Trump and Cruz Trade Punches During GOP Debate
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I guess the bromance is over.</s>CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Trump and Cruz's birther battle plays out in primetime. But who came out on top? Also, Chicago bracing for protest. After the release of another police shooting video. An unarmed black teenager shot while running away. An officer standing over him, a foot on his bleeding body.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For him to essentially step on him, on top of it, it's just totally unreasonable.</s>COSTELLO: Plus, face-to-face with Mexico's most notorious drug kingpin. Why does Sean Penn think he's in danger after interviewing El Chapo? Let's talk. Live in the CNN NEWSROOM.</s>COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello, thank you so much for joining me. It is official. The bromance between Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump and Senator Ted Cruz is over. With less than three weeks until the Iowa caucuses, Trump and Cruz stole the show with the first GOP debate of 2016. Both candidates taking off the gloves, hitting each other hard. Today Trump says Cruz's attacks, though, were inappropriate.</s>TRUMP: He came at me last night. It was inappropriate. And I hit him very heart. But, I mean, I had no idea that he was going to take it that way. He's got a problem. He's got to straighten out the problem. I don't know that he's a nice guy. I think he hurt himself last night. You know he's a good debater but he's very strident. And a lot of people aren't going like that. He's a very strident kind of a guy and I thought it was inappropriate.</s>COSTELLO: Even though there were seven candidates on stage it felt like more like a two-man show as Trump and Cruz went head-to-head.</s>SEN. TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm not going to use your mother's birth against you.</s>TRUMP: OK. Good. Because it wouldn't work. You have a big lawsuit over your head while you're running. Who the hell knows if you can even serve in office?</s>CRUZ: I'm not going to be taking legal advice from Donald Trump.</s>TRUMP: You don't have to.</s>CRUZ: Not a lot of conservatives come out of Manhattan. I'm just saying.</s>TRUMP: That was a very insulting statement.</s>COSTELLO: Today it is back to business for the Republican rivals. Two hours from now Trump holds a town hall in Iowa. And Cruz heads to South Carolina. We're also keeping an eye on Senator Marco Rubio. Right now he is rallying voters in New Hampshire. Let's get right to CNN's John Berman now. He has a more in-depth report on the big debate last night.</s>JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: You know, Carol, you put it great. I mean, the "Wall Street Journal" wrote this morning, the problem with the other guys on the stage is they were the other guys on the stage. I mean, there was so much energy, so much conflict between Ted Cruz and Donald Trump and they really gave us something in this campaign they haven't before.</s>BERMAN (voice-over): In the race between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, the current Republican frontrunner, two things now abundantly clear -- it is truce off, it's game on.</s>CRUZ: Back in September my friend Donald said that he had his lawyers look at this from every which way. And there was nothing to this birther issue.</s>BERMAN: Cruz mocked questions Trump is now raising about the fact he was born in Canada and whether he is even eligible to run for president.</s>CRUZ: But since September the Constitution hasn't changed. But the poll numbers have.</s>BERMAN: Trump acknowledged yes, that is part of it.</s>TRUMP: Because now he's doing a little bit better. No, I didn't care before.</s>BERMAN: But if their most pointed exchange in this race so far he said there is more.</s>TRUMP: Here's the problem. We're running, we're running. He does great. I win. I choose him as my vice presidential candidate and the Democrats sue because we can't take him along for the ride. I don't like that. OK?</s>CRUZ: Well, listen, I've spent my entire life defending the Constitution before the U.S. Supreme Court. And I'll tell you, I'm not going to be taking legal advice from Donald Trump.</s>TRUMP: You don't have to.</s>BERMAN: The battle moved from Canada to New York in the charge from Ted Cruz that Donald Trump represents what he calls New York values.</s>CRUZ: Everyone understands that the values in New York City are socially liberal or pro-abortion or pro-gay marriage, focus around money and the media. Not a lot of conservatives come out of Manhattan. I'm just saying.</s>BERMAN: Trump responded uncharacteristically somber by invoking September 11th.</s>TRUMP: We rebuilt downtown Manhattan and everybody in the world watched and everybody in the world loved New York, and loved New Yorkers, and I have to tell you, that was a very insulting statement that Ted made.</s>BERMAN: For the most part the other candidates focused their fire on the president.</s>GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This guy is petulant child.</s>BERMAN: And Hillary Clinton.</s>JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She's under investigation with the FBI right now. If she gets elected her first 100 days, instead of setting an agenda, she might be going back and forth between the White House and the courthouse.</s>BERMAN: Though Chris Christie unleashed on Marco Rubio for dodging a question on entitlements.</s>CHRISTIE: Now you had your chance, Marco. You blew it.</s>BERMAN: And Marco Rubio with just a few minutes to spare in the debate did some unleashing himself on Ted Cruz.</s>SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Ted Cruz, you used to say you supported doubling the number of green cards. Now you say that you're against it. You used to support a 500 percent increase in the number of guest workers. Now you say that you're against it. You used to support legalizing people that were here legally. Now you say you're against it. You used to say that you were in favor of birthright citizenship. Now you say that you are against it.</s>BERMAN: Cruz fought to respond.</s>CRUZ: At least half of the things Marco said are flat-out false. They're absolutely false.</s>BERMAN: Now, Carol, we have some breaking campaign news this morning. My all-star at this hour, co-anchor Kate Bolduan confirms that Senator Lindsey Graham from South Carolina will endorse Jeb Bush this morning. Now, true, Lindsey Graham never exactly, you know, knocked everyone out in this campaign when he was running for president. But he's the first former candidate this race to endorse another candidate. He is a senator from a key early voting state, South Carolina. That could matter. And he worked very closely in the Senate with Marco Rubio, the Gang of Eight. The immigration bill. So he worked with Rubio yet he's still endorsing Jeb Bush. So could be seen as the snub there.</s>COSTELLO: Well, we'll see if it matters. John Berman, thanks so much. After the debate Donald Trump sounded off on Ted Cruz and the controversy surrounding his Goldman Sachs loan and more in this interview with CNN's Dana Bash.</s>DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Do you see Ted Cruz as your biggest competition right now?</s>TRUMP: No, not really. I mean, we're going to see what happens but certainly I don't see him as my biggest competition. I see him as competition. Certainly he's competition and others are competition. All smart people up there.</s>BASH: On the question about his loan that he got from his wife's bank, Goldman Sachs, do you think it's a nonissue as he was saying because it was the "New York Times" who first reported it?</s>TRUMP: Well, you're going to have to figure that one out. That's a different issue. I mean, that's something that's very easy. I mean, they're not making it a nonissue. He's had a million dollars. He got it from Goldman Sachs. Don't forget, Goldman Sachs loaned him money. When Goldman Sachs asks for a favor, do you think possibly he's going to do it for them? I think so. So that's a problem right there. That's why I'm self- funding. I'm putting up my own money. I'm not borrowing any money from Goldman Sachs. I put up my own money. I'll put up a lot. I'll be putting up -- I'll be putting up probably $30 million, $40 million before the primaries are over.</s>BASH: If you take it the whole way, you could have the potential to need to spend more than that. What's your ceiling?</s>TRUMP: Oh, I'll spend more than that. I have unlimited. I have a lot.</s>COSTELLO: All right, joining me now with her perspective on the latest Republican face-off, Rich Galen, a Republican strategist, and Katrina Pearson, national spokeswoman for the Trump campaign. Welcome to both of you.</s>RICH GALEN, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Nice to be with you, Carol.</s>KATRINA PEARSON, NATIONAL SPOKESWOMAN, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: Hi, thank you.</s>COSTELLO: Nice to have you both here. So, Rich, Trump and Cruz dominated. No doubt about that. Did anyone else break away from the pack, though?</s>GALEN: No, and one of the problems I think everybody had was somebody needed to do that. Certainly somebody among the -- I mean, forget about Carson. But one of the other ones needed to do that. One of the other four. And I thought they all did pretty well which isn't good enough. I mean, if the -- you know, when the river is rising everybody rises with it. That doesn't get you away from anything. And I thought somebody needed to make a breakout. Everybody had their moments because here's one of the things we know. That when you get deeply enough into the campaign, these debates become easier. You're used to your rhythms, you're used to your opponent's rhythms. And the big thing is, and especially in a two and a half hour debate, is that you learn how to pace yourself so you have the energy to go through until 11:30 at night. So I thought everybody did pretty well.</s>COSTELLO: You did? OK. Well, let's center on Ben Carson because you did bring up his name. Katrina, Ben Carson's star seems to be dimming. He talked last night about the X-O atmosphere and dirty bombs. It was kind of confusing. Is Carson over?</s>PEARSON: Well, I think Dr. Carson has had a splash and you know, I'll just -- I'll go back to what you started out earlier, Carol, and say this is a two-man race at this point, and everybody else is competing for the number three spot. You know, Mr. Trump did very well last night and I can tell you a businessman that has never run for office before, to get this far in a presidential primary and hold his own against a Harvard trained litigator, I can tell you today Team Trump is very proud of their candidate.</s>COSTELLO: All right. So along those lines, Rich, you heard what Donald Trump said about Ted Cruz and we heard Ted Cruz brushing off allegations that he did not disclose a loan from Goldman Sachs as is required by law as a simple filing error. He even tried to raise money telling supporters that the "New York Times" launched a, quote, "all-out assault" designed, in his words, to discredit and destroy his campaign. But is this more than that?</s>GALEN: Well, it depends on who's side you're on obviously.</s>PEARSON: Well, it might be.</s>GALEN: The -- I mean, what the Cruz team says that he did file on his personal filings that he had to file with the Senate while a candidate. So it's not like nobody knew about this. They didn't understand all the rules, they say, about how to file. But let me go back to something else. Being a two-man race isn't terribly helpful. It doesn't hurt but it is not as helpful to Donald Trump as this being a three or a four-person race where the other three or four people are all fishing out of the other side of the pod. So that the -- one of the things about going into Iowa and New Hampshire is that Christie and Bush and all the other establishment candidates are all trying to go after the same voters. That's good for Trump because it splits their votes. So I think the Trump team needs to re-jigger their talking points this morning. It's not terribly helpful to be a two-person race. Better that it be a six-person race with Donald Trump 30 points ahead. That's the comfort --</s>COSTELLO: OK. So going --</s>PEARSON: But if you look at the numbers in the polls, the Republican primary voters are definitely saying we don't want an establishment guy. The only guy that's gained any traction in the last month or so has been Marco Rubio.</s>GALEN: I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt your feelings.</s>PEARSON: So it essentially is a two-man race.</s>GALEN: I'm just telling you that's where you did wrong.</s>COSTELLO: OK. So let's talk about how Donald Trump scored when he stood up for New Yorkers. He told MSNBC he could win states Republicans have never won before like New York state and New Jersey. Katrina, is that his strategy?</s>PEARSON: Well, I think he's felt that way all along and that was an amazing response last night and we were very proud of him for saying that. Everyone's hearts went out to the people of New York and the way that they handled that. And I think that was very clear what New York values were.</s>COSTELLO: Rich, do you think that Donald Trump has a chance of winning New York state?</s>GALEN: No. But he doesn't need it. I mean, if he's the nominee he can win the presidency without New York state and you know, it's his home state so he would I suspect put some effort and money and resources into it. But the electoral map can be won by a Republican without New York and California. And it's because they have done it. The last time somebody -- a Republican won New York was probably back in the Rockefeller era. But, you know, it's his home state so I think you've got to say those sorts of things and I think he's correct in at least putting it in play because what you do then is you make either Hillary or Sanders you make them spend money on New York that they didn't think they were going to have to spend because that was off their checklist. We got that one. So Trump is saying things like that. I think if he's the nominee is very helpful.</s>COSTELLO: All right. Rich Galen, Katrina Pearson, I have to leave it there. Thanks to both of you. Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Sean Penn speaking out about his controversial meeting with drug kingpin El Chapo. What he says his biggest regret about the whole ordeal is.