NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Republican presidential candidates drew a sharp contrast Thursday night with the portrait of the economy and the nation's security that President Barack Obama painted in his State of the Union address this week.
During the debate hosted by Fox Business Network, some warned that sticking with Democrats in the November election could have dire consequences.
"On Tuesday night, I watched story time with Barack Obama, and it sounds like everything in the world was going amazing," said New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie as the GOP hopefuls returned to the debate stage for the first time this year.
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas accused Obama of painting a rosy picture of the country's economic situation while working Americans are being "left behind."
"The millionaires and billionaires are doing great under Obama," Cruz said, lamenting the lack of good jobs in the "Obama-Clinton economy."
Ohio Gov. John Kasich stayed optimistic for a turnaround, saying familiar Republican ideas are the key to spurring economic growth: cut taxes, reduce regulations and balance the federal budget.
"When you do that ... the job creators begin to get very comfortable with the fact that they can invest," Kasich said.
On national security, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush suggested the country was less safe under Obama and declared Hillary Clinton, a Democratic candidate, would be a "national security disaster."
Bush noted the FBI investigation of possible breaches in security when Clinton used a private email server as secretary of state and predicted that if elected, her first 100 days as president might see her shuttling "between the White House and the courthouse." That got the governor an ovation.
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida went even further, saying Clinton was "disqualified for being commander in chief," accusing her of mishandling classified information and lying to the families of Americans killed in the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya. Clinton was secretary of state at the time.
Billionaire businessman Donald Trump defended his call for blocking Muslims from the United States because of terror concerns emanating from abroad.
"It's not fear and terror, it's reality," he declared.
He listed off places -- Indonesia, California and Paris -- recently struck by terror as evidence the U.S. needs to take a harder line against people who want to perpetrate "great destruction."
The U.S. must take a "good, strong look" at its policies, he said, adding that "the country's a mess."
It took the moderators more than 15 minutes to get around to asking retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson a question. He answered by thanking them for waking him up, a quip he's used before.
He quickly provided his answer to Obama's foreign policy, saying the president "doesn't realize we now live in the 21st century." He said Obama needs to be on alert for stateless terrorists and the threat of dirty bombs. He added: "War is very different."
Candidate eligibility
During a lengthy and heated back-and-forth, Trump brought up one candidate's eligibility to run. He insisted that Cruz receive a judgment from the courts because it would be bad for Republicans to have the issue hanging over their presidential nominee.
"I'm glad we're focusing on the important topics this evening," responded Cruz, who was born in Canada to an American mother and has been a U.S. citizen since birth.
"The Constitution hasn't changed," Cruz said. "But the poll numbers have. I recognize that Donald is dismayed that his poll numbers are falling in Iowa. But the facts and the law are really clear. Under long-standing U.S. law the child of a U.S. citizen abroad is a natural born citizen."
Cruz directly addressed Trump: "You're an American, as is everybody else on this stage. I would suggest we focus on who is best prepared to be commander in chief."
Seeking to return focus to the debate at hand, Rubio steered the conversation back to defeating a Democrat and stopping Obama's agenda.
"We have to get back to what this election is about," he said, before digging into Christie, accusing him of backing Planned Parenthood, Common Core academic standards and gun control.
"We can't have a president of the United States that supports gun control," he said.
The last line between Americans and terrorists may be a gun, he added, and that's why he wants to strengthen Second Amendment rights and not restrict access to firearms.
Christie responded by defending regulations enacted in New Jersey by saying they were enacted through proper legislative action, as opposed to Obama's recent executive action.
Christie added: "When you're a senator what you get to do is talk and talk and talk and no one can keep up to see if what you're saying is accurate or not." He said governors are held accountable.
Trump said there are no circumstances under which he thinks the U.S. should limit gun sales.
Focusing on foreign policy, Bush vowed to rebuild the nation's military so Russia and other countries will take the U.S. seriously. Lamenting cuts to the Navy and other parts of the military, he said the U.S. must "get back in the game" to restore order and security for itself.
At the start of the evening, Cruz opened the debate with an attack on Obama and his relationship with Iran. He was asked to provide his take on the economy in contrast to the president's views.
He said he was "horrified" to see images of the 10 U.S. sailors briefly held by Iran on Tuesday night after crossing into Iranian waters. He slammed Obama for not even mentioning the incident in his State of the Union speech.
Cruz criticized Obama for being too cozy with Tehran. He said that if he were president, any nation that held U.S. sailors would feel "the full force and fury" of the U.S.
Cruz later defended his failure to disclose loans of some $1 million from Goldman Sachs Inc. and Citigroup Inc. on federal election forms during his 2012 Senate campaign, saying it was little more than a "paperwork error."
He had to take out the loan because, he said, "I don't have masses of money in the bank, hundreds of millions of dollars."
Undercard debate
Earlier in the evening, three other candidates squared off in the GOP's "undercard" debate.
All three candidates -- former tech executive Carly Fiorina, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania -- promised that they'd be the best to take on the Democrats.
"You cannot wait to see the debate between me and Hillary Clinton," Fiorina said. "You would pay to see that fight."
She added, to whoops and cheers: "Unlike another woman in this race, I actually love spending time with my husband."
Fiorina cast herself as a stand-in for women everywhere, saying she'd been told to accept less than the best her whole life -- and would not stand by while the United States was told to do the same with Clinton.
"Citizens, it is time," she said. "We must take our country back."
Santorum and Huckabee talked about races they'd run against Clinton's allies.
"You want a fighter? You want a winner? I'd appreciate your vote," Santorum said.
Santorum sought to reframe a plan to deport illegal aliens as a "gift" from the United States to both the aliens and their home countries, carrying the benefit of American-educated and American-assimilated people.
"I'm going to give them the gift of being able to help the country they were born in. We're gonna export America," Santorum said when asked about his plans to increase deportations of people who entered the country illegally.
"They can start a renaissance in their country so they won't be coming here anymore," he said to loud applause.
Huckabee played up the debate on gun control. He got a few cheers when he said he'd encouraged gun sellers to disobey Obama's latest executive actions that expanded background checks for gun sales.
Huckabee said he wasn't sure that the president could be trusted to leave guns in their owners' hands: "'If you like your gun, you can keep it, too,'" Huckabee said, paraphrasing a promise by Obama that Americans could keep the health insurance they had after the Affordable Care Act was passed. "Frankly, we don't buy it. He's lost his credibility," Huckabee said.
Fiorina was also skeptical of Obama's efforts, as was the audience. When a Fox Business Network moderator noted that polls show widespread support for expanded background checks, the crowd booed.
"Not in this room," Santorum said.
That's what the polls show, the moderators replied.
"And we all believe the poll data all the time, don't we?" Fiorina said.
On foreign policy, Huckabee also offered skepticism about the U.S. military effort in Afghanistan, saying that he saw little hope for rebuilding a nation "like the land of the Flintstones."
"It's been that way for thousands of years," Huckabee said of Afghanistan. Huckabee had been asked whether continuing U.S. efforts to aid the Afghan government against Taliban militants was worthwhile. He gave no outright answer, but seemed skeptical that it was. "I don't know what we're going to make it look like. You can't create for other people a desire for freedom and democracy."
All three candidates criticized Obama for being too passive and permissive in foreign policy, and all promised more aggressive stances toward Iran and Russia, as well as the Islamic State extremist group.
Fiorina was asked whether, in an effort to fight the Islamic State, she would accept an alliance with Russia and Iran. She said no, and added that the United States must stick by Saudi Arabia in its ongoing tensions with Iran.
"Saudi Arabia is our ally, and Iran is our adversary," Fiorina said after offering a list of Middle Eastern allies whose leaders she knew personally. "Vladimir Putin and Russia are our adversary. We cannot outsource leadership in the Middle East to Iran and Russia."
The undercard debate was supposed to feature a fourth candidate, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, but he chose not to participate because he didn't qualify for the main stage. Instead, Paul held a town-hall event, made other TV appearances and kept up commentary of the proceedings via Twitter.
His absence did not go unnoticed.
"I'm going to take some of Rand Paul's time here for a second," Santorum said after his own speaking time had run out.
Thursday's debates came less than three weeks before voting begins in the lead-off Iowa caucuses, scheduled for Feb. 1.
Republicans have one more debate scheduled before voting begins in Iowa, a Jan. 28 event in Des Moines.
Information for this article was contributed by Julie Pace and Bill Barrow of The Associated Press; by Jenna Johnson, Katie Zezima and David A. Fahrenthold of The Washington Post; and by Michael C. Bender, Kevin Cirilli and Mike Nizza of Bloomberg News.
A Section on 01/15/2016