California Republican debate transcript

Gilmore: No, that's right.

Moderator: Does anybody want to -- I want to save time here. Does any gentleman want to raise his hand and say, "Pardon him"?

Tancredo: Yes. Yes.

Moderator: OK, Congressman Tancredo wants to pardon him.

Tancredo (?): I'd say pardon him. But right after or before you pardon him, Ramos and Compean -- two people who are presently serving prison time for actually doing their job on the border...

Moderator: OK. Dr. Paul, do you want to pardon them?

Paul: No. He doesn't need a pardon. But he doesn't need it because he was instrumental in the misinformation that led the Congress and the people to support a war that we didn't need to be in.

Moderator: OK. Let me ask you a question which has grabbed a lot of Americans personally, the Terri Schiavo case.

Again, it was a question whether the United States, the U.S. Congress should have intervened and passed a law to advise the appellate court whether to act or not in this case -- the district court, it was.

Terri Schiavo: Should Congress have acted or let the family make the decision, the husband?

Romney: I think we should generally make the family make a decision of this nature.

Moderator: The husband should have decided?

Romney: Generally, we should make that decision. In the case here, the courts decided what they thought was the right thing to do. And then I think Jeb Bush and the Florida legislature did the right thing by saying, we've got a concern. They looked over the shoulder of the court. But I think the decision of Congress to get involved was a mistake.

Moderator: OK.

Romney: I think the Congress's job is to make sure that laws are respecting the sanctity of life. But to actually adjudicate a case like this, better done at the state level by the governor...

Moderator: Senator Brownback, should Congress...

Romney: ...the legislature and the court.

Moderator: ... have gotten involved in a personal case?

Brownback: Yes, it should have. And it gave her the right, and the family the right to take that appeal to the court. That's what the Congress did.

And her life is sacred. Even if it's in that difficult moment that she's in at that point in time, that life is sacred, and we should stand for life in all its circumstances.

Moderator: Senator McCain, was Congress right in intervening in that case?

McCain: It was a very difficult issue. All of us were deeply moved by the pictures and the depiction of this terrible, tragic case. In retrospect, we should have taken some more time, looked at it more carefully, and probably we acted too hastily.

Moderator: Mayor Giuliani, was that a good thing for Congress to do to get involved that weekend?

Giuliani: The family was in dispute. That's what we have courts for. And the better place to decide that in a much more -- I think in a much fairer and even in a deeper way is in front of a court.

Moderator: I want to ask you a question almost as much fun...

(Crosstalk)

Moderator: I want to get to the next question. I'm sorry, because you can expand on your thought as part of this answer.

I asked about raising taxes. It was almost like the Reagan round here. Everybody wanted to do that. I'm sure he was listening to that good thought.

(Laughter)

But let me ask you about something else that might be a negative in the upcoming campaign. Seriously.

Would it be good for America to have Bill Clinton back living in the White House?

(Laughter)

Romney: You have got to be kidding.

Moderator: No, I'm not.

(Laughter)

His wife's running, haven't you heard?

Romney: The only thing I can think of that'd be as bad as that would be to have the gang of three running the war on terror: Pelosi, Reid and Hillary Clinton.

So I have to be honest with you, I think it'd be an awful thing for a lot of reasons.

Moderator: Senator Brownback?

Brownback: I think it'd be bad because it would mean that Hillary Clinton would be elected, not because of who she is, but because of the policies that she stands for of raising taxes, of not standing up for life, for marriage. I mean, those are what would be bad for the country.

Moderator: Governor, Bill Clinton back in the White House?

Gilmore: You know, no, because that would mean that Hillary Clinton would be president of the United States, and where you have been is where you're going to go.

And Hillary Clinton tried to socialize medicine in this country -- a very bad idea. You need to keep that in the private sector. And yet she said in this debate...

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