LIVE BLOG: GOP contenders take stage for last time before Super Tuesday

Hello friends! We are trying something new — using Medium to live blog what’s going on tonight at the CNN GOP debate in Houston. Keep your eyes here and hit us up in the responses if you have questions or thoughts or want us to look into something.

We have the talk time from the GOP debate tonight. This is a huge margin of difference for Trump. I wish somebody had measured how much time the candidates spent talking all at once.

Rubio, Cruz and Carson asserted that Apple should help the Justice Department, and unlock the iPhone involved in the San Bernardino attacks. It’s one moment I wish Rand Paul was there to push back.

Rubio takes a clear shot at Trump without saying his name — requests an end to the “looniness” and “silliness” in his closing statement.

Cruz, Trump and Rubio just spent several minutes talking over each other. It was difficult to understand what any of them said, but none of them can look like they’re backing down at this stage of the race. I did hear Trump call Cruz a “basket case” and Cruz told Trump to “relax.”

Trump also said he’s having fun tonight. This has certainly been the most animated and confrontational debate so far.

Speaking of feeling left out…

“Can somebody attack me please?” — Ben Carson

That got the most laughs of the night in our newsroom.

Carson’s request came on the heels of Trump calling Rubio a “choke master” and Cruz a “liar.”

Mitt Romney tweeted this tonight in response to Trump saying he won’t release his tax returns because he’s being audited:

Earlier today Romney claimed there’s likely to be a “bombshell” in Trump’s tax returns.

It’s not clear why Romney is getting involved — he got a lot of crap in 2012 about disclosing his own returns. But I suspect GOP establishment operatives are putting the pressure on every big name in their camp to do what they can to stop Trump.

Cruz’s tactic against Trump tonight isn’t to get in screaming fights like we’re seeing Rubio do — it’s trying to align him with Hillary Clinton, and pointing to polls that say he would lose to her in the general election. This is Cruz’s continual theme: that he’s the real conservative in the race.

Though general election polls don’t mean much at this stage, they have Hillary winning over Trump, Cruz and Rubio. The only one she loses to in these projections is John Kasich.

Our fact check on Trump’s assertion that millions and millions of women benefit from Planned Parenthood each year. Looks like he’s right on:

Blitzer asks Trump for specifics on how he will pay for his tax plans.

“Waste, fraud and abuse. We will cut so much your head will spin,” he replies.

Thanks for the detail Donald. As the front-runner it’s crazy he can get away with not answering questions.

The focus has shifted to healthcare — particularly how much everybody hates Obamacare. But as FiveThirtyEight points out, in a recent poll only 6% of Republicans say it’s the top issue for them when choosing a president. The economy is far more important to people in this cycle.

Rubio is doing what I hoped the moderators would do — demanding Trump tell us his actual policies. What is your plan [on Obamacare]??

Trump responds with a quick personal attack on Rubio about how he fell apart on stage with Chris Christie.

Of his plan Trump says: “You’ll have so much competition. They’ll compete and it’ll be a beautiful thing.”

Rubio says now it’s Trump who is repeating himself. He is having a great time. Rubio’s getting huge cheers and smiling a lot. It’s a good night for him. He’s acting like he has nothing to lose.

Major search spike after Rubio-Trump squabble over self-deportation earlier in the debate. If you’re wondering what it is — self-deportation basically means making immigrants so uncomfortable in the U.S. that they leave on their own without officials actually deporting them. The term got Mitt Romney in big trouble back in 2012.

Some humor for you about Trump’s colorful language tonight:

Moderators served up a lob for Cruz to go after Trump about whether he could pick a good conservative Supreme Court justice. But Cruz dodged, turning back to who he would pick. I’m surprised Cruz isn’t being more aggressive tonight.

Telemundo anchor Maria Celeste Arras: “A brand new Telemundo poll said 3 out of 4 Hispanics that vote nationwide have a negative view of you. Does that make you unelectable?”

“I don’t believe anything Telemundo says. I currently employ thousands of Hispanics.”

That’s one poll Trump doesn’t want to hear about.

Here’s more information about what Rubio and Trump were arguing about:

All the questions in the first 45 minutes have been about immigration, which isn’t suprising since Telemundo is co-hosting. But it’s super refreshing to see so much focus on this issue nonetheless.

Rubio is sassier tonight than we’ve ever seen him! It’s making for some interesting television and is ensuring that he dominates airtime.

Wolf Blitzer pushes Trump on one of his favorite refrains — that he will build a wall and that Mexico will pay for it.

Blitzer quotes the former Mexican president Vicente Fox saying today: “I’m not going to pay for that f#%$ing wall.”

Trump’s response: “The wall just got 10 feet taller.”

Trump thinks Fox, like everybody else, should apologize.

Kasich gets a turn on immigration and resists attacking the other candidates. He said he favors a guest worker program and a path to legalization (but not to citizenship)

“Let’s be practical, let’s start solving problems in this country.” — Kasich

Rubio brings up the New York Times article that brought up how Donald Trump hired foreign workers for one of his clubs in Florida, rather than giving those jobs to Americans.

From the article:

“In his quest for the Republican presidential nomination, Mr. Trump has stoked his crowds by promising to bring back jobs that have been snatched by illegal immigrants or outsourced by corporations, and voters worried about immigration have been his strongest backers.

But he has also pursued more than 500 visas for foreign workers at Mar-a-Lago since 2010, according to the United States Department of Labor, while hundreds of domestic applicants failed to get the same jobs.”

Tonight he defended himself saying:

“You could not get help. They were seasonal. They were part-time jobs. We neeeded them or we might as well close the doors in that hot, hot section of Florida.”

He also told Rubio to be quiet, and said he’s the only one on stage who has hired anybody. It was a good shot from Rubio, though admittedly, the New York Times did the real legwork.

“Our borders are like swiss cheese…everybody pours in.” — Donald Trump

The Donald definitely did not go with positivity. As per usual, his opening focused on how much America loses and how with him, it will stop losing. Hope the moderators push him on his policies and see if he can come up with anything substantive.

Kasich going for young people, and optimism in his opening statments — trying to distance himself from the negativity and fear-mongering that has dominated the GOP campaigns.

Rubio also trying to start out with a message of “hope.” We’ll see how long this positivity lasts tonight…

Stakes are high for the debate tonight — especially for everybody not named Donald Trump. With three straight victories, a positive forecast in many of the states voting Tuesday and a strong delegate lead, this race is Trump’s to lose. We might see the other candidates get more aggro on him than we’ve previously seen.

And without Jebby to beat up on, it will be interesting to see if Trump picks a new target.

The score after Tuesday’s Nevada caucus: