--- title: Republican Debate: Here Are the News Stories Mentioned description: Mostly about Donald Trump canonical: https://time.com/4238273/republican-debate-donald-trump-polish-workers-vicente-fox/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-26T04:17:03.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:46:28.385Z article:section: Politics og:title: Here Are the News Stories Mentioned at the GOP Debate og:description: The stories you may have missed. og:url: https://time.com/4238273/republican-debate-donald-trump-polish-workers-vicente-fox/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7a412bc21b2db723/69887f378e06014782464c87/presidential-candidates-donald-trump-marco-rubio-ted-cruz-john-kasich-ben-carson-04.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4112 og:image:height: 2313 og:image:alt: TIMEPOL GOP Debate Ben Carson, Marco Rubio, Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and John Kasich appear og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here Are the News Stories Mentioned at the GOP Debate twitter:description: The stories you may have missed. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7a412bc21b2db723/69887f378e06014782464c87/presidential-candidates-donald-trump-marco-rubio-ted-cruz-john-kasich-ben-carson-04.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here Are the News Stories Mentioned at the GOP 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. by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Feb 26, 2016 4:17 AM UTC  Republican presidential candidates, from left, Ben Carson, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Donald Trump, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich stand on stage at a GOP debate on Feb. 25, 2016 in Houston. Republican presidential candidates, from left, Ben Carson, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Donald Trump, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich stand on stage at a GOP debate on Feb. 25, 2016 in Houston. David J. Phillip—AP by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Feb 26, 2016 4:17 AM UTC 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,”_](http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-thorny-economics-of-illegal-immigration-1454984443)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,”_](http://time.com/4237744/vicente-fox-donald-trump-wall-mexico/) _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_](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/26/us/politics/donald-trump-taps-foreign-work-force-for-his-florida-club.html?%5Fr=0) article published on Thursday, but Rubio dug back deeper for this particular jab. --- > “” --- [_“Trump Says He Didn’t Know He Employed Illegal Aliens,”_](http://www.nytimes.com/1990/07/13/nyregion/trump-says-he-didn-t-know-he-employed-illegal-aliens.html)New York _Times, 7/13/1990_ [_“After 15 Years in Court, Workers’ Lawsuit Against Trump Faces Yet Another Delay,”_](http://www.nytimes.com/1998/06/14/nyregion/after-15-years-in-court-workers-lawsuit-against-trump-faces-yet-another-delay.html?pagewanted=all) 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,”_](http://time.com/4101290/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](http://goproject.gop.com/rnc%5Fgrowth%5Fopportunity%5Fbook%5F2013.pdf). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4238273/republican-debate-donald-trump-polish-workers-vicente-fox/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4238273/republican-debate-donald-trump-polish-workers-vicente-fox/"},"headline":"Here Are the News Stories Mentioned at the GOP Debate","datePublished":"2016-02-26T04:17:03.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:46:28.385Z","description":"From Trump University to Polish workers","url":"https://time.com/4238273/republican-debate-donald-trump-polish-workers-vicente-fox/","keywords":["Debates","2016 Election","Sen. Marco Rubio","ted cruz","Donald Trump","john kasich","Dr. Benjamin S. 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