page_title: 2016 Republican Party presidential debates and forums
section_title: December 15, 2015 – Las Vegas, Nevada
hierarchical_section_title: 2016 Republican Party presidential debates and forums / Presidential debates / December 15, 2015 – Las Vegas, Nevada
caption_attribution_description: English: GOPdebate "spinroom" from VOA reporter Elizabeth Lee. #VOAAlert
context_page_description: The twelve Republican presidential debates, and the nine forums, were a series of political debates held between the candidates for the Republican Party's nomination for the 2016 United States presidential election.
context_section_description: The fifth debate was held on December 15, 2015, at the Venetian Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada.  It was the second debate to air on CNN, and was also broadcast by Salem Radio. The debate was moderated solely by Wolf Blitzer with Dana Bash and Hugh Hewitt serving alongside as questioners.
  The debate was split into primetime and pre-primetime groups based on averaged polling numbers; in order to participate in the main debate, candidates had to meet one of three criteria in polls conducted between October 29 and December 13 which were recognized by CNN—either an average of at least 3.5% nationally, or at least 4% in either Iowa or New Hampshire. The secondary debate featured candidates that had reached at least 1% in four separate national, Iowa, or New Hampshire polls that are recognized by CNN. Paul was included in the main debate after not qualifying under the original rules because he received 5% support in Iowa in a Fox News poll.
  The debate lineup was announced on December 13 to include Trump, Cruz, Rubio, Carson, Bush, Fiorina, Christie, Paul, and Kasich in the primetime debate, and Huckabee, Santorum, Graham, and Pataki in the undercard debate. Commentators suggested that the key confrontation would be between Trump and Cruz, based on their respective polling in Iowa.
  Eighteen million people watched the debate, making it the third-largest audience ever for a presidential primary debate. During the debate, the audible coughing was attributed to Ben Carson. His campaign admitted that they all got sick a month prior and Carson had kept the cough for weeks. The cough was "almost gone" and Carson was not really sick at the time. Notable exchanges included Trump vs Bush on foreign policy as well as the formers proposed Muslim ban, Paul vs Rubio on the NSA and immigration, as well as Cruz vs Rubio on the NSA metadata program, foreign policy, and immigration.
  The undercard debate was the fourth and final debate appearance of Senator Lindsey Graham and former Governor George Pataki, who suspended their campaigns on December 21 and December 29, respectively.
caption: Spin room at the Las Vegas debate
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