--- title: Republican Debate: Candidates Target Hillary Clinton description: The Republican candidates traded barbs at the debate Thursday night, but there was one person they all ganged up on: Hillary Clinton. canonical: https://time.com/4181955/republican-debate-hillary-clinton-attacks/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-15T03:58:30.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T14:09:28.976Z article:section: Politics og:title: GOP Candidates Target Hillary Clinton at Republican Debate og:description: "Hillary Clinton is disqualified from being Commander in Chief of the United States" og:url: https://time.com/4181955/republican-debate-hillary-clinton-attacks/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf1c9b45e956af7fe/69887950a988ca22a36b6239/gettyimages-473979902.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Hillary Clinton Campigns In Iowa, Meeting With Small Business Owners og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: GOP Candidates Target Hillary Clinton at Republican Debate twitter:description: "Hillary Clinton is disqualified from being Commander in Chief of the United States" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf1c9b45e956af7fe/69887950a988ca22a36b6239/gettyimages-473979902.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # GOP Candidates Target Hillary Clinton at Republican Debate  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Jan 15, 2016 3:58 AM UTC  Hillary Clinton was the subject of criticism at the Republican presidential debate on Thursday. Hillary Clinton was the subject of criticism at the Republican presidential debate on Thursday.Scott Olson—Getty Images  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Jan 15, 2016 3:58 AM UTC The Republican candidates traded barbs at the debate Thursday night, but there was one person they all ganged up on: Hillary Clinton. Bashing Clinton while still in the primary season has long been a tactic of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie at debates, and Donald Trump has been targeting her more [during his rallies](http://time.com/4164417/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-attacks/?xid=tcoshare), but Thursday night the other candidates joined in. With less than 20 days until the Feb. 1 Iowa caucuses, it shows that whichever of the seven candidates on the main stage wins the primary, it’s going to be a bruising fight in the general. “If I’m the nominee, she won’t get within 10 miles of the White House,” Christie said of the former Secretary of State. He also continually tied her to President Obama as complicit the current situation in the Middle East. “If you are going to leave this to Hilary Clinton, the person who gave us this foreign policy, the architect of it… Hillary Clinton cannot be president, it will lead to even greater war in this world,” he said. “In her first 100 days… She might be going back and forth between the White House and the court house. We need to stop that,” said former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, later saying that “everybody on this stage is better than Hillary Clinton.” **Read More**: [Donald Trump Ties Hillary Clinton to Bill Cosby, Anthony Weiner in Instagram Post](http://time.com/4171454/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-bill-cosby-anthony-weiner/) “Hillary Clinton is disqualified from being Commander in Chief of the United States,” said Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, saying she couldn’t handle “sensitive intelligence information” and “lied” to family members of Benghazi victims. Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson was asked whether it was fair to attack Clinton on her husband’s sexual history, and he said it was fair to examine any past president’s record, whether he was married to a current candidate or not. Clinton had some words of her own for the candidates, tweeting during the debate: > [](https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton/status/687828875821355009) > [](https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton/status/687829391674597376) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4181955/republican-debate-hillary-clinton-attacks/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4181955/republican-debate-hillary-clinton-attacks/"},"headline":"GOP Candidates Target Hillary Clinton at Republican Debate","datePublished":"2016-01-15T03:58:30.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T14:09:28.976Z","description":"\"Hillary Clinton is disqualified from being Commander in Chief of the United States\"","url":"https://time.com/4181955/republican-debate-hillary-clinton-attacks/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election topic"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf1c9b45e956af7fe/69887950a988ca22a36b6239/gettyimages-473979902.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf1c9b45e956af7fe/69887950a988ca22a36b6239/gettyimages-473979902.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Hillary Clinton Campigns In Iowa, Meeting With Small Business Owners","caption":"Hillary Clinton was the subject of criticism at the Republican presidential debate on Thursday.","creditText":"Scott Olson—Getty Images","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/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4181955/republican-debate-hillary-clinton-attacks/","name":"GOP Candidates Target Hillary Clinton at Republican Debate"}}]}] ```