Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/gop-candidates-debate-in-iowa-in-pre-caucus-push Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript The wide field of Republican presidential candidates sparred on the issues in a debate Wednesday, the last such meeting in Iowa before the state's Jan. 3 caucus. Kwame Holman reports on the highlights of the debate. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. GWEN IFILL: Next, the Republicans' matinee meeting in Iowa. NewsHour correspondent Kwame Holman has that. KWAME HOLMAN: The political dynamics in Iowa preceding this afternoon's debate had shifted in recent days, with polls now showing Mike Huckabee as the frontrunner, a position Mitt Romney had held since campaigning began.Carolyn Washburn, editor of the Des Moines Register and the sole questioner, announced she would stay away from Iraq and immigration as issues, but asked about the deficit as a threat to national security. CAROLYN WASHBURN, Editor, Des Moines Register: Do you agree our country's financial situation creates a security risk? And why or why not? KWAME HOLMAN: Most, like former Governor Huckabee, agreed it did.FORMER GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE (R), Arkansas: It's most certainly a national security threat, because a country can only be free if it can do three things. First, it has to be able to feed itself. It has to be able to put food on the table for its own citizens.Secondly, it's got to be able to fuel itself. If it looks to somebody else for its energy needs, it's only as free as those are willing for it to be.And it also has to be able to fight for itself. It's got to be able to manufacture its own weapons of defense, tanks, airplanes, bullets and bombs. When we start outsourcing everything and we're in that kind of a trade deficit, then just remember who feeds us, who fuels us, and who helps us to fight. That's to whom we are enslaved. KWAME HOLMAN: California Congressman Duncan Hunter.REP. DUNCAN HUNTER (R), California: The trade loss this year is going to be $800 billion. It's going to be $200 billion to Communist China, which is rapidly becoming our banker. And there's an old saying, "You don't want to have a banker who doesn't have your best interests at heart." KWAME HOLMAN: And Texas Congressman Ron Paul.REP. RON PAUL (R), Texas: It's absolutely a threat to our national security, because we've spent too much, we taxed too much, we borrowed too much, and we print too much. When a country spends way beyond its means, eventually it will destroy the currency. And we're in the midst of a currency crisis.