--- title: Republican Debate: The Most Memorable Lines From Each Candidate description: The seven Republican presidential candidates at the Fox News undercard debate hope their best line breaks through the clutter. canonical: https://time.com/3988143/republican-debate-happy-hour/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-08-07T00:32:04.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:02:08.428Z article:section: Politics og:title: Memorable Lines From the Republican Undercard Debate og:description: Here's each candidate's most memorable line from the 5 p.m. debate. og:url: https://time.com/3988143/republican-debate-happy-hour/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Memorable Lines From the Republican Undercard Debate twitter:description: Here's each candidate's most memorable line from the 5 p.m. debate. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Here Are the Most Memorable Lines From the Republican Undercard Debate by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Aug 7, 2015 12:32 AM UTC by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Aug 7, 2015 12:32 AM UTC The seven Republican presidential candidates at the Fox News undercard debate had one hope: That one of their lines breaks through the clutter. With a second debate featuring 10 presidential candidates who are ahead of them in the polls—not to mention Donald Trump—it’ll be hard for the participants in Thursday’s so-called “happy hour debate” to get noticed. Here is the most memorable attempt from each candidate. ### Carly Fiorina  Carly Fiorina at the Cleveland Fox News "happy hour" debate Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images **The context:** The moderators began by asking the candidates, in so many words, why they should be elected president if they couldn’t even qualify for the main primetime debate. For the former Hewlett-Packard CEO, they asked why Donald Trump was doing better than her. **The line:** “Well, I don’t know. I didn’t get a phone call from Bill Clinton before I jumped in the race. Did any of you get a phone call from Bill Clinton? I didn’t. Maybe it’s because I hadn’t given money to the foundation or donated to his wife’s Senate campaign.” ### Rick Santorum  Rick Santorum at the Cleveland Fox News debate Scott Olson—Getty Images **The context:** The former Pennsylvania senator noted that his father spent the first seven years of his life living in Italy because U.S. law at the time didn’t allow him to join his own father, who had immigrated to the United States. **The line:** “I asked my dad after — obviously, when I found out about this. And I said, ‘Didn’t you resent America for not letting you be with your father in those formative and very threatening years?’ You know what he said to me? ‘America was worth the wait.'” ### Lindsey Graham  Sen. Lindsey Graham at the Fox News debate in Cleveland Scott Olson—Getty Images **The context:** The moderator had asked a question about how the candidates would make Americans less dependent on government assistance such as food stamps, but the South Carolina Senator used it as an excuse to attack Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton. **The line:** “I’m fluent in Clinton-speak; I’ve been dealing with this crowd for 20 years. You know, when Bill Clinton says it depends on what the meaning of is is, that means is is whatever Bill wants it to mean. When Hillary Clinton tells you I’ve given you all the emails you need, that means she hasn’t.” ### Bobby Jindal  Gov. Bobby Jindal at the Fox News debate in Cleveland Scott Olson—Getty Images **The context:** Each of the candidates were given 30 seconds to make a closing statement. The Louisiana Governor used his time to argue that Republicans need to embrace a conservative candidate and not compromise on issues such as immigration. **The line:** “We must insist on assimilation — immigration without assimilation is an invasion. We need to tell folks who want to come here, they need to come here legally. They need to learn English, adopt our values, roll up their sleeves and get to work.” ### Rick Perry  Former Gov. Rick Perry at the Cleveland Fox News "happy hour" debate Scott Olson—Getty Images **The context:** The former Texas Governor was asked about Trump, but he used the opportunity to instead talk about his record dealing with border security issues. **The line:** “We sent our Texas ranger recon teams. We sent our parks and wildlife wardens. I deployed the National Guard after I stood on the ramp in Dallas, Texas and looked the president of the United States in the eye and said, ‘Mr. President, if you won’t secure the border, Texas will,’ and that’s exactly what we did.” ### Jim Gilmore  Former Gov. Jim Gilmore (left) at the Fox News debate in Cleveland Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images **The context:** The former Virginia Governor was asked whether companies such as Google and Apple should be allowed to build products that protect their users from government surveillance since critics argue those could be used by terrorists. **The line:** “I chaired the National Commission on Homeland Security Committee for United States. We warned about the 9/11 attack before the 9/11 attack occurred. I was the governor during the 9/11 attack when the Pentagon was struck.” ### George Pataki  Former Gov. George Pataki at the Fox News debate in Cleveland Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images **The context:** In his closing statement, Pataki brought up his three terms as governor of New York, working with a Democratic legislature to enact conservative laws. **The line:** “The talk has got to stop, the action has got to begin. People can promise you something, I delivered in the blue state of New York. I will deliver for the American people if I have the privilege of leading this country.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3988143/republican-debate-happy-hour/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3988143/republican-debate-happy-hour/"},"headline":"Here Are the Most Memorable Lines From the Republican Undercard Debate","datePublished":"2015-08-07T00:32:04.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:02:08.428Z","description":"The seven Republican presidential candidates at the Fox News undercard debate hope their best line breaks through the clutter.","url":"https://time.com/3988143/republican-debate-happy-hour/","keywords":["Debates","2016 Election topic","Bobby Jindal","rick perry","rick santorum","Lindsey Graham","Carly Fiorina","George Pataki"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ryan Teague Beckwith","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[],"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/3988143/republican-debate-happy-hour/","name":"Here Are the Most Memorable Lines From the Republican Undercard Debate"}}]}] ```