GARY TUCHMAN: Anderson, we come to you from the NCH Heart
of Iowa, the geographic center, Story County,
Iowa, where we're going to tell you
the story of this Republican debate
from the vantage point of 15 loyal Story County Republicans,
all a member of the Story County Republican Club
or the Young Republicans of Iowa.
Thank you for letting us be here with you today
to watch the debate.
Thank you, everybody.
All right.
We watched all two hours very carefully.
The first question I want to ask all of you,
do you think this debate was good for the Republican Party?
Raise your hand if you do.
15 people.
It looks like 14, 13 raise their hand.
You two did not think it was good for the party?
- No.
GARY TUCHMAN: Why not, Jim?
- It brought up a lot more division and stuff.
But I still think it was worth--
it was worth the time. GARY TUCHMAN: OK.
You thought it was good for the party, though.
- Yes.
It was great for the party, great to have a conversation
with Iowans and people across the United States
to see who our next leader will be for the Republican Party.
GARY TUCHMAN: OK.
Of these 15 people, 14 say they're
still undecided at this point.
Jim, who we just talked to, is the only one who's not.
He says, he's ready to vote for Trump right now.
And here's what I want to ask you about who you thought did
the best during this debate.
Basically, who do you think won the debate?
I'm going to do it in alphabetical order to be fair.
Anyone think Doug Burgum did the best?
That's zero.
Anyone think Chris Christie did the best?
He certainly got most of the airtime--
a lot of the airtime, not most of the airtime.
How about Ron DeSantis?
How many of you think Ron DeSantis did the best?
That's two people.
How about Nikki Haley?
1, 2, 3, 4 people.
Asa Hutchinson?
Mike Pence?
Zero.
Vivek Ramaswamy?
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.
Tim Scott?
OK, so this panel here thinks Ramaswamy won the debate.
Tell me why you think he won the debate?
- I was reminded of the time when
Vivek was talking about the national identity situation.
And I know Pence brought up that that wasn't really an issue.
But I think it was a generational problem,
because Vivek understands that young folks don't
really understand that people my age don't really love America.
And if you don't love it, you can't protect it.
And I think if we fix that problem,
then people will, as a natural byproduct,
want to protect America and what it stands for.
GARY TUCHMAN: This guy sitting next to you
is the mayor of Nevada, the town that we're in this.
He's Bret Barker.
Mayor, you pick Nikki Haley.
She came in second place in our informal non-scientific poll
here.
Tell me why you think she did well?
BRETT BAKER: Well, I think out of all the candidates,
she really had moments that stood out.
I don't think she had moments that harmed her.
And she came across as poised and confident, prepared.
And I think out of the candidates,
I think she helped herself the most tonight.
GARY TUCHMAN: Chris Christie talked a lot.
He was anti-Trump.
Tell me why you didn't like what Chris Christie had to say.
- He was just argumentative pretty
much and out after Trump.
GARY TUCHMAN: You don't think there was any logic
to what he said, though?
- I think it was a lot of revenge.
GARY TUCHMAN: A lot of revenge.
OK.
What do you think any of you was the big moment of this debate?
Any of you have a big moment in mind?
This gentleman right here.
I'm going to walk over to you.
Excuse my reach, Jim.
Sorry about that.
- Well, for me, it was when DeSantis let Vivek
get to his right on Ukraine.
And if DeSantis, his whole goal here is to beat Trump,
he's going to have to meet Trump on that issue.
And so ultimately, if DeSantis is willing to do that, then
I see Vivek as the clear winner there.
GARY TUCHMAN: So does anyone here--
as I was saying 14 of you were undecided when this started.
Are any of you after one debate closer to saying,
I know who I'm going to vote for?
Raise your hand if you're a little bit closer.
This gentleman right here.
Tell me who you're closer to voting for or supporting
in the Iowa caucuses.
- There's a few.
Probably, Nikki Haley and Donald Trump.
And then also Vivek Ramaswamy.
I think that he kind of went in there
as a bulldog a little bit.
And I don't think that's a bad thing.
GARY TUCHMAN: Who else raised their hand about that?
This gentleman right here.
Once again, excuse me.
Who are you closer to supporting in the caucuses?
- So for me, I'm closer to Vivek.
I mean, just the more and more I've heard of this guy,
again I'm one of the people, I knew nothing about him,
didn't even know he existed, thought he had a funny name.
Then the more and more I've heard of this guy,
the more it's like, he has good opinions, he has good policies.
He says a lot of what he believes.
And he's willing to discuss that with people
if they disagree with him.
And I really respect that.
GARY TUCHMAN: Let me ask--
I mean, Chris Christie, Mike Pence had quibbles with him.
They thought he was a little programmed.
Does that mean anything to you that they said that?
- I don't know.
I feel like, Chris Christie, especially, is just
kind of there to be a human wrecking ball and just
kind of knock people out of the race.
GARY TUCHMAN: This gentleman was nodding his head.
Did you think so? - Oh, yeah.
I honestly didn't know too much about Vivek before.
I know he's flip-flopped on a couple issues thus far.
I appreciated him getting into it
with both Pence as well as Chris Christie,
because I thought they made him look kind of fake and kind
of just like he wants to go with whatever
the top polling issue is.
That's what he wants to do at the time.
GARY TUCHMAN: Final question for you,
and this man wasn't at the debate.
His name is Donald Trump.
So we wanted to devote most of our time
to the people who were at the debate.
But how many of you think Donald Trump hurt himself by not
being part of this debate?
Raise your hand, please.
1, 2, 3, 4.
How many of you think he helped himself
by not being at the debate?
Most of you.
Why do you think he helped himself?
And this is Deborah.
She's the leader of the young Republicans here,
the chapter here, the Iowa Young Republicans.
Tell me why you think he helped himself.
- I think he helped himself just because he wasn't able to say
anything that people would use against him
in the general election.
And he's able to run off his record
and not worry about being seen as bombastic or something
negative.
GARY TUCHMAN: Thank you, Deborah.
And thank you, all of you for talking to us.
We really appreciate watching this with you.