CNN Republican Town Hall offers calmer venue to discuss issues

Greenville voters asked Republican presidential candidates policy questions at the first of two CNN Town Hall events. Wednesday's town hall featured neurosurgeon Ben Carson, Sen. Marco Rubio and Sen. Ted Cruz taking largely friendly questions from Upstate Republican voters, many undecided.

Rubio and Cruz, who have been in a dead heat in some South Carolina polls, rebuked each other for calling the other a liar. Rubio said he had to correct Cruz, who said Rubio's campaign relied on fabrications, in order to protect the integrity of his record.

"I said he's been lying because if you say something that isn't true and you say it over and over again and you know that it's not true, there's no other word for it," Rubio said. "And when it's about your record, you have to clear it up, because if you don't, then people say, well, then it must be true.  He didn't dispute it."

Cruz, too, said the calls of "liar" came from the need to clarify candidates' records, saying Rubio's stance on immigration policy had changed over his career and that Donald Trump had previously supported abortion rights.

"Truth matters, and for Donald Trump and Marco Rubio to yell 'liar' doesn't change that," Cruz said.

Moderator and CNN Anchor Anderson Cooper led candidates' sessions on stage with the news of the day, asking whether they would nominate a Supreme Court justice in the last year of their term, as President Barack Obama plans to do in light of the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. Carson said he would, while Rubio said he would not. Rubio and Cruz both said no Supreme Court justice had been confirmed in the last year of a president's term in the last 80 years, which is incorrect. Justice Anthony Kennedy was nominated in November 1987 and confirmed in February 1988, which was President Ronald Reagan's last calendar year in office.

Cooper also asked candidates whether they as president would ask Apple to allow a "back door" into iPhone software that would allow the FBI to break through encryption of the phones' data for criminal investigations. Carson said people worried about government access to their data should "get over it" for the sake of national security, and Rubio said the government and technology companies must work together to find a solution that protects data while allowing law enforcement to access it. Cruz said Apple should create the "back door" for the government to access the data in specific cases of criminal investigations.

Cooper also asked Cruz and Rubio, both of Cuban descent, whether they would visit Cuba as president. Both said they would not visit Cuba while it was under the control of President Raul Castro, and criticized President Barack Obama for plans to visit the country next month. Cruz's father and Rubio's parents fled Cuba when it was under the rule of President Fidel Castro.

Cruz more calmly addressed a cease and desist letter he had received from Donald Trump over an attack ad than he did in a Seneca press conference earlier in the day.The Texas senator attacked Trump on his record on abortion, which the ad focused on, noting that the New York businessman said Planned Parenthood did "wonderful things" in Saturday's Republican debate.

The questions, delivered by Greenville residents, Furman and Clemson students and Cooper, often allowed the candidates to easily transition into their stump speeches. When asked by a Furman senior about college affordability, Rubio recited a hypothetical anecdote about a single mother working as a receptionist that he had also used at the Heritage Action Forum in Greenville in September. Carson, when asked if he is qualified to be commander-in-chief without any governing experience, said he'd probably gotten more 2 a.m. phone calls than any other candidate, a popular line in the retired neurosurgeon's campaign. Cruz, when asked about his plans to support veterans and active duty military, launched into his plan to increase the size of the armed forces.