The Iowa Freedom Summit & Ag Summit (preparation for Iowa Caucus): on Homeland Security

Bernie Sanders: Rid our planet of this barbarous organization called ISIS

SANDERS: Together, leading the world, this country will rid our planet of this barbarous organization called ISIS.

O'MALLEY: ISIS, make no mistake about it, is an evil in this world.

Q [to Clinton]: Was ISIS underestimated? In 2014, the president referred to ISIS as the "J.V."

CLINTON: ISIS has developed [since 2014]. I think that there are many other reasons why it has in addition to what happened in the region, but I don't think that the United States has the bulk of the responsibility. I really put that on Assad and on the Iraqis and on the region itself.

SANDERS: She said the bulk of the responsibility is not ours. Well, in fact, I would argue that the disastrous invasion of Iraq, something that I strongly opposed, has unraveled the region completely and led to the rise of al-Qaeda and to ISIS.

Bernie Sanders: We spend billions on nuclear weapons & only 10% on terrorism

Gov. O'MALLEY: The nature of warfare has changed. This is a new era of conflict where traditional ways of huge standing armies do not serve our purposes as well as special ops & better intelligence.

Secretary CLINTON: We do have to take a hard look at the defense budget and we do have to figure out how we get ready to fight the adversaries of the future, not the past. But we have to also be very clear that we do have some continuing challenges.

Hillary Clinton: Adversaries of the future: terrorists as well as drone subs

Gov. O'MALLEY: This is a new era of conflict where traditional ways of huge standing armies do not serve our purposes as well as special ops, better intelligence and being more proactive.

Secretary CLINTON: We do have to take a hard look at the defense budget and we do have to figure out how we get ready to fight the adversaries of the future, not the past. But we have to also be very clear that we do have some continuing challenges. We've got challenges in the South China Sea because of what China is doing in building up military installations. We have problems with Russia: they allowed a TV camera to see the plans for a drone submarine that could carry a tactical nuclear weapon. So we've got to look at the full range and then come to some smart decisions about having more streamlined and focused approach.

Martin O`Malley: Nature of warfare has changed: focus on intel, not armies

Gov. O'MALLEY: The nature of warfare has changed. [The war on terror] is not a conflict where we send in the third divisions of Marines. This is a new era of conflict where traditional ways of huge standing armies do not serve our purposes as well as special ops, better intelligence and being more proactive.

Secretary CLINTON: We do have to take a hard look at the defense budget and we do have to figure out how we get ready to fight the adversaries of the future, not the past. But we have to also be very clear that we do have some continuing challenges.

Bernie Sanders: Cut defense by $18B to pay for 55% of all college tuition

Carly Fiorina: On Benghazi: I'm familiar with America's allies and enemies

Donald Trump: Defeat ISIS and stop Islamic terrorists

Trump said the country is in trouble and if he wins the presidency he would defeat ISIS and stop Islamic terrorists. He said he would reduce the federal budget deficit and build a fence on the nation's southern border to stop illegal immigration, adding, "I mean seriously securing" the border.

John Bolton: America is less secure now than we were six years ago

Americans expect that the president will alert them when there are threats and lay out a program to deal with those threats, but Barack Obama does not consider American national security a priority. He told us in 2008 that his top priority was to fundamentally transform the country, and national security is a distraction from that. I believe he is the first president, Republican or Democrat, since the attack on Pearl Harbor who does not wake up every morning and think, "What threats does America face today?"

The people saw happened last year, and they made Obama's national security failures critical in several key elections. I think the message was unambiguous.

Newt Gingrich: Threat of militant Islam is comparable to pre-WWII Nazis

"Almost 14 years after 9/11, the United States of America is losing the war with radical Islam and we need to have the courage to confront how badly we are losing this war," Gingrich said. He emphasized several times that Americans need to know that Islamic militants are prepared to cut off the heads of Americans if they do not convert to Islam. Unfortunately, President Barack Obama appears to have a "speech impediment" that prevents him from saying the words "radical Islam," Gingrich said. "You are not going to win this war if you can't tell the truth. You can't win if you don't call it a war," he said.

Sarah Palin: Muslim jihadists threaten our way of life

"We get honest on national security," Palin said. "We give hope to the people that we need not--we will not--succumb to evil, and we call it as it is, we address it. That must be, by the way, that 800-pound elephant in the room of the White House that the radical left won't even name--they won't even name the threat to our way of life today. We'll hit it, we'll name it."

"It is any Muslim who would choose evil, whose loyalty to a death-cult perversion is so darkened and has deceived their soul that they actually think they're welcome here to transform here. No. What we do is strengthen our military, we respect our troops and let them, our troops as our gatekeepers, we let them tell jihadists, 'Uh-uh, this is our house, get the hell out.' "