Bring in people from syria, we have no idea who they are, or where they are, et cetera, its a disaster, we cant afford to do that. It gives money for illegal immigration, you know, for letting people come in illegally into this country. The whole thing is a disaster and the republicans passed it. With health care, we have to repeal and replace obamacare. What would you replace it with . A Health Care Savings accounts, which are great. We will do that, or were going to have and probably and you can say and or. What i really like is the insurance im a selffunder. Im not take anything money, okay . Im not taking money from the Insurance Companies, so i can do whats right. I can do what is right for the people. This is something i think ive been credit for. I dont think ive been given enough credit. Because ive turned down hundreds of millions of dollars. Jeb bush raised 148 million to put it in a fund, its like throwing it out the window what he did with it. I would have had 500 i would have had a billion dollars. I had people asking me please let me give you. Im doing it all myself. What happened is we have lines around each state. It makes it impossible for people to bid for Insurance Companies to bid within those states. The Insurance Company would monopoly, would rather have a monopoly on here or new york or on iowa or on any other place than be able to bid all over the united states. Because they make much more money that way. What we do, and the Insurance Companies take care of the politicians. Theyre giving the politicians, most of the guys im running against are getting money from the Insurance Companies, and theyre getting money from, by the way, other companies, drug company, pharmaceutical companies. They give tremendous amounts of money to the people that im negotiating against, that im debating against, the people that are on the stage, the people that are in congress, the senators. So what im saying is this. We have to get rid of the lines. We have to create competition. When you do that, you will have the best health care youve ever, ever had. And it will bat a reasonable cost. They almost got rid of the lines when they were doing obamacare. But it didnt happen, because the Insurance Companies have too many of the senators under control. Let me ask, todd, to follow up. You understand what i mean, theres no competition. Did you get your answer, is that specific enough for you . It sounds fair enough, yes. I have one question. If obamacare thank you. Is repealed and there is no mandate for everybody to have insurance, whats why would an Insurance Company not have a preexisting ensure somebody with preexisting. I like the mandate. Here is where im a little bit different. I dont want people dying on the streets i say this all the time. I say this, look, i did five speeches maybe six speeches today, we had a lot of rallies, we had thousands and thousands of people. I mean, we get big crowds. Every time i talk about this i get standing ovations. The Republican People theyre wonderful people. They dont want people dying on the streets. Sometimes theyll say donald trump wants single payer because there is a group of people, as good as these plans are, and by the way, your insurance will go way down, youll have better plans. Youll get your own doctor. Obama lied. To be able to get insurance . Yes. Obama lied when he said youll be able to keep your plan, keep your doctor. It was a pure lie. Frankly, Many Democrats went along, because they believed him. He lied 28 times he said it. 28 times, if that were in the private sector youd be sued for fraud. He lied to get the plan through, he got it through, and its turned out to be a disaster, the wrong people are buying it, its dead. You know, look, obama care is dead, its going to be repealed, its going to be replaced, i will say this, anderson. If we dont do something quickly, youre going to have a Health Care Problem like youve never seen before in this country. Now, the new plan is good, its going to be inexpensive, its going to be much better for the people. Theres going to be a group of people at the bottom, people that havent done well, people that dont have any money that wont be able to be taken care of, were going to take through them through maybe concepts of medicare. We have hospitals that arent doing well. We have doctors that arent doing well. You cannot let people die on the street, now, some people say thats not a very republican thing to say. Every time i say this at a rally, or even today i said it, i got a standing ovation. I said, you know, the problem is everybody thinks that you people as republicans hate the concept of taking care of people that are really, really sick and are going to die. Thats not single payer, by the way. Thats called heart. Weve got to take care of people that cant take care of themselves. But the plans will be much less expensive. Theyll be much better than obamacare. Youll get your doctor. Youll get everything you want to get. It will be unbelievable. But you have to get rid of the lines. You have to have competition. Those people, everybody liking it when i say it, an that includes republicans. Single payer. I want you to meet orrin smith. Hes undecided. Hello. I think its about five years ago, i sat in your office, and you said you were thinking about running for president then, and you didnt run then, man are you i should have done it, we would have had obama for four years instead of eight years. Right, rights. Man, are you running now. I am running, yes. This may be better timing for me, if you want to know. Youve made a lot of statements about a lot of issues, and covered a lot of ground in a very short period of time. Right. One statement you made im having trouble getting over, frankly. I wanted to ask you about it, as a matter of fact, i was watching the debate and you made this statement, i had to apologize to my children for the words that came out of my mouth when you said what you said, and that was i dont want to put words in your mouth, so correct me if im wrong. Go ahead. When you said that george w. Bush which was our last republican president , a man i respect greatly, a person that we really fought for when he was up against a lot of pressure, that he lied to get us in the war in iraq. That stung me very deeply. I dont believe that. Im just wondering, given some time passing, perhaps youve rethought that. Would you be willing to rethink that . Well, a lot of people agree with what i said, and im not talking about lying, im not talking about not lying, nobody really knows why we went into iraq, the iraqis did not knock down it was not Saddam Hussein who knocked down the world trade center, okay. What you said was, they lied, there were no weapons of mass destruction. There were none, and they knew there were none. They knew that, they lied. They said there are weapons of mass destruction. I was against the war when it started. Do you think the president of the united states, george w. Bush lied im not going to get your vote, but thats okay. Im just giving you another shot at it. Ill tell you simply, it may have been the worst decision going into iraq, it may have been the worst decision anybody has made, any president has made in the history of this country, thats how bad it is, okay . The migration you see today, the destruction of europe with Angela Merkel allowing millions of people coming into germany, i have people from germany who want to leave germany. These are people two years ago who did nothing but talked about how they loved their country, germany. Theyre going to leave germany. Many, many people are going to leave germany. Youre going to end up with big problems in germany. You look at sweden the other day, brussels, i was in brussels years ago. It was one of the most beautiful places. Now its like an armed camp. Its so crazy what they have done. Everything thats happening started with stupidly going into the war in iraq. Now, iraq. We have and people talk about me with the button. Im the one that doesnt want to do this, okay . And i went from 20022003 said you shouldnt be doing it. Heres what happens, we have to spend 2 trillion in iraq, in fighting iraq. 2 trillion. Thousands of lives, we have Wounded Warriors who i love all over the place. These are incredible braver than all of us in this room put together. I look at the attitude, i work with a lot of them, these are great people. We got nothing. We have nothing. Were not even there. We cant make a phone call right now. But to his question im trying to separate. Let me tell you. I can tell you this, whether he lied or not, he went into iraq, it was a horrible decision. Okay . And iraq did not knock down the world trade center. Where did these people go when they got on the airplanes. Do you know where they went . Do you know where they went . A lot of them went to saudi arabia, they didnt go back to iraq, they within to saudi arabia. There are sealed documents right now, that no one wants to allow to be open, that talk about this subject. Id like to see what it says, i will say this, bush felt very Saddam Hussein overplayed his hand because he was you know, he senior bush did the right thing, he knocked the heck out of him and then he pulled back, he didnt get into the quagmire, that was okay to do, the problem is, Saddam Hussein said, i drove them back, i drove the americans back, he really overplayed his hand, and frankly i think the son, being loyal to the father, i think he really wanted to go into iraq, even if it wasnt the right thing to do. He went into iraq, he started something that destroyed the middle east, and i said, dont go in, because youre going to ruin the balance in the middle east. Youre going to have a total imbalance, youre going to have iran taking over iraq, everything i said turned out to be true. Iran is now taking over iraq. They wanted to do it for years and years and years, theyre going to walk in. Not only do we make a horrible horrible deal where were giving iran 150 billion, we got nothing for it. We get our prisoners back. They should have been given back to us three years ago, four years ago. We shouldnt even have started negotiating until we got our prisoners back, and we would have had it that way. But heres the problem. We make all a bad deals. The war in iraq started the whole destabilization of the middle east. It started isis. It started libya. It started syria. That was one of the worst decisions ever made by any government at any time. President bush made the decision. And Barack Obama Barack obama as bad as he is, and hes bad. He got us out the wrong way. He should have left people there, and he should have done it differently, and he shouldnt have said, were getting out at a specific time. He gave a specific date as you know, to get out. So bad. So bad. Just to his question, one more chance, either you believe he either lied or he did not lie. Are you willing to say i dont know what he did, i just know it was a terrible mistake. Was it a mistake for you to say in that debate he lied . Id have to see the exact wording. Look, id probably say that something was going on. I dont know why he went. In i dont know why he went in. Because, honestly, there was no reason to go in. They didnt knock down the world trade center. It wasnt iraq that knocked it down. You would not say again that george w. Bush lied . I dont know. I cant tell you. Id have to look at some documents. Okay. I want you to meet craig caldwell. He is undecided. He is a Small Business owner. Craig . Mr. Trump. Yes. Youre considered the political outsider in this race, a lot of people attribute your over all success so far to that. If you go on to win this nomination and are elected in november, a Trump Administration cabinet would consist of people outside of politics. If so, who would you can you give us examples of who you would consider and for what posts they would you talked about carl icahn already. I dont necessarily. Carl is a very successful businessman. What id love for him to do is how are we doing in trade with china. Youd like him to negotiate i have some great businessman friends, theyre all calling me because theyre saying wow, this could happen. Theyre all calling me. We have the greatest people in the world in this country. We dont use them. We use political hacks to negotiate with china, with japan. We have Carolyn Kennedy negotiating car deals and trade dales. And she doesnt even know. Carolyn kennedy got to be the ambassador of japan. Would you want republicans on your cabinet . I want the best people. Honestly. I want the greatest negotiators. We cant lose 505 billion next year with china. Do you fined it valuable to have people with different opinions give you different thoughts. I like that, and then you make the decision. I think im very open to that, i like that, i always like that. And im fine with it. I want the most talented people. We have the greatest negotiators in the world. I tell you before. We have a trade deficit with mexico. 58 billion. They say, you wont build a wall, the wall is going to cost 12 million, its peanuts compared to what we lose, thats why mexicos going to pay. They say theyre not going to pay. I know they do. And calderon the other day, who is the past president , the other day said we will not pay. So the newspapers called me up and sid calderon said we will not pay. I said what you doing to say . The wall just got ten feet higher. We have to take a break, back in a minute with more questions for donald trump. Type 2 diabetes doesnt care who you are. Man woman or where youre from. City country were just everyday people fighting high blood sugar. I am everyday people. Farxiga may help in that fight every day. Along with diet and exercise, farxiga helps lower blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes. One pill a day helps lower your a1c. And, although its not a weightloss or bloodpressure drug, farxiga may help you lose weight and may even lower Blood Pressure when used with certain diabetes medicines. Do not take if allergic to farxiga or its ingredients. Symptoms of a serious allergic reaction include rash, swelling, or difficulty breathing or swallowing. If you have any of these symptoms stop taking farxiga and seek medical help right away. Do not take farxiga if you have severe kidney problems, are on dialysis, or have bladder cancer. 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[ laughs ] no, youre not yogonna watch it tch it we cant let you download on the goooooo youll just have to miss it yeah, youll just have to miss it we cant let you download. Uh, no thanks. I have x1 from xfinity so. Dont fall for directv. Xfinity lets you download your shows from anywhere. I used to like that song. Welcome back. Were here at the campus of the university of South Carolina here in columbia. Less than two days to go until primary day. Donald trump taking questions from the voters right now. Thanks for being here. Again. Thank you. Continuing on. I literally was just handed this. Theres a report out on buzz feed that includes an audio clip of what appears to be you on howard stern talking on the radio on september 11th, 2002. He asked you are you for invading iraq. Yeah, i guess so, i wish the first time it was done correctly. Is that accurate . Do you remember saying that . No, but i could have said that. Nobody asked me. I wasnt a politician. It was probably the first time anybody asked me the question. But by the time the war started, that was quite a bit different. Yeah, this was 2002. By the time the war started, i was against the war. And there were headlines in 20032004 that i was totally against the war. Actually, a couple of people in your world in terms of the pundits said there is definite proof in 20032004 trump was against it. Right, but in 2004 there was a reuters article, those were a couple weeks after the war began. Which is okay. A lot of people said it was so early that even if it was a little bit after the war, he was totally against the war. I was very much against it. That was probably the first time i was ever even asked about the war. Howard, whos a great guy by the way. A lot of people dont understand that. Hes a great interview. Hes a great interviewer, a talented guy and a good guy. It was probably the first time i was asked about it it. Okay. I havent heard it, but you may have said this . Yeah, i may have. When youre in the private sector, you get asked things. Youre not a politician, probably the first time i was asked by the time the war started i was against it, shortly thereafter, i was really against it. I want you to meet another voter, ryan parsons, an aspiring entrepreneur here in South Carolina. He is a registered republican fright now. He is undecided. Hi, mr. Trump. Its an honor to speak to you. Thank you. Thanks for coming to columbia. My girlfriend who is a lobbyist who advised me not say this, but since youre here im going to say it anyway. Muhammad alis greatest fault is that he didnt know how great he was. What is your greatest fault, and how will you continue to overcome it in order to win the general election. I dont know that it has to do with the general election. I have found this process amazingly interesting, ive never done this. Ive been doing this for seven months. Ive been given credit, were doing really nicely. Its been interesting for me. I will tell you, ive said a couple of times, one of my faults is i will put up with people and deception even though i know theyre deceiving too long. And but when i get when i, you know, get to it, im too tough. In other words, too long and then instead of just forgetting about it, and especially things that dont matter that much, i never forget. I dont forget. I dont think you forget either to be honest with you, i dont forget. My wife will tell me sometimes, youre sometimes youll go too long. But then when it gets bad, its like you hold on to stuff. I do, i hold on to stuff. I would rather not hold on to stuff. If ive been deceived in anyway, or something happens, i dont forget. Sometimes youre better off forgetting. In other cases its not such a bad happening. You learn. Usually with people, and i talk about success, a lot of my friends ask me to speak about success. A lot of people pay me a lot of money to do it, and we give to it charity and we have a lot of fun with it. But a lot of people ask me that. You dont want to necessarily you want to remember. When people deceive you once, usually that same person will do it again, because thats a trait that they have. Its not so bad, but i would say i hold on too long, and i never forget. And sometimes forgetting is not a bad thing. If that makes sense. This is michael letz, hes been a republican activist for over 30 years, hes also undecided. So like many niam the state. Michael . Good evening mr. Trump, welcome to the capital of southern hospitality. The teas sweet, it looks like the questions are even sweeter. Id like to have you address a particular issue that ive not seen any of our republican candidates address to this point. In the numerous incidents recently, Police Involved shootings and the questions that have been led about racism and the racial tensions that have been caused, id like to ask what your administration would do to be able to for future situations make sure that our Law Enforcement and our First Responders have the kind of support that they feel that they need. Because quite frankly, mr. Trump, First Responders lives truly matter. Youre right. I am a big, big supporter of the police. I think the police are being treated horribly in this country. And certainly have you some bad acts and bad mistakes made on occasion. Its a tiny fraction compared to the great work they do. And i am without question a huge supporter of the police. We wouldnt be sitting here right now. We wouldnt have a safe society, really. You look at whats happening around the world, we wouldnt have a safe society. So i can tell you right now, i assume you are also with me on this. Im a tremendous supporter of the police, and i think they are mistreated and misunderstood. And i think we should give them much more credit than we have given them. I want to ask you, at the end of these, we like to ask a couple personal questions to let viewers get to know you in a different way. Last night, we did a town hall. Senator cruz, i talked to him. He said, he was claiming that you had suggested your sister as a Supreme Court justice. You had not actually done that. I have not. She would be great. Shes very smart. You would have to rule that out because shes your sister. What he said was, its great to support your sister, but thats a nice thing, if youre suggesting someone for the Supreme Court, his sister is a radical proabortion judge. She struck down new jerseys ban on partial birth abortion, is irrational. Thats an extreme position. Thats who he suggested as a Supreme Court justice last year . Whats your reaction . My sister is a brilliant woman, who was always a fabulous student, very, very smart. She was appointed by ronald reagan, he said appointed by bill clinton, she was elevated to the court of appeals, very high position, right under the Supreme Court as you know, she was elevated to the court of appeals by clinton. Appointed by reagan, elevated the reason she was elevated, she was an outstanding intellect and outstanding judge. I dont even know what her views are on abortion, i dont. Shes certainly not a radical anything, because thats not her thing. This is the kind of thing, he said radical this, this, this, on abortion. Not radical. She may have made a decision one way or another. I never asked her. I wouldnt ask her. She wouldnt want to tell me. I got a very big call from a great reporter at the new york times, they wanted to do a major piece on my sister. And they called me, could i possibly get her to do the piece. I called her, she said, no, no, i dont do that. I dont want a piece, i dont want anything to do with it. And they did the piece anyway. It was a very nice piece on her. But she refused to participate. I said, are you sure, youre my sister. The reporter said a trump who doesnt like publicity, i dont know i dont like i get a lot of publicity, i dont necessarily like it. Come on. Wait a minute. I got to call you on that. What . Its true. You know what, its true. I dont love that, i cant stand for the most part, i find the press is extremely dishonest. Very dishonest. I find the Political Press to be unbelievably dishonest, and 25 agree, of course, youre in that category. He did a great interview with me two weeks ago, that i really liked. I thought it was a great interview because based on an article a little bit on the wall street journal by monica, who is a terrific person. My sister is a great intellect, terrific person. Shes not radical anything i dont know what she did having to do with abortion, but shes a great judge. I would have such a conflict of interest, and i think you probably went back and you checked, i do say sometimes, and i joke, my sister should be on the Supreme Court. Im laughing and having fun. I would never do a thing like that, its a conflict of interest. I want to read the quote, i visit on the record. I think she would be phenomenal. I think she would be one of the best. But frankly, wed have to rule that out. I dont think shed want to do it either. Last night after the town hall, i went to celebrate at mcdonalds. I had a number one meal. Which is my favorite meal. I understand you bring fast food to your plane sometimes . I do. Styles. What do you eat . When you roll up at a mcdonalds, what does donald trump order . A fish delight sometimes. The big macs are great, the quarter pounders with cheese. Its great stuff. Are people at the windows like . Im a person that cant sort of believe it, i like cleanliness, i like clean, the one thing about the big franchises, you have to have a certain you know, because of the importance. One bad hamburger you can destroy mcdonalds. One bad hamburger you take wendys and all these other places and theyre out of business. You cant do it. I dont want to mention the firm, but a firm is going through that now. Do they make it, do they not make it . So im a very im a very clean person. I like cleanliness. I think youre probably better going there than maybe some place you have no idea where the food is coming from. Its a certain standard. But i think all of those places, burger king, mcdonalds, i can live with them. The other night i had kentucky fried chicken. Not the worst thing in the world. Whats your favorite kind of music, what music do you like . I think elton john is great, i think the stones are great, the beatles i love, Michael Jackson was actually a very good friend of mine. I knew Michael Jackson very well. Lived in trump tower for a long period of time. Would go down mara lago. He got married, lisa marie presley, they got married in mira lago. He was up there for a week with her never came down. A lot of people say they he was up there for a week. They never, ever came down. I say where the hell is michael . But he was a very talented guy. One of the truly most talented people. I knew imvery well. I knew the real story of Michael Jackson, you know, when he died, i would watch people get on i dont want to mention names, but people you know very well, people you interview, they would talk about Michael Jackson, they didnt even know him. I mean, very few people got to know Michael Jackson. He was an unbelievably talented guy, he lost his confidence. And he lost tremendous confidence because of honestly, bad, bad, bad, bad surgery, he had the worst he had people that did numbers on him that were just unbelievable, facially, and, you know, the plastic surgeons, michael was an unbelievable talent who actually lost his confidence, and, you know, believe it or not, when you lose your confidence in something, you can lose your talent. You talked about working hard as president. You dont sleep a lot. How many hours a night do you sleep . And how Much Television news do you watch . I do like it. I watch you seem to know everything thats being said about you. I actually get criticized for it. But i watch it. I watch you a lot. You learn. Especially with what im doing. Somebody said you watch, you get your generals through television. No, i dont. I read a lot, okay . I love to read. When i see you interviewing a general or a some security adviser or somebody, i mean, you learn a lot from that how much do you sleep . About three to four hours a night. Thats all you need . Thats all i need luckily. I mean have you always been like that . Pretty much. I honestly believe this. I love what i do, i love my business, i love the apprentice, it was such a tremendous success, nbc would have done anything to renew it with me. I mean anything. Steve burke came up to my office of comcast and said please do it, do it. Im going to run for president. I cant do it. No, steve, im not going to do it. They couldnt believe it. Nobody believed i was going to run. My wife actually said, if you run, you will win, but you have to actually run. You cant just say youre going to run, you wont do well. The original polls, nobody believed i was going to run. Even when they say if he runs. And they wouldnt even do polls. But she said if you run, youll win. And steve burke came up to the office, he said, i really they wanted to renew the apprentice, because it was doing phenomenally well. Can you believe it . After a 14 seasons. 14 seasons and the apprentice still did well. I have that with mark burnett and we have arnold schwarzenegger. And hopefully arnold will do well. Is arnold going to do well . Will he beat trump . Are you concerned about that . He is no trump. What kind of a parent are you . Your kids, a lot of people speak glowingly about your kids. They speak glowingly about you. Were you a tough dad . And are you different as grandfather . I get credit for my children, they were very good children. They were smart, they went to good schools they did well, ivanka, everybody knows, don and eric, tiffany is a terrific young woman, shes just greated graduated from penn and mostly as. And baron is doing really good. I have five children, one thing, i think i was really really a good parent, i put my children above everything, above business and above everything. And ivanka speaks to it very well, and so do the others. When people come up and they say why . I have so much experience with alcohol. I have a brother who is a phenomenal guy, the best looking guy youve ever seen. But he became he started drinking and so from a young age. He was quite a bit older than me. My brother fred. He was a very talented flyer of planes. Great pilots would go to him to study. It was a real ability he had. But the alcohol was i mean, it taught me a tremendous lessen. And he taught me thats why you dont drink . He said dont you ever smoke. Dont you ever drink. And ive never had a drink, ive never had a cigarette. Those are the good things, i dont want to tell you the bad things. There are plenty of bad things. Ive never had a drink, i never had you. Were never tempted to i mean, zip, i never liked the taste. Ive had friends when i went to the Wharton School of finance, i had friends that didnt like scotch. They hated the taste. One in particular became pretty successful, but ultimately alcohol would destroy him. He would be with me and like 18 or 19 years old, he was trying to develop a taste for scotch. He became quite successful. The one thing i can say, if you dont drink, theres no temptation. People come up to me and say, could you see my children my children are doing a good job, famous last words, is that wood . Yes. Im going to knock on wood. Because who knows. But my children are doing a good job and theyre solid. But i would tell them from a very young age, no drugs, no alcohol, no cigarettes. I say this so over and over, in fact, ivanka would go, sometimes dad youre driving me crazy. Shes 4 years old, she didnt know what it was, no drugs, no alcohol, no cigarettes. I put it into their ive seen people that are brilliant people that, you know, the top people in the industry that have children. Theyre very smart children. They have all the aptitude in the world. But they get hooked on drugs. They get hooked on alcohol. And they cannot alcohol believe it or not is almost harder than drugs. Its harder to get away from it. They get hooked on alcohol and drugs, as smart as they are, they never make it. What is one thing you wish you didnt do. Advice or . Are you watching tv late at night . Well, i mean, look advice. I work very hard, maybe i work too hard. I had two very wonderful women, frankly, that i im a worker, i love to work. I dont consider myself a workaholic. I dont consider that a bad thing. I think i have probably would have had i have had a very good marriage now. Melania is fantastic. I had two women i never blamed. I worked so hard. My job came first. Never came first with my children. I was a better father than a husband. But i worked very, very hard and i love doing it, and you know what, im very happy about it, i have tens of thousands of employees, i put so many thousands and thousands of employees, it takes care of health care, education, so many things. So not that i would change anything. But if i did a little bit less, i probably wouldnt have had two marriages that didnt work out. Donald trump, thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thats all the time we have, our thanks to donald trump, governor kasich and governor bush. I want to thank everybody in the audience who had questions. Thanks to the voters and viewers at home. Everyone in columbia for their help and hospitality. Nds on. If they could ever catch you. [music] [splat] [evil laugh] [grunt] [page tearing] [grunt] [music] think of it as a seven seat for an action packed thriller. Breaking news now, you just saw the second night of the republican town hall in columbia, South Carolina, this is cnn tonight. Im don lemon. Thank you so much for joining us. Were just two days away from the South Carolina republican primary by the way, and donald trump, jeb bush, john kasich, each trying to make their case to voters tonight, whos up, whose down, and what happens next. My political dream team is here next to talk about it. That is david gergen, anna navarro, katie packer. Were going to get to all of us. A lot to unpack, katie packer and the rest of the gang. First i want to get to the man who moderated tonights town hall, and thats anderson cooper. Anderson, not many people will take on the pope, but donald trump did, and you got to ask him about it. That was a fascinating moment to watch. Yeah, it was interesting. Obviously, thats what we started off with donald trump. Its probably the biggest story of the day. It was interesting, trump walking back, some of the comments he made earlier in the day, clearly not wanting to really go toe to toe with the pope. Saying the pope was misunderstood and his comments were a little softer than perhaps were being reported, even though i read him his comments. I think we put together some of that exchange. Here it is, lets listen. Well, i didnt think it was a good thing for him to say, frankly. He was talking about the border. As you know, oom very strong on border security. We have to have a border in this country. And we certainly dont have one right now, and as you know, were talking about building a wall. Were going to build a wall, and mexicos going to pay for the wall, thats the way it is. We have a trade balance and if you look at it, imbalance of about 58 billion with mexico. Its really more than that because we also subsidize, et cetera, et cetera. So theyre going to pay for the wall. Somehow the government of mexico spoke with the pope they spent a lot of time with the pope. By the time he left, he made a statement. I dont know. Wait a minute, you think the government of mexico somehow got the pope to say this . I dont think they said it that way. But they probably talked about isnt it terrible that mr. Trump wants to have border security, et cetera, et cetera. And the pope made the statement. It was probably nicer than what you folks in the media reported. After i read it, it was a little bit softer. But the bottom line is weve got to have a border. Weve got to have security. We have tremendous illegal immigration in the country. Ill just say, the pope did go on to say, this is not the gospel as far as what you said about whether i would have advised to vote or not to vote. Im not going to get involved in that i only say this man is not christian. If he has said things like that. We must see if he has said things in that way and awill give him the benefit of the doubt. He talked about not having a wall is not christian. He has a very big wall at the vatican. I will tell you. Its going to be interesting. People do come and go through the vatican. Its open to tourists. And theyre going to come and go through the wall, theyre going to do it legally. And thats what i want and thats what a lot of people want obviously, they agree with me. Youve been in fights with a lot of people. But with the pope, does it give you pause . I dont Like Fighting with the pope, actually. One of the other comments he made was that he was not willing based on an audience question, an audience member who said he liked donald trump, but was concerned about what donald trump said during the last weekends debate, saying that george w. Bush lied about wmd. Interestingly enough, trump would not repeat that, he did not back up what he had previously said. He essentially said he didnt know. He would have to kind of look at it again. But he also didnt in any way apologize for that. Even though you did, and you read what he said back to him. Be he said ill have to look at the transcript or look at it again. Anderson a, we talk to maine much, you and i and everyone here, the format of the town half. Its much more relaxing. Its much more engaging. You saw the former first lady in the audience and the family members are there. You get to learn more about the candidates. I dont think its an uncomfortable format. Its just a more revealing format. Its less confrontational. Its more conversational. Its certainly an opportunity for the candidates not just to speak in sound bite, not to just have 30 seconds or 60 seconds, but to actually talk as much possible like human beings and just let voters know who they are. Its the kind of thing voters in iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina get to see from the candidates. They get to go to town hauls if they want to. John kasich has done more than 100 town halls in New Hampshire alone. And so i think its an opportunity to let the rest of the country and frankly the world see these candidates in a way they otherwise might not. Anderson, thanks very much. We appreciate it. Now lets get to our dream team tonight. I want to bring them in tonight. Last night i asked and i looked around. Donna brazile one of the only democrats answered. I want the republicans to answer tonight. Democrats, hold your fire. Im going go first to amanda. Who do you think knocked it out of the park tonight . I think the bigger story is Donald Trumps remarks about whether or not he supported the iraq war. The biggest decision a president will make is whether to send troops into harms way. Hes said multiple times he opposed the iraq war. Theres a breaking news story while this debate was going on. Where buzzfeed found an audio interviewed that donald trump did with howard stern saying in 2002, yes, we should invade. Anderson, huge props to the team, asked him than. And trump said yeah, may have said that. Somehow his position is now that he opposed the war or he was for the invasion until it started. This is what he said. He said that may have been the first time someone asked me that question. Yes. I was not a politician then. Yep. I was a business person then. So i may have said it. He didnt deny it. Lets listen in and then well respond. Theres a report now out tonight out on buzzfeed, have i not heard it, it includes an audio clip of what appears to be you on howard stern talking on the radio on september 11th, 2002. He asked you, are you for invading iraq. Yeah, i guess so, i wish the first time it was done correctly, is that accurate, do you remember saying that . No, but i could have said that, nobody asked me, i wasnt a politician, it was probably the first time anybody asked me that question. By the time the war started. By the time the war started, i that was 2000. By the time the war started, there are articles, i mean there are headlines in 2003, 2004 that i was totally against the war. A couple people in your world, in terms of the pundits said, you know, theres definite proof in 2003, 2004 trump was against it. 2004 there is a reuters article that you pointed to a lot. A vanity fair and one other comment, those were a couple of weeks after the war began. Which is okay. A lot of people said, it was so early, even if it was after the war. That was probably the first time i was asked about the war, howard, whos a great guy by the way, a lot of people dont understand that. Hes a great interview. Hes a great interviewer, a talented guy and a great guy. It was probably the first time i dont remember that, but it was probably the first time i was asked about it. I vnd heard it, but you may have said this. Yeah, may have. When youre in the private sector, you get asked things. Youre not a politician, probably the first time i was asked by the time the war started i was against it, and shortly thereafter i was really against it. Amanda carpenter, thats not satisfactory . No, that is so muddled. Were talking about sending troops in to harms way. He said over and over again i was against the war. Now hes running away from this statement. No, this is a matter of life and death for americans. You cant be unequivocal about this. For him to act like hes an expert, when he stands up and says, bush lied. This is a topic he wants to talk about. But once again, he doesnt want to be accountable for his words. Anderson cooper a liar tomorrow. The point is in 2003 when Hillary Clinton supported the iraq war, when virtually every senator, both democrat and republican alike supported the iraq war, donald trump publicly opposed it in 2003, when the war had just begun. He was on the right side of history. Not only was he on the right side of history. He was on the right side of history when he had no intelligence at his disposal. Those senators had intelligence at their disposal, and they made that decision. He made the right decision without being a commander in chief. The man has changed his the guys changed his mind on everything, and i give him props for being consistent about basically saying, hey, look, back then i was a businessman and a tv star. And i behaved like a businessman and a tv star. Was that satisfactory to you, his answer . No. But its consistent. Its consistent in that he says judge me then by what i was then, a tv star and a businessman. Judge me now by what i am now, a politician. Is that so wrong . Is that so sfwlong. I think its refreshingly honest. Hes changed his mind on everything, and goes back to that same line over and over again. Whats really wrong with it, don, he throws out this notion that hes not a politician. But the reality is, going back to when reagan was running, he was talking about potentially running for president. He changed parties back in the 80s and filed as a reform party candidate. This is not a guy thats been in the Business World not paying attention to Current Events and politics. For the last three decades hes behaved as a politician, and been bandying about this idea of running for president. So to suggest he was ignorant about what was going on at that time, i do think is pretty disingenuous. Mr. Gergen . I disagree. Look, i found his answer entirely satisfactory, its fairly consistent with the way people live their lives. I imagine i have i bet everyone on this stage has taken a view in public as a commentator, and things change, things evolve, and you change your mind what youre looking at. Ill let you bring it home, bob. Show of hands for people who have changed their opinion or evolved over time. Sure, but we remember. Youve never done that . You have. I know you. I change my mind about things i was thinking about this morning. And thats what i find refreshing about donald trump. He says i changed my mind. Im a different person, a different career profession now. I have to say, to say that i oppose it after our troops were in harms way. After soldiers were out there in the field. Thats not what he said. Thats not what he said. The first time he was questioned about it, the first time it was on the record as was then. Go ahead, bob. Bring it home. Look, trump once again tonight got away with backing off his comments about bush being a liar. Did that typical trump way, and of course followup was not frankly all that good in the audience about that. He got away with the pope thing by backing off on the pope deal, even though he had the thing read to him and what the pope said about him. And he got away with this iraq thing. Whats going to happen, its going to go down in the hole some place, nobodys going to follow it up. Trump is going to back himself out of something. I mean, the guy is a genius at doing that. Honest to god, its amazing to me. Hes like a magician. Its going to catch up with him eventually. You cant pull this bull [ bleep ]. Bob beckel, you have set up my tease in the next couple of segments. Were going to talk about the bush thing, the bush lying thing with barbara bush right in the audience, right . And i thought maybe her being in the audience, did that sort of change what he would like to have said . Maybe he was being respectful, maybe he wasnt. And well also talk about. Youre assuming that barbara bush stayed around. Maybe so. And then well talk about the pope as well. Well be right back with our all star panel. T. To help sense danger before7 was engiyou do. Because when you live to innovate, you innovate to live. The allnew audi q7. A higher form of intelligence has arrived. Choose, choose, choose. But at bedtime. Why settle for this . Enter sleep number and the ultimate sleep number event, going on now. Sleepiq technology tells you how well you slept and what adjustments you can make. You like the bed soft. Hes more hardcore. So your sleep goes from good to great to wow only at a sleep number store, right now save 50 on the ultimate limited edition bed. Know better sleep with sleep number. Welcome back. Youre looking live. We had our town hall. This is columbia, South Carolina. A room most everybody has left. You saw the town hall. My political dream team is back with me to discuss everyone that hased. Amanda carpenter, david gergen, and katie packer. And bob beckel. The whole idea of liar again tonight. Remember the discussion last night about liar, liar, liar. This is tonight about ted cruz, donald trump responding to ted cruz being a liar. He has a problem with the truth. And even marco rubio, i guess today there was something about, he was a picture was manufactured and it was not photo shopped. It was totally photo shopped, i could see by just looking at it. In fact, they even made marco a lot shorter than he is, if you look at it really. Im sure thats the thing that bothered him the most. He was a hell of a lot he was very small. Hes not that small. Not too big, but its hes not that small. But i will tell you, i looked at that photo. I said immediately it was photo shopped. If you look at what he did, im talking about cruz to carson, he said, hes out of the race. That was so dishonest, and then he did something else, you people never picked up on, i think it was the worst of all, he did a voter violation notice, looked like its right out of the irs. We talked about it. Official paper. It was so disgusting. Its basically you have a voter violation. Now they dont have lawyers. These are people that were frightened when they got it. And they graded them. And you have an f, f, f, f. Essentially, it says if you vote for ted cruz, this violation is going to go away. Let me tell you something, people voted for him because of that. That was a fraudulent document. And he said things about me. For instance, im very strong on the second amendment. He said donald trump will leave the second amendment. Youre not going to have a second amendment. So he discussed that, but he also talked about nominating his sister as a Supreme Court justice, which he said he never did. And ted cruz said he was going to do that. What do you think, katie . I think the danger for ted cruz is that this narrative has started to develop, that hes got a problem with the truth. You cant go photo shopping pictures. Which i think was a big error that his staff committed, frankly. To so obviously take a stock photo and photo shop president obama and marco rubio into it. It just helps to sort of frame the narrative. A big enough error to make a difference in the primary. Every point counts at this stage of the game. So yeah, i do think so. Too much of this has been building up and building up. As somebody who has sent out those letters to suppress voters as i did years ago. Youre admitting that . They dont call it suppress. But its now against the law. When i did it it wasnt against the law. It shortly was after that. Statute of limitations. It doesnt matter. I want to give props to one thing. I never do this. The guy talked about heroin and alcoholism. You already said hes a genius tonight. You said hes is a genius at doing that. Hes a genius like barnum and bailey was a genius about i was glad to see him talk about addiction. As a recovering alcoholic and addict, i was glad to see him raise it. Its an important thing. He talks about his brother openly. I think thats important. People who are out there in the shadows who need to come back into the light who are alcoholics and addicts, i think trump talks about this and other people do it, it matters to people. Jeb bush spoke about it. And jeb bush did too. I will tell you donald trump said hes never had a drink or a cigarette. Man, you know, being president is hard as hell, i cant imagine someone whos never had a drink is qualified to be president. Tonight was remarkably free. Yes. Of all of the attacks and everything like that. It wasnt as negative as what weve been seeing. That part of it was refreshing. Donald trump didnt dwell on ted cruz. Ted cruz spent half the night attacking donald trump. A frontrunner addresses it and moves on. And thats what we saw donald trump do. Thinking was recognize the me, and i think to most people. And anderson talked about it a little bit. Him being challenged, donald trump being challenged on whether or not george bush was a liar, the former president , excuse me, president bush was a liar by going to war with iraq. Take a look. Just to his question, one more chance. Either you believe he either lied or did not lie. Are you willing to say . I dont know what he did, i just know it was a terrible mistake. So was it a mistake for you the say in that debate that you thought he lied . I would have to see the exact something was going on, i dont know why he went in. I dont know why he went in. Because honestly, there was no reason to go in. They didnt knock down the world trade center, it wasnt iraq that knocked it down. You wouldnt say again that george w. Bush lied . I dont know. I cant tell you. Id have to look at some documents. Ana . Thats a hell of a tiptoeing around the subject. Look, he obviously backed off. It cost him some points. Weve seen some of his poll numbers have gone down since that debate. In South Carolina there was a huge military presence, i think that to say it was a mistake, is something a lot of people can agree with, maybe even george w. Bush to say he lied and fabricated facts about wmds, really i think went a step too far and was disgusting. To a lot of republicans. I dont know if the president was misled. Someone lied to him or the intelligence was faulty. Thats not what he said. Thats a great point. That is what he should get across. He was given faulty intelligence. We dont know why he chose to go in. He was very smart, i agree with ana, to back away from that statement. George w. Bush is popular among republicans. Heres the thing. He drove home the point, it was a mistake, we spent 2 trillion in iraq, what do we have to show for it . We have isis. We have libya. We have the middle east, and chaos. Thats a powerful message. I thought it was honest when bob . You couldnt miss the transcript, he said liar, liar, liar 15 times. Bob . Come on. I thought it was very honest of him to say, at least in the beginning, im not going to get your vote. And then i thought he was going to go on to answer him. The perfect answer for donald trump tonight was i thought about that. And it was a step too far for me. I shouldnt have sit. David . I thought he was sitting on his lead tonight. The votes a couple days away, i think he was sitting on his lead. He was trying to bury all the arguments and round off all the rough edges, he knows its potentially dangerous to get into a fight with the pope and have this fight going on with cruz, just on the eve of this. I think he got what he wanted out of the pope earlier today. Ill tell you this. To go to bob beckels point. Out of the pope. He at some point is going to have to raise his game. Hes going to have to become a more disciplined campaigner. He doesnt have to say one thing and back off it. That pattern is very destructive over time. Why if its worked for him . He is playing in a tougher league. He has the same pattern of saying something. Throwing the ball and then hiding his hand. Hes been doing it from the first moment he announced. And its worked for him. Every time he does it his poll numbers go up. I thought you said they go down. But listen, i think it gets old. I think one of the dangers he faces is he is going the start sounding repetitive. I thought tonight he should have broken fresh ground on how he described problems. Talk about marco rubio being scripted. Almost everything he said tonight, almost the exact same words. Hold your fire. Hold your fire i have to get to break. We talked about, do you have the temperament to be president , right . Remember that question . Shes going to join us next. Well be right back. Welcome back, everyone. You saw our town hall tonight. Now i want to bring in sheri burress, an undecided South Carolina voter who asked donald trump a question. And i want to bring her in now. Your question was fascinating. I think most people here in our panel thought it fascinating as well. Lets play it, we will discuss it and well get our panel to weighin on it. My biggest concern is how are you going to govern and get by with people you may totally disagree with, without getting angry, and without refusing to look for common ground. I like your principles. I want a strong president. I want someone who is strong, tenacious. But im having some trouble getting past your selfcontrol. Okay. Can you help me with that. I appreciate the question, actually. Its a great question. First of all, when it comes to, you know, some people say trump is tough, i thought i did a great debate the other night, Time Magazine and everyone thought i won. Drudge thought i won. They do the polls after the debate. I thought i did a great debate. Some people thought i was too tough. I said wait a minute. I have jeb bush and i have all these guys copping at me from 15 different angles, and you have to be tough. We have to be tough to protect our country. I have a great temperament. You dont build a Great Company and especially a company with very little debt and all of the kinds of things that i have. I have employees that have been with me for many, many years, i mean longterm employees. Theyre really great people, and theyve been with me for a long time. But we need a certain toughness. Look, we have isis chopping off peoples heads. Christians heads. Everybody elses heads. Drowning people in cages. This is like medieval times. We need a certain toughness. I know hillary said i dont like Donald Trumps tone. Tone . Theyre chopping off the heads of people. This hasnt happened since medieval times. If we are not tough, were not going to have a country. You had a problem where you had two radicalized probably she came in radicalized him, the married couple, the young couple. They killed 14 people. They killed 14 people. They killed people, and you understand what im talking about in california, they killed people, they gave them wedding parties. People that they knew very well. People that they worked with. People that they actually got along with. They killed them. There is something going on. We need a certain toughness. We have weak people leading our country. So sherri, i dont know, did that help you decide . Um, you know, its not exactly the answer that i was looking for, but i get where hes coming from. I think thats whats attracted a lot of people to donald trump, is that he says exactly what hes thinking. And he comes across very tough. But i think the thing that ive noticed over the i guess since ive started watching the debates is that because ive come from government into private sector, i can relate to what hes talking about, i know you can be tough, i know you can say whatever you feel, but when you go into a government environment, you do have to think about not just making everybody mad and saying things without thinking it through. I think hes capable of doing it. I wanted him to tell me a little bit more about how his temperament may or may not change over the course of the season. But i dont know, i dont know. Im still undecided. In fact my husband and i were talking about it, after all of the debates last night and tonight, you get a very different feel when you go to a town hall than you do when you see a debate. Perhaps i wouldnt have had much concern if i had seen him in town hall situations rather than a debate. So still undecided. Did anyone else say anything that may make you lean towards them . Did john kasich say anything . Did jeb bush say anything tonight . I think i like kasichs compassion. I think he is a great person. And i really like jeb bush too, i think when everything started and we started having names floating around about who was going to run, i was leaning toward jeb bush. I voted for his brother. Im a republican, im conservative, im evangelical. Im a christian. Im a believer. I want a strong person who has strong morals and also has selfcontrol. In my experience you need to have that in order to lead. Thats what im looking for. So i think the more that i see that, the more comfortable ill get. All right, sherri, i want you to stand by and listen to this. This is one of those moments, an emotional. This is john kasich. Look. Ive seen it everywhere. Its one of the reasons why i love to talk about the conservative economic policies. One of the things i felt, and ive said in the campaign, we all need to slow down a little bit. There are a lot of people out there who are lonely, and theyre looking for a place to tell people about their issues. Could you believe that young man does it hit you as a person and a politician . Its slowed me down and i have, and many of you, some of you have been at my town halls where i talked about this, the strength of america is not some guy or woman coming in on a white charger here to solve our problem. And so sherri, he was responding to a question from anderson about a young man who was at one of his events earlier today, and he gave him a big hug. The man had gone through some hardships. Is this the more personal side youre looking for from all the candidates, even donald trump, right . Yeah, i think you have to be compassionate and a leader, probably in my opinion, kasich, i had not had as much knowledge about him previously. Id not seen him on a personal level. So i found that interesting tonight. Bush i knew more about. In fact, one of the reasons that ive been undecided is because i personally think that a governor has had a lot more direct experience than even someone in congress. What i liked about trump is that he has private sector knowledge. Which i personally try to inject into state and local governments to try to help them do strategic planning, help them look at processes and become more efficient. So i get where he is coming from, and im hoping whatever happens that if he did win, that he could put some of that into play in government and we would be the better for it. Its going to have to be in a controlled fashion. Thats how i feel. Speaking of the governor, heres the former governor of florida jeb bush tonight, listen. About when i was 25 i think, i decide normally when youre with im a hardcharging, striving person. I always people strive to be like your parents, you know . Its kind of a natural thing to do. I realized pretty quickly in my life if i could be half the man my dad was, that would be a pretty good goal. If i strived to be as good as him, that would be impossible. I would be on a couch getting therapy all the time. My dad, put aside he was the youngest navy pilot in world war ii, served this country in so many different ways, hes a fine man, a person of integrity, of honest, of courage, all the virtues that you would want to have to be inspired by, this guy is the real deal. So half the man of george bush, means you can live a life of purpose and meaning as far as i am concerned. Who cant like someone who loves their mom and dad. And says good things about their mom and dad. I guess if you could put all three of people together all six of them over the past two nights together, they would be the perfect candidate for you . Absolutely. Thats exactly how i described this election. I said, its sort of like when you were dating, if you could put all your past boyfriends together and marry them, it would be great. It would be all the little pieces put together. Of course, i am married to someone now for 23 years and im perfectly happy. I found my perfect match. But i do think thats what were up against, thats why its been so contentious, people are feeling the same way. And were finding bits and pieces in everybody. And were having to get settled in, were going to have to do it quick. Sherri, i want you to stay right there. I have just a quick question to my panel. Sherri i think is the quintessential trump supporter or the person who may be considering donald trump. You know, i dont agree with everything he says, but i do like his ability to be able to say it. That doesnt happen a lot. Especially in politics. Say it and not back down from it. Thats the thing. He doesnt back down. He does back down. He has [ overlapping dialog ] oh, for the love of god. Here we go again. Hang on, one at a time. He has pulled the is this notion that he says it like it is all the time. He said it like it was about george bush lying, and then he pulled back. No, he didnt. He said im not he said it like it was about the pope in his comment and then he pulled it back. He said it like it was about not going into iraq, then its not what he said. So he says it like it is very, very emphatically. And what we find is hes got this ready, fire, aim mentality that i think is pretty dangerous. Hes been nothing but consistent. When he said he would temporarily ban thats just laughable. Let me finish. You talked, let me finish. When he said he would temporarily ban muslim immigration, he never backed down from that. On every policy. He did not change what he said about the pope. He took a more gracious tone. He did not change he did not withdraw his comments about bush. Bob, you have to answer. No, im telling you, this guy, if you did a replay of the godfather, this is veto corleone. Hed give you an offer you couldnt refuse. Hed be the head oa thug and head of a crime family. You kidding me . Its anticonstitutional. Didnt he back down from it . Everyone on this panel saying everyone on this panel saying that he changed his views. Can i tell you whenever i hear you talk, i feel like im living in some sort of surreal world. First day he announced he went on and say that mexicans are rapist. He took it back the next year. Yes, he did. Ana [ overlapping dialog ] ana, ana, hold on. Hold on, ana. Ana, hold on. Ana, stand by ana, please stand by. He said when the Mexican Government sends their people over, they send over their rapists and whatever. I dont know if he said he didnt say they were rapists. He said the government sends over their rapists. And the next day he said there are some great mexican people. Megyn kelly was bleeding from somewhere. No, no, no. Im not defending donald trump. Im saying the exact quote matters. The words matter. The point is, he repeatedly says things and backs down. No, he doesnt. When youre on reality tv. Can we have one conversation, please . All right, stand by. Thank you, david. Yeah, this is ridiculous. Each one of you has your point of view, but i think weve been missing the big story, weve been talking the whole time. And that was john kasich tonight. That was a guy we havent seen this entire campaign. Were going to talk about him next. Thank goodness. Were going to talk about this next. Lets put a button on this, since i interrupted you. You know i love you. Good ahead. Whats your point . You know what, im exactly with david gergen, were now 47 minutes into this show, and all weve done is talk about donald trump. I think both john kasich and we talked about jeb bush. I think both john kasich and jeb bush showed a human side. I love these town halls. Debates are performances, they are canned lines, rehearsed lines and timed answers. Here you cant bull crap your way through a town hall, because people go [ speaking spanish ] im going to do the spanish thing. Uhoh. That anderson. Let me translate what he said to anderson. Anderson, you want to do this interview in spanish . And anderson of course started giggling. He said no. No, no. More to come. Hold your fire, everyone. Well talk about john kasich and jeb bush when we come back. The panel wants to talk about them. Heres a little healthy advice. Take care of what makes you. You. Aveeno® daily moisturizing body wash and lotion with active naturals® oat. Used together, they provide 2x the nourishment for beautiful healthier looking skin. Aveeno® naturally beautiful results® back now with my allstar panel, my political dream team. David gergen, john kasich shared a very interesting story about being he says he thinks he peeked out at 18 when he got to go to the oval office to meet nixon when he was a college freshman. He did. He walked into the president of ohio state said i want to meet the president of the united states. I have a complaint to make. And they arranged it. He got in for five minutes. He said i got a new suit to go in there and see him, all he got was 5 minutes, he was ticked off about that. So he got 20 minutes. There was a picture of him with richard nixon. I think elvis had the best conversations with nixon in those years. I must tell you, i thought john kasich was the very best i had ever seen him tonight. He was very human, you know, he doesnt have a chance in South Carolina, ill tell you something, he will be under consideration if he would ever take it from the Vice President ial slot however this thing ends up. Thats for sure. One of the reasons for that too, the democrats, we need to have one or both of ohio and florida. You put kasich own the ticket, that could make a difference. Of three or four points for republicans. Thats right. Theyve always been very close up there. And it mimics both those two states mimic the demographics of the country. Kasich could make a difference. Thats whats got me worried. The worst ticket for us is rubio, kasich. I never understood the appeal of john kasich, until i saw that moment in the town hall earlier today. I still disagree with what he did with health care and things like that, that interaction was so genuine. And theres a lot of crazy stuff flying around in his election. Theres a lot of people that dont follow the day to day type of warfare. There it is. And theyre scared. Theyre worried, and sometimes they just need a hug. It reminded me of george bush when he would hug people after 9 11, because people dont only need a leader, they need a moral supporter as well. This primary has deteriorated into a World Wrestling cage match. The insults that are being waged directly by candidates at each other. Its just amazing. I think its a sad reflection of the democratic process and how far down its gone down this hole. Tonight to be able to hear this human side, the decency of these even, you know, even donald trump. This is what i wanted to ask you. When we were talking before the show you said, and youre a jeb bush reporter. You said columba had the best night tonight. That was a heartfelt moment, they showed his wife and his mom in the audience. What was he going to say, though . It was the decency look, i think for kasich and jeb, tonight was a very good night. Because frankly i think this is a much better format for them than a debate has been. They had time to expound on their answers to show their policy chops but also to show their humanity and their softer side. Jeb almost went into tears talking about his father. You saw kasich show that softer side that i think a lot of america has not gotten to see. I totally agree. I would be nervous if i were jeb actually, because the race is so close in South Carolina. And i think viewers there got a chance to see kasich for the first time. And for those looking for a governor, looking for somebody thats got compassion, i think that hes got a little more life to him. Youve been all great. Unfortunately, were out of time. Bob beckel, i know youre upset. Its terrible. Thanks, everybody. You were great. I appreciate you joining us tonight. Thats it for us tonight. Ill see you right back here tomorrow night. Republicans running for president on cnn town hall stage. Donald trump, jeb bush, john kasich getting asked tough questions from voters. Were breaking down the big moments. Welcome to early start. Im cristina alesci. Im miguel marquez. It is 4 00 a. M. Here on the east coast. Breaking overnight. Republican candidates taking on tough questions from South Carolina voters in a cnn town hall. Bush on whether he still has a chance to win. Kasich on whether his upbeat message works