
Republican presidential candidates, from left , Ohio Gov. John Kasich, Jeb Bush, Sen. Marco Rubio, Sen. Ted Cruz, Ben Carson, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Sen. Rand Paul join the Republican presidential debate sponsored by Fox News in Des Moines, Iowa, on Thursday, January 28.

Cruz said he was not going to apologize for wanting to fight ISIS. "You claim it is tough talk to discuss carpet bombing. It is not tough talk. It is a different military strategy from Barack Obama," Cruz said. "You want to know what carpet bombing is? It's what we did in the first Persian Gulf War."

"We don't want to be Sweden. We want to be the United States of America," Rubio said, laying into Democratic hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders. Rubio knocked his Senate colleague over his democratic socialist outlook.

Kasich argues a point during the debate.

Christie answers a question by Bret Baier on the topic of what one thing the goverment does that it shouldn't by citing Planned Parenthood. "When you see thousands upon thousands upon thousands of babies being murdered in the womb, I can't think of anything bigger than that," Christie said to applause.

Paul answers a question about whether Bill Clinton's history is fair game. "I don't blame Hillary Clinton at all for this," he said. "But I do think her position as promoting women's rights and fairness to women in the workplace -- that if what Bill Clinton did any CEO in our country did ... they would be fired, they would never be hired again."

Bush, who has been increasingly combative with Trump during the debates, joked that he wished Trump was there. "I kind of miss Donald Trump. He was a little teddy bear to me," Bush said. "Everybody else was in the witness protection program when I went after him."

"I've had more 2 a.m. phone calls than anybody here, making life or death decisions," Carson said in his opening pitch.

Republican presidential candidates, from left, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, businesswoman Carly Fiorina, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore greet the audience before a Republican presidential primary debate.

When Mike Huckabee was asked why he isn't doing better in the polls after winning the Iowa caucus eight years ago, he answered, "I don't think it's that the message isn't working, I think it's that the message isn't getting out."

Jim Gilmore disagreed with Carly Fiorina that the political class in Washington is ruining the country; he added the media into the mix. "This media across the country is manipulating and framing and shaping this campaign," he said. "When I'm president it's going to change."

"The entire lead-up to this debate was about whether Donald Trump was going to show up to the next debate," Santorum said. "The people of Iowa ... care a lot about the issues. They care about who's going to be the leader of the free world."

Carly Fiorina took the opportunity to attack Hillary Clinton, saying she lied about Benghazi and, "She's escaped prosecution more times than El Chapo. Maybe Sean Penn should interview her."