Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum
Back in early August, there were seven people on stage for the second-tier Republican presidential debate. This time, there are only four: Carly Fiorina has been promoted to the big show, Rick Perry has dropped out, and Jim Gilmore could not muster the one percent support in any three polls required to qualify for the kiddie table. That leaves:
Rick Santorum
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal
George Pataki
Sen. Lindsey Graham
Not exactly a fountain of charisma, there.
Both of the evening's debates will air on CNN and stream on CNN.com. The varsity team will take the stage at 8:00 PM ET.
3:26 PM PT: Bobby Jindal works "bandwidth"—his code word for "I'm the smartest guy here"—into his opening statement, while Lindsey Graham opens with a better moment than at any point in the first debate by thanking CNN for having a live audience at the JV debate, unlike Fox forcing them to debate in an empty hall.
3:30 PM PT (Barbara Morrill): CNN's goal is to debate the issues ... and the first four questions are about Donald Trump.
3:36 PM PT (Barbara Morrill): Lindsey Graham wants to talk about "boots on the ground," specifically, that if you're not willing to commit to American troops to fight somewhere, you're not qualified to be president.
3:38 PM PT: Under questioning from Dana Bash, Jindal and Santorum get into an argument over who hates immigrants more. Jindal is very concerned that we not think he supports a path to citizenship—he is only interested in securing the border, he swears.
3:45 PM PT (Joan McCarter): CNN actually let something relatively substantive happen here--they let Santorum and Graham talk out immigration and whether or not "Hispanics are Americans." That might have been the only thing we're going see in the JV debate that veers toward substance.
3:50 PM PT (Joan McCarter): There's consensus on war--they want it. More troops in Iraq to take up where George W Bush left off. Pataki differs in not wanting troops in Syria, as does Graham. But they all seem to be pretty into the war thing.
3:52 PM PT (Barbara Morrill): BREAKING: Bobby Jindal announces that no one in America is discriminated against because of the color of their skin. What a relief!
3:58 PM PT: Regarding Ahmed Mohamed, the teen arrested for bringing a homemade clock to school, Jake Tapper asks "How do you strike a balance between security vigilance and anti-Muslim discrimination?"
No one wants to answer the question. Pressed, Bobby Jindal says sure, no, don't arrest kids for clocks, but pivots as quickly as possible to the REAL victims of discrimination—Christian business owners who want to discriminate against LGBT people getting married.
4:00 PM PT (Barbara Morrill): New thread here.