High debate stakes: Top GOP candidates fight for spotlight

Fox News’ prime-time GOP debate in August

Donald Trump may be leading the pack in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, but he has a big target on his back at the Wednesday prime-time debate, and many of his 10 rivals onstage may take dead aim.

This second GOP candidate debate event comes from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, at 8 p.m. EDT, on a red and blue stage with the former commander-in-chief’s  Air Force One as a striking backdrop.

The event features the 11 leading Republican candidates: Donald Trump. Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Mike Huckabee, Rand Paul, John Kasich, Chris Christie and Carly Fiorina.

Many pundits expected Fiorina, a former Hewlitt-Packard CEO, to attempt to upstage Trump with her quick attack lines and detailed knowledge of many issues.

Before the debate began, Fiorina told CNBC, “Mr. Trump’s going to be hearing quite a lot from me.”

Former Obama adviser Dan Pfeiffer told CNN he thinks Trump should stay away from Fiorina altogether.

“She is potentially the biggest threat to his being the nominee because she has all the resume of the outsider, not in elected office, but has more traditional experience – seems less risky than Donald Trump or Ben Carson.”

Trump has called Fiorina “one of the worst (CEOs) ever.”

As WND reported in August, Fiorina was quickly declared the winner in Fox News’ opening contest, even though she was then a member of the first debate with seven other candidates at the bottom of the polls, rather than appearing in the prime-time event with the top-tier candidates.

But her stellar performance shot her onto the national scene and into the top-tier for Wednesday nights’ CNN debate.

Another potential vulnerability for Trump is retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who has been surging in the polls since the August Fox News’ debate and is currently at 20 percent. Carson’s devout faith is appealing to evangelical voters who may question Trump’s religious background.

Lagging far behind – with numbers stuck in the single digits – Bush is now promising to be more confrontational with Trump, who has nicknamed the establishment candidate “Mr. Low Energy.”

CNN chief Washington correspondent Jake Tapper is moderating the event. CNN’s Dana Bash and talk-radio host Hugh Hewitt will join Tapper in asking the questions.

“My goal is more about: Let’s draw the contrasts between the candidates, and have them fight it out over these policies, over who has the best approach to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, over who has the best approach to taxes, over who believes what over immigration reform,” Tapper explained before Wednesday’s event. “Have them lay it all out so voters can see it.”

Tapper said he hopes to trigger as many aggressive moments as possible – much like the August debate confrontation between New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., over the National Security Agency’s warrantless collection of Americans’ data.

He called that heated exchange “electric” and “illuminating.”

Bash told the New York Times, “Our whole approach is sparking a debate. If someone says something that cries out for an obvious follow-up with someone who clearly disagrees or someone is dying to get in, let it happen. Let the debate be a debate.”

A campaign strategist who advises one of the candidates told the paper, “Jake Tapper is going to do whatever he can to get the candidates to go after each other. If somebody is knocked out, CNN will be happy. In the first debate, the moderators controlled the candidates; in this debate, the candidates will have to moderate themselves.”

RealClearPolitics’ polling average has Trump leading the GOP pack with 30.5 percent. Carson is at 20 percent, and is followed by Bush (7.8 percent), Cruz (6.8 percent), Rubio (5.3 percent), Huckabee (4.5 percent), Paul (3.3 percent), Fiorina (3.3 percent), Walker (3 percent), Kasich (2.5 percent), Christie (1.5 percent), Santorum (.8 percent), Perry (.8 percent, though he’s no longer running), Jindal (.5 percent) and Lindsay Graham (.3 percent).

As WND reported, four lower-polling GOP candidates – Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, former New York Gov. George Pataki and former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania – were featured in an earlier “under-card” debate at 6 p.m. EST.

The prime-time debate is being featured live on CNN and live-streamed on the network’s website. Audience members have been asked not to cheer or boo during the debates.

Bash said CNN had prepared to put Trump “through the rigor.” But she added: “[I]t’s also about remembering that this is not a Donald Trump interview – this is a debate among 15 candidates over the course of many hours.

“It’s not all about making sure that you press Donald Trump on X, Y and Z,” she told the Times. “It’s maybe pressing him on X because another candidate thinks Y, and there’s a genuine disagreement.”

Tapper said he fully expects one of the GOP candidates to take issue with a CNN moderator, just as Trump fired back at Fox News’ Megyn Kelly after she asked what were widely perceived as attacking and unfair questions during the August debate. He said he expects to take a blow or two, but he’s not sure who it’ll come from.

“I anticipate that somebody – and I don’t know who, but I anticipate that at some point, somebody is going to take a shot at me as the straw man, as the stand-in for the media writ large,” he said. “I don’t know how it’s going to happen. I don’t know when it’s going to happen. I don’t know who is going to do it. I mean, we should probably lay some bets down in Vegas as to who is going to be the one who does it.

“I don’t know that it will be Donald Trump any more than it’s going to be Carly Fiorina or Ben Carson. I mean, the media is a whipping boy, and it’s a Republican debate. Let’s be frank. Republicans often take issue with the media writ large. So, it could happen.”

The following is a look at some of the top issues likely to be discussed.

Immigration and refugees

Immigration is one of the hot-button issues of the 2016 elections, thanks to GOP front runner Trump, who has made it the focus of his campaign.

The porous U.S.-Mexico border and the flood of incoming Muslim “refugees” are expected to take center stage at the debate.

America’s immigrant population hit a record high of 42.1 million (legal and illegal) in the second quarter of 2015. The total Mexican immigrant population (legal and illegal) reached 12.1 million in the second quarter of 2015 – the highest quarterly total ever. In addition to Mexico, growth in the immigrant population was propelled by a 449,000 increase by people coming from Latin American countries other than Mexico in the last year.

A Breitbart analysis of federal data shows Muslims are coming to the United States in droves, with 117,423 in 2013 alone coming from Muslim-dominated nations.

In the U.S., 1.5 million Muslims were permanently resettled in cities and towns throughout the country between 2001 and 2013. The refugees are placed on a fast-track to full voting citizenship, which is attainable within five years. Critics fear this will be a recipe for a major demographic shift in America.

All refugees, selected by the United Nations, are brought to the U.S. legally under the authority of the Refugee Act of 1980.

Dozens of the refugees have also run afoul of the law, including 72 cases of Muslim immigrants who have been arrested, just in the last year, for terrorist activity, according to a study by the Senate immigration committee.

Rep. Brian Babin, R-Texas, introduced a bill in the House July 30 to halt all refugee resettlements but not a single U.S. congressman has stepped up to co-sponsor his bill.

Trump skyrocketed to the top of the polls after he made stopping illegal immigration his signature issue but so far he has said very little about exploding levels of legal immigration — now at an unprecedented 1.1 million people per year. Trump made clear his promise to build a wall with “a big, very beautiful door” for legal immigrants. He has also promised to deport all illegal immigrants in the country.

Carson has criticized Trump’s promise to deport illegal immigrants and has proposed creation of a guest-worker program based on the Canadian model. It includes a guest-worker program for foreign workers who will do jobs Americans purportedly don’t want to do and sealing the U.S.-Mexico border.

Fiorina favors securing the border and ending sanctuary cities. “Americans are really angry,” she declared in a Breitbart interview. “I’m angry because the professional political class, frankly of both parties, talks about this when they need to get the heat off, but they don’t ever do anything about it.” She said she would fix the legal immigration system to reward immigrants genuinely wanting a pathway to citizenship.

Cruz champions measures to secure the border, reform the legal immigration system and “uphold the rule of law.” He believes President Obama’s unlawful executive amnesty shielding millions of illegal aliens from deportation would “change who we are as a country,” and has said legal immigration is “good,” stressing his support for the rule of law.

Bush has alienated some conservative support with his stance on illegal immigration, saying in 2014 it is “not a felony” to come to the U.S. illegally but “an act of love” that illegal immigrants do for their families – a stance he recently defended. He supports providing illegal aliens with a provisional work permit so they may earn legal status over an extended period of time.

Iran

Congress now has little chance of stopping implementation of President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran now that Democrats in the Senate have blocked a bill disapproving the agreement. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, is threatening to sue. But Obama had vowed to lift sanctions on Iran even if Congress hadn’t failed to muster the votes to stop the deal.

All the GOP candidates and every Republican in Congress oppose the deal.

Critics say Obama’s deal is a disaster that does nothing to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons because:

• The inspections process is largely determined by Iran, including which sites to inspect and when.

• Inspection details will be kept secret from Congress and the American public.

• The deal legitimizes Iran’s vast, and supposedly peaceful, nuclear program.

• It will give $150 billion in unfrozen assets to the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism.

• It lifts the conventional arms embargo on Iran in five years.

• And it eliminates international travel restrictions on some of the world’s leading terrorists, including the head of Iran’s revolutionary guard.

• The deal does nothing to stop Iran from building or buying nuclear weapons after a decade.

This month, Trump joined Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, in a fiery rally opposing the Iran nuke deal.

Cruz told WND, “If this deal is consummated, it will make the Obama administration the world’s leading financier of radical Islamic terrorism. … Billions of dollars under control of this administration will flow into the hands of jihadists who will use that money to murder Americans, to murder Israelis, to murder Europeans.”

Trump charged, “We are going to get nothing. They rip us off, they take our money, they make us look like fools.”

Fiorina said, “It would be different if Iran was a good actor and had negotiated in good faith all this time, but they haven’t and we’ve caved many times. I’ve never negotiated an Iran nuclear deal, but I’ve negotiated a lot of high-stakes deals, and there are a couple of rules, and every rule has been broken. If you want a good deal, you’ve got to walk away sometimes. We never did.” She also expressed her skepticism that Iran would comply with inspections.

Economy and Jobs

According to numerous surveys, the most important election issue in the 2016 cycle is the economy, including jobs.

Millions of Americans still can’t find full-time jobs, and their paychecks are barely keeping up with inflation. Private-job growth plunged in July, signaling slowing momentum in the U.S. economy. Employers hired 185,000 workers in July, significantly below the expected increase of 215,000 jobs. In the second quarter of 2015, the U.S. economy grew at a lackluster 2.3 percent. In August, private-sector jobs growth fell short of expectations with 190,000 positions – again below the projected 200,000.

Trump, Bush and Christie all have vowed to double economic growth.

Trump has said he wants to be the “jobs president” and has promised to “make America great again.” He pledged to bring U.S. jobs back “from China, from Mexico, from Japan, from so many places.” When he announced his run, Trump said he’d impose a 35 percent tax on Ford vehicles made in Mexico and imported into the U.S.

Trump also opposes raising the federal minimum wage from the current $7.25 an hour, as he believes that would increase unemployment, as do most Republicans. He also has proposed a five-part tax plan to reform the income tax code.

Many other GOP candidates favor a flat tax or a “fair tax” on purchases instead of income.

Bush and Christie have said they’ll grow the economy by 4 percent a year – a rate not seen in the U.S. since 2000, just before the dot-com bubble burst and the U.S. plunged into recession.

In July, Bush said America must become more productive to reach that goal, so “people need to work longer hours.”

Bush later clarified that he was referring to Americans who don’t work full time. “High sustained growth means people work 40 hours rather than 30 hours and that by our success they have disposable income for their families to decide how they want to spend it rather than standing in line and being dependent on government,” he said.

Christie presented a five-point plan to reach his 4 percent goal: lower taxes, cut regulation, revamp energy, make the research and development tax credit permanent and abolish payroll taxes for Americans under 25 and over 62.

Fiorina states that progressive policies have contributed to income inequality. She would roll back regulatory burdens facing businesses. On taxes, Fiorina would lower every rate, close every loophole – maybe retain a few that benefit the middle class – and shrink the 75,000-page U.S. tax code to three pages, stating most of the deductions and exemptions benefit the wealthy, powerful and well-connected.

Planned Parenthood

The nation’s biggest abortion provider has been reeling from the fallout of a series of devastating undercover videos exposing its business selling baby body parts, apparently for profit – which is illegal. Planned Parenthood received $528 million from taxpayers last year.

A bill to defund the agency failed in the Senate because there were not enough Republicans to overcome the 60-vote threshold to avoid a filibuster by Democrats.

Thirty-one Republican lawmakers in the House of Representative signed a letter saying they are committed to opposing any legislation to fund the federal government unless it defunds the Planned Parenthood abortion business.

That could lead to another government shutdown, if a spending bill is not passed by Sept. 30.

Cruz is leading the fight in the Senate to attach an amendment defunding Planned Parenthood to any budget bill, but is getting a cold reception from his colleagues, so far.

In a USA Today op-ed, Cruz wrote: “I intend to lead the fight in the United States Senate to defund Planned Parenthood, even while investigations continue. The time for show votes is over. Funding the federal government does not require funding Planned Parenthood. But basic decency and our commitment to the right to life do require that we stop taxpayer funding of abortions and any trade in baby parts.”

According to a study by the Congressional Research Service, Planned Parenthood would continue to receive the majority of its federal funding – including all of its Medicaid payments – even if Congress cannot enact a new spending bill on Oct. 1.

Trump said taxpayer funds to Planned Parenthood should be stopped if it continues doing abortions. Trump said he has “evolved” on the issue from pro-choice to pro-life.

Asked where he stood on the issue of abortion itself, Trump said he supports the rare exceptions of permitted abortion in cases of rape, incest and to save the life of the mother. Trump also clarified that he does not support a health exception that pro-life advocates have long opposed since Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, because such exceptions essentially allow unlimited abortions up to birth for any reason.

Fiorina supports a government shutdown if Planned Parenthood is not defunded, and she has criticized Trump’s views on the issue, saying he sounds like a Democrat after he waffled on the subject in two interviews in August.

Fiorina has stated, “I am pro-life. I believe science is proving us right every day, but you do not have to be pro-life to understand the hideous nature of what is going on here (referring to the undercover videos). This is about the moral character of our nation.”

‘Refugee’ crisis

The refugee crisis swamping Europe is closely watched in the U.S., with many Republicans concerned about the likely prospect of Muslim terrorists using the opportunity to infiltrate the West.

Trump’s appears conflicted on the issue. During a Sean Hannity interview, he said, “From a humanitarian standpoint, I’d love to help, but we have our own problems. We have so many problems that we have to solve.”

But then on a later appearance on “The O’Reilly Factor,” he argued that the U.S. has a responsibility to take in Syrian refugees: “I hate the concept of it, but on a humanitarian basis, you have to.”

Jeb Bush has consistently shown his support for immigration, which has extended to refugees. “We should accept – we’re a country that has a noble tradition of accepting refugees,” he told “Fox & Friends.” “We need to make sure that they’re not part of ISIS or something like that.” He did not elaborate on how the refugees could be suitably vetted.

Similarly, Marco Rubio said in an interview with Boston Herald Radio: “We’ve always been a country that has been willing to accept people who have been displaced, and I would be open to that if it can be done in a way that allows us to ensure that among them are not … people who are part of a terrorist organization. The vast and overwhelming majority of people who are seeking refuge are not terrorists, of course, but you always are concerned about that.”

A more wary Fiorina stated the U.S. “cannot relax our entrance criteria,” and the nation has “done its fair share in terms of humanitarian aid.”

“The United States honestly, sadly, cannot relax our entrance criteria,” she said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “We are having to be very careful about who we let enter this country from these war-torn regions to ensure that terrorists are not coming here. I think the Europeans need to continue to step up here both in terms of the amount of money they provide for humanitarian relief.”

Carson believes America should take care of its immigration issues before taking in some of Europe’s refugees.

Paul cautiously admitted, “We are a welcoming nation, and we have accepted a lot of refugees, and I think we will continue to do so. But we also can’t accept the whole world, so there are some limits,” adding the U.S. must be “selective and careful” about who it takes in.

“We’ve also run into some problems with accepting so many refugees that we take some of the people who could help rebuild the country,” he said. “We did this with Iraq, where we won the war, but then we accepted 60,000 Iraqi refugees into our country, some of which wish us harm and tried to attack us. Same way with Somalia. We’ve received so many immigrants and refugees from Somalia, that many of them are from the faction going back to Syria to fight against us.”

Kim Davis and religious freedom

Rowan County, Kentucky, clerk Kim Davis – along with assorted Christian bakers, photographers and florists – have become focal points in the battle of religious freedom, particularly since the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage.

OneNewsNow reported, “A national poll done by Caddell Associates … shows almost three-quarters of Americans (71%) desire ‘a commonsense solution that both protects religious freedom and gay and lesbian couples from discrimination.’ Thus far, however, protection from such ‘discrimination’ typically has come at the cost of religious freedom and freedom of conscience.

“When asked which was more important – protecting religious liberty or protecting homosexual rights – voters by a 4-to-1 margin (31% to 8%) chose religious freedom. Most of the rest said both are important.”

When respondents were asked whether it should be up to the federal government to determine what constitutes legitimate religious beliefs, “[O]nly 11 percent agreed and a massive 79 percent disagreed. Indeed, even two-thirds of those on the ‘left’ of the segmentation disagreed.”

Conservatives say they are increasingly seeing a war on traditional values coming from the homosexual activist movement. According to Peter LaBarbera, who heads Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, the survey confirms that people are beginning to see a war on Christians – one he says is “coming specifically out of the homosexual activist movement.”

“The movement is going to use gay marriage to force people to violate their beliefs – and Americans don’t believe in that,” he said. “People are also getting tired of this in-your-face gay activism and now this transgender movement that is everywhere in the media – and they’re saying enough is enough.”

Various candidates have supported Davis for refusing to issue marriage licenses to all eligible applicants, include same-sex couples. After her release from jail after five days of incarceration, she was escorted from the Carter County Detention Center by Huckabee.

Cruz was also in attendance at Davis’ release and has aggressively supported religious freedom.

Fiorina and Trump have both expressed their belief that Davis had an obligation to perform her duties as an elected county clerk, which includes issuing marriage licenses.

Bush has stated Davis “doesn’t have the authority to defy the courts. … She is sworn to uphold the law, and it seems to me that there ought to be common ground. There ought to be big enough space for her to act on her conscience and – now that the law is the law of the land – for a gay couple to be married in whatever jurisdiction that is.”

Carson said, “This is a Judeo-Christian nation in the sense that a lot of our values and principles are based on our Judeo-Christian faith. … There are substantial numbers of people who actually believe in the traditional definition of marriage. I’m one of them. It doesn’t mean that I don’t think that other people can do whatever they want to do. … But I don’t actually believe that they have the right to force their way of life upon everybody else. Nor would I try to force my way of life upon everybody else. And this is where some intellect has to come into place, and our legislators need to sit down and ask themselves, ‘How do we make sure that the rights of all Americans are protected?’ [It] requires a little bit of effort.”

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