GOP Rivals Gearing up for Debate Showdown
BANFIELD: Tonight's GOP presidential debate is supposed to be about the economy, but some bizarre pre-debate statements by the candidates might just be altering the scripts as we speak right now regarding what you're going to hear tonight live. First, Donald Trump, who is taking every chance that he can to attack fellow frontrunner Ben Carson, about the allegations that he has effectively redeemed himself after what he says was a very violent childhood. Listen to what Trump said.</s>DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You stab somebody, and the newspapers say you didn't do it. And you said, yes, I did. I did it. No, you didn't. Yes, I did. I stabbed him and it hit the belt. And they said you didn't do it. If they said I didn't do it, I'd be so happy.</s>BANFIELD: It is kind of weird, isn't it? Sort of upside down this year. And then there's this from Jeb Bush, who was asked about, of all things, Adolf Hitler. Have a look.</s>JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Said if you could go back in time and kill baby Hitter, would you? I need to know.</s>BUSH: Hell, yeah, I would.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Even if he was really cute?</s>BUSH: No, look, you've got to - you've got to - you've got to step up, man.</s>BANFIELD: I think it's supposed to be tongue and cheek, but who knows. Tonight's debate in Milwaukee is going to be the fourth time these candidates have gone head and head, but take a look at the list right there. Only eight of them are going to be taking part on the main stage this time, not the whole pack. I want to bring in CNN's senior media correspondent Brian Stelter, who is live at the debate site. So many questions to ask. I was sort of wanting to ask you about the moderators, you know, getting out their Kevlar and getting ready for tonight, but I need to ask you about these other things as well because this is a Fox Business debate and, yes, you would think this is going to be all about the money and all about the economy, but there's such strangeness going on right now. Where do you expect this debate to begin and ultimately end?</s>BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's starting to get a little bit busy here, even though there's many hours to go before the debate tonight. I do think what we're going to see is a tone set at the beginning about the economy, about business issues. But we'll see where the candidates end up taking this. The candidates might be more interested, at least some of them, in talking about their rivals, about attacking each other personally, rather than talking about business and economic ideas. You know, I talked to one of the moderators, Maria Bartiromo, and she said she wants to make sure viewers come away with more understanding about the differences between policies. What we've seen in prior debates is that it becomes much more about personality, it becomes about what Donald Trump says about his rivals, how they respond, et cetera. And the debate rules give people more time to respond, 90 seconds to answer questions and then 60 seconds if they are attacked or if they are talked about. So there's more time for the candidates to either talk about policy or, you know, talk about those issues we were just hearing about. I do think, Ashleigh, this will be a Hitler-free debate though.</s>BANFIELD: That's such a weird question, right, you know? All right, so let me ask you a little bit about the - the suggestions on how that - format is one thing where you give a certain amount of time for responses, but then there's also the notion that you can set up questions to have candidates respond to each other directly, or answer to each other or defending each other or not.</s>STELTER: Yes.</s>BANFIELD: Have they - have these moderators given any clues as to what they plan to do to mix it up a little?</s>STELTER: Well, for one thing, they want it to be the anti-CNBC debate. They want to draw a sharp contrast to their rival business channel, CNBC, since that debate was so poor reviewed two weeks ago. We will see some encouragement of actual debate the way we saw at CNN's debate back in September. You know, it feels like there's been so many debates, Ashleigh, even though there's only been four, but that's because CNBC's debate was only two weeks ago. What's so significant about tonight is that there's not a debate on the calendar for five weeks. So if you don't stand out tonight, if you're a candidate who's not doing well and you don't have a good night tonight, that could be trouble for you for weeks to come. That's something I think we're going to be paying close attention to. The fact that there's eight candidates as opposed to 10 will make a real difference because people will have more time to talk. And then, keep in mind, at the junior varsity debate, there are four candidates speaking earlier in the night, but so far we haven't really ever seen a candidate come out and impress people at those debates. You know, Carly Fiorina did and she made it onto the main stage later, but now people aren't really talking about her. She's barely on the stage tonight. And, of course, Lindsey Graham was the appointed winner of the last undercard debate and he didn't even make the cut for the undercard debate tonight. So we'll see if Chris Christie has a better chance than Lindsey Graham did last time.</s>BANFIELD: Did you say five weeks until the next Republican debate? Is that what you said?</s>STELTER: Five weeks, 35 days. It's Wolf Blitzer's debate here on CNN in mid-December.</s>BANFIELD: What are we going to do?</s>STELTER: So after this one, it's going to be a while.</s>BANFIELD: Yes, that's going to be tough. Thank you for that. I have just the answer. Thanks, Brian Stelter.</s>STELTER: Thanks.</s>BANFIELD: By the way, CNN's got some great post debate coverage starting at 11:00 with that guy, my colleague. Anderson Cooper's going to wrap up all the highlights. So if you don't catch the debate, catch Anderson. He'll give you all the high points, low points, everything else. Coming up next hour, we're also going to hear from Republican Party Chairman Reince Priebus. That should be interesting as well given all of the kerfuffle over debate strategies and who's going to be there and who wasn't going to be there right after the last one. And then you heard what Brian said, you've got to wait five weeks for the next one if you miss tonight's, or - or if you're that keen on debates, the next Democrats' next debate is Saturday night, this Saturday in Iowa. So make your plans, get your babysitter. And all of this just as a new poll is coming out today in a key southern state, South Carolina. It shows that Hillary Clinton is holding a commanding lead in that state. Among Democrats, a Monmouth University poll has Secretary Clinton with 69 percent of the vote. Senator Sanders is coming in at 21 percent of the vote. Martin O'Malley coming in at 1 percent of the vote there. The strength is coming from Clinton's huge dominance of the black Democratic voter demo. Among those black voters, Clinton has 77 percent to Sanders' 12 percent. She also has a double-digit lead among white Democrats as well. Coming up next, a funeral this hour that should not be happening because the little boy is just nine years old who's being remembered. He's the victim of a crime that Chicago's police superintendent says is the most cowardly act he's ever seen.