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Did Jeb Bush Deliver Rebound Performance in Debate?; Trump Avoids Personal Attacks in Latest Debate. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired November 11, 2015 - 06:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We either have a country or we don't have a country.

[05:57:34] GOV. JOHN KASICH (R-OH), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Come on, folks. We all know you can't pick them up and ship them across -- back across the border. It's a silly argument.

TRUMP: I don't have to hear from this man, believe me.

SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You cannot be a conservative if you're going to keep promoting new programs that you're not going to pay for.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I know Iran is a committed isolationist. I'm not.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If you think defending this nation is expensive, try not defending it.

CARLY FIORINA (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We must take our government back.

DR. BEN CARSON (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have no problem with being vetted. What I do have a problem with is being lied about.

TRUMP: We have to get smart. We can't continue to be the policemen of the world.

JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He is absolutely wrong on this. We're not going to be the world's policemen. But we sure as heck better be the world's leader.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, welcome the your NEW DAY. It is Veterans Day, as we should every day, thank you, fighting men, women, your families. Thank you for the sacrifices you make abroad and at home.

It is Wednesday, November 11, 6 a.m. in the East. The big winner from the latest GOP debate, you're going to like this. You know who it was? You. Republican candidates putting out ideas. They showed overlaps, especially on tax policy, but a lot of differences and clashing on immigration, national security, the minimum wage.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: There were lots of different moments that were captured in this debate. Did Jeb Bush do enough to help his embattled campaign? And how did Ben Carson handle questions about his past?

CNN's John Berman is here to tell us how the candidates fared.

Hi, John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: You know, we saw real fault lines last night on real issues. And we also saw energy. Eight candidates on that main stage. And for the most part, all eight of them, they brought their game.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN (voice-over): Fewer candidates on stage, yes. More policy, maybe? Less tension? Not a chance.

KASICH: Come on, folks. We all know you can't pick them up and ship them across, back across the border. It's a silly argument. It's not an adult argument. It makes no sense.

BERMAN: John Kasich blasting Donald Trump's build-a-wall immigration plan. Donald Trump blasting back.

TRUMP: Let me just tell you, I built an unbelievable company worth billions and billions of dollars, I don't have to hear from this man, believe me.

BERMAN: Immigration was a central topic, Jeb Bush worried about a mass deportation message.

BUSH: They're doing high fives in the Clinton campaign right now when they hear this.

BERMAN: Ted Cruz disagreed.

CRUZ: If Republicans join Democrats as the party of amnesty, we will lose.

BUSH: Foreign policy also a flash point between candidates, including a Rand Paul sighting.

RUBIO: I know that Rand is a committed isolationalist [SIC]. I'm not.

PAUL: How is it conservative to add a trillion-dollar expenditure for the federal government, which you don't pay for?

BERMAN: The Kentucky senator, not a big factor in previous debates, had a no love lost exchange with Marco Rubio.

RUBIO: I know that the world is a safer and better place when America is the strongest military power in the world. I do not think we are any safer from bankruptcy court.

BERMAN: Jeb Bush had admitted he had to show up big, and he was certainly a bigger presence than before.

BUSH: Thank you, Donald, for allowing me to speak at the debate. That's really nice of you. I really appreciate that.

BERMAN: He butted heads with Donald Trump on ISIS.

TRUMP: If Putin wants to go and knock the hell out of ISIS, I am all for it 100 percent.

BUSH: Donald is wrong on this. He is absolutely wrong on this. We're not going to be the world's policeman, but we sure as heck better be the world's leader.

BERMAN: Ben Carson, out front in some polls, continued to seem content to sit back on the debate stage, though he did reference recent media questions in the claims he has made about his past.

CARSON: Thank you for not asking me what I said in the tenth grade. I appreciate that.

I have no problem with being vetted. What I do have a problem with is being lied about and then putting that out there as truth.

BERMAN: Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz continued to show their debate stage polish with notable one-liners.

CRUZ: There are more words in the IRS code than there are in the bible. And not a one of them is as good.

RUBIO: For the life of me, I don't know why we have stigmatized vocational education. Welders make more money than philosophers. We need more welders and less philosophers.

BERMAN: And Carly Fiorina and Donald Trump with new proof they will not be friends.

FIORINA: He quit talking when it was time to quit talking.

PAUL: Can I finish with my time? Can I finish with my time?

TRUMP: Why does she keep interrupting everybody? Boy, terrible.

BERMAN: There were sparks, too, in the undercard debate, just- demoted Chris Christie tried to turn the focus to Hillary Clinton a lot.

CHRISTIE: Hillary Clinton, and Secretary Clinton. Hillary Clinton.

Wait till you see what Hillary Clinton will do to this country and how she will drown us in debt.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BERMAN: Bobby Jindal after the debate said that Chris Christie

should get a participation ribbon and a juice box for his time as governor of New Jersey. That was something. Another thing that we did not see last night was Jeb Bush engaging with Marco Rubio. That was such a big story line last time. It seemed that both of those candidates didn't want any part of that last night.

CAMEROTA: I mean, they engaged with others, just not with each other.

BERMAN: Others, not each other.

CAMEROTA: Right, exactly. All right, John. Thanks so much.

PEREIRA: Meanwhile, there are a mixture of views for Donald Trump's debate performance, some analysts calling it a bit of a bumpy night for the GOP frontrunner. As you can imagine, Trump has a different take.

CNN's chief political correspondent, Dana Bash, caught up with him after the debate. She's in Milwaukee, not looking bleary-eyed at all, looking fresh as a daisy.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: It's all a facade, Michaela. Good morning to you. You know, the last time this network, at least the sister network had a debate. Donald Trump was not praising it at all. But when I caught up with him in the spin room after I asked what he thought, take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRUMP: I thought the moderators were elegant. I thought the questions were really, really on point. And I thought it was a great night. I really thought it was -- actually, the word is elegant. It was an elegant evening. The three of them, they were so professional, especially after the last catastrophe where people are asking about fantasy football, however, that stuff gets in there. But they were really -- they really did a great job.

BASH: What did you make of your exchange with John Kasich, who I just spoke to after the debate ended; and he said he's going to keep pressing on the fact that he thinks that your immigration plan is pie in the sky, and it's just not realistic.

TRUMP: Well, that's OK. There are a few people out there, as you know, that agree with me on my plan. If you look at 1950s, early 1950s, a man named President Dwight Eisenhower moved 1.5 million out, because he didn't want illegal immigration. And he moved them out three different times. He moved them here, here and then finally he really moved them out.

We have no choice. We're a nation of laws. And we have to do it right. We need borders, and we have to be -- come into the country, come in legally. And I think that was very -- it may have been my largest applause of the night when I said about the wall, when I said about -- when I talked about immigration. It may have been, actually, the largest applause I got that night.

BASH: I just spoke to Carly Fiorina and asked her about the moment when you asked the moderators why she was interrupting so much. And she said it was typical Trump, that you didn't want to be interrupted. And other people were interrupting all night long.

TRUMP: I wasn't interrupting people. And I thought that it was time that somebody said, because Carly has a habit of just speaking whenever she wants to speak. So I think I was speaking on behalf of the other people up there. And she was fine. But I thought it was appropriate, because every -- I mean, she interrupted too many times.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[06:05:12] BASH: And to quote the great John Berman just a few minutes ago, more evidence that Donald Trump and Carly Fiorina are not going to be friends, Chris and Alisyn.

And more on that, just quickly, the -- it was pretty clear in the spin room, everybody was happy that they felt like they got to talk about substance. They got to engage. They had more time. Perhaps that's one of the many reasons for that is that there were only eight people on the stage.

CAMEROTA: Good point, yes, the math worked in their favor, certainly. Dana, thanks so much.

CUOMO: And also, they didn't have to have the same kind of pressure of performance last night where "What am I going to do when Alisyn takes this shot at me? How am I going to go back?" They're really getting more of a chance to put out their ideas.

So let's discuss what resonated and what will wind up being thematic in this election. Let's bring back the great John Berman and bring in CNN political analyst and presidential campaign correspondent for "The New York Times," Maggie Haberman; and CNN senior political analyst and editorial director for "The National Journal," Professor Ron Brownstein.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.

CUOMO: So we've heard enough from Berman for right now. When you watched last night, Maggie, when you watched last night -- forget about the moderators. They did their job. That's what they're supposed to do. Moving on, what did you see last night in terms of who made space for themselves on that stage?

MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I actually thought -- this is not going to be a popular opinion. I think Donald Trump actually had a decent debate. You saw him try to be the frontrunner for the first time, where he was not -- he was certainly combative at points, but he was, for him, restrained. He had a couple of moments, a couple of flare-ups. Could have been a lot worse, and he sounded a lot more substantive than I think we have heard him sound in the past. Policy has not been his strong suit. Jeb Bush kept himself in the game. Jeb Bush needed a good night.

I don't think he had a great night, but he certainly looked like he is going to fight. He is not going gently. And he came prepared. He's lost a lot of that nervousness that I think we saw in the first three debates.

But I ultimately don't think much changed. The dynamic going into the -- into the debate was Marco Rubio versus Ted Cruz seemed to be wherever we're heading. I think it still looks like that.

Coming out, I don't think Marco Rubio had a fantastic night, but he mostly sailed through. And he got help, very important to note, there was a key moment involving immigration. There was a fight between Kasich and Trump. And Jeb chose his moment and got in on it and basically was on the Kasich side versus Trump.

The moderators could have turned to Rubio. That is a real vulnerability for Rubio in the GOP primaries, immigration. They didn't ask him about it. So Rubio got really saved.

CAMEROTA: Ron, who do you think? Winners, losers?

BROWNSTEIN: Yes. I was really struck that about half the field, I thought, really sharpened their definition and in that sense benefited themselves. And the big question will be how much of an audience there is for that definition that they've now established.

I thought John Kasich and Jeb Bush both reasserted their relevance by basically making themselves the voice of the practical pragmatic governing side of the party, particularly, as Maggie said, in the immigration exchange. The question is whether there is, you know, a big enough audience for that message.

Rand Paul, the same way, you know, he had been largely relegated to the sidelines in the earlier debates. He kind of reasserted the libertarian argument, particularly on national security. Again, the issue will be how much of an audience there is for his message, particularly on defense spending.

And the other one I thought did really well in that respect was Ted Cruz in kind of reasserting his identity as the outsider who has more credibility in governing. And I think he did kind of really re- assert himself in that lane and is in a strong position if Ben Carson, who really doesn't project very much in these debates -- and that really, the debates aren't the core where he's going -- and Donald Trump fades, I think -- I think Cruz put himself -- continues to put himself in a good position to do -- to kind of pick up the pieces there, if both of them erode as the race goes on.

CUOMO: You had tax policy and you had immigration. OK? Tax policy, you had people who were really dovetailing last night, J.B. I mean, you know, they all want less. Right?

BERMAN: A huge distinction, yes.

CUOMO: And a lot of them were using that term "flat tax" or getting that way. Even Carson wound up saying that tithing was only an analogy, that he meant, you know, relative levels. So there wasn't a lot of opportunity to say, "You stink" on that level. Immigration gave them a little bit more space. What did you see there?

BERMAN: Look, you know, if you're talking about tax policy, they're not going to argue with each other on it for the most part. But that's where a moderator could, if he or she chose, ask for more and more detail on these plans, particularly Ben Carson. I mean, he could have been pushed a lot harder on exactly what he means by this flat tax that he wants, except apparently with rebates or exemptions for people on the lower level income scale.

Immigration, just huge differences. Not small differences. Big differences there. And everyone was happy with where they landed there. There were some tense moments, but Jeb Bush was perfectly happy to be the guy who said, you know, "It's crazy to talk about deporting everyone." John Kasich perfectly happy with that. And Ted Cruz perfectly happy with saying, "No, no, no, you know, amnesty is a bad idea." And happiest of all, Maggie said, was Marco Rubio for not being pulled into that discussion.

CUOMO: But Cruz's point last night -- and correct me if I'm wrong, Alisyn, everybody who was watching it -- but the -- he is "You've got to enforce the law. You've got to enforce the law. If you don't enforce the law, it's a mistake. We're a nation of laws." Full stop.

[06:10:08] It is Trump who is owning the "we've got to get rid of them." Do you think the Eisenhower thing makes the case for him?

HABERMAN: I don't, actually. And I actually think that, to Ron's point, I think that Trump is not likely to go the distance. So I think if we're looking at an argument that's going to sustain him, I don't think that's it. I actually thought Trump, again, to my point earlier, that he was better prepared. I was surprised to hear him make that argument. You would not have heard him make that argument in a past debate.

But I did think Cruz articulated the point better. I think that Trump basically said we're a nation of laws, we have to stick with this. I mean, Cruz played more to the GOP base. I think that's what Ron's talking about. He talked about amnesty. He tied it to wage stagnation. That is something that especially Iowa caucus goers are going to hear.

CAMEROTA: Ron, there's a question before the debate as to whether or not the moderators would bring up the discrepancies in Ben Carson's narrative about his past. And they did. They asked -- it was Neil Cavuto who asked, "Do you think that this is affecting sort of your trustworthiness?" and let me play for you his -- Ben Carson's response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARSON: The fact of the matter is, you know, we should vet all candidates. I have no problem with being vetted. What I do have a problem with is being lied about. And then putting that out there as truth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Now, Ron, the moderators did not press him on who's lying? Who exactly has said any lies? He's sort of equating questions with lies.

BROWNSTEIN: Right. Look -- you know, look, when you're in a primary debate, first to go to Chris's point, a lot of the real differences are between the parties. And many of these issues, whether it was the minimum wage or taxes or Ben Carson's biography, would obviously be much more of a flashpoint if you were talking about, you know, a general election context where there's a real, you know, a real incentive for the candidates on the stage to draw the difference.

Look, all of the candidates I think are somewhat reluctant to go -- go after Carson. Trump has done it on Twitter. He did not do it on stage last night.

Ben Carson's personal story is resonating very powerful with a segment of the Republican base, particularly evangelical Christians. And I don't think anything that has been raised is necessarily going to dislodge that support.

The threat for him is that I think it bounds and contains that support. I mean, I think it makes it tougher for him to move on, to broaden beyond the beachhead of those who are attracted to his personal story. This is a candidate whose candidacy is fundamentally his biography. As we saw again last night, it is not fundamentally about his command of policy or the direction of his ideas so much as who he is.

And I think that to that extent, these issues are particularly challenging for him, once you get beyond that core of voters who simply see him as someone who exemplifies their values.

CUOMO: Also, "lie" has become a buzzword that, you know, "You said I lied." Well, how did you say that Ben Carson lied? By suggesting that we couldn't prove his story. That is -- "Well, you called me a liar." However, that's a very high bar for him. Very low bar for everybody else.

We saw that with Hillary Clinton last night. She's a liar because she told different stories.

Do you think that that's something that's going to ultimately be very powerful here? We'll be talking about this six, seven months from now.

HABERMAN: I think the concept of truth in this race overall, I think is something we're going to be talking about for a long time. But I think it's primarily in the Republican primary. Truth has been fungible.

Hillary Clinton has obviously been accused of telling different stories, either about her e-mail use or on broader on foreign policy, in terms of what happened after Benghazi and the attacks in Libya in 2012.

On the Republican side, Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, Donald Trump, in particular, have said things that have all come up for serious fact check at different points, certainly with Fiorina and with Trump, it happened again last night. In both cases, both of them talking about meeting Putin. Each of them said something that I think is not correct.

And so I think that the concept of truth is going to be something we're going to be dealing with for many months to come. I don't think the specifics, however, are necessarily coming back to hurt people because a lot of it is in how you deal with it. And you saw Ben Carson last night very effectively turn questions. I think to Ron's point, it is going to be the question of does that sort of cauterize your support where it is, or do you have room to grow?

CAMEROTA: You guys, stick around. We have a lot more to talk about, including all of the issues and where the candidates stand on it.

CUOMO: Cauterize is a good world.

PEREIRA: It is a good word.

CUOMO: I like that. That may be the "inveigle" of the morning.

We're going to keep talking about this, because there was a lot that happened that mattered. And this man mattered last night, comma, or did he, question mark? He was on the littler stage last night. He did well. Does it matter? He will join us and discuss his reactions and what he thinks matters to you -- Mick.

PEREIRA: I like the way you add the punctuation for our viewers at home.

CAMEROTA: Yes, yes. And says it out loud.

CUOMO: I want to be honest, it felt good. It may be a new thing.

CAMEROTA: All right. Back to our debate coverage in a moment. We have all sorts of news happening overnight, in fact breaking, two deadly migrant incidents. In the first, 14 people killed after a wooden boat sank off Turkey's western coast. At least 27 people have been rescued so far.

[06:15:07] In the other, Turkey's Coast Guard rescuing 22 migrants. It's believed four people died in that incident. Those migrants were trying to get to the Greek island of Lesbos.

The FBI says two alleged white supremacists arrested in Virginia, bent on starting a race war. Officials say Robert Doyle and Ronald Chaney plotted to attack black churches and Jewish synagogues. The two reportedly met back in September to discuss taking violent action. Undercover agents posing as illegal arms dealers caught them trying to buy an automatic weapon, explosives and a pistol with a silencer.

Some live pictures for you, the early morning at Arlington National Cemetery. In just under five hours, President Obama will honor the nation's veterans by laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns. He'll be joined this Veterans Day by Defense Secretary Ash Carter. The president plans to use the platform today to call on Congress to pass sweeping new measures benefiting America's fighting men and women, past and present.

Foreign policy certainly one of the most talked about topics at last night's Republican debate. The candidates, however, sharply split on just how to handle ISIS and Vladimir Putin. Who emerges as the winner of that round? Our experts are here. We'll break it down with them.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:20:25] CAMEROTA: During last night's Republican debate, the candidates had some heated exchanges over the economy, immigration and foreign policy. So who got the upper hand?

Let's bring back John Berman, Maggie Haberman and Ron Brownstein. OK. Let's talk about some of the moments. Maggie, I'll start with you. There was a moment between Marco Rubio and Rand Paul about military spending that people thought was one of the sort of crescendos of the night. So let's play that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: How is it conservative to add a trillion dollars in military expenditures? You cannot be a conservative if you're going to keep promoting new programs that you're not going to pay for.

RUBIO: May I respond? We can't even have an economy if we're not safe. There are radical jihadists in the Middle East beheading people and crucifying Christians. A radical Shia cleric in Iran trying to get a nuclear weapon. The Chinese taking over the South China Sea. Yes, I believe the world is a safer -- no, I don't believe. I know that the world is a safer and better place when America is the strongest military power in the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: OK. There you go. That was a real difference of opinion there. And they both got applause, though the one for Rubio was a rousing round of applause. How do you think that went?

HABERMAN: I think this is one of the key fissures within the Republican Party in the post-George W. Bush era, has been foreign policy. And Rand Paul, his ascent was based in part on the fact that he was very anti-interventionist. This was really Rand Paul returning to where he performs best.

This is also where a lot of the Republican base has been. It's where a lot of the Democratic base had been, which is we are tired of wars; we are tired of being overseas. However, that whole conversation took place largely before the

rise of ISIS. And that's what you're seeing Marco Rubio seize on and capitalize on. Marco Rubio is going to basically be the voice of a muscular foreign policy. You're going to see this over and over again. I think both of them did what they wanted to do.

BERMAN: Exactly.

HABERMAN: In that exchange. There was no clear winner.

BERMAN: That was my favorite part of the debate. Because you had two guys arguing with each other who both got exactly what they wanted here. And I thought Rand Paul, the case of Rand Paul is fascinating. Because had this been the Rand Paul that we've heard of exclusively for the last year, he might be doing a lot better in the polls right now.

This is a guy who, if he only consolidated the support that his father had, he would be maybe at 8 or 10 percent right now, which would be enough to have him standing alone in the polls. But he tried to operate a little more in the mainstream. He sort of lost track of where that base of support for him might have been.

CUOMO: He's also moving away from the base, in terms, you know, might makes right is coming back into vogue in terms of foreign policy.

BERMAN: But when it's a 14, 15 candidate field, there might be 10 percent who feel strongly about that issue.

CUOMO: Sure, sure. So let's focus on immigration a little bit, too. Because I thought that Kasich, you know, many believe that there's going to be a moment where he's going to come out as somebody who will be getting a real look. He went for it last night on immigration against Donald Trump. Let's play the exchange and then see if we can get to Maggie's point about who wound up kind of coming as the third man in, taking the forum.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We either have a country or we don't have a country. We are a country of laws. Going to have to go out, and they'll come back. But they're going to have to go out, and hopefully, they get back.

KASICH: For the 11 million people, come on, folks. We all know you can't pick them up and ship them across -- back across the border. It's a silly argument. It's not an adult argument. It makes no sense.

TRUMP: All I can say is you're lucky in Ohio that you struck oil. That's for one thing.

KASICH: All I'm suggesting, we can't ship 11 million people out of this country. Children would be terrified. It will not work.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Let me just -- I built an unbelievable company worth billions and billions of dollars. I don't have to hear from this man. Believe me. I don't have to hear from him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: So, Ron, on this issue, Trump's new layer of this, he mentioned a little bit early on in the campaign. But he came strong with Operation Wetback, which is what it was actually called during the administration. The numbers are probably off; the impact is certainly off. And the legacy of it isn't necessarily something you'd want to tout. How did it play for you?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, first of all, it's a very different context. Because as I recall the Bracero Program, we're talking about temporary agricultural workers who were moved out. Not people who have been living in place for years, in many cases with U.S. citizen children. There's nothing like that in the 1950s, when you're talking about uprooting families.

Look, the Kasich/Trump and then Bush joining in, I think really, as I said before, was each of the candidates more sharply engraving their identity. I mean, I think Kasich and Bush both want to be seen as the pragmatic governing adult. And that is clearly speaking to more of the establishment, lane in the party. Trump reaffirming his outsider credentials where he's competing with Carson and probably Cruz.

[06:25:07] Rubio, the intriguing -- who had kind of, I thought, an OK debate. He seemed a little canned. He was lucky, as Maggie noted, to be exempted from this conversation. Rubio is someone who is potentially acceptable to a big chunk of that establishment vote but not as noxious for the outsiders as, say, Kasich and Bush would be.

But I do think you saw Kasich putting his cards on the table. The identity he sketched out in the last debate, he really etched much more deeply in this one: "I'm going to be the guy who's going to tell you the hard truths. I'm someone who can really govern." That's the upscale, more establishment wing of the party and really requires you to put all your chips into New Hampshire.

CAMEROTA: Maggie, there's some funny fact checking going on this morning about who has met more closely with Putin, with Vladimir Putin. Between Carly Fiorina and Donald Trump. Is Donald Trump saying that because they were both on "60 Minutes" the same night, though it wasn't taped at the same time or in the same place, that he has a relationship with Putin?

HABERMAN: So I wasn't -- that was my read last night in real time. I was corrected rather vociferously, as one is on Twitter, by a lot of people, who were saying, "No, no, he was saying he's met him several times. This just happened to be one of the times where they were together as..." BERMAN: Stable mates.

HABERMAN: Stable mates was his line. They're not stable mates unless the stable is the whole world. And if you're in this place and I'm in Los Angeles, then we're sitting in the same stable. I mean, Putin was in Russia when this interview was taped.

Fiorina, however, her best line of the night was the thing about "We didn't just meet in the green room." But in fact, when she met with Putin, it was in a green room, and it was in a green room getting ready for a speech. So it wasn't a TV green room, but it was a green room. Neither one of them won that exchange. I mean -- but not in a good way.

CUOMO: Who did it hurt more?

HABERMAN: I think probably hurt Fiorina more. Because I think Trump's brand is able to sustain saying things that are blatantly not true, as he has said throughout this primary. And it doesn't seem to drag his numbers down too terribly.

CAMEROTA: Maggie, John, Ron, thank you so much for all of the analysis. Great to see all of you this morning.

What is your take on last night's debate? You can tweet us using the hashtag #NewDayCNN or post your comments on Facebook.com/NewDay. We look forward to reading those -- Michaela.

PEREIRA: All right, Alisyn. The Republican candidates making all sorts of promises, even more claims during last night's debate. Ben Carson, Donald Trump insisting a minimum wage hike will cost Americans jobs. So are they right? CNN is fact-checking the candidates ahead on "NEW DAY."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)