--- title: Republican Debate: Read the Transcript of the Ninth Debate description: Here's what they said. canonical: https://time.com/4224275/republican-debate-transcript-south-carolina-ninth/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-14T03:50:03.000Z article:modified_time: 2024-01-24T13:06:11.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Read the Full Transcript of the Ninth Republican Debate og:description: Here's what they said og:url: https://time.com/4224275/republican-debate-transcript-south-carolina-ninth/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9416402ca13b3a0e/69887d9ce20a875b99a8f8a9/trump-rubio-bush-cruz-gop-debte-south-carolina.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: GOP 2016 Debate og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Read the Full Transcript of the Ninth Republican Debate twitter:description: Here's what they said twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9416402ca13b3a0e/69887d9ce20a875b99a8f8a9/trump-rubio-bush-cruz-gop-debte-south-carolina.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Read the Full Transcript of the Ninth Republican Debate in South Carolina by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Updated: Jan 24, 2024 1:06 PM UTCPublished: Feb 14, 2016 3:50 AM UTC  Republican presidential candidates, from left, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, businessman Donald Trump, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson participate during the CBS News Republican presidential debate at the Peace Center in Greenville, S.C., on Feb. 13, 2016. Republican presidential candidates, from left, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, businessman Donald Trump, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson participate during the CBS News Republican presidential debate at the Peace Center in Greenville, S.C., on Feb. 13, 2016.John Bazemore—AP by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Updated: Jan 24, 2024 1:06 PM UTCPublished: Feb 14, 2016 3:50 AM UTC [Six Republican presidential candidates](http://time.com/4221131/republican-debate-justice-antonin-scalia-dead/) [faced off for a debate](http://time.com/4220407/republican-debate-south-carolina/) in South Carolina Saturday night. The main stage featured real estate mogul [Donald Trump](http://time.com/4221465/republican-debate-donald-trump-booed/), Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Ohio Gov. John Kasich. The moderator was CBS News political director John Dickerson, with support from Kimberley Strassel of the Wall Street Journal and Major Garrett of CBS News. Here is a partial transcript of the debate. Check back later for a complete transcript. --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4224275/republican-debate-transcript-south-carolina-ninth/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4224275/republican-debate-transcript-south-carolina-ninth/"},"headline":"Read the Full Transcript of the Ninth Republican Debate in South Carolina","datePublished":"2016-02-14T03:50:03.000Z","dateModified":"2024-01-24T13:06:11.000Z","description":"Here's what they said","url":"https://time.com/4224275/republican-debate-transcript-south-carolina-ninth/","keywords":["Debates"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9416402ca13b3a0e/69887d9ce20a875b99a8f8a9/trump-rubio-bush-cruz-gop-debte-south-carolina.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9416402ca13b3a0e/69887d9ce20a875b99a8f8a9/trump-rubio-bush-cruz-gop-debte-south-carolina.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"GOP 2016 Debate","caption":"Republican presidential candidates, from left, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, businessman Donald Trump, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson participate during the CBS News Republican pre","creditText":"John Bazemore—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/debates/","name":"Debates"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4224275/republican-debate-transcript-south-carolina-ninth/","name":"Read the Full Transcript of the Ninth Republican Debate in South Carolina"}}]}] ```