Night, and welcome to the Reagan Library. We are live from what they call the spin room at the library here in simi valley california. It was the second Republican Debate now in the books, and it was a debate for the ages. Were going to talk about the winners, the losers. Were going to have the analysis and well talk about maybe who continues on their quest to become the president and maybe who drops out of this. Were going to get into all of that. But we begin with Grady Trimble live at the Reagan Library with the highlights on this. Agreedy, good evening. Reporter good evening, trace. They covered a lot of ground tonight from crime, education, the border and, of course, the economy. But there were some fiery moments as well. And some of the most pointed attacks of the evening were aimed at someone who wasnt even in the room. Donald trump is missing in action. He should be on this stage tonight. He owes it to you to defend his record where they added 7. 8 trillion to the debt. That set the stage for the inflation that we have. My former running mate, donald trump, actually has a plan to start to consolidate more power in washington, dc, consolidate more power in the executive branch. Donald, i know youre watching. You cant help yourself. I know youre watching. Okay . Youre not here tonight because youre afraid of being on this stage and defending your record. Youre ducking these things. And let me tell you whats going to happen. You keep doing that, no one up heres going to call you donald trump anymore, were going to call you donald duck. So as you can see, some of those landed, some didnt. Nikki haley and Vivek Ramaswamy went after each other once again, just like in the first debate, on ukraine funding and china. Haley also fended off an attack from fellow South Carolinaian senator tim scott. Every time i hear you i feel a little bit dumber for what you say. The reality its just because putin is an evil dictator does not mean that ukraine is good. This is a country that has banned 11 opposition parties. A win for russia is a win for china. A win for russia is a win for china. Excuse me. I forgot you like china. No, youll have your chance in just a moment. Hurling personal insults isnt helping. Nikki offered a 10 gas increase in South Carolina. Talk about someone who has never seen a federal dollar she doesnt like. You got bad information. Reporter and there was a gnome the last five minutes of the debate where the moderators asked everyone on stage who on that stage they would eliminate in order to secure a path to beat former president donald trump. Every single one of the candidates refused to answer that question directly. Chris christie chimed in at the end, trace, clarifying that the person he would give the boot to is former President Trump. Trace . Yeah, and i thought it was fascinating how dana perino kind of pivoted from that where she said well, do you have a mathematical way that you think you can continue on to beat the former president so the strategy was in place there. Grady thank you we appreciate that. Bring in chief political anchor and anchor of Special Report bret baier. I thought it was fascinating, bret, the debate, you and i were up kind of watching it together. And i thought there were certain things, we went into this, right, somebody had to really set themselves apart and i wonder what your overview of the entire debate was. Well, first of all the audience in this environment was different, it was smaller, maybe it was the shadow of Ronald Reagan under air force one. Im not sure. But the candidates were not different, in fact they may have been more super charged than they were in our debate in milwaukee. Dana and stewart knew that going in, they were good at pulling the reigns. At one point governor burgum said i need to get in here can i speak and dana said no and moves on. I thought that was really good. Overall if i had to say whos the big winner tonight . There wasnt one standout but i think Governor Desantis kept his fogs in the middle because he had a couple of big moments and he didnt have any trips. We kind of go to social media and different sites to see how people feel about this right . And there were all kinds of different opinion cumbrance, you talk to five different people you get five different responses about who won, who lost, who they thinks going to stay and go. I know you had your three favorite moments of the night one with nikki haley and Vivek Ramaswamy. They had this back and forth over china and nikki haley it was really you couldnt understand what they were saying for a while and then nikki haley ended it with this. All you have to do. All you have to do is go watch nikki haley on youtube. Excuse me. If you give me three times the deduction and income tax then i wouldnt apply to yours. Secondly on the curtains do your homework tim because obama bought those core stains. Did you send them back . Did you send them back . That was the curtains comment at the tail end of the debate. Actually that was one of mine because at the end of that exchange where mer going back and forth and you cant really understand what theyre saying, South Carolina against South Carolina about a gas tax and in the middle Governor Desantis steps in and says this is silly and i have a done a lot in florida, et cetera, et cetera. In other words he landed the dismount after that argument and there were a couple of those moments which is why i say desantis had a good night. The one we were talking about where nikki haley came in and went after Vivek Ramaswamy and it was about china and my son said i shut my company down in china. It happened right before you were running for president. Yeah, i think Vivek Ramaswamy changed his tune this, you know, this imtoo. Last time he said you were all bought and paid for. This time he said youre all wonderful republicans who might be in my cabinet. So it was a definitely term and they picked um on that quickly. Last week we talked about chris kristi, i dont know if we had this. When Chris Christie went after the foreign president. You can do it up to six times. May not have hit the right notes. Watch. Youre a phrased being on this stage and defending your record. Youre ducking these things, and let me tell you whats going to happen, you keep doing that no ones going to call you donald trump anymore. Were going to call you donned duck. Listen the whole pitch and looking at the camera, that was very effective i think. The dismount with donald duck im not sure that hit the mark but he did that a couple of times. He had a couple of different effective moves. The question is, how does this field win . How does it get down to three or four because at that point the debate becomes really interesting to be the alternative against former President Trump who obviously is up 30, 40, 50 points depending on the poll you look at. And i know you have to go bret but it was kind of interesting and Grady Trimble turned on this where you should write down on the card who should be thrown off the island. Right . They didnt do that but in essence she asked ron desantis whats your mathematical path, he said listen its not the polls its the voters that decide and were going to go to the early states. Seems to me, as Vivek Ramaswamy is sitting down next to you bret the field is going to be narrow the next time we do this. Each time the poll numbers, the stipulations go up, the Donor Numbers go up, so it gets a little bit tougher. And that will be the challenge. And the other challenge will be, what is the path, do i have a path or not. Right. So im going to let you talk to vivek. Vivek ramaswamy. Im go step aside and make room for you. Thank you bret. Great work on all night. Thank you very much. Whats that . I cant unplug . Im going to stick around then. I would love to chat with both of you. Listen he cant tear himself away from this hes loves it so much. Hes been here hours and hours, lets talk to Vivek Ramaswamy who took shots at other candidates. Vivek thank you for coming over. What did you think of your performance tonight . I was happy with how we did. And to be honest with you the first debate i was quite surprised, you were on that stage, when many of those candidates came at me. I think that tonight im focused on moving to a Different Campaign on this campaign. Im not against any people on this stage. In in some ways i reintersecteded on this, i am the new guy in this race and i want to earn the trust as people across this country i embrace that. I want to surround myself as people who will challenge me, who question me, who will disagree with me. Thats how i built my businesses successfully and how i will reunite this country. Even though theyre coming for me im not bothered by that or against any of them. Im running for this country and if were going to reunite this country, were going to have to reunite this party first and im cut out for the job. Bret and i were talking earlier, nikki haley and you had it, you were talking about china and she said you shut it down before you ran for president. She got a lot of applause and a lot of resist center city. What did you think of that. Sean i think it was a fall anden fair attack what i was going to retort with, shes one of many governors who courted Chinese Government into her own state. The fact of the matter is i did something very few americans ceo had. I made a clear pledge not to do business in china when i started my second company, strive because we talk about those experiences. I talk about it a lot but reality isr single ceo is beholden to the ccp. Theres a reason on this network the last couple years im the most local ceo whos been an opponent of businesses doing business in china because i understand that threat from a reagans perspective right . Ronald reagans position against the soviet union. What did he say we win they lose. Thats my position of the come tonight party of china and thats how im going to lead us. Was it the same company hunter biden got paid. I have no idea what that reference was even to, to be honest with you. We actually opened a subsidiary in china, a wide range of investment that you take from people in china to do business in china, same thing from every company, black rock to apple, anybody else who has jvs. The different is i got the hell out of there and when i started my next business i made a day one commitment that no Financial Institution in this country has made. And i think part of the problem with our politics is china has infested every part of it. You look at every governor on that stage fromburg ham nikki haley and everything else. Every american ceo has been expanding into the Chinese Market but we have to learn about what went wronging there to actually decouple and i understand that more deeply than most. Reporter . Sean the subject was education, you made a comment on trans gender children, i want to play this vivek, and get your response. I have to be very clear about this, transgenderism especially in kids is a Mental Health disorder. We have to acknowledge the truth of that for what it is. I met two young women early in this campaign so the question is, a lot of people saying, you know, maybe thats not the best way to approach this. You can say listen, parental rights are key here but saying this is totally a Mental Health issues for those people. Lets be very fravshg about the truth, the dsm five until recently was classified. Gender dysphoria is a Mental Health condition. There are increased risks of suicide. Think about how these policies together make no sense. On the other Bherns Disability Acts was recently inked for transgenderism right . So activists are hailing a victory, its inconsistent when i disagree and say the exact same thing but i come from a place of compassion. When a kid says my gender doesnt match my biological sex. Yes, that means theyre proceeding going through some other struggle in our lives. To get to the bottom of what that is thats going on. We have to be able to ask whats going wrong instead of hire behind beer by saying youre transphobic. I rejet that. Thats cruelty. One of the things its going to take to unite this country, i think a leader to reach the next generation, and also somebody who speaks truth when its controversial. Sean did you have a dfrnt tape, seem to be the last guy, i appreciate fellow republicans and last debate, all the strings are got and paid for. I think the reality is these are good people tainted by a broken system and i do think the system is badly broken. Super pup wild. You said they could be in your cabinet. Certainly good people on that stage tainted by a broken system. Im going in to fix that broken system. Bret maybe you know this as well as i do. Every politician dances to the tune of their biggest donor, no exceptions. In my case my biggest donor is me and a clout mes to be speaking the truth. Its a bipartisan problem. I dont blame the individuals i think many of the candidates have been exploited by their own super packets in a small way beginning the process of reuniting the party so we can move forward. Sean a little bit of a skirt because you said they were bought and paid for this time and now willing to put them into your cabinet. Were going to make sure theyre not bought and paid for by the end of this. And ill be very clear, ill make a commitment if Ron Desantis Nikki haley and tim scott can make the same one, any super pac supporting me ill say give the money back, i wont show up at your events but every one needs to say something. Look at menendez and hunter biden and George Sore Rose funding half the prosecutors in this country. This is wrong but we have a chance to be better than the other side but thats going to rib leadership. I think its somebody from the next ceo, somebody from the next generation to lead us to the future rather than the politics of the past. Vivek thank you for coming on. Volleyball, were going to play sometime scott number 17 and were going to bring in the senator from South Carolina. Watch. He said we were all bought and paid for. And i thought about that for a little while and said, you know, i cant imagine how you can say that knowing that you were just in business with the Chinese Communist party and the same people that funded hunter biden millions of dollars remains as well. Nonsense. About 15 seconds. I want to respond. These are good people who are tainted by a broken system and its not the fault of anybody whos involved. Some of us are tainted. Excuse me, excuse me. Thank you for speaking while i interrepeateded. So we just played the back and forth between you and Vivek Ramaswamy, talking about bought and paid for and the whole concept of youre good people on tonights stage and last time you were bought and paid for in there. What did you think about that, listen theyre bought and paid for. All of that is going away . One of this things you have to do is have a good time on the stage but you also should tell the truth and what he said last time was wrong. And the more information about china the more with concerned i should be. Not a surprise he wants to turn taiwan over to china by 2028. Now we have a fact pattern that helps us see why. So you started out and everybody, i mean, you look at the internet, the response from the crowd was tim scott brought his energy. He brought his game tonight. And you did, you came out of the gate strong. And then it kind of tailed off. You were in the first 30 minutes, you had three questions, maybe 3. 5. You jumped in there. And then there was a wild why you werent called on. Even made the joke like hey can you see me. Im a big guy on that stage, big baldhead. My question is how the moderators can skip this. And they did it again and again and again. Some questioner had three times and i said zero. Frustrating. Talk to one of those monitors where youre trying to put anybody else, its the flow. Its the flow, three in the first inning, the second three. I would just say at the end of the day add it up because what we want is the American People to have a chance to hear what we have to say about the issues that define our future, and impact their lives today. We had an opportunity to do that on some of the issues, but did not even get a question on the creek or education, i founded the school access. Four different he will men schools by the fourth grade. Having information about the power of education and being completely carved out, i was stunned. Was it your sense that you might have stopped the momentum a little bit you built up in the first 35 minutes. Hopefully it will be self as opposed to being carved out of the system. I dont think they did it on purpose, i think they just have to be mindful of paing through their body and im just asking for people. Nobody asked, except maybe Chris Christie, who do you vote off the island, or where does a Tim Scott Campaign go from here. Do you see a mathematical way to be the contender if part. Of course i would not be on the debate stage. We have to have an opportunity to tell the American People why this nation can continue to do for them what its done for me. If we can continue to show up and talk about restoring hope, retreating opportunities, back in america, back in in the corner, its not the strength of president xi its the weakness of president biden. I believe the contrast of style and substance is the winning ticket. Sean you and i both talked about this, and ill let you go because i know youre busy. We talked about the back and forth between you and thicky haley and the curtains. Im not sure that was effective for either