Donald Trump
Donald TrumpReuters

Billionaire and Republican presidential candidateDonald Trump criticized theAmerican governmentThursday night in a heated debate between candidates aired live on prime-time.

"Our politicians are stupid," Trump stated. "The Mexican government is much smarter, much sharper, much more cunning. And they send the bad ones over because they don’t want to pay for them. They don’t want to take care of them."

Trump also lashed back at criticism over his remarks vis-a-vis women, in which he called some women “fat pigs, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals.”

He claimed that he was "only [referring to] Rosie O' Donnell," then reflected on the issue itself.

"I think the big problem this country has is being politically correct," he retorted. "I don’t frankly have time for total political correctness. And to be honest with you, this country doesn’t have time either."

Cruz to cancel Obama

During the debate, Senator Ted Cruz spoke up about the Iranian nuclear deal and pledged to rescind it at the first possible opportunity.

"The first thing I intend to do is to rescind every illegal and unconstitutional executive action taken by Barack Obama," Cruz stated.

"The next thing I intend to do is instruct the Department of Justice to open an investigation into these videos and to prosecute Planned Parenthood for any criminal violations," he said, remarking on the scandal surrounding the state-funded organization whose officials were revealed discussing the sale of aborted fetuses.

Cruz said he also intends to "instruct the Department of Justice and the IRS to start (sic) persecuting religious liberty, and then intend to cancel the Iran deal, and finally move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem."

Bush calls Iraq war "a mistake"

Governor Jeb Bush broached the difficult subject of the US's war in Iraq, which his brother, former US President George W. Bush, began in 2003.

"Knowing what we know now, with faulty intelligence, and not having security be the first priority when - when we invaded, it was a mistake," Bush said.

Practically, however, the lessons learned from the Iraq war were not from George W. Bush, but from current US President Barack Obama, he said.

"Here’s the lesson that we should take from this, which relates to this whole subject; Barack Obama became president, and he abandoned Iraq," Bush said. "He left, and when he left Al Qaeda was done for. ISIS was created because of the void that we left, and that void now exists as a caliphate the size of Indiana."

"To honor the people that died, we need to — we need to — stop the Iran agreement, for sure, because the Iranian mullahs have their blood on their hands, and we need to take out ISIS with every tool at our disposal," he added.

Seventeen Republican presidential candidates spoke during the Fox News debate, including Trump, Cruz, Bush, Senator Rand Paul (R - KY), New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, Senator Marco Rubio (R - FL), Ohio Governor John Kasich, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, former Governor of Arkansas Mike Huckabee, former US Senator Rick Santorum, former Texas Governor Rick Perry, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, Senator Lindsay Graham (R - SC), Neurosurgeon Ben Carson, HP CEO Carly Fiorina, and Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore.