Fourth GOP presidential primary debate: on Families & Children

Chris Christie: Less government control over parenting choices

Christie: No, because Republicans believe in less government, not more. I trust parents.

Q: When you were governor in 2017, you signed a law that required new guidelines for schools dealing with transgender students: to accept a child's preferred gender identity even if the minor's parents objected. It said that there is no duty for schools to notify parents if their son or daughter changes their gender identity. How is any of that pro-parental rights?

Christie: That's simply not true. That law was put into effect in 2018 after I was out of office. I stood up every single time for parents to be able to make the decisions for their minor children. And you know what? Every once in a while parents are going to make decisions that we disagree with, but the minute you start to take those rights away from parents, you don't know that slippery slope, what rights are going to be taken away next.

Nikki Haley: Must be 18 to change your gender

Gov. Nikki Haley: Ron continues to lie about my record. I actually said his "Don't Say Gay" bill didn't go far enough because it only talked about gender until the third grade and I said it shouldn't be done at all that, that's for parents to talk about.

DeSantis: It wasn't about the parents' rights and education bill. It was about prohibiting sex change operations on minors. They do puberty blockers, these are irreversible. That is what Nikki Haley opposed. She said the law shouldn't get involved in that.

Haley: If you have to be 18 to get a tattoo, you should have to be 18 to have anything done to change your gender.

Nikki Haley: Private bathrooms instead of transgender girls' bathroom

Nikki Haley: When I was governor, 10 years ago when the bathroom situation came up, we had maybe a handful of kids that were dealing with an issue and I said we don't need to bring government into this, but boys go into boys' bathrooms, girls go into girls' bathrooms and if anyone else has an issue, they use a private bathroom. Now 10 years later we see that this issue has exploded and this shows how hypocritical Ron continues to be. When he was running for governor and they asked him about that, he said he didn't think bathroom bills were a good use of his time.

Ron DeSantis: I signed a bathroom bill in Florida, so that's obviously not true. I signed it, you didn't. You killed it.

Ron DeSantis: Sex change operations in teens is gender mutilation

Gov. Nikki Haley: I actually said his "Don't Say Gay" bill didn't go far enough because it only talked about gender until the third grade and I said it shouldn't be done at all that, that's for parents to talk about.

Ron DeSantis: Disallow men from going into little girls' bathrooms

Nikki Haley: When I was governor, I said boys go into boys' bathrooms, girls go into girls' bathrooms and if anyone else has an issue, they use a private bathroom. When Ron was running for governor, he said he didn't think bathroom bills were a good use of his time.

Ron DeSantis: I signed a bathroom bill in Florida, so that's obviously not true. I signed it, you didn't. You killed it. I signed it. I stood up for little girls.

Vivek Ramaswamy: Transgenderism is a mental health disorder

Chris Christie: No, because Republicans believe in less government, not more. I trust parents.

Ron DeSantis: I signed legislation in Florida banning the mutilation of minors because [transgender surgery on minors] is wrong.

Vivek Ramaswamy: I think the north star here is transgenderism is a mental health disorder. We don't let you smoke a cigarette by the age of 18. We don't let you have an addictive drink of alcohol by the age of 21. I just challenged Ron DeSantis to go one step further and support what I think is clearly within the authority to do using federal funds just like Reagan did in '84 for the Highway Act that said the minimum drinking age needs to be 21. We can do the same thing when it comes to banning genital mutilation or chemical castration. I know Ron's been unclear about on the federal level. I'm crystal clear. That's where I stand. That's a mental health disorder. That's where we need to be at.