Republican Presidential Candidates Participate in Iowa Debate

Hermain Cain visits with reporters and other media before climbing the steps to the 'Hannity' program

Ames, Iowa- Eight Candidates for the Republican Presidential Nomination were in Iowa this past evening, participating in a Debate hosted by Fox News and the Washington Examiner. In what was a heated debate at times, the candidates were questioned by a panel composed of moderators from Fox News and the Washington Examiner.

The first question of the debate went to Congresswoman Michele Bachmann. Bachmann was questioned on her statements that she believes that the economy can rebound in a matter of months. “We can start to see recovery within three months, not the full recovery rate, but we can begin to see it if we put into place what we know to be true.” Bachmann stated.

Bachmann continued, “We should not have increased the debt ceiling. In the last two months, I was leading on the issue of not increasing the debt ceiling and that turned out to be the right answer.”

Jon Huntsman was also forced to defend his economic agenda, however, he first had to define his. Huntsman was questioned on his plans for the economy because, according to the moderator, his plan could not be found. “I intend to  do exactly what I did as Governor of the State of Utah. We took a good state, and we made it number one in this country in terms of job creation.”

Huntsman continued, “If you want to know what I am going to do, I am going to do exactly what I did as Governor. It’s called leadership. It’s called looking at how the free market system works. It’s creating a competitive environment that speaks to growth. We cut taxes historically. We didn’t just cut them, we cut them historically.”

After the first round of questions, Tim Pawlenty was questioned next. Pawlenty was questioned over his attacks towards Michele Bachmann. “Is she unqualified? Or is she just beating you in the polls?” asked Chris Wallace.

“I have not questioned Congresswoman Bachmann’s migrane headaches. I don’t think that’s an issue.  The only headache I hear about on the campaign trail is the headache

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Barack Obama has given the people of this country with his lousy leadership and this lousy economy,” Pawlenty said.

Pawlenty continued “As to Congresswoman Bachmann’s record, look she’s done wonderful things in her life, absolutely wonderful things, but it’s an undisputable fact that in Congress, her record of accomplishment, and results, is non-existent.”

Bachmann was given a 30 second rebuttal. “I would say Governor, when you were Governor in Minnesota, you implemented Cap and Trade in our state, and you praised the unconstitutional individual mandate, and you called for requiring all people in our state to purchase health insurance that government would mandate. Third, you said the era of small government was over. That sounds a lot more like Barack Obama if you ask me,” Bachmann said.

After defending her statements about the Governor, Pawlenty was given an opportunity to rebut.  “She says that she’s fighting for these things. She fought for less government spending, we got a lot more. She led the effort against Obamacare, we got Obamacare. She led the effort against TARP, we got TARP. She says she’s got a titanium spine, it’s not her spine we’re worried about, it’s her record of results. If that’s your view of effective leadership with results, please stop because you’re killing us.”

Bachmann was again given an opportunity to rebut where she defended her record in Congress. “I was at the tip of the spear fighting against the implementation of Obamacare in the United States Congress. Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Barack Obama ran Congress but I gave them a run for their money,” Bachmann said.

After a commercial break, Newt Gingrich was questioned about the state of his campaign. Chris Wallace cited a mass exodus of campaign staff and reports saying Gingrich’s campaign was in debt.

“Let me say first of all, Chris, I took seriously, Brett’s injunction to put aside the talking points, and I wish you would put aside the gotcha questions,” Gingrich said.

Gingrich continued, “Like Ronald Reagan, who had 13 staff resign the morning of the New Hampshire Primary, and who’s new campaign manager laid off a hundred people,

Newt Gingrich on 'Hannity' The floor of the 'Spin Room' was a hectic place to attempt to get information on the candidates.The 'Hannity' set was located on the floor in the middle of all the excitement.

because he had no money, because the consultants had spent it. Like John McCain, who had to go and run an inexpensive campaign because the consultants spent it, I intend to run on ideas.”

“I’d love to see the rest of tonight’s debate, asking us, what we would do to lead an America, who’s President has failed to lead, instead of playing Mickey Mouse games,” Gingrich said. His response to the question received cheers and applause from the audience.

Herman Cain was next questioned about some gaffes on the campaign trail. “The first point that you raised about saying that communities have a right to ban mosques, no that’s not exactly what I said. Unfortunately, the people who have helped you put that together have misquoted me. I have gone on record, and I put it in a press release

that’s available at my office, that simply says that if anyone misunderstood my intent, I apologize for that, but never will I apologize for saying that Sharia Law does not belong in the courts of the United States of America,” Cain said.

Mitt Romney was next questioned on foreign labor. Romney was questioned on his statements about companies needing to import foreign labor. “We are a nation of immigrants. We love legal immigration. But for legal immigration to work, we have to secure the border and we also have to crack down on employers that hire people who are here illegally,” Romney said.

Romney continued, “I like legal immigration. I’d have the number of visa’s that we give to people that come here legally, determined in part by the needs of our employment community, but we have to secure our border and crack down on those that bring folks here and hire here illegally.”

After another heated exchange between Bachmann and Pawlenty, Rick Santorum had this to say relating to the lack of questions he was getting in the debate. “As I told you when I travel around Iowa, you see me in your hometown, but you probably wouldn’t see much of me on television so it’s holding true tonight.”

Santorum was then questioned on if there was any ratio of spending cuts to tax raises he would accept as President from the Debt Super Committee “The answer is no, because that’s not the problem. The problem is that we have spending that has exploded,” Santorum said.

Santorum continued, “Government has averaged 18% of GDP as a percentage of the overall economy that government eats up. And we’re now almost at 25%. Revenues are

US Senator Rand Paul was on hand to lend support to his father and Presidential Candidate, Ron Paul at Thursday's debate.

down about 2 or 3 percent. So if you look at where the problem is, the problem is spending not taxes and we’ll get those taxes up, if we grow the economy.”

Newt Gingrich next explained his thoughts on the Debt Super Committee. “I think this Super Committee is about as dumb an idea as Washington has come up with in my lifetime,” Gingrich said.

Gingrich continued, “I used to run the House of Representatives. I have some general notion of these things. The idea that 523 Senators and Congressman are going to sit around for four months while 12 brilliant people, mostly picked for political reasons, are going to sit in some room and brilliantly come up with a Trillion dollars or force us to choose between gutting our military and accepting  a tax increase, is irrational.”

Ron Paul was questioned next about whether or not each state has the constitutional right to make a resident to buy a better service because they are a resident.  “The way I would understand the Constitution, the Federal Government can’t go in and prohibit the states from doing bad things, and I would consider that a very bad thing, but you don’t send in a federal police force because they’re doing it and throw them into court,” Paul said.

Paul continued, “So they do have the leeway under our Constitution, but we have big trouble in this medical care problem and we have drifted so far from any of our care being delivered by the market place, and once you get the government involved and both parties have done it. They have developed a bit of a medical care delivery system based on corporatism.”

After the debate, candidates and their representatives went to the Post Debate “Spin Room” where they tried to spin the debate results in their respective way. You can read some of the statements from Candidate Staff by clicking HERE.