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New Day
GOP Rivals Spar In Last Debate Of The Year. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired December 16, 2015 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(DEBATE PORTION)
[05:55:14]
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Wednesday, December 16th, approaching 6:00 in the east. Mich is in New York. Alyson and I are at the Venetian Hotel in Vegas, baby, this is where the Republican presidential race will have a new face because of what happened last night.
Nine contenders took the stage, but really only two rivalries garnering headlines this morning. You got Cruz-Rubio that were taking it all over immigration and a lot of other issues and Jeb Bush landing some punches on Donald Trump.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: One of the big headlines, Donald Trump renewing his vow not to run as an independent. So who are the big winners and the losers on the stage last night? And how are voters responding this morning? We have it all covered for you, the way only CNN can.
John Berman joins us now with a look at the key moments of the debate. John, tell us what you saw.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: We were in this. Last night, there was a two-hour debate. It wasn't one debate on that stage, remarkable. You know, Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush zero interaction. Donald Trump and Marco Rubio, almost no interaction, but the candidates who did decide to engage, man, oh, man, was there tension.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": This is the final Republican debate before the election year begins.
BERMAN (voice-over): There was serious substance like Donald Trump's plan to ban Muslims from entering the country.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We are not talking isolation. We are talking security. We're not talking religion, we're talking about security.
BERMAN: But also serious strategy, namely the question to throw down or not to throw down. The answer, a definitive yes to both.
JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Donald, you know, is great at the one-liners, but he's a chaos candidate and he'd be a chaos president.
TRUMP: Jeb doesn't really believe I'm unhinged. He said that very simply because he has failed in this campaign. It has been a total disaster. Nobody cares.
BERMAN: Jeb Bush taking it to Donald Trump, not just once.
BUSH: Donald, you are not going to be able to insult your way to the presidency. That's not going to happen.
BERMAN: Not just twice.
BUSH: If I'm president, I will be a commander-in-chief, not an agitator-in-chief or a divider-in-chief.
BERMAN: But at least three times and maybe just maybe getting under his skin.
BUSH: You will never be the president of the United States by insulting your way to the presidency.
TRUMP: I'm at 42 and you are at 3 so far I'm doing better.
BUSH: It doesn't matter.
BERMAN: That was just one battle. Another between Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio on several fronts, domestic under surveillance --
MARCO RUBIO (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We are now at a time when we need more tools, not less tools, and that tool we lost the metadata program was a valuable tool that we no longer have at our disposal.
TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Marco knows what he's saying isn't true.
BERMAN: Defense spending.
RUBIO: Three times that he voted against a bill that funds the troops.
CRUZ: Marco has continued these attacks and he knows they're untrue.
BERMAN: And crucially immigration.
RUBIO: It's an issue I've lived around my whole life. My wife is an immigrant. All my neighbors are immigrants.
BERMAN: The first time yet that Rubio has been pushed on his support for immigration reform in a debate.
CRUZ: You know there was a time for choosing as Reagan put it where there was a battle over amnesty and some shows like Senator Rubio to stand with Barack Obama and Chuck Schumer and support a massive amnesty plan. He was fighting to grant amnesty. I was fighting to secure the border.
BERMAN: Carly Fiorina suggested neither candidate is up to the task.
CARLY FIORINA (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: To wage war, we need a commander-in-chief who has made tough calls in tough times and stood up to be held accountable over and over. Not first time senators who never made an executive decision in their life. I'll add that Margaret Thatcher once said, if you want something talked about, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman.
BERMAN: There was heat between Chris Christie and Rand Paul over no- fly zones in Syria.
CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We would shoot down the planes of Russian pilots, if, in fact, they were stupid enough to think that this president was the same feckless weakling than the president we have in the oval office is right now.
RAND PAUL (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I think if you are in favor of World War III, you have your candidate. Here's the thing.
BERMAN: But for all the insults hurled, there were also hugs, rhetorical.
CRUZ: We will build a wall that works and I'll get Donald Trump to pay for it.
BERMAN: And quite literal between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, the current front runners, who just plain refuse to rumble.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If he was a maniac --
TRUMP: I got to know him over the last three or four days. He has a wonderful temperament. He's just fine. Don't worry about it.
BERMAN: And finally, a revealing truce perhaps between Donald Trump and the party. His strongest disavow yet of a third party run.
TRUMP: I am totally committed to the Republican Party. I feel --
