CNN debate veers from women’s rights to immigration ... and looks
Donald Trump spars with Carly Fiorina, says she has ‘beautiful face’
Lindsey Graham takes the limelight in first-round debate
5.23am BST
With that we are going to wrap up our live blog coverage for the evening. Thank you for joining us for the event and pitching in in the comments.
For a summary of the night’s action, read our snap debate reaction here, our full news wrap here and the Trump-Fiorina showdown here.
5.20am BST
Rory Carroll in the spin room hears this about Ted Cruz:
Cruz soared over the other candidates’ grubby mud-wrestling, according to Bob Smith, a former New Hampshire senator and spinner for the Texas senator.
“He didn’t attack, he didn’t demean. He was very on point with the issues without in any way getting involved in the negativism and the nitpicking and the back and forth. And a lot of that went on tonight. I was proud of him for staying out of that.”
5.04am BST
The Fiorina campaign has not sent anyone into the spin room -- feels like a mic drop
5.02am BST
More from Rory Carroll in the spin room, where Ed Brookover, a spokesman for Ben Carson, said the campaign “surged on Wednesday even before the debate, gaining 300,000 new Facebook followers and raising $1 million.”
“Tonight Dr Carson once again showed he could be leader of the American people,” Brookover said.
He said the retired neurosurgeon had stayed true to his desire to run a positive campaign. “His style is not to attack anybody.”
4.57am BST
Rory Carroll is holding out in the spin room, where Robert O’Brien, a spinner for Scott Walker, “claimed the Wisconsin governor’s ideas dominated the debate even if he himself had relatively little time to speak,” Rory writes:
Other candidates “jumped on Scott’s bandwagon” by making bold promises about their first day in the White House and how they would treat China and other foreign powers, said O’Brien.
He admitted Walker did not land a knock-out blow but said that did not matter this early in the campaign. “I don’t think in early September a breakthrough moment is necessary. He had a flawless performance.”
O’Brien said Carly Fiorina “had some good answers” and that her appearance was “great for the party” but noted the criticism of her record at Hewlett-Packard. “She took some hits.”
4.52am BST
The Twitter primary:
Most-Tweeted moments of #CNNDebate so far: 1. @CarlyFiorina responds to @realDonaldTrump on her looks 2. @CarlyFiorina on Planned Parenthood
4.51am BST
Here’s an interesting breakdown of who got how much time, as of the fourth break:
Brk 4 Trmp 17:54 Bsh 14:19 Fiorina 11:48 Carson 11:22 Chrstie 11:03 Rubio 10:11 Paul 9:25 Cruz 9:15 Kasich: 8:06 Huckabee: 8:05 Walker: 7:10
4.48am BST
Rory Carroll is mingling in the spin room. “Jeb Bush’s spinners said their man trumped Trump and won the night,” he writes:
“He managed to shut Donald Trump down on the issue of keeping America safe,” said Michael Steel. “He shut him down for about 40 minutes.”
Trent Wisecap, another spokesman, said Bush was the first candidate who managed to silence the billionaire. “It put him back on his heels.”
4.47am BST
We found a vote for Bush:
.@brithume: "I think @JebBush had a pretty good night." #OReillyFactor pic.twitter.com/YYKECowfI8
4.33am BST
Republican strategist Liz Mair:
OK, I will say that Carly edged Rubio-- not equal. But the main reason I say that is she didn't make the dumb water joke upfront.
Fiorina was the standout http://t.co/KONNnLC376 But Jeb, Rubio, Cruz, Christie all had good nights
If I had to pick one winner, it would be Fiorina. Sharp, prepared, detailed, responsive, and assertive when needed.
4.28am BST
OK: who won? At least one colorful chart charts positive reaction to Fiorina’s performance:
#CNNDebate: @CarlyFiorina takes the win with 71.8% positive sentiment - pic.twitter.com/OC5P9XSZTe
4.13am BST
Carson says he was a “radical Democrat” before he started listening to Reagan. He envisions a more unified country. America would lead in the Middle East. “Real leadership is what I would hopefully bring.”
Trump: “We will make this country greater than ever before.” More jobs. “More of everything.” “The world will respect us like never before and it will actually be a friendlier world.”
4.06am BST
From Guardian US columnist Jeb Lund:
I think if nothing else, this three-hour debate format should never happen again. You can tell that these people are loopy. Everyone is loopy.
I sincerely marvel that Jake Tapper isn’t just sitting with his laptop and playing YouTubes. “Seriously, you have to listen to Therapy? – ‘Screamager’ is such an underrated song.”
4.03am BST
Finalish question, it seems: You’re in front of Reagan’s plane. How would the country be different after your presidential plane is parked?
Paul talks about peace through strength and well-chosen war.
3.59am BST
Fun question number two: What should your Secret Service code name be?
Christie: Trueheart
3.57am BST
Hammer question: What woman would you like to see on the $10?
Paul: Susan B Anthony
Jeb Bush said he'd put UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on the $10. Were there no U.S. women available? #GOPDebate pic.twitter.com/ZAguSwINJf
3.51am BST
Another break. Tapper promises talk of Ronald Reagan to come. The crowd is still clapping. A little wilted, some of them, but showing gusto.
3.50am BST
Trump now comes out as something of an anti-vaxxer. He says there is an epidemic of autism and then correlates it with vaccinations. He says that vaccines should be delivered “over a longer period of time, same amount but just in little sections.”
“Dr Carson, you just heard his medical take,” Tapper says.
3.47am BST
From Guardian US contributor Cindy Casares:
Chris Christie said that marijuana was a “gateway drug” and, once again, Jake Tapper failed to confront the lie.
Recent reports from the National Institute on Drug Abuse show that, while early marijuana use can prime the brain to tolerate other, heavier drugs, the vast majority of people who use marijuana do not go on to use harder drugs. (And I don’t even like marijuana – so pro-marijuana people, don’t email me.)
3.44am BST
3.44am BST
Rubio denies being a climate skeptic. He says he’s just a skeptic of “the changes the left wants us to make”.
They will make America a more expensive place to create jobs.
America's not a planet -- Rubio
3.43am BST
160 minutes in, a question about climate change.
3.40am BST
Trump takes a question about rich people taking Social Security. “Speaking for myself,” I don’t need it, he says. He says he would leave it up to rich people to write off their benefits.
Christie says a voluntary program is not a good idea. But he says reform of social security, Medicare and Medicaid is a necessary conversation to have.
3.36am BST
Fiorina jumps in. She refers to the death of her stepdaughter Lori from drug addiction and says she knows the dangers from personal experience.
She says that “the marijuana kids are smoking today is not the marijuana Jeb Bush smoked 40 years ago.”
3.33am BST
Paul makes a serious point. Privileged people don’t get punished for drug use, he says. Poor people go to jail.
Christie is up now, because he has said he would stop legal marijuana in Colorado and elsewhere.
3.30am BST
Paul takes a question about marijuana legalization.
So forty years ago I smoked marijuana, and I admit it. I’m sure other people may have and don’t want to say it in front of 25m people. I’m sure my mom’s not happy that I just did.
3.23am BST
A quick break now – stay tuned for the grand finale!
3.16am BST
From Guardian US columnist and reality show expert Jeb Lund:
If this debate was going to be three hours, it should have been an elimination debate.
After hour one, boot someone off. Rand Paul – bye. You’re done.
3.16am BST
Rand Paul jumps in and describes an unpopular, with the GOP base, position of foreclosing on any US reentry to Iraq.
“There will always be a Bush or Clinton for you if you want to go back to war in Iraq,” he says.
3.12am BST
Carson says that George W Bush “was a great friend of ours.” He says he used to go to the White House all the time but he hadn’t gone in the last seven years “and I’d probably need a food tester.”
Then he says something about the space race and how he would have scared allies of Osama bin Laden into handing the terrorist leader over.
3.11am BST
Here’s that Trump-Carson embarrassing handshake moment:
White Man Fails At Handshake https://t.co/A1ccFXjWta
3.07am BST
Christie is asked about Carson saying that he would not have gone to war in Afghanistan after September 11.
Christie says he didn’t know whether his wife, who worked next to the World Trade Center, had survived the attack for three-and-a-half hours afterward.
3.06am BST
Rubio says that the Syrian conflict proves that America retreating does not make the world safer. He calls it “a direct consequence of an inability to lead and of disengagement.”
Then Carson jumps in, after a quiet stretch.
Trump offers high-five to Carson over opposing Iraq invasion. Carson responds with hand-shake.
3.02am BST
Trump then lays out a foreign policy credential: He’s the only one up there, he says, who opposed the Iraq war.
“I’m a very militaristic person, but you have to know when to use the military.”
.@JebBush: "As it relates to my brother ... He kept us safe" http://t.co/jcEf6bW9ja #CNNDebate #GOPdebate http://t.co/0yUiiyOb51
2.59am BST
Question for Bush about having the last name Bush.
Why, he’s asked, are all his adviser leftovers from his father and brother’s teams?
2.57am BST
Trump replies. “I am not sitting in the United States senate with by the worst voting record there is, number one... I am doing business transactions. And I will know more about this.
“I will know more about the problems of this world by the time I sit... and you look at what’s going on, this world is a mess.”
2.55am BST
Rubio then cranks into the question of foreign threats facing the United States. But he won’t hit Trump directly.
“You better be ready to lead America on the first day,” he says.
2.54am BST
They’re back!
Trump is asked about an interview with Hugh Hewitt - also one of the hosts tonight - in which the businessman failed to identify leaders of foreign terrorist organizations. Rubio had criticized him for it.
Hugh was giving me name after name. Arab name, Arab name. And there are few people anywhere who would have known them.
2.48am BST
Commercial break two. Run for your popcorn refills.
2.47am BST
Kasich takes a question about the tone of his campaign. He says he feels as if he still needs to introduce himself to voters.
Fiorina, standing next to him, looks kind of bored.
2.46am BST
From Guardian US columnist and referee Jeb Lund:
That fight between Fiorina and Trump there was really rather breathtaking.
‘You fired tens of thousands of people!’
‘You declared bankruptcy multiple times!’
‘No, you!’
‘No, YOU!’
2.42am BST
Carson takes a question about the flat tax, which he supports, based on the concept of tithing on the Bible. Why is that better than a graduated system?
“It’s all about America,” Carson says. Taking more from rich people, he says, is “called socialism. That doesn’t work so well. Let’s create an environment that’s even more conducive” to earnings, Carson says.
2.36am BST
Christie is up. “While I’m as entertained as anyone by this personal back-and-forth about Donald and Carly’s careers,” he says, the 50-year-old construction worker at home doesn’t care.
Fiorina starts in.
2.36am BST
From Guardian US staff writer Jessica Valenti and Guardian US opinion editor Megan Carpentier on the Planned Parenthood moment:
MC: First things first – I’ve watched the Planned Parenthood videos; you’ve watched the Planned Parenthood videos. Did Carly Fiorina watch them? Because she described a scene that wasn’t in them.
JV: Nope, that scene was not in it. But lying about Planned Parenthood has been a Republican hobby for a while – why stop now? But she went for a visceral reaction, and she got it.
What I love is that in all that talk about Planned Parenthood, women were only mentioned once, when Trump said that he would “take care of us.” I think a collective shiver went down the spines of women across America.
Mentions of the word "women": ZERO #GOPDebate
MC: I definitely prefer that Trump not take care of anything related to my reproductive healthcare.
The whole abortion debate is always about erasing women, because when people think about reproductive rights in terms of the women who need them, they are supportive. When you erase women from the equation and talk about the fetuses that need to be protected from evil, Megele-like doctors, you side with the fetuses.
2.34am BST
From Guardian US contributor Cindy Casares:
Donald Trump brought up his immigration “plan” to build a wall again. The Mexican border is 1,989 miles long. This country cannot afford to build a wall that long nor is it feasible to deport 11 million people.
If Donald Trump is such an amazing job creator (as he is wont to say), why doesn’t he invest in the bi-national economic development (Bined) initiative coming together on both sides of the border near the Rio Grande Valley of Texas?
2.34am BST
Fiorina takes a question about her performance at Hewlett-Packard, which hemorrhaged jobs and stock point in the six years she was CEO.
She said it was bad years for the tech industry but she made changes that led to long-term growth for the company.”
2.30am BST
Paul: “I hate to say it but Donald Trump has a bit of a point here.”
He says the 14th amendment has not been completely adjudicated. Paul wonks out on the Constitution. He’s in the early 19th century. Now he’s done. We haven’t heard much from Paul tonight either.
2.28am BST
Fiorina’s turn. She asks why Democrats have not solved the problem. She says Obama had congressional majorities and did nothing “because the Democrats do not want this issue solved.”
“The truth is you can’t just wave your hands and say the 14th amendment is going to go away,” she says on birthright citizenship.
2.27am BST
The Washington Post points out that the US is the country with the second-largest number of Spanish speakers in the world.
The top 10 Spanish-speaking nations pic.twitter.com/qYmwGqjBnq
Related: US now has more Spanish speakers than Spain – only Mexico has more
2.27am BST
On to birthright citizenship. Trump has called for its end.
Fiorina has accused Trump of pandering on the issue.
2.25am BST
Question for Carson: Why is your plan not amnesty?
Carson says he’s talked to farmers who say Americans won’t do the agricultural work he means.
2.24am BST
Tapper tosses to Rubio.
“Illegal immigration is not an issue I read about in the newspaper,” he says. He’s lived it.
2.22am BST
Carson describes an immigration plan in which some undocumented migrants would get work permits in the agricultural sector.
Tapper asks Cruz if that’s amnesty.
2.21am BST
2.20am BST
Rubio said his grandfather taught him life lessons in Spanish. And he does interviews in Spanish with people who also might want to hear about the promise of America, “because I want them to get that from me, not from a translator on Univision.”
2.19am BST
Trump is asked about criticizing Bush for speaking Spanish.
Trump said “we have to have assimilation to have a country.”
2.17am BST
Tapper tries to encourage debate between Carson and Trump about the viability of the deportation plan.
Carson won’t take it. He says he’s willing to listen to ideas if there’s a good one.
2.17am BST
Guardian US columnist Jeb Lund has a prediction regarding Trump:
Just for the record: Sometime in the next day we’re going to find out that Donald Trump had his fingers crossed behind his back when he complimented Carly Fiorina’s appearance. It will take up two minutes per speech for the next week.
2.17am BST
Guardian US contributor Cindy Casares, in Texas, where the anti-Planned Parenthood efforts may as early as this year shut down nearly all of the state’s clinics, also has questions for Tapper:
Why doesn’t CNN moderator Jake Tapper confront Ted Cruz on the lies he’s spreading about Planned Parenthood committing felonies and selling body parts? The DHS told Congress they found no violations of fetal tissue laws by Planned Parenthood after those videos were spread by rightwing interests who want to take Constitutional rights away from American women.
The American media is to blame for refusal to hold politicians accountable for the lies they perpetuate. Now the Republicans are openly saying they just want to shut Planned Parenthood down and they don’t care that the organization broke no laws.
2.15am BST
Fiorina’s strong performance tonight is already having an impact, writes Ben Jacobs.
One voter in Derry, New Hampshire, Deb Gowins, is now considering supporting the former Hewlett Packard CEO. She was a Trump supporter before the debate started but now is “on the fence”.
There is less good news for moderator Jake Tapper. The consensus in the room here in the top floor of a New Hampshire bar is that he is doing a poor job.
2.14am BST
Now it’s to Carson, from whom we haven’t heard too much tonight.
“First of all, recognize that we have an incredible illegal immigration problem,” he says. He says he went to Arizona and saw untended short fences that anyone could jump.
2.13am BST
Christie says the deportations “is an undertaking that almost none of us could accomplish” giving funding and resource shortages.
He calls for fingerprinting every person who comes on a visa and “tap them on the shoulder” when the visas are up and tell them to leave.
2.12am BST
Moving on to immigration, there is a question for Trump. How are you going to deport 11-12 million undocumented migrants? How much will it cost?
“First of all, I want to build a wall, a wall that works,” Trump says.
2.09am BST
Commercial break. Now it’s over. They’re back!
2.08am BST
Tapper asks Fiorina about a Rolling Stone interview in which Trump was quoted as saying “Look at that face!” in arguing she could not be president.
“I think women all over this country heard very clearly what Mr Trump said,” Fiorina says.
2.05am BST
Trump says he would be strong on women’s health.
“I will take care of women. I respect women,” he says.
2.03am BST
Fiorina interposes a discourse on Iran policy.
Then she dares Clinton and Obama to watch videos that depict Planned Parenthood officials discussing fees and fetal body parts.
2.01am BST
Ted Cruz is back. He says that funding Planned Parenthood represents a surrender of Republican principle. He is defending the idea that Senate Republicans should be willing to shut down the federal government in two weeks in an attempt to defund Planned Parenthood.
Christie jumps in and says the real villain here is Hillary Clinton.
1.57am BST
From Guardian US columnist Trevor Timm in California:
Only a few minutes into talking about foreign policy, it seems that most of these candidates are declaring war on diplomacy (in addition to everyone else).
Carly Fiorina says that ‘we should not talk to’ Vladimir Putin at all, despite the fact that even in the darkest days of the Cold War, the leaders of the United States and Soviets were in direct contact.
1.56am BST
Bush says “there needs to be accommodation for someone acting on their faith” in the Kim Davis case.
But he calls for “respect for the rule of law.” But “there should be some accommodation for her conscience.” But “this should be solved at the local level.”
1.54am BST
Washington bureau chief Dan Roberts on the Trump-Bush showdown, now with more volume:
If proof were needed of Rand Paul’s claim that Donald Trump is living in junior high school, it came swiftly when the school bully turned on his favourite target: Jeb Bush.
Trump and Bush have been sparring since the primary race began, but the wounded look on the Florida governor’s face and the glee with which his persecutor keeps jabbing away at him is increasingly uncomfortably to watch.
‘More energy tonight, I like that,’ said Trump with all the patronising contempt he could muster, before seizing the air time anyway and tossing it back condescendingly when he was finished.
It’s almost enough to make you feel sorry for the race’s dynastic princeling.
1.54am BST
Huckabee is asked about Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk with whom Huckabee has appeared after she went to jail for denying marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
1.52am BST
Kasich bulls into the conversation. He is kind of pepped up. He insists that the Iran agreement can be policed.
Cruz hits back: “This agreement lets the Iranians inspect themselves. That makes no sense whatsoever.”
1.51am BST
Ted Cruz: “If you vote for Hillary, you are voting for the Ayatollah Khamenei to possess a nuclear weapon.”
1.49am BST
Trump is damning on Obama’s failure to enforce a red line on Syrian president Assad using chemical weapons.
“Somehow he just doesn’t have courage. There’s something missing with our president,” Trump says.
1.48am BST
Scott Walker is sweating MORE than Nixon! pic.twitter.com/mGbf0B87kw
Guardian US columnist Jeb Lund, from the humidity capital of the US: Florida.
How did they not dump three air conditioner vents onto these candidates as a default? We’ve all conceded that everyone has to look perfectly coiffed and composed at all times, because, well: superficial is the new default, but far too many of these people are moist.
Not just high-energy moist, this is Nixon-moist.
1.47am BST
Huckabee on Iran:
“This is really about the survival of Western civilization... this threatens Israel immediately.
1.45am BST
Bush says “it’s not a strategy to tear up an agreement,” on Iran. A strategy, he says, would be to back up our ally Israel.
1.44am BST
Walker defends his call for canceling the China state dinner. They cyberattack us, he says.
Then he says the Iran deal should be scotched.
1.43am BST
Paul takes a question about canceling the China state dinner next week, which Walker has called for.
Paul points out that the US talked with the USSR throughout the Cold War and says Fiorina was wrong to say let’s not talk with Putin.
1.41am BST
Kasich says it’s a bad agreement, the Iran deal, but says “we don’t know what’s going to happen in 18 months” with the agreement.
He then describes keeping the deal but policing it. “If they cheat, we slap the sanctions back on,” he says.
1.40am BST
This debate is humming. Now Ted Cruz has declared the Iranian nuclear deal “catastrophic” and said it will make Iran the world’s leading international financier of terrorism.
“If I am elected president, I will rip to shreds this catastrophic Iranian deal,” Cruz says.
1.39am BST
I can’t even think of a good enough caption for this. pic.twitter.com/r5T770NY2s
From Guardian US columnist Jeb Lund:
Journalists love it when Donald Trump burns the other candidates, as he first did with Rand Paul’s polling numbers – and then Rand Paul’s looks.
Then he just burned Jeb Bush, because basically anyone will read a headline and an article about a good zinger, and because it’s fun.
1.39am BST
Rubio is up. He has called Putin a gangster.
“I have an understanding of exactly what it is Russia and Putin are doing,” Rubio says, which is resurrect Russia as a global geopolitical force.
1.36am BST
Tapper asks Trump how to eject Russians from Syria (he did say Syria, not Ukraine or Crimea).
Number one, they have to respect you, Trump says. He says he would talk to Putin and get along with him. He says he get along with China and “the heads of Mexico,” too.
1.35am BST
Bush accuses Trump of inviting Hillary Clinton to his wedding. Trump said he did so because it was his job as a businessman to get along with everybody.
Bush talks over him.
'more energy tonight, i like it.' trum's put-down of jeb gets big laugh in press room.
1.33am BST
Question for Bush: Are you a puppet for your donors, as Trump has said?
“No. Absolutely not,” Bush says. He says he has a proven record of leadership, cutting taxes, fixing schools and increasing the bond rating of the state of Florida.
1.33am BST
My colleague Paul Lewis writes:
The first segment was dominated by the question of whether Trump could be trusted with a nuclear weapon. I asked Trump in August under what circumstances he would use his nuclear weapon. Here was his answer:
“Well, I don’t even want to talk about that question. That’s a very serious question. Hopefully you never have to use a nuclear weapon – hopefully. But you have to be prepared – the world hates us.”
1.31am BST
Fiorina says politicians don’t understand what’s wrong with Washington because they’re a fish in water. And as such they can’t appreciate water.
Fiorina says “this is about far more than replacing a D with an R. This is about changing the system.”
1.30am BST
A tip for Trump:
why isn't Trump hammering the "Reagan was an entertainer too" nail into these people
1.30am BST
Tapper turns to Carson. Who were you talking about with that dig at politicians?
Carson: “Typically politicians do things that are politically expedient.
1.28am BST
Tapper turns to Christie. He uses a Carson quote about politicians who lie.
Is that a fair description of you? Tapper asks Christie.
1.27am BST
Now Kasich jumps in. He says if he were at home he would be inclined to turn off the TV.
Because voters, he says, want to talk about the budget and the military and debt.
1.26am BST
Trump keeps after Walker. “When the folks in Iowa found out the true facts of the job you did in Wisconsin,” you tanked in the polls, Trump says.
“When the people in Iowa found that out, I went to number one, you went down.”
1.25am BST
Tapper asks Bush if Trump is qualified.
Bush says that’s for voters to decide.
1.24am BST
Tapper asked Trump if he’s really qualified to be president.
Trump says George Pataki was a failed governor of New York who wouldn’t be elected dog catcher. Then he says he got out of Atlantic City at the right time and his timing is impeccable.
1.23am BST
Paul accuses Trump of a non sequitur.
“I think really there’s a sophomore quality that is entertaining about Mr Trump,” Paul says. But there is a character issue, he says. “His attacking people on their appearance, short, tall, fat, ugly - are we in junior high?”
1.21am BST
Here’s Trump’s rebuttal: “Rand Paul shouldn’t even be on this stage. He’s number 11.”
Then he says he’s a businessman as much as an entertainer.
1.20am BST
First question is looking for blood. Tapper asks Fiorina:
“Would you feel comfortable with Donald Trump’s finger on the nuclear codes”?
1.19am BST
Chris Christie pulls a trick. He tells CNN to point the camera at the audience and asks how many of them think the next generation will have a better life.
Nobody raises her hand or his hand.
1.19am BST
Marco Rubio: “I brought my own water.” pic.twitter.com/UZxdUmyIyn
From Guardian US columnist Jeb Lund, comedy critic:
The water jokes about Marco Rubio getting parched during his State of the Union reply were always pretty hacky, and they had a shelf life of 24 hours.
That has now been overrun by about three years.
1.18am BST
Jeb Bush says he believes the greatest days for America are yet to come.
Scott Walker, the Wisconsin governor, pays tribute to Reagan, and then says the US needs a leader who will “go big and bold.”
1.15am BST
“I’m Donald Trump. I wrote the Art of the Deal. I say not braggadaciously, I’ve made billions and billions of dollars.”
– Donald Trump
1.15am BST
Marco Rubio, the Florida senator, says he’s married, too.
“I’m also aware that California has a drought, and that’s why I made sure I brought my own water.” That’s a joke about the state of the union response in which he had to duck out to drink.
1.13am BST
Introductions. Rand Paul first. He says he’s an eye surgeon from Kentucky who spends his days defending the Constitution.
Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, says that “none of us onstage are socialists” and “none of us are under investigation by the FBI.”
1.11am BST
Big noise in the room as the main event gets going. Loud whistling and standing applause. Even the candidates start to applaud. Good times tonight in Simi Valley.
1.09am BST
1.07am BST
We’re moments away from the main event, an 11-sided die of ambition, fear and courage, rolled by the hand of god, played tonight by CNN anchor Jake Tapper.
Tom McCarthy here in the room in Simi Valley, California, with Guardian West Coast correspondent Rory Carroll and our team of analysts and commentators pitching in from points distant.
1.03am BST
Adam Gabbatt writes:
There was an elephant in the room during the pre-debate debate. Or at least there was one lurking outside it: a big, noisy, weird-haired elephant called Donald Trump.
The four candidates’ opening remarks were dominated by Trump, who is leading in the polls. Bobby Jindal was the first one to stick it to him. Jindal “doesn’t have a reality TV show”, he said. This would have been more effective if Trump still had one – his “Mexican rapists” obsession brought an end to his NBC career earlier this summer.
1.01am BST
Watching Twitter so you don’t have to, Nicky Woolf and Kayla Epstein report on how the Republicans on the big stage have been preparing to debate today:
The first Republican debate in August had a record-breaking 24 million viewers, and CNN’s debate tonight is set to reach even more people. For a prospective presidential candidate, how can a candidate prepare for such intense pressure?
Your mind must be clear; your heart light.
Trump camp says he has been prepping for this debate and foreign policy is a focus. #nbc2016
Meanwhile, Jeb Bush, whose plummet in the polls has been mirrored by Trump’s inexorable rise, took to heart to maxim ‘know thy enemy’. That can mean only one thing: study his bombastic rival in his natural habitat ...
In the Snapchat GOP Debate story: @JebBush watching The Apprentice in debate prep @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/sTFwcpmk3c
For Kentucky senator Rand Paul, there is, of course, only one way to reach competitive political rhetoric nirvana. Yes: printing out the 80,000-page US federal tax code, putting it into boxes, and then shooting it with a modified AR-15 assault rifle.
He also took the time to hang out with some Second Amendment fans.
After shooting the tax code @RandPaul poses with some gun enthusiasts pic.twitter.com/3PExI5jHuR
Ben Carson, meanwhile, had time to drop in for a quick schmooze in the spin room at the Reagan Library.
@RealBenCarson stops by the press filing room before the debate to the surprise of all. pic.twitter.com/u7BEMTnmJg
Many of the candidates needed to pace the stage and familiarise themselves with their podiums.
Just finished my walkthrough of tonight’s stage. Tune in at 8:00 p.m. ET! #Carly2016 #CNNDebate pic.twitter.com/pELwM1azkc
Got my game face on! Ready to have some fun tonight at the #CNNDebate. -John pic.twitter.com/sztZQwJ0AD
Lindsey Graham, readying himself to defend his proposition of putting American boots on the ground in Syria, knows that an army always marches on its stomach. For him, that means chicken nuggets and ’slaw.
For those curious:: Graham's pre-debate menu today was Chick-fil-A chicken nuggets and cole slaw
On the opposite end of the scale, Wisconsin governor Scott Walker knew that a healthy body means a healthy debate.
Enjoying my pre #GOPdebate ritual. Grabbing a quick jog before tonight's #CNNdebate - SW #Walker16 pic.twitter.com/DiCXjSUIC0
Only time will tell whose strategy proves best.
12.53am BST
As we wait for the main event, here are the full names and professional backgrounds of the 11 candidates participating. They are, in alphabetical order:
CNN's #GOPDebate is free 3 hour ad for Democratic party. Please don't tell Republicans, or they cancel it. #CNNDebate pic.twitter.com/srliwAo0cV
12.51am BST
Twitter thinks the debate went either to Graham or Jindal. Graham by entertaining the audience, going pithy where others went long and keeping up a steady drumbeat of red-meat militarism for the base. Jindal by going after the Republican establishment and calling for fresh blood in Washington.
Even though he mostly talks about invading countries and how we’re all gonna die at least Graham seems to be having fun.
Good night for Lindsey Graham (showed humor, feistiness, tough on nat sec) & Jindal (clear, crisp conservative msg against DC & party stab)
The early #GOPDebate debate: replay the event in @Google search http://t.co/jibKarWBUZ pic.twitter.com/TP2bfY3TNj
12.47am BST
Google reports that interest in Lindsay Graham has at times overtaken that for Donald Trump during this debate.
12.47am BST
Graham’s last.
He says “I would win a war we can’t afford to lose. Then he calls radical Islam “religious Nazis.” Then he makes fun of Trump: “Our leading candidate gets his foreign policy from watching television. And from what I understand it’s the cartoon network.”
12.45am BST
Here’s Jindal:
“Jake, I’m a doer not a talker.”
If Obama is a socialist, what is Sanders? A super duper socialist?
12.43am BST
Santorum’s next.
“I went to Washington in the most unlikely way,” he says. No argument there. “I only planned on being there for one term,” he says, not mentioning his embarrassing double-digit reelection loss. “I shook things up,” he says.
12.42am BST
Last question: what sets you apart from the 11 candidates in the upcoming debate?
Pataki goes first. He says first you have to win and then govern effectively. He says he has done both in one of the most liberal states in America. True that. Thrice-elected in New York.
12.39am BST
Sabrina Siddiqui is with Hillary Clinton’s team in Brooklyn, where they have put up a series of posters contrasting Reagan’s positions on key issues with those of current GOP candidates.
Clinton camp HQ contrasting Reagan vs. current GOP candidates on the issues at its debate filing center pic.twitter.com/ZaFCGiyRa0
12.39am BST
My colleague Megan Carpentier notes in relation to the hot Republican topic of “anchor babies”, which was covered earlier.
FYI, only 9% of all births to undocumented immigrants from 2008-2010 were born to people who arrived 2008-2010: http://t.co/r0ysLrucvq
12.37am BST
Once more into the Jeb Lund:
I don’t expect Rick Santorum to NOT demonize Iranians and Shiites. I don’t expect him not to be paranoid.
I DO wish he could just change up his rhetoric from condemning all Iranians as evil lunatics just because he believes that they are deeply religious people who believe that they face deadly external opponents while living in the early days of the end times of their theology’s own apocalypse.
12.36am BST
Final questions are next. We’re rounding toward the finish of debate number 1.
12.33am BST
Graham is asked about Vladimir Putin. Let’s see if he can summon some vigor on this one.
“Do you think Putin would be in the Ukraine or Syria today if Ronald Reagan were president?” he says. “No. This is what happens when you have a weak, unqualified commander-in-chief who doesn’t understand America’s role in the world.”
Situation in Russia is what happens when you get a weak, unqualified Commander in Chief who doesn't understand America's role in the world.
12.33am BST
12.32am BST
12.30am BST
Santorum says he’s been focused “like a laser” for 12 years on Iran’s nuclear program because “I understand who they are.
“Yes they’re radical Islamists, which is true. But they’re a particular version of it. .. They’re a death cult.. They believe in bringing about the end of times because that’s their goal.”
12.28am BST
Graham says Iran is “on track to get a bomb even if they don’t cheat.”
Question for Pataki: would you keep the assassination of Iranian scientists on the table?
12.26am BST
Iran question for Graham: would you authorize a strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities?
“If I believed they were trying to make a bomb, absolutely,” Graham says. “And here’s the important thing: they know I’m serious.”
12.25am BST
Ok time’s up on the question of whether anybody’s changing your mind. They’re back.
12.21am BST
Second commercial break. What do you think of the debate so far? Anybody changing your mind on anything?
12.21am BST
On to the federal minimum wage. Tapper asks Graham if he supports raising it.
Graham doesn’t, and makes an argument that economic uplift for wage earners has to come from growing businesses.
12.20am BST
Lots of Bernie and O'Malley supporters at #allowdebate rally pic.twitter.com/GzE47szCie
Guardian US reporter Lauren Gambino reports from a rally in Washington:
While Republicans indulge in their second face-off, some Democrats have been left asking why their candidates haven’t yet had a chance to take the debate stage at all.
At a protest outside of the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, dozens of Democrats shouted and chanted at the leaders of their party’s governing body, demanding they schedule more than the scheduled six debates.
When asked if Wasserman-Schultz had listened to the song or watched the accompanying music video, DNC spokesperson Holly Shulman told the Guardian:
‘I have no specific YouTube video watching to read out at this time.’
12.16am BST
The next question is for Santorum about Jeb Bush calling for a limit on tax deductions for housing.
Santorum says he is about to introduce a “20/20 plan perfect vision for America.”
12.14am BST
Now here’s the tax question. Should hedge fund managers pay a higher tax rate?
Pataki says he’d throw out the whole tax code. And yes he would close loopholes for “Wall Street fat cats.”
12.14am BST
From Jeb Lund:
“That’s the first thing I’ma do as president. We’re gonna drink more.”
Look, I don’t agree with Lindsey Graham, but the man has a point.
12.12am BST
Graham says the first thing he’s going to do as president is “drink more” and cooperate with Democrats, putting the country ahead of his party.
12.11am BST
From Jeb Lund:
Depressing but obvious: Rick Santorum said the US supreme court’s ruling on same sex marriage is unconstitutional, though the constitutionality of anything is actually defined by how the supreme court rules on it.
Now Santorum wants to pass the First Amendment Defense Act, an act that would be interpreted via the First Amendment to the constitution. And when pressed by George Pataki, who said that there is no rule of law when the president defies the supreme court, Santorum said that he hoped the next president would go ahead and defy it.
12.10am BST
This debate is content-rich. Chunky conversations about issues from immigration to Iraq to the Supreme Court with up to five minutes and more spent on each. Each candidate given time to talk and then to respond. References by the candidate’s to each other’s records on the issues going back 15 years.
Graham is the only one who has succeeded in cracking the crowd up. Jindal may be winning for sheer word count. Pataki has succeeded in coming across as actually being a candidate in the race, which is not totally common knowledge. Santorum is punchy without seeming nasty or growly, as he sometimes can.
12.10am BST
From Cindy Casares:
George Pataki had to explain to Rick Santorum that Kim Davis went to jail because she in contempt of court and not because she’s under fire for her religious beliefs. Why you gotta be making southerners look so dumb, Gov’nah?
12.06am BST
Tapper asks about Supreme Court chief justice John Roberts who has written two opinions upholding Obamacare, the president’s health care law.
Were Santorum and Graham’s votes in favor of Graham a mistake?
12.02am BST
Tapper is really letting them talk. Pataki is now deep into a discourse about the difference between civil disobedience and plain law-breaking.
<time dateti