CNN GOP Town Hall Live Updates: Trump, Cruz And Kasich Take Voter Questions In Wisconsin

UPDATE: 11:01 p.m. EDT — Ohio Gov. John Kasich and moderator Anderson Cooper rounded out the CNN town hall for Republican presidential candidates Tuesday night by discussing the White House hopeful's would-be vice president. Kasich said it was too early in the process to name anyone.

"You want to pick somebody who you're comfortable with and who understands what you're all about and somebody who's not afraid to speak up to you," he said, joking with the Wisconsin crowd that he might select Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

Kasich also told Cooper he wasn't involved in any sort of effort to link up with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz to defeat GOP front-runner Donald Trump, who has 736 of the 1,237 delegates needed to nab the party's nomination.

UPDATE: 10:47 p.m. EDT — You can always count on Twitter to bring the jokes to any political event. Ohio Gov. John Kasich attended the Tuesday CNN town hall event for Republican candidates wearing a suit that appeared to have a different colored jacket and pants, and social media wasted no time calling him out.

UPDATE: 10:38 p.m. EDT — Speaking at a CNN town hall event for Republican presidential candidates Tuesday night, Ohio Gov. John Kasich said he thought the United States had to be responsible for European security because the U.S. is a leader and "we have to work together as a society."

"We don't want to have those relationships deteriorate or be eliminated. You know why? Because it hurts us too," he said. "We should always tell them 'you've got to do well' and we should use whatever leverage we have to get them to do more, but we always carry more of the share of the burden than we would like."

Kasich went on to suggest that the U.S. arm the Ukrainians opposing Russian President Vladimir Putin.

UPDATE: 10:23 p.m. EDT — Ohio Gov. John Kasich suggested a path to legalization, not necessarily citizenship, for undocumented immigrants at the CNN town hall event Tuesday night for Republican presidential candidates. Kasich said he wanted to secure the border and then create a guest worker program for immigrants "so they can come in and go back home."

UPDATE: 10:12 p.m. EDT — Ohio Gov. John Kasich told CNN host Anderson Cooper he was still optimistic that he could get the Republican presidential nomination at a town hall event Tuesday in Milwaukee. "At some point, the people that go to a convention are going to be concerned about who actually could run the country," Kasich said. "And I have more experience, really, than all of them put together, except Mrs. Clinton."

A candidate needs 1,237 delegates to secure the GOP nomination. Kasich has 143, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has 463 and billionaire Donald Trump has 736.

UPDATE: 9:53 p.m. EDT — When Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump told Anderson Cooper Tuesday at a CNN town hall that he only received a $1 million loan from his father, social media responded with GIFs and sarcasm. Trump has said he's worth $10 billion, though Business Insider reported last year filings indicated the amount was actually $8.7 billion.

UPDATE: 9:49 p.m. EDT — Real estate tycoon Donald Trump told CNN anchor Anderson Cooper Tuesday night at the network's town hall event that he would not necessarily support the Republican presidential nominee — as he pledged last September. He has ramped up attacks on his opponent, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, in recent weeks.

Cruz avoided answering a similar question earlier Tuesday.

UPDATE: 9:30 p.m. EDT — Speaking to CNN anchor Anderson Cooper at a town hall event for Republican presidential candidates Tuesday night, billionaire Donald Trump insisted that the United States had a major problem with radical Islam. When asked by an audience member how he planned to protect minority communities from backlash after events like the terrorist attacks in Brussels last week, Trump criticized political correctness.

"We have to be very, very vigilant, and we have to be very, very tough," he said. "Thousands of people are being allowed into this country over short periods of time, supposedly coming from Syria, we have no idea who they are."

He later said the top three functions of a federal government should be "security, security, security." Trump then relented, saying healthcare and education were important, as well.

UPDATE: 9:14 p.m. EDT — Billionaire Donald Trump continued to defend his campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, at a CNN town hall event for Republican presidential candidates in Milwaukee on Tuesday. When asked by moderator Anderson Cooper whether he would fire Lewandowski, who was charged Tuesday with battery for grabbing ex-Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields at a March 8 event, the mogul gave a stubborn "no."

"It would be so easy for me to terminate this man, ruin his life and say, 'You're fired,' " Trump said. "I stick up for people when people are unjustly accused."

Trump produced a printed copy of Fields' statement and walked Cooper through what he claimed were discrepancies in the reports. Then the GOP front-runner suggested he might press charges against Fields, who he said was trying to grab him to ask a question when Lewandowski intervened. "My arm, it's never been the same, folks," Trump joked, shaking his head.

UPDATE: 8:53 p.m. EDT — At a CNN town hall for GOP presidential candidates Tuesday, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, blamed political correctness for the shooting in Fort Hood, Texas, that left 13 people dead in 2009. Cruz said suspect Nidal Hasan should have been put in handcuffs by military police after authorities learned he'd been communicating online with a radical Islamist. The candidate added that resources shouldn't be devoted to infringing on Americans' privacy but "distinguishing between the bad guys and good guys."

In his answer, Cruz made two errors social media instantly called him out on: He mentioned that his home state was Florida instead of Texas, and he said Hasan shouted the Arabic phrase "alluha akbar" instead of "Allahu Akbar."

UPDATE: 8:35 p.m. EDT — Republican presidential candidate and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz lit up social media Tuesday when he was asked to name his greatest personal failure at a CNN town hall event for the GOP hopefuls in Milwaukee. Cruz told moderator Anderson Cooper he was a "pretty driven guy," noting that came along with pros and cons, but Twitter had other ideas:

UPDATE: 8:26 p.m. EDT — Speaking at a CNN town hall event for Republican presidential candidates Tuesday, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz told an audience member the United States' focus should be on "utterly and completely destroying ISIS," using an alternative name for the Islamic State group based overseas. When pressed by moderator Anderson Cooper on whether he would commit U.S. ground troops to Syria to fight the extremists, Cruz said he'd do "whatever is necessary."

Cruz elaborated that he thought airstrikes to take out ISIS leaders were "the first step" in the fight, followed by arming the Kurdish fighters in the region. Then he admitted he would send soldiers there.

"The question of when to commit U.S. armed forces to combat is the most serious decision any president can make," he said. "And I believe the decision should be key to vital national security interests of this country."

UPDATE: 8:07 p.m. EDT — Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, fielded the first question of the night at the CNN town hall event in Milwaukee. When asked if he would fire a campaign staffer in a similar situation as Corey Lewandowski, Donald Trump's campaign manager who was charged with battery Tuesday after grabbing a reporter at a March 8 event, Cruz said "of course."

"It shouldn't be complicated that the members of a campaign staff should not be physically assaulting the press," Cruz added.

Original story:

The three remaining Republican presidential candidates will take over your TV for three hours Tuesday night. Donald Trump, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich were scheduled to appear at a CNN town hall event in Milwaukee from 8-11 p.m. EDT. Anderson Cooper was set to moderate.

The town hall comes just hours after police in South Florida charged Trump's campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, with misdemeanor battery. Lewandowski was accused of grabbing former Breitbart News Network reporter Michelle Fields at a March 8 campaign event.

Trump, who spent most of Tuesday backing Lewandowski and insisting Fields lied, threatened to skip the CNN event because the network "has nothing but my opponents on their shows," Politico reported. Also sure to come up at the town hall were reports that Cruz has had five affairs despite being married. The National Enquirer published the adultery accusations last week, prompting Cruz to lash out at Trump for allegedly pushing the fake story to the press. Trump said he "had absolutely nothing to do with it," Bloomberg reported.

The article came out after an anti-Trump super PAC published an ad containing an old photo of Trump's wife, Melania Trump, modeling naked. Trump then tweeted that if Cruz wasn't careful, he'd "spill the beans" on wife Heidi Cruz.

Cruz later called the Enquirer story "garbage" and Trump a "sniveling coward."

Amid all of this drama, Kasich will likely use the Tuesday event as a chance to try to gain support moving forward, CNN reported. As of Tuesday afternoon, Kasich had only 143 of the 1,237 delegates needed to get the GOP presidential nomination. Cruz had 463, and Trump had 736.

The Kasich campaign decided to reallocate its ads in Wisconsin recently, a move some pundits saw as a sign the governor was preparing to drop out of the race. Kasich rejected this theory at a Monday town hall, saying that "we put our resources where we think we have the best chance, and that's all it means," Wisconsin Public Radio reported.

The Badger State's Republican primary is Tuesday.

This is a developing news story. Check back for updates.