Republican nomination are here in South Carolina for their ninth debate, one week before this state holds the firstinthe south primary. George washington wrote that the truth will ultimately prevail where there is pains taken to bring it to light. We hope to shed some polite lite on the candidates positions tonight to help voters make up their minds. So, gentlemen, please join us on stage. applause moderator with us tonight, with us tonight are retired neurosurgeon, ben carson, of florida. Senator marco rubio of applause businessman, donald trump of new york. applause senator ted cruz of texas. applause former governor jeb bush of florida. applause and Governor John Kasich of ohio. applause now as most of you have heard by now, Supreme CourtJustice Antonin Scalia died today at the age of 79. He was the longest serving member of the court, appointed by president reagan in 1986. Justice scalia was the courts leading conservative conservative, and even those who disagreed with his opinions regarded him as a brilliant legal scholar. Please join us and the candidates on our stage in a Justice Antonin Scalia. Thank you. We will talk to the candidates about Justice Scalia and the road ahead when the debate begins in a moment. My constipation and belly pain have my stomach feeling all knotted up. Ive tried laxatives. But my symptoms keep returning. My constipation feels like a pile of bricks. That keeps coming back. Linzess can help. Or chronic constipation. Linzess is thought to help calm painsensing nerves and accelerate bowel movements. Linzess helps you proactively manage your symptoms. Do not give linzess to children under 6 and it should not be given to children 6 to 17. It may harm them. Dont take linzess if you have a bowel blockage. Get immediate help if you develop unusual or severe stomach pain especially with bloody or black stools. The most common side effect is diarrhea, sometimes severe. If its severe, stop taking linzess and call your doctor right away. Other side effects include, gas, stomacharea pain and swelling. Bottom line, ask your doctor about linzess today. Moderator before we when we ask you a question, you will have one minute to answer. And 30 seconds more if we ask a followup. If youre attacked by another candidate, you get 30 seconds to respond. And heres how we keep time. After we ask a question, youll get a green light. The yellow light means you have 30 seconds left to finish your answer. And when time sup, the light turns red. That means please stop talking. If you keep talking, you will hear this. bell you dont want to hear that. Joining me in the questioning tonight my cbs news colleague chief White House CorrespondentMajor Garrett. And Kimberly Strassel, who is on the Editorial Board of the wall street journal. And you can participate in the debate, too, through our partnership with twitter. Tweet us your questions and comments using the hashtag gopdebate. Lets begin. First, the death of Justice Scalia and the vacancy that leaves on the Supreme Court, mr. Trump, i want to start with you. Youve said that the anyone in the rest of his term to replace Justice Scalia. If you were president and had a chance with 11 months left to go in your term, wouldnt it be an abdication to conservatives in particular not to name a conservative justice for the rest of your term . Well, i can say this if the president and if i were president now i would certainly want to try and nominate a justice. And im sure that, frankly, im absolutely sure that president obama will try and do it. I hope that our senate is going to be able mitch and the entire group is going to be able to do something about it in times of delay. We could have a diane sykes or a bill pryor. We have some fantastic people bup but this is a from blow to conservatism. Its a tremendous blow, frankly, to our country. Moderator just to be clear, mr. Trump, youre okay with the president nominating somebody . I think he is going to do it whether im okay with it or not. Its up to Mitch Mcconnell and everybody else to stop it. Delay. applause moderator governor kasich, i want to get your thoughts on this. Justice scalia was a real believer, obviously, in the strict word of the constitution. Now, harry reid says that a failure to fill his vacancy would be shameful abdication of one of the senates most essential constitutional responsibilities. Where do you come down on this . Well, john, first of all, if i were president , we wouldnt have the divisions in the country we have today. And i do want to take a second, as we reflected reflected on Justice Scalia, its amaze, its not even two minutes after the death of Justice Scalia, nine children here today, their father didnt wake up, his wife, you know, sad, but, you know, i jt wish we hadnt run so fast into politics. Heres my concern about this. The country is so divided right now, and now were going to see another partisan fight taking place. I really wish the president would think about not nominating somebody. If he were to nominate pick somebody hois going to have unanimous approval and such widespread approval across the country that this could happen without a lot of recrimination. I dont think thats going to happen. And i would like the president to just for once here put the country first. Were going to have an election for president very soon and the people will understand what is at stake in that election. And so i believe the president should not move forward, and i think that we ought to let the next president of the United States decide who is going to run that Supreme Court with a vote by the people of the United States of america. bell applause . Moderator dr. Carson, you, like others, put out a statement after the death was announced and you said the president should delay. Youve written a book on the constitution recently. What does the constitution say about whose duty it is here to act in this kind of a situation . Well, the constitution actually doesnt address that particular situation. But the fact of the matter obviously, is a very important part of our governmental system, and when our constitution was put in place, the average age of death was under 50. And, therefore, the whole concept of Lifetime Appointments for Supreme Court judges and federal judges was not considered to be a big deal. Obviously, that has changed. And its something that probably needs to be looked at pretty carefully at some point. But we need to start thinking about the divisiveness that is going on in our country. I looked at some of the remarks that people made after finding out that Justice Scalia had died, and they were truly nasty remarks. And that we have managed to get to that position in our country is truly a shame. And we should be thinking about how can we create some healing in this land. But right now, were not going to get healing with president obama. Thats very clear. bell fully agree that we should not allow a judge to be appointed during his time. Rubio applause lawyer. Quickly, can you address the issue of whether the constitution tells us who has the power to appoint Supreme Court justices . And then, also, the Senate Republicans last year floated an idea of removing the filibuster for senate excuse me, for Supreme Court nominations. You seemed open to that. Whats your feeling on that now . Let me first talk about Justice Scalia. The loss is is tremendous and obviously our exphaerts prayers go out to his he will go down as one of the great justices in the history of this republic. You talk about somebody who defended the original meaning of the constitution, who understood that the constitution was not there to be interpreted based on the fadz of the moment, but it was there to be interpreted according to its original meaning. Justice scalia understood that better than anyone in the history of this his dissent on the independent counsel case is a brilliant piece of jurist work and his dissent on oberrer felled. I do not believe the president should appoint someone. Its been over 80 years since a lame duck president has appoint a Supreme Court justice. And it remind of us this how important this election is. Someone on this stage will get to choose the balance of the Supreme Court, and it vacancy thats there now, and we need to put people on the bench that understand the constitution is not a living and breathing document. It is to be interpreted as originally meant. Moderator quickly, though on the question applause this specific question, though. You were once in favor of dropping the threshold thats not accurate. Moderator you were never in favor of that. For example, today, according to the changes harry reid made, appellate judges can now be appointed by simple majority, but not today i think you see the wisdom of why we dont that want to change. Because if that were the case and we were not in charge of the senate harry expreed barack obama would ram down our throat a liberal justice, like the ones barack obama has imposed on us already. Moderator senator bush, i want to ask you, creativities for a long time have felt their republican president s have picked justices who didnt turn out to be conservative. Bernie sanders said he would have a litmus test. Would you have a litmus test for a nominee, and what would it be . Not on specific issues, not at all. I think the next president if im president i will appoint people nominate record in the judiciary. The problem in the past has been we have appointed people thinking you can get it through the senate record. And the problem is that sometimes were surprised. The simple fact is the next president needs to appoint someone with a proven conservative record, similar to Justice Scalia, that is a lover of liberty, that government, that consistently applied that kind of philosophy, that didnt try to legislator from the bench, that was respectful of the and then fight and fight, and fight for that nomination to make sure that that nomination passes. Of course, the president , by the way, has every right to justices. Constitution. President of the united we want a strong executive for sure. But in return for that, orientation on that nomination, and theres no doubt in my mind that barack obama will not have a consensus pick when he submits that person to the senate. Moderator right, so, senator cruz, the constitution applause so senator cruz, the constitution says the President Shall appoint with advice and concept from the senate, just to clear that up. So he has the constitutional power. But you dont think he should. Where do you set that date if youre president . Does does it begin in Election Year, in december, november, september . And once you set the date, when youre president , will well, we have 80 years of precedent of not confirming Supreme Court justices in an Election Year. And let me say moderator im sorry to interrupt, were any appointed in the Election Year or 80 years of not confirming. For example, l. B. J. , nominated abe fordyce. Fordyce did not get confirmed. He was defeated. Moderator kennedy was confirmed in 88. In 87. Moderator thats the question, is it appointing or confirming . In this case its both. If i could finish moderator sorry, i want to get the facts straight for the audience. I apologize. booing . Justice scalia was a legal giant. He was somebody that i knew for 20 years. He was a brilliant man. He was faithful to the constitution. He changed the arc of american legal history. And ill tell you, his passing tonight, our prayers his wife, maureen, who he adored, his nine children, his 36 grand kids. But it underscores the stakes of this election. We are one justice away from a Supreme Court that will strike down every restriction on abortion adopted by the states. We are one justice away from a Supreme Court that will reverse the heller decision, one of Justice Scalias seminal decisions that upheld want Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. We are one justice away from a Supreme Court that would undermine the religious liberty of millions of americans and the stakes of this election, for this year, for the senate, the senate needs to stand strong and say were not gonna give up the u. S. Supreme court for a generation by allowing barack obama to make one more liberal appointee. And then for the state of South Carolina, one of the most important judgments for the men and women of South Carolina to make, is who on this stage bell has the background, the principle, the character be, strength of resolve to nominate and confirm principled constitutionalists to the court . That will be what i doll if im elected president. applause moderator thank you, senator cruz. All right, were going to move on to National Security here, and we are going to i want to read a quote from secretary robert gates, former defense secretary robert gates, who served for under eight president s. And this is what he said about republican candidates. Part of the concern they have the campaign is that the solutions being offered are so simplistic and so at odds with the way the world really works. So in that spirit were going to work tonight to be more specific. Mr. Trump, i want to start with you. You said as president youll get up to speed very quickly. Youll know more quickly as president than any of the experts. So youve been elected president. Its your first day in the situation room. What three questions do you ask your National Security experts about the world . We want to do and it. And how hard do we want to hit . Because we are going to have to hit very, very hard to knock out isis. We are also going to have to learn who our allies are. We have allies, socalled allies. Were spending billions and billions of dollars supporting people we have no idea who they are in syria. Do we want to stay that route on do we want to go and make something with russia . I hate to say iran, but with russia because we the iran deal is one of the worst deals i have ever seen negotiated in my entire life. Its a disgrace that this country negotiated that deal. applause but very important not only a disgrace. Its a disgrace and an embarrassment. But very important, who are we fighting with . Who are we fighting for . What are we doing . We have to rebuild our cray. Im the only one on this stage that said do not go into iraq. Do not attack iraq. Nobody else on this stage said that. I said it loud and strong. And i was in the private sector. Fortunately. But i said it, and i said it loud and clear, youll destabilize the middle east. Thats exactly what happened. I also said, by the way, four years ago, three years ago bell attack the oil. Take the wealth away. Attack the oil and keep the oil. They didnt listen. They just started that a few months ago. applause . Moderator senator rubio 30 seconds on this question, senator rubio. Are those the questions you would ask . No, i think there are three major threats you want to immediately get on top of. Number one is, what are we doing in the Asia Pacific Region where both north korea and china pose threats the United States. Number two is what are we doing in the middle east with the combination of the sunnishia conflict driven by the shia arc at iran is now trying to establish in the middle east and the growing threat of isis. And the third is rebuilding and ryan vigerating nato in the european theater, particularly in Central Europe and Eastern Europe where Vladimir Putin is threatening the territory of 20 of georgia and a significant percentage of moderator let me ask you a followup,p, full, proper question. applause violent extremists are operating or active in 40 countries, some 80 countries are in different degrees of instability. Overseas. Economic collapse when he came into office. We Face International health crises, from ebola to zika. There is a lot of opportunity for crisis, as you have talked about. What would you point to in your past to show voters that youve been in a crisis and that youve been tested when that inevitable crisis comes when youre president . Let me tell you what happened a couple of years ago. One of the hardest decisions youll ever make in congress is when you are asked by the president to authorize the use of force in a conflict because you are now putting your name on behalf of the people of your state behind a military action, where americans in uniform could lose their life. In 2014, barack obama said he would not take military action against assad unless senate beginning on the committee of Foreign Relations where i am one of its members. And it was hard. Because you looked at the pictures. I saw the same images people saw. Im the father of children. I saw the images of these little children gassed and poisoned by their own leaders and we were angry. Something had to happen, and there was the sense we needed to secretribution. And then i looked at Barack Obamas plan. Barack obamas plan, which john kerry later described as unbelievably small. And concluded that that attack would not only not help the situation. It wou