Fifth GOP presidential primary debate: on Principles & Values

Chris Christie: I'd rather lose by telling the truth than lie to win

Christie made the announcement at an event in New Hampshire, telling a group of less than 100 voters that he has been "in this race to tell the truth."

"If we want to change this party, and if we want to change this country, it's hard work. It's not easy," Christie said. "From the moment I got into the race, the decision that I made was really simple: I would rather lose by telling the truth than lie in order to win."

Donald Trump: Says "No time for retribution"; FactCheck: fundraises on it

Fact Check by Mediaite , 1/11/24: Trump's claim to be squarely focused on policy is questionable, given the fact that he has repeatedly declared himself the "retribution" of his supporters and threatened to weaponize the government against his political foes. Just hours before Trump's town hall, his campaign sent out a fundraising email that literally began with the proclamation "I AM YOUR RETRIBUTION!"

Donald Trump: I said I'm going to be a dictator for one day

Nikki Haley: Pardon Trump: he was the right President at the right time

For me, it's not about guilt or innocence. It's about what's in the best interest for the country. And I don't think our country will move forward with an 80-year -old president sitting in jail that allows our country to continue to be divided. I think pardoning Trump and moving on is in the best interest of our country if we're going to heal and if we're going to get back together, and get out of the chaos.

Nikki Haley: Show people how you're similar, not how you're different

Donald Trump: Questions Nikki Haley's eligibility for presidency

While Trump did not add any commentary to the post, it is not the first time he has tried to sow doubt about the legitimacy of a political opponent's right to serve in the White House. Trump rose to political prominence in part by pushing the false and racist claim that then-President Obama was not born in the U.S. During the 2016 GOP primary, he claimed Sen. Ted Cruz, one of his rivals at the time, was ineligible for the White House because he was born in Canada.

Donald Trump: Questions Kamala Harris' eligibility for vice-presidency

Trump was told about claims on "social media" that Harris might be ineligible to serve as president and vice president. He was then asked if he can definitively say that she meets the requirements. Trump referred to a lawyer who raised the issue, Chapman University professor John Eastman, as "very highly qualified."

Trump concluded his comments by saying, "I just heard about it, I'll take a look." Nonetheless, his just-asking-questions posture--which he also employed with his Obama birtherism--doesn't change the fact that he gave credence to the conspiracy theory by praising the author of the article, saying he had heard Harris is not eligible, and raising the possibility that Harris was not born in the US.

Donald Trump: Questions Ted Cruz's eligibility for presidency

Cruz, who was born in Canada to a US citizen mother and a noncitizen father, is definitely a US citizen. But is he a "natural-born citizen," as the Constitution requires?

When this question initially came up, when Cruz declared his candidacy for president (and then when Donald Trump started the whole "raising the question" thing earlier this month), the conventional wisdom among constitutional lawyers was that it was a non-issue: Cruz was obviously eligible. But the debate has heated up.

Here's the problem: The Constitution doesn't define "natural born Citizen." Neither does any current law. And no one has ever brought a court case to decisively settle the question.

Trump has taken to citing Laurence Tribe, who was Cruz's law professor at Harvard, now the leading scholar raising questions about Cruz's eligibility.