himself. these ten have been saying repetitive things. how does it work in terms of getting your one-liners ready? do you have somebody writing those? are you baking your moments? picking your moments? i m sorry. go ahead. i think there is someone out there trying to pick the right moment, writing the one-liners. and you look for that. i think in this particular case because trump is such a wild card, it s going to be very difficult. this debate is tailor-made for donald trump. it is 90 minutes once you factor in the commercial break. ten candidates, nine minutes per candidate, if you re lucky. and there s not a lot of time for policy discussions. there s not a lot of time for discourse on substance. it is really going to be about the one-liners and your clever soundbyte. so you really need to come up with those in the debate and be prepared for them.
standing center stage today will be republican frontrunner donald trump. he told the washington post that he is going to keep it on a high level. i have a lot of respect for them. he has got nothing to lose here, but we know he s a great performer. we know given ten candidates, there s not a lot of time, he knows how to make his point. is there a trap for him or potential downside for him coming in as the frontrunner nationally. he s leading in new hampshire and is tied for first or a close second in iowa? i think it s how he responds to people if they decide to attack him. if they decide to go after him and is looking like he s lashing out constantly, that s not going to be great for him. and maybe some knowledge of policy, but i don t think the bar is terribly high for donald trump. he s made of nightmares for the establishment and won t change any minds there. is there where they go after him? the republican frontrunner, the man who will the republican front-runner, you are al
many are able to get their debate action out without the distraction of donald trump. thank you. we ll bring in one of the candidates on the stagen tonight but not in the primetime debate at 9:00. we ll see him in the 5:00 p.m. happy hour debate. republican rick santorum, you ran for president before, why do you believe tonight is true and is it true that you believe the rnc should be apologizing to people like you? well, i just think when you have an abundant of riches like we do in the republican party, the fact that we have over a dozen candidates who are clearly very qualified, competent leaders, the fact that we are arbitrarily limiting that debate, i just think it s a disservice to the american public. and if i was the republican party, i would be boasting about our riches, not trying to call
so how will the candidates standout in this crowded field? and could any of them slow donald trump s momentum? cnn political recorder sarah murray is live in cleveland for us. hi, sarah. reporter: good morning, alyson. that s right, the big day is finally here. like you said, it s going to be a double-header. that primetime debate starts at 9:00 p.m., but earlier the 5:00 p.m. debate with the candidates trailing in thele whos. let s take a look at how everyone is preparing. it s debate day, the biggest day in the campaign so far. when ten republican candidates make their case to voters. and possibly score political points against their rivals. marco rubio spent the night before the first gop debate in a bar in cleveland. i came in early today trying to convince lebron james to come back to miami. just wanted you to know. reporter: ahead of tonight s debate, the candidates are
said about your comment, i would get people out, the 11 to 12 million imglamigrants who are h, i would get them out and have an excellent way to get them back so they would be legal. is that specific for you? yeah, he wants to make it a faster process to get the people that want to be citizens here. he just wants a law, he wants it to be legal. but he s not explaining how to get out the roughly 12 million undocumented immigrants? i think he does have a plan except because of the small amount of time that he has whenever they do show him, the goal is like, for example, the debate we re going to have tonight, you know, they have 30 seconds, maybe a minute. for example, i have friends who worked for border patrol and said, we cannot do our job. we are being told not to do our j job. america is angry.