Best Lines of the 10th Republican Debate

GOP candidates duked it out in the Lone Star State and here are the best lines.

ByABC News
February 25, 2016, 12:00 AM

— -- The five remaining Republican presidential candidates duked it out in the Lone Star State one last time before Super Tuesday.

In a debate hosted by CNN, Telemundo and Salem Radio in Houston, Texas, Marco Rubio's gloves came off as he went head-to-head with New York real estate developer Donald Trump.

Texas' very own Sen. Ted Cruz didn't hold back the jabs, either.

Here are the best lines of the debate:

ON IMMIGRATION

DONALD TRUMP: "We have at least 11 million people in this country that came in illegally. They will go out. They will come back, some will come back, the best."

TED CRUZ: "The people that get forgotten in this debate over immigration are the hard-working men and women of this country. Millions of Americans that are losing their jobs, millions of legal immigrants that are losing their jobs or seeing their wages driven down."

Marco Rubio fired back at Trump, saying, “If you're going to claim that you're the only one that lifted this [immigration] into the campaign, that you acknowledge that, for example, you're the only person on this stage that's ever been fined for hiring people to work on your projects illegally.”

Trump responded, “I’m the only one on the stage that’s hired people. I've hired tens of thousands of people over my job. You've hired nobody. You've had nothing but problems with your credit cards."

"Marco is exactly right,” Cruz added, “a federal court found Donald guilty of being part of a conspiracy to hire people illegally and entered a $1 million judgment against him.”

“I find it amazing Donald believes that he is the one who discovered the issue of illegal immigration,” Cruz continued.

ON VICENTE FOX’S COMMENT

DONALD TRUMP: “The wall just got 10 feet taller, believe me.”

He added: "This guy used a filthy, disgusting word on television and he should be ashamed of himself and he should apologize, OK?"

In an interview with Univision's Jorge Ramos, former Mexican President Vicente Fox had responded to Trump's proposal to build a wall on Mexico's dime saying, "I’m not going to pay for that f****** wall! He should pay for it. He’s got the money," Fox said Thursday.

Trump continued, "Now, the wall is $10 billion to $12 billion, if I do it. If these guys do it, it will end up costing $200 billion. But the wall is $10 billion to $12 billion.”

Rubio responded, "If he builds the wall the way he built Trump Towers, he'll be using illegal immigrant labor to do it.”

Trump fired back, "So cute. Such a cute sound bite."

"You don't know a thing about business," Trump went on.

Said Rubio: "Here's the guy that inherited $200 million. If he hadn't inherited $200 million, you know where Donald Trump would be right now, selling watches.”

ON HISPANICS FEELING 'UNWANTED'

TED CRUZ: "The media have a definition of Hispanics that you could only be Hispanic if you're liberal."

MARCO RUBIO: "It is extraordinary that out of the five people standing on this stage, that two of us are the children of Cuban immigrants. It really is an embodiment of the incredible opportunity and promise this nation provides."

ON APPOINTING A SUPREME COURT JUSTICE

TED CRUZ: “I give you my word, every justice I nominate will vigorously defend the Bill of Rights for my children and for yours.”

BEN CARSON: “The fruit salad of their life is what I will look at.”

ON SAME-SEX MARRIAGE

JOHN KASICH: “The court has ruled and I've moved on.”

ON OBAMACARE

"Now he's repeating himself," Rubio joked about Trump explaining his health care plan.

TRUMP: "No, I'm not -- no, no, no, no."

"No, no, no," Trump continued. "I don't repeat myself. I don't repeat myself."

Rubio quipped, "You don't repeat yourself?"

"Here's the guy who repeats himself. I don't," the real estate mogul insisted.

To which Rubio responded, "you repeat yourself every day."

"Talking about repeating. I watched him repeat himself five times four weeks ago," Trump argued.

"I saw you repeat yourself five times four seconds ago," Rubio said, mocking Trump. "He says five things: everyone's dumb, he's going to make America great again. Win, win, win. He's winning in the polls. And the lines around the states. Every night."

ON TAX RETURNS

DONALD TRUMP: “I was the first one to file a financial disclosure form, almost 100 pages. I filed it on time. I didn't ask for five 40-day extensions, which I would have been entitled to. That's how you find out what kind of company. You don't letter anything from a tax return.”

The 2012 Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, has requested GOP presidential candidates release their old tax returns.

“I think we have good reason to believe that there's a bombshell in Donald Trump's taxes,” Romney said in an interview with Fox News’ Neil Cavuto Wednesday. “Either he's not anywhere near as wealthy as he says he is or he hasn't been paying the kind of taxes we would expect him to pay, or perhaps he hasn't been giving money to the vets or to the disabled like he's been telling us he's been doing.”

Trump then hit moderator Hugh Hewitt. “First of all, very few people listen to your radio show,” Trump said when Hewitt reminded Trump he would release his tax returns on Hewitt's radio show.

“I want to release my tax returns but I can't release it while I'm under an audit. We're under a routine audit. Obviously, if I'm being audited, I'm not going to release the return. As soon as the audit is done, I love it,” Trump continued.

ON HILLARY CLINTON

“You're not beating Hillary," Cruz said to Trump.

“Hey, if I can't beat her, you're really going to get killed, aren't you?” Trump hit back.

ON FOREIGN POLICY

“He thinks the Palestinians are a real estate deal. The Palestinians are not a real estate deal,” Rubio said of Trump’s citing negotiation skills to handle the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

“A deal is a deal,” Trump said.

“A deal is not a deal when you're dealing with terrorists,” Rubio said.

“You are not a negotiator. You are not a negotiator. And with your thinking, you will never bring peace. You will never bring peace,” Trump repeated.

Rubio reiterated, “Donald might able to build condos in the Palestinian areas, but this is not a real estate deal.”

DONALD TRUMP: "We would have been better off if the politicians took a day off instead of going to war."

"Can somebody attack me please," Carson interjected.

ON THE FEDERAL GOVT AND APPLE DISPUTE

MARCO RUBIO: "Apple doesn't want to do it because they think it hurts their brand. Their brand is not superior to the national security of the United States of America. Apple doesn't have a right to defy a valid court order in a terrorism investigation."

BEN CARSON: "I think allowing terrorists to get away with things is bad for America."