Nine Republican presidential candidates shared the stage for a final time on Tuesday night, sparring over the issue dominating headlines: national security. Senator Ted Cruz began, providing his definition of American security.
"Border security is national security, and you know one of the most troubling aspects of the Rubio-Schumer Gang of Eight bill was that it gave President Obama blanket authority to admit refugees, including Syrian refugees, without mandating any background checks whatsoever."
This is false. News 8 dug deeper and read the entire bill, which clearly says background checks are still required. The immigration bill was co-sponsored by Cruz' challenger Marco Rubio back in 2013; it does allow the president to admit refugees into our country. But in order to qualify for refugee status, they have to prove they are a member of the refugee group. And those refugees would still be subject to the required screening process before they could come to the U.S.
Turning to the man in center stage, Donald Trump, who was asked to defend comments he's made about killing the families of terrorists.
"We have to be much stronger than we've been. We have people that know what is going on. You take a look at just the attack in California the other day. There were numerous people, including the mother, that knew what was going on. They saw a pipe bomb sitting all over the floor. They saw ammunition all over the place. They knew exactly what was going on."
These claims are misleading. Neither Trump, nor anyone, know if the terrorists' parents knew about the San Bernardino attack ahead of time. The FBI is currently investigating what, if anything, the mother of Syed Farook, one of the shooters, knew prior to the attack.
The mother, however, did live in the same home where her son and his girlfriend built several bombs.
And the lone female on the stage, Carly Fiorina, stood her ground, emphasizing how she'd lead the American military to defeat ISIS.
"One of the things I would immediately do, in addition to defeating them here at home, is bring back the warrior class -- Petraeus, McChrystal, Mattis, Keane, Flynn. Every single one of these generals I know. Every one was retired early because they told President Obama things that he didn't want to hear."
This is misleading, and two of Fiorina's military examples are entirely false. General John Keane served in the military for 37 years, but resigned in 2003, six years before Obama assumed office. So he neither retired early nor because of our president. And general David Petraeus retired from the military in 2011 to head the CIA. He was forced to resign from that position a year later when investigators uncovered he had shared classified information with his mistress.
The next Republican debate will be held January 14th, just two weeks before the Iowa Caucus.