's already hedging his bets because he's used to buying politicians," Paul said.

Later on, Bush heard boos when the moderator said he is the lone candidate on stage who supports education standards known as Common Core.

Bush said he believes education should be a state responsibility and said education standards should be higher. If states don't want to take part in the Common Core standards, he said that's fine.

"I don't believe the federal government should be involved in the creation of standards directly or indirectly," he said.

Rubio, who at 44 is the youngest person running for president, said executive experience is not a requirement for president.

The remark came in response to a question about kind comments Rubio had made about Bush's record as governor.

"I would add to that this election cannot be a resume competition," Rubio retorted sharply. "This election better be about the future, not the past."

As the topic of abortion and Planned Parenthood arose, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said defunding the organization is only one strategy for addressing revelations contained in recently released videos.

Huckabee said he would like to see the Constitution adjusted to protect the rights of unborn children.

"It's time we admit the Supreme Court is not the supreme being," he said.

An anti-abortion group released several secretly shot videos with Planned Parenthood executives describing how the organization provides fetal tissue to medical researchers and discussing different procedures and prices.

Also on stage Thursday was Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, whose victories over unions in his home state created his national profile.

Walker said he has tried to act as God wanted him to as he's taken difficult political actions during his governorship.

Walker said he is "not a perfect man" but he has tried to act with respect.

"What God calls us to do is follow his will," he said. "And, ultimately, that's what I'm going to try to do. And I hope people have seen that in my state."

The crowded field meant limited talking time for candidates, many of whom were introducing themselves to Americans for the first time.

Surgeon and Tea Party favorite Ben Carson, when asked whether he would support a return to using waterboarding to obtain information from terrorists, responded: "Thank you. ... I wasn't sure I was going to get to talk again," before saying he didn't think it was wise to telegraph the United States' military strategy to its enemies.

Rounding out the 10 debaters was Sen. Ted Cruz, who stayed out of the sharpest exchanges and found opportunities to press his attack on the White House administration's foreign policy and the war on terrorism.

"We need a commander in chief who speaks the truth," Cruz responded. "We will not defeat radical Islamic terrorism so long as we have a president who is unwilling to utter the word, 'radical Islamic terrorism.'"

Thursday's debate was the first of six party-sanctioned forums scheduled before primary voting begins in February. Fox News used national polls to determine which 10 candidates would be on the stage, and several candidates were separated by a number smaller than the polls' margin of error.

The other seven

The remaining seven from the GOP field were relegated to a pre-debate forum, a low-key event in a largely empty arena, where candidates avoided debating each other and largely stuck to scripted responses on domestic and foreign policy.

Throughout the evening, Fox News moderators Bill Hemmer and Martha MacCallum asked questions that reminded the candidates of their junior varsity status.

They told Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana that he polled behind Hillary Rodham Clinton in his own state. Rick Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator, was asked if his time had passed. Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard chief executive, was reminded of her poor polling.

At the outset, Hemmer brought up "the elephant that is not in the room tonight, Donald Trump," and the bombastic billionaire's shadow was felt throughout the debate.

Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Fiorina opened the early event with biting criticism of Trump.

Perry -- whose failed 2012 White House campaign was damaged by a debate stumble -- accused Trump of using "his celebrity rather than his conservatism" to fuel his run for president.

"How can you run for the Republican nomination and be for single-payer health care?" Perry asked, referring to a position Trump once took.

Fiorina said Trump had tapped into Americans' anger with Washington, but she challenged the businessman as lacking policy positions. "What are the principles by which he would govern?" she asked.

Even when not asked about Trump, candidates alluded to him. Santorum, speaking of illegal immigration, said that "some of the other candidates have strong positions" on the topic, but that his was different. Perhaps in an effort to top Trump, Santorum called for restricting legal immigration by 25 percent.

He said that 35 million people had "come here over the last 20 years, almost all of whom are unskilled workers" and that they were "flattening wages" and creating "a lack of opportunities for unskilled workers."

Other barbs were reserved for Hillary Clinton and Bush.

"Hillary Clinton lies about Benghazi. She lies about emails," Fiorina declared in her closing statement, adding that "ee need a nominee who is going to throw every punch, not pull punches."

Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina accused Clinton of doublespeak in her defense of her use of a private email server as secretary of state. He also ridiculed her comment that she and Bill Clinton were "flat broke" after leaving the White House.

"Hillary, I'll show you flat broke," Graham said.

Jindal went after Bush by name, rejecting the idea that Republicans need to be willing to lose the primary to win the general election, referring to recent comments by Bush.

"Let me translate that for you," Jindal said. "That's the establishment telling us to hide our conservative principles to get the left and the media to like us. That never works."

Jindal also described congressional Republicans as weak.

"It's time for Republicans in D.C. to fight. Too often they give up, they negotiate with themselves," he said, arguing that Republicans promised to undo Obama's executive actions and repeal the Affordable Care Act but failed.

Graham focused mostly on a single issue, repeatedly concluding his remarks with references to foreign policy. If a candidate does not "understand we cannot defend our nation without more of our soldiers over there, you're not ready for this job," he said.

He later took aim directly at the Obama administration's nuclear deal with Iran, saying, "This deal is giving him a pathway to a bomb, a missile to deliver it and money to pay for it all."

Nearly all the candidates onstage promised to reject the deal with Iran on their first day in office.

"This is a bad deal," Fiorina said. "Obama broke every rule of negotiation. Yes, our allies are not perfect. But Iran is at the heart of most of the evil that is going on in the Middle East through their proxies."

Jim Gilmore, the former governor of Virginia, proposed that "there be a Middle East NATO so that we can combine our allies there."

Abortion was also a focus of the 80-minute debate. Jindal said that on day one in the Oval Office, he would order investigations by the Justice Department and other agencies into Planned Parenthood, whose handling of fetal tissue has been the subject of secretly recorded videos that, Jindal said, "show hideous disrespect for life."

George Pataki, the former New York governor, was asked how, as a Republican favoring abortion rights, he could hope to win support. Pataki said he was "personally appalled" by abortion but that it was fruitless to continue trying to overrule the Supreme Court's decision to allow it under certain circumstances.

After the forum, Fiorina, the only woman in the 17-member Republican presidential field, was asked by reporters about Bush saying earlier this week he was "not sure we need half a billion dollars for women's health issues," referring to the money that goes to Planned Parenthood.

"I think it's going to become an ad in a Democrat campaign," Fiorina said. "And it is foolish to say that women's health isn't a priority. Of course it's a priority. We can talk later about how and where that money gets spent."

Fiorina strongly endorsed the push to defund the women's health provider.

Information for this article was contributed by Julie Pace, Steve Peoples, John Flescher, Lisa Lerer, Jill Colvin and Thomas Beaumont of The Associated Press; by Trip Gabriel and Nick Corasaniti of The New York Times; and by Sahil Kapur, Ben Brody and Ali Elkin of Bloomberg News.

A Section on 08/07/2015

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