Primary Debates Quotes

I have decided in 2020 to run for president.

To defeat Donald Trump, the Democrats must run a stellar cast of all-stars in their primary.

Mr. Romney is quick to uphold rules great and small. During primary debates, when his rivals spoke out of turn or exceeded their allotted time, he would sometimes lecture them. When supporters ask Mr. Romney to sign dollar bills or American flags, he refuses and often gives them a little lesson about why doing so is against the law.

It's time for Republicans to rally behind this campaign in order to put forth the best candidate to stop Hillary Clinton in November. I am confident Ted Cruz is that person, and I'm thrilled to endorse him for president.

I like Chris Christie. I like Jeb Bush. I like those guys.

The lesson of the Scott Walker, Rick Perry, and Bobby Jindal failures is simple: You can't run a presidential campaign from the undercard stage.

As political primaries approach, national media attention focuses on Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina.

Welcome the Republican Candidates for the Presidency to the Land of Lincoln. And I hope that some of Lincoln will rub off on them.

In the end, Obama won, stealing the change message from John Edwards and beating back Hillary Clinton's focus on experience. And the race turned on a remarkable speech Obama gave on the night of Nov. 10, 2007, in Des Moines.

Honestly, I just don’t see it [running for the Presidency]. I tried it once…. You can go out with me to Iowa. You wouldn’t believe it. You’d never go to Iowa again.

Presidential primary debates are an important part of our political process. But the media has wrested complete control from the parties and candidates over everything, including the number, the format, the qualifications, and the moderators. And they've become a circus.

In my view, republican primary debates ought to be moderated by people who would vote in a primary.

In the primary debates for the 2016 election, every single Republican candidate was a climate change denier, with one exception, John Kasich - the "rational moderate" - who said it may be happening but we shouldn't do anything about it. For a long time, the media have downplayed the issue.

I don't think [Donald] Trump was playing rope-a-dope. He probably said, "Look, I've done these. How many debates did we do in the primaries? I know what's happening."

If I ran as a Dem, I know I could beat Hillary Clinton. And if it was me vs. Trump, I would crush him. No doubt about it.

When Bernie Sanders was announcing that he was going to be a candidate for the nomination of the Democratic Party in Burlington, Vermont, I was the only cable host between FOX, MSNBC, and CNN that was there to cover it live.

You know, this is not about endorsements in the primary. We have to get through a primary first.

Don't forget during the primary debates when Trump pointed at Carly Fiorina and said, "Look at that face, who would vote for her?" That tells you everything about him and what he cares about women.

In some future America, there could be a plausible Michael Bloomberg path to the Democratic nomination. I would love to read a column by a smart person actually attempting to persuade me of this, using evidence.

We knew that the referee [in primary debates] is on the side of the Democrats because the referee, whoever the referee is, is a Democrat first and a so-called journalist second. I mean, we know that Lester Holt did not challenge Hillary [Clinton].

When you want to fix the country, you want someone who can beat Hillary Clinton.

I support Marco Rubio.

First there was the New Hampshire primary, and we had nearly a year leading up to it. And now, look! Three primaries in one weekend! How many of these things are they going to have?

… to get the Republican nomination for President, you have to be an outsider.

I must admit I found it astonishing to watch the candidates below Donald Trump beat up each other and never lay a glove on the front-runner. I mean, when I was running, everybody went after the front-runner and pointed out my weaknesses and foibles, and that's part of the normal primary process.