As the crowd is here. [chanting] january 1st, 53 Million People in the u. S. Had been talking about the election on facebook. Tonight, there are just four candidates on the stage. Their position has been determined by their standing in an average of the five most recent National Polls as recognized by fox news and conducted and released by march 1st. Here they are. Businessman donald trump. [cheers and applause] texas senator ted cruz. [cheers and applause] florida senator marco rubio. [cheers and applause] and Ohio Governor john kasich. [cheers and applause] tonights rules are simple. Up to 60 seconds for each answer. 30 seconds for each followup response. And if a candidate goes over the allotted time, you will hear this. [bell] so pleasant. We have a big crowd here. And while we expect the audience to be enthusiastic and responsive at times. And they have already been. We also expect them to it be respectful and we want the candidates to get their full time so somewhere between a library and a red wings game. Am i right . [cheers] lets get started. Mr. Trump, as you may have heard, the 2012 republican nominee for president mitt romney had some things to say about you today. [crowd boos] he said your domestic policy will lead to recession. He said your Foreign Policy will make us less safe, and then he listed what he said are your personal qualities, quoting now romney on trump, quote the bullying, the greed, the showing off, the misogyny, the 3rd grade theatrics. He challenged you to answer with substance, not insults. How do you answer mitt romney, sir . Well, look, he was a failed candidate. He should have beaten president obama very easy. He failed miserably, and it was an embarrassment to everybody, including the republican party. He went away it looked like he went away on vacation the last month. So i dont take that. And i guess obviously he wants to be relevant. He wants to be back in the game. As far as domestic policy and trade, which is killing our country, he said free trade. And i believe in free trade, also. If you look at china and look at japan and mexico, both at the border by the way where they are killing us, both at the border and with trade, and every other country we do business with we are getting absolutely crushed on trade. And he said free trade, i say free trade, great, but not when they are beating us so badly. With china we are going to lose 505 billion in terms of trades. You just cant do it. Mexico, 58 billion. Japan, probably about they dont know it yet about 109 billion. Every country we lose money with. As far as im concerned, we have got to reduce, we have to redo our trade deals 100 percent. I have the greatest people in the world lined up to do it. [bell] we will will great trade deals. [ cheers and applause ] mr. Trump, romney also talked about your position on race and the controversy over your failure to denounce david duke on sunday. You have repeatedly disavowed him since then. But i would like to go deeper than that. What are your views on the ku klux klan and white supremacist . I totally disavow the ku klux klan. I totally disavow david duke. I have been doing it now for two weeks. You are probably about the 18th person thats asked me the question. It was very clear. That question was also talked about in the form of groups. Groups. I would like to know which groups are you talking about . You have to tell me which groups. Ultimately he got to the ku klux klan which obviously im going to disavow. By the way if you look at twitter account almost immediately after the program they were disavowed again. Its amazing when i do something on twitter everybody picks it up, goes all over the place. When i did this one, nobody ever picks it up. Take look at my twitter account. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Senator rubio, three weeks ago you said, quote i dont do the personal attacks. Primarily because its not who i am. Because i think its beneath the office that im seeking but also because i dont want to embarrass my kids. But in the past week youve mocked mr. Trumps tan. Youve made fun of his spelling. You called him a con artist. You suggested he wet himself back stage at the last debate along with other vulgar jolts and jabs so what happens . Let me Say Something this campaign for the last year donald trump has mocked everybody with personal attacks. He has done so to people sitting on the stage today. He has done so with people disabled. He has done it with every candidate in this race. If theres anyone who has ever deserved to be attacked that way, its donald trump for the way he has treated people in this campaign. With that said, i would much prefer to have a policy debate. I hope thats what we will have here tonight. Lets have a policy debate. We will. Lets talk about Donald Trumps tragedy and my strategy and john kasichs strategy when it comes to isis and healthcare and the important issues facing this country. Lets be honest about these this too. The media has given personal attacks donald trump has made incredible amount of coverage. Lets Start Talking about the issues that matter to this country. Im willing to do this right here, right now tonight. Mr. Trump, your response . Well, i also happen to call him a light weight, okay. And i have said that. So i would like to take that back. He is really not that much of a lightweight. And as far as and i have to say this, i have to say this. He hit my hands. Nobody has ever hit my hands. I have never heard of this. Look at those hands. Are they small hands . [ laughter ] and he referred to my hands if they are small, Something Else must be small. I guarantee you there is no problem. I guarantee you. Okay. Moving on. Okay, senator cruz, you say that you are the true conservative in this race. But 15 states have voted now, and you have won only four of them. You have lost repeatedly with what is supposed to be your core voter groups including evangelicals and conservatives. Hasnt your brand of conservatism been rejected by an electorate that appears to be more taken with mr. Trumps populist message . Well, megyn, you know at the end of the day for the folks at home, this is not about the insults back and forth between the candidates. This is not about what attacks we can throw at each other. This is the people at home who are struggling. Through seven years of barack obama, this is the single moms who are working two and three jobs, 28, 29 hours a week because their hours have been forcibly reduced because of obamacare. This is the Truck Drivers and Steel Workers and mechanics with calluses on their hands who have seen their wages not grow year after year after year while the cost of living goes up. This is all the young people coming out of school with Student Loans up to their eyeballs that arent able to find a job. And i dont think the people of america are interested in a bunch of bickering school children. They are interested in solutions, not slogans. Its easy to say make things better, make things great. You can even print it and put it on a baseball cap. The question is do you understand the principles that made America Great in the first place . As president , i will repeal every word of obamacare. I will pull back the regulators that are killing Small Businesses. And we will pass a simple flat tax and abolish the irs. And thats going to do, megyn. [bell] Small Businesses are going to explode. We will see millions of high paying jobs. We will see wages going up. We will see opportunity. Thats where our focus needs to be. Thats where my focus is. And that is why our campaign is the only campaign that over and over again has beaten donald trump to date, and its why we are the one campaign that Going Forward can and beat donald trump in this election. Go ahead, mr. Trump. I have heard ted say that over and over again on television, that he is the only one that can beat me. Just, for the record, i have won 10. He has won 3 or 4. Last week, in fact, on tuesday, i was a half a million votes higher than him. I was a million votes higher than marco. 1 million votes. Thats a lot of votes. And was by far in first place. So i keep hearing that he is the only one that can beat me but he is getting beaten very, very badly. So where does this come from . Where does it come from . Go ahead, senator rubio. I would say a couple of things. There is no doubt that donald has done well in these elections. There is no doubt about that. The numbers are there. Here is what the numbers also say, two thirds of the people who cast a vote in a republican primary or caucus have voted against you. They do not want you to be our nominee. The reason why is because we are not going to turn over the conservative movement or the party of lincoln or reagan, for example, to someone whose positions are not conservative. To someone who last week defended planned parenthood for 30 seconds on a debate stage. To someone, for example, who has no ideas on foreign someone who thinks the Nuclear Triad is a rock band from the 1980s. Time and time on issue after issue has not proven that he has the principles that outline what the conservative movement has been about and as ted said the things that made America Great. America is great because of the conservative principles of limited government and Free Enterprise and Strong National defense and our nominee needs to be someone that stands by those things. Donald has not demonstrated that. Go ahead, mr. Trump, and then we have to go to governor kasich. Very nice words but happens to be wrong. Cnn just came out with a poll two days ago, a National Poll, excuse me, a National Poll, a National Poll where he is at 15 . He is at 14 , and im at 49 . So when he says 75 , that would mean that 80 of the people dont dig you and im back down to 15 . Of all the people on the stage he performs worse than Hillary Clinton. Wrong, i beat Hillary Clinton in many polls. I beat Hillary Clinton in many polls. If you are our nominee. Hold on, senator. Keep on talking. I beat Hillary Clinton. Hold on, hold on. I hope you can. If the audience cannot understand when you are talking over each other. Finish your point, mr. Trump. I beat Hillary Clinton in many polls. The q poll just came out, i beat Hillary Clinton in a recent fox poll. I beat Hillary Clinton in u. S. A. Today. I beat her today in a poll in ohio. I beat im the only one that beats Hillary Clinton. I and i have not started on hillary yet. Believe me, i will start soon. I havent even started. Governor kasich . Governor kasich, today you admitted that you have a narrow path to the nomination through a contested convention. Today also mitt romney proposed that republicans should vote for senator rubio in florida. She should vote for you in ohio. They should vote for senator cruz in states that he can beat mr. Trump to prevent mr. Trump from getting the nomination. So, do you buy romneys blueprint and can you say tonight to your florida supporters that they should vote for senator rubio to get a contested convention . You know, this is so much about process. It frankly is boring to me. I would like it clear though since we are talking about polls, i beat Hillary Clinton by more than anybody, by 11 points. The reason it happens in in one poll. In one poll. The reason it happens because democrats tell me all the time, can i get the crossover votes. You see, because throughout this campaign, i have talked about issues. I have never tried to go and get into these kind of scrums that we are seeing here on stage and people say everywhere i go, you seem to be the adult on the stage. [cheers and applause] in terms of, you know, mitt romney, hes a great guy. But he doesnt determine my strategy. The fact of the matter is im running for president because i worked hard to fix this country when i was in washington as the chairman of the Budget Committee where we had some of the most significant job growth after we balanced the budget. We had wages going up. It was very successful in ohio. Our wages grow faster than the national average. Were up over 400,000 jobs. We paid down back in the old days they paid down a half a trillion dollars of the national debt. Its a formula that works. And i believe that formula will work when i return to washington as the president. And, by the way, i wont need onthejob training because i know how to do all of this. And within the first 100 days i will have a plan that will pass the congress. [bell] because it is reasonable and i can bring both sides together. Governor, you say this is all about process, but for voters, they need to see a path to get to the nomination if theyre going to support you. On super tuesday, you finished in Single Digits in nine out of 11 states. So you concede that your path is through a contested convention. How do you get there . Bret, i think we are all already there. The simple fact is you all wrote me off. You wrote me off before i even got to New Hampshire. Then when i finished second in New Hampshire you wrote me off in the south. Then you wrote me off in super tuesday. I split delegates in vermont with donald trump. I finished second in massachusetts and we won delegates in virginia. Guess what, its now march madness and we are heading up north to the place, to my turf, okay . [cheers and applause] let me just tell you this, i will win ohio. Im going to move all across this country and over time as people begin to finally hear my message do you know what people say to me, bret, all the time . Why dont they give you any time on the debate stage . Why is that . Now all of a sudden im starting to get it, what i want people to know is i know how to bring people together, republicans and democrats. I have successfully, both at the federal. [bell] federal level and state level brought economic growth, wage growth and Economic Security to this country. And i want to go bang and do it back and do it again and message of bringing people together and motivating people in the neighborhoods to realize they dont need somebody from washington galloping in there are many things they can do where they live because the strength in our country is in our neighborhoods and our families. Im going to keep doing this. We want to focus now on the economy, which is one of the top issues on facebook with 6. 6 Million People discussing it online. A lot of that conversation is happening here in detroit where the Unemployment Rate is 10. 9 . Thats more than double the national average. Senator rubio, you have taken to calling mr. Trump a con artist who portrays himself as a hero to working people while he has really been in your words sticking it to the American Workers for 40 years. But he has built a big company that employs thousands of people. Question how many jobs you have created . First of all, government first of all, chris, my point is exactly right. He has spent a career of convincing americans that he is something that he is not in exchange for their money. Now he is trying to do the same in exchange for their country. This is a fact of the. He talks about great businesses he has built. He inherited over 100 million. With that money. Wrong. With that money he lost. Mr. Trump, its not your turn, sir. He can start tonight by announcing that all the donald trump clothing will no longer be made in china and mexico but be made here in the United States. On the issue of job creation, i find this interesting. The private sector creates jobs. The jobs of those of us in Public Service are to put in place policies that allow the economy to grow. Thats the problem with the democratic party. They think government is what creates jobs. Government does not create jobs. Now, the way you create jobs is you make america the easiest and the best place in the world to start a business or to expand an existing business. If you go on my website marcorubio. Com you will see a real plan to fix our tanks. Taxes. [ bell ] to roll back taxes. Fix obamacare. Not just lines around the United States. Serious proposals. Mr. Trump i would like to you respond. You have 30 seconds to respond. As part of that could you respond to his specific assertion about trump collection clothes, which you say some of it is made in mexico. This little guy has lied so much. Here we go. About my record. He has lied so much about my record. [crowd booing] senator rubio, why dont you let him finish. I will tell you this. First of all, i got a call from my sister and brother tonight, we said we had no idea dad gave you 200 million. Believe me i started off with 1 million. I built a Company Worth more than 10 billion. I say it not in a bragging way but thats the kind of thinking we need. Very low debt, tremendous cash flow. My financials are all they are all in there with the federal elections. You have seen them. Everybody has seen them. I say it only because thats the kind of thinking this country needs with 19 trillion in debit. Believe me. Wait one second. Specifically and quickly on the question, will you promise that you will and how soon will you move your clothing collection, the clothes that are made in china and mexico . They devalue their currencies i will do that. And by the way i have been doing it more and more. They devalue their currencies, in particular china. Japan is unbelievable what theyre doing. They devalue their currencies and they make it impossible for clothing makers in this country to do clothing in this country. And if you look at whats happened on S