GOP debates in Las Vegas focus on ISIS, terrorism — PHOTOS
Less than two weeks after a terrorist attack in Southern California, Tuesday's presidential debates on the Las Vegas Strip featured 13 Republican candidates battling over who would best protect the nation and defeat the Islamic State.
The two debates at The Venetian, shown live on CNN, focused nearly exclusively on foreign policy, with no significant discussion of education, drug policy, gun control, criminal justice reform or any other domestic issue.
And just days after a historic international accord in Paris aimed at limiting climate change, there were no questions on the topic from CNN moderators.
At several points, candidates said any of the Republicans on stage would better protect the country than either President Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton, the leading Democratic candidate.
Tuesday's debates were the last for the GOP this year. And for the candidates trailing front-runner Donald Trump, the prime-time event was an opportunity to raise their profile and poll numbers.
Former Florida governor Jeb Bush was one of the most aggressive, repeatedly sparring with Trump, the billionaire businessman.
Bush was asked about his earlier description of Trump as "unhinged" and his criticism of Trump's proposal to bar non-American Muslims from entering the United States.
Saying Americans need to work with Arab nations to take on terrorist groups, Bush asked: "If we're going to ban all Muslims, how are we going to get them to be part of a coalition to destroy ISIS?"
He added of Trump: "So Donald, you know, is great at — at the one-liners, but he's a chaos candidate. And he'd be a chaos president."
Trump didn't hold back in response, saying, "Jeb doesn't really believe I'm unhinged. He said that very simply because he has failed in this campaign. It's been a total disaster. Nobody cares. And frankly, I'm the most solid person up here. I built a tremendous company, and all I want to do is make America great again."
The main event
In a two-tiered structure, candidates were placed in a debate based on their standing in polls. They were given 75 seconds to answer questions and 30 seconds to provide rebuttals when criticized by name.
The Dec. 2 terrorist attacks in San Bernardino, Calif., set the tone for both debates.
The evening's main event featured Trump, Bush, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky.
Cruz was asked about his prior statement he would "carpet bomb" ISIS into oblivion and whether that meant he would attack the self-declared ISIS capital of Raqqa, a Syrian city where civilians also live.
Cruz said he'd focus on the troop locations, not the city, and use special forces on the ground to direct the attacks.
Cruz and Rubio sparred too, though not as fiercely as Bush and Trump.
Rubio said Cruz has voted against a military funding bill and supported a "containment budget" reducing defense spending.
"You can't carpet bomb ISIS if you don't have planes and bombs to attack them with," Rubio said.
Cruz said he voted against the the National Defense Authorization Act to keep a campaign pledge to oppose giving the federal government authority to detain U.S. citizens permanently without due process.
Two governors who have struggled in the polls, Christie and Kasich, sought to set themselves apart from the pack.
Christie cast himself as an executive with experience making decisions, not a senator arguing over bills — a not-so-subtle comparison to Cruz, Rubio and Paul. Kasich, in his closing comments, reminded the audience that Ohio is crucial to winning the White House.
Paul, a libertarian, continued to oppose the bulk collection of Americans' phone records, which he called unconstitutional. He also said "stricter controls" on who entered the U.S. may have prevented the San Bernardino attack.
In one of the evening's odder exchanges, Carson mentioned his background as a pediatric neurosurgeon when asked if he could order air strikes that might kill children. He said children were "not happy" when he had to look them in the eyes and say he had to open their heads to remove tumors — but that they loved him for it later.
"By the same token, you have to be able to look at the big picture and understand that it's actually merciful if you go ahead and finish the job, rather than death by 1,000 pricks," Carson said.
Fiorina said the government needs to comb sites such as Facebook and Twitter for possible terrorists.
"For heaven's sakes, every parent in America is checking social media and every employer is as well, but our government can't do it," she said. "The bureaucratic procedures are so far behind. Our government has become incompetent, unresponsive, corrupt."
The kids' table
Homeland security and foreign affairs also dominated the afternoon session, which featured four trailing candidates: former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, former U.S. senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and former New York governor George Pataki.
Graham blasted Trump's call for banning Muslims from entering the U.S., saying it would make the country "less safe."
Santorum and Graham both said the National Security Agency should be able to collect data on Americans' phone calls, a power that's been limited.
Huckabee said other tools are needed to defeat terrorists, including monitoring social media. Huckabee noted that one of the San Bernardino attackers wrote posts about jihad that were not detected until after the attack.
Candidates differed on whether to send ground troops into Syria, with Graham strongly in favor and Santorum saying troops should only be there in a training capacity.
Stressing the need to defeat ISIS overseas, Graham said: "They're planning another 9/11 as I speak."
The candidates discussed whether and how to admit Syrian refugees into the United States. Santorum said there's "no one to call" to vet the refugees and said they should be relocated to camps overseas instead of admitted to the United States.
Pataki agreed the 10,000 Syrian refugees the Obama administration wants to take in can't be adequately vetted.
Democrats play bingo
About 40 people gathered at the Martin Luther King Jr. Senior Center in North Las Vegas to watch Tuesday's debate — a low-key event sponsored by the Democratic Party.
Several in attendance played a mock bingo game, marking off boxes when one of the candidates said a common debate buzzword. "The liberal media," "your candidate invokes Ronald Reagan" and "your candidate has heard from folks all over the country," were on list.
Roberta Lange, chair of the Nevada State Democratic Party, was front-and-center to watch and said afterward she wasn't surprised.
"It's more of the same," Lange said, adding that most of the topics she considers most important — economic growth and climate change, especially — weren't even discussed.
"I haven't heard any solutions," she said.
Nobody claimed a winning bingo card.
Protest ignored
Hours before the debates, about 100 protesters gathered outside The Venetian to denounce what one called "hateful" GOP rhetoric.
"This is what democracy looks like," chanted the protesters, some of whom waved an unflattering billboard of Trump.
Signs at the Tuesday afternoon event reflected a variety of interests, including Latino issues, union groups and the Black Lives Matter movement.
The protesters wanted Republican candidates to focus on solutions instead of rhetoric, said Laura Martin, associate director of Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada.
Cherie Mancini, president of the Service Employees International Union Local 1107, said she wanted candidates to focus on improving the economy and policies that generate good-paying jobs.
None of those issues was discussed Tuesday night.
Staff writer Colton Lochhead contributed to this report. Contact Ben Botkin at bbotkin@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2904. Find him on Twitter: @BenBotkin1. Contact Eric Hartley at ehartley@reviewjournal.com or 702-550-9229. Find him on Twitter: @ethartley.
