The judgment that every voter is making of every one of us [running for presidency] who has the experience, who has the vision, who has the judgment to be commander in chief. That is the most important decision for the voters to make. That's a standard I'm held to. And it's a standard everyone else is held to.

We will stop the terrorist attacks before they occur because we will not be prisoners to political correctness. Rather, we will speak the truth. Border security is national security and we will not be admitting jihadists as refugees.

I treat him [Donald Trump] as an entertainer. I laugh it off. It's like going to the circus and seeing the acrobats and the dancing bears. He's willing to say things that are patently false.

The only way to win the war is to move people's hearts and minds.

I think too many politicians are not listening to the men and women they represent, and if we're going to change the path America is on, we have got to be fighting for policies not that benefit the giant corporations and the banks and the special interests and the lobbyists, which is what Washington focuses on every day, but instead every policy needs to focus on the working men and women, the truck drivers and the steelworkers, and the young people.

I'm the son of a pastor and evangelist and I've described many times how my father, when I was a child, was an alcoholic. He was not a Christian. And my father left my mother and left me when I was just three years old. And someone invited him to Clay Road Baptist Church. And he gave his heart to Jesus and it turned him around. And he got on a plane and he flew back to my mother and me.

I am perfectly happy to compromise whether it's with Democrats or anybody else, as long as we're reducing the size of government.