--- title: Republican Debate; Candidates Use Clinton As Punching Bag description: Candidates at the Republican debate Thursday agreed that sending shots at Democrat Hillary Clinton was good strategy. canonical: https://time.com/4199264/republican-debate-iowa-hillary-clinton/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-29T03:11:59.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T19:33:23.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Republican Train Their Fire on Hillary Clinton at GOP Debate og:description: Candidates at the Republican debate Thursday agreed that sending shots at Democrat Hillary Clinton was good strategy. og:url: https://time.com/4199264/republican-debate-iowa-hillary-clinton/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf9d2a86510ee31d3/69887b25428a9e573fcd129d/republican-presidential-debate-gop-jan-28-photos-01.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4624 og:image:height: 2601 og:image:alt: TIMEPOL debate og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Republican Train Their Fire on Hillary Clinton at GOP Debate twitter:description: Candidates at the Republican debate Thursday agreed that sending shots at Democrat Hillary Clinton was good strategy. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf9d2a86510ee31d3/69887b25428a9e573fcd129d/republican-presidential-debate-gop-jan-28-photos-01.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Republicans Train Their Fire on Hillary Clinton at Iowa Debate > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Watch The Republican Debate in Under 4 Minutes [Watch (HLS stream): Watch The Republican Debate in Under 4 Minutes](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/yAWlwSjX.m3u8) (3:34)  _Published 2016-01-29. GOP Debate-012816-v1_ by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Updated: Dec 13, 2023 7:33 PM UTCPublished: Jan 29, 2016 3:11 AM UTC  Republican presidential candidates, from left, Sen. Rand Paul, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Florida Sen.Marco Rubio, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich at the Republican presidential debate in Des Moines, Iowa on Jan. 28, 2016 Republican presidential candidates, from left, Sen. Rand Paul, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Florida Sen.Marco Rubio, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich at the Republican presidential debate in Des Moines, Iowa on Jan. 28, 2016 Jim Watson—AFP/Getty Images by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Updated: Dec 13, 2023 7:33 PM UTCPublished: Jan 29, 2016 3:11 AM UTC Candidates at the [Republican debate](http://time.com/4197580/republican-debate-donald-trump-iowa/) Thursday could agree on one thing: that Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton was a ripe target for repeated attacks. Without GOP front-runner [Donald Trump](http://time.com/4198601/donald-trump-veterans-event-rally-watch-live-stream-online/) there to fling insults — or be insulted in turn — the remaining candidates turned their attentions to the former Secretary of State as the biggest obstacle to the Republican Party’s chances of winning the presidency in November. Rubio quickly connected the former Secretary of State with President Obama, after Clinton proposed earlier in the week that Obama might make a good Supreme Court Justice. “Supreme Court? I don’t think so,” Rubio said. “If I’m our nominee, I will unite this party and we’ll defeat Hillary Clinton and we will turn this country around once and for all, after seven years of the disaster that is Barack Obama.” Shortly after, Bush alluded to Clinton’s email scandal in the punchline of a joke. “I released 34 years of tax returns and 300,000 e-mails in my government record,” Bush said to applause. “To get the information from Hillary Clinton, you need to get a subpoena from the FBI.” New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie favorably compared himself to Clinton in terms of executive experience. “Hillary Clinton has never been responsible for those kind of decisions where they were held accountable,” Christie said. “I’ve been held accountable for six years as the governor of New Jersey and with a Democratic legislature, I’ve gotten conservative things done. That’s exactly what I’ll do as president of the United States.” Later on in the debate, the punches kept rolling on Clinton, with Rubio and Christie targeting her again. Rubio remarked that she shouldn’t be allowed to run given her record as Secretary of State — in particular, the controversy over her [private email server](http://time.com/4186530/hillary-clinton-emails-top-secret-intelligence/). “Hillary Clinton is disqualified from being the commander-in-chief of the United States,” Rubio said. “In fact, one of her first acts as president may very well be to pardon herself because Hillary Clinton stored classified information on her private server. And Hillary Clinton lied to the families of those four brave Americans who lost their life in Benghazi. And anyone who lies to the families of Americans who have died in the service of this country can never be commander-in-chief of the United States.” Christie too jabbed at the Clinton email scandal, saying he alone would be ready to take her to court. “There is no one on this stage better prepared to prosecute the case against Hillary Clinton than I am,” Christie said. “I will be ready. I will take her on, and when I take her on I guarantee you one thing, she will never get within 10 miles of the White House. The days for the Clintons in public housing are over.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4199264/republican-debate-iowa-hillary-clinton/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4199264/republican-debate-iowa-hillary-clinton/"},"headline":"Republicans Train Their Fire on Hillary Clinton at Iowa Debate","datePublished":"2016-01-29T03:11:59.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-13T19:33:23.000Z","description":"The Secretary of State came up almost as much as Donald Trump","url":"https://time.com/4199264/republican-debate-iowa-hillary-clinton/","keywords":["Debates","Hillary Clinton","2016 Election"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf9d2a86510ee31d3/69887b25428a9e573fcd129d/republican-presidential-debate-gop-jan-28-photos-01.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf9d2a86510ee31d3/69887b25428a9e573fcd129d/republican-presidential-debate-gop-jan-28-photos-01.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"TIMEPOL debate","caption":"Republican presidential candidates, from left, Sen. 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