The stakes were high on September 16, 2015 at the Republican presidential debate at the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley, CA. Over a period of three long hours, approximately 23 million people tuned in to watch the 11 candidates express their ideas and answer questions about how they would deal with issues facing America. Standout candidate and frontrunner in the election, Donald Trump, who is known for his charismatic TV persona and outspoken comments, never failed to entertain! After clearing up an incident in which he had insulted Carly Fiorina’s looks, Trump proceeded to insult fellow Republican candidate Rand Paul for the same reasons. Though his criticisms can be harsh, this has thus far not caused any stall for him in the polls. Trump has become the first candidate to garner over 30% of support; however, neurosurgeon Ben Carson is quickly closing in behind him at 18%, while Carly Fiorina knocks Jeb Bush out of the top three at 9%. Overall, the debate was insightful, brought many good points and was quite entertaining.

Of course, all eyes were on the leader Donald Trump, a successful businessman and outspoken politician. Below are his top three highlights of the night:

• Early on in the debate, a question aroused regarding the candidates’ feelings on Donald Trump’s handling of the nuclear codes as President. When it was his turn to answer, Trump went off on a tangent and said, “Rand Paul shouldn’t even be on this stage. He’s number 11, he’s got 1 percent in the polls, and how he got up here, there’s far too many people anyway.” Paul shot back by suggesting that Trump was very entertaining, but his attacks against people’s physical appearances were of concern. Trump continued to attack Paul, commenting, “I never attacked him on his look, and believe me, there’s plenty of subject matter right there.”
• Trump went head to head with Jeb Bush when the topic of Trump’s invitation of Hillary Clinton to his wedding came up. Bush strongly pushed this fact by dishing out what he knew of the event, including the fact that Donald paid her to attend. As Jeb’s energy and opinions had much more energy than showcased in the first debate, Trump pointed this out and remarked, “Okay, more energy tonight. I like that.” He followed through on this dig when he added that, as a businessman, he was friendly with everyone and then told Bush to not make things up.
• Trump’s third highlight is not a reference to a personal attack, rather his opinion on immigration reform. Through all of his previous campaigns, he made it very clear that he is not a fan of immigrants. Trump declared, “So, we have a country of laws, they’re going to go out, and they’ll come back if they deserve to come back. If they’ve had a bad record, if they’ve been arrested, if they’ve been in jail, they’re never coming back. We’re going to have a country again.” He went on to remark that the border patrol has been whittled down to nothing, and for what little control we have over illegals, it’s already costing more than $200 billion dollars a year.

Here is a short list with the top two winners and losers of the debate:

Winners:

1. Carly Fiorina delivered a strong performance with concise passionate answers such as her stance on foreign policy. In regards to dealing with President Vladimir Putin of Russia, she thinks that America should not talk to him at all, and believes that we have communicated too much with him. Fiorina adds that we should focus on rebuilding the United States Missile Defense Program in Poland, and induct aggressive military regiments in the Baltic states. She also speaks up about immigration reform and admits that it has been a pressing issue for 25 years.  Fiorina adds that no changes have been made when she states, “meanwhile, what has happened? Nothing. The border remains insecure. The legal immigration system remains broken. Look, we know what it takes to secure a border. We’ve heard a lot of great ideas here. Money, manpower, technology…” She adds that it will take a lot of work to change the 14th amendment, and that we have the great idea of “leadership that understands how to get results.”
2. Jeb Bush restored all of his lost energy from the August 6th debate and channeled it directly to combating fierce competitor Donald Trump. He first defended his brother, former President George W. Bush against Donald Trump by saying, “You remember the fire fighter with his arms around it? He sent a clear signal that the United States would be strong and fight Islamic terrorism, and he did keep us safe.”  Bush then demanded an apology from Donald on what he felt was a racist attack on his Mexican-American wife. Trump previously claimed that Jeb only supported immigration reform because of his wife’s race. A third entertaining highlight that may have worked in his favor was when he accused Donald Trump of paying him for casino gambling in Florida. Though Trump denied the allegations, it got a rise out of the audience and served as one of the comical highlights of the debate.

Losers:

1. Ben Carson is right up in the polls, ranking closely behind Donald Trump. However, his steady disposition did not work to his advantage at the debate. While Carson stayed calm under the pressure of the debate, he did not forcefully make his points, despite the several chances he got. One clear example was after Trump gave his opinion on vaccinations, specifically the amount of injections that should be inserted into a person over a period of time. Being the highly achieved neurosurgeon that he is, Carson could have easily argued that Trump would know nothing of the topic because he is not in the medical field. Nevertheless, he kept quiet and played it safe.
2. Scott Walker got into a tiff with Trump early on after he made a reference to The Apprentice, the reality game show Trump used to host, when he stated, “We don’t need an apprentice in the White House. We have one right now. He told us all the things we wanted to hear back in 2008. We don’t know who you are or where you’re going. We need someone who can actually get the job done. And you talked about business.” Trump fired right back at him, reminding him that as governor of Wisconsin, he was currently losing $2.2 billion. Though Walker tried to fight back claiming that the money helped working families, small business owners, etc., the attempt was feeble compared to what Trump had just said about him in their cross talk.

Though the Presidential election is a little over a year away, it’s safe to say that these outspoken 11 candidates will continue to speak and do whatever it takes to be the last Republican nominee standing.

*The Republican candidates at the undercard debate: George Pataki, Rick Santorum, Bobby Jindal, and Lindsey Graham.

*On September 22, 2015 by the time this article went to press, Governor Scott Walker had dropped out of the race.