If you were watching the Republican debate Thursday, you might have needed footnotes at times.
At the last debate before the crucial Super Tuesday primaries, the five candidates worked hard to hit each other on past controversies, some of which you may have missed.
TIME sifted through the debate transcript and compiled a guide to some of the news stories referenced by the candidates, either directly or indirectly.
Immigration
In a nod to the inclusion of Telemundo, a Spanish-language television network, the debate started with a testy debate on immigration reform. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz was asked to critique Donald Trump’s immigration plan, which would involve letting “the good ones” stay. In response, Cruz name-dropped the Wall Street Journal.
“The Thorny Economics of Illegal Immigration,” Wall Street Journal, Feb. 9, 2016
Donald Trump has said that as president he will build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico and the Mexican government will pay for it. Leaders in the Mexican government—both current and former—have said that’s not going to happen. In response to a recent, expletive-laden statement by President Vicente Fox, Trump had this to say.
“Vicente Fox: “I am not going to pay for that f–king wall,” Fusion, Feb. 25, 2016
Trump’s Legal Troubles
Sen. Marco Rubio called on the audience to fact-check Donald Trump during a testy exchange about hiring foreign workers. Trump’s recent history with hiring was the subject of a New York Times article published on Thursday, but Rubio dug back deeper for this particular jab.
“Trump Says He Didn’t Know He Employed Illegal Aliens,” New York Times, 7/13/1990
“After 15 Years in Court, Workers’ Lawsuit Against Trump Faces Yet Another Delay,” New York Times, 6/14/1998
Cruz piggybacked off of Rubio, who called the embattled Trump University a “fake school,” lambasting Trump over the pending legal case regarding his private, for-profit school.
“What the Legal Battle Over Trump University Reveals About Its Founder,” TIME, 11/5/2015
Diversity
Maria Celeste Arraras of Telemundo questioned whether the two Hispanic candidates on Thursday’s stage were missing an opportunity to expand the Republican Party by not making any explicit efforts to appeal to Latino voters, an indirect reference to a scathing audit of the Republican Party’s performance during the 2012 election. Sen. Cruz suggested the depiction of the Hispanic community itself was off:
Read the Republican Party’s 2012 audit here.
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