Haley spars with Republican rivals at 3rd primary debate as Trump still looms

Christie told a story about being appointed U.S. attorney in New Jersey on Sept. 10, 2011, and how one of his first big assignments was working to stop potential hate crimes on Jewish and Muslim residents.

“We stopped any hate crimes that were going on, either against Jewish Americans in New Jersey or Muslim Americans in New Jersey, Christie said.

The Asbury Park Press ran the numbers in 2016. Hate crimes did, in fact, drop.

Total reported hate crimes in 2010 numbered 775, the newspaper reported. The total number of hate crimes then dropped each year through 2015 -- from 606, to 553, 459, 373 and, finally, 367 in 2015.

Religiously motivated hate crimes also trended downward until 2015. That year they increased nearly 10% in New Jersey.

-Analysis by Aaron Sharockman of PolitiFact

Haley said the country needs to "soul search" when asked what she would say to Americans who are afraid in this current environment, as the candidates discussed concerns over antisemitism and Islamophobia amid the Israel-Hamas war.

She said she is angered that Jewish students are feeling afraid on college campuses.

She said Americans should not be celebrating terrorists, genocide or "violence toward anybody."

"We need to go back and soul search in our country and remember what we are about. And we are about taking care of people, not going and making them live in fear," she said.

-ABC News' Meredith Deliso

Some candidates were asked how far they'd go in responding to Iran given what the Pentagon has called recent attacks by Iranian-backed proxy groups on U.S. military bases in Syria and Iraq.

Haley said the U.S. needs to take out the infrastructure used to launch those attacks, arguing Iran responds to "strength."

"You punch them once, you punch them hard, and they will back off," she said.

DeSantis warned of reprisals against Iran if American service members are harmed.

"I would say you: You harm a hair on the head of an American service member and you are going to have hell to pay," he said.

-ABC News' Alexandra Hutzler

Scott and DeSantis threatened to deport students who voice support for Hamas as experts have said antisemitism is on the rise.

"To every student who've come to our country on a visa to a college campus, your visa is a privilege, not a right," Scott said. "To all the students on visas who are encouraging Jewish genocide, I would deport you from those campuses."

"I was the first presidential candidate to say, 'If you are here on a student visa as a foreign national, you're making common cause with Hamas, I'm canceling your visa, and I'm sending you home, no questions asked,'" DeSantis said.

Haley also went after college administrators for what she said was insufficient action to protect Jewish students.

"No person should ever feel in danger like this. And this is what I would say about our college presidents, is if the KKK were doing this, every college president would be up in arms."

Some of the demonstrations seen in the U.S. have been in support of the Palestinian people living in the Gaza and West Bank territories. U.S. officials have repeatedly said that the terror group Hamas is not representative of all Palestinians.

-ABC News' Tal Axelrod