More than 13 million people watched the main stage debate on FOX Business Network.
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Both frontrunners faced potential pitfalls Tuesday night. And Carson had faced new scrutiny over questions into his past. But neither candidate had any major moments that threatened their standing at the top.
“Well, listen, you know, the bottom line is because I am not running against Bobby Jindal”, Christie said.
Christie’s pension and health benefits commission wrote in a September 2014 report that the cost of state health plans is “far above average by any measure”. “Some I don’t totally agree with”.
“I’m becoming very diplomatic”, Trump reflected later in an interview with Neil Cavuto, one of the moderators. In Beijing he’ll “participate in meetings with senior Chinese officials to advance implementation of bilateral commitments on cyber issues”, the Homeland Security Department said in a statement on Monday.
Carson, who has blamed the media for “special scrutiny” of his campaign at a time when he has momentum, said he had “no problem with being vetted”. “What I do have a problem with is being lied about”.
The fourth Republican debate of the 2016 presidential election had the distinct feel of, well, a real debate.
Bush was improved from the previous debate, but not by enough.
His performance may not prompt any clear uptick in the polls, but it may have done a few to calm anxious donors who are considering jumping ship.
And when Trump said that the country couldn’t continue to be the world’s policeman and should focus spending on domestic issues, Bush stepped in. “He is absolutely wrong on this”.
To be sure, Cruz is still leading this lane, but he no longer has it to himself. Meanwhile, Mike Huckabee and Chris Christie have been relegated to those still-warm kiddie-table seats, joined by perennial farm-teamers Rick Santorum and Bobby Jindal.
Canon said the debate featured more “ganging up” on Obama and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton than in prior events, but that the discussion between Rubio and Paul pointed out the differences among the Republicans as the field begins to thin.
Duhaime said the campaign is not concerned about last month’s Rutgers University poll, which found that 67 percent of New Jersey residents think Christie should drop out of the race. But it’s a decrease of only 6.2 percent, not 15 percent as Christie said Tuesday.
“If you raise the minimum you’re going to make people more expensive than a machine”, Florida Sen.
Jindal argued strongly that sending a big-government conservative to Washington as president would lead to a perpetuation rather than a reversal of the policies that Republicans want to change. But if Trump is usually a bastion of bombast, he appeared Tuesday markedly more measured – delving deeper into policy than usual, and resisting personal attacks except against Kasich, perhaps in a bid to appear more presidential.
Carson’s comments came after CNN reported last week that nine childhood friends, classmates and neighbors who grew up with Carson said they had no memory of the anger or violence the candidate has described.
“Marco, how is it conservative to add a trillion dollar expenditure for the federal government that you’re not paying for?”
That’s especially true after Rubio gave another strong showing punctuated by his handling of an attack from Rand Paul who attacked Rubio as not “a conservative” for advocating greater military spending.
But Rubio came back: “We can’t even have an economy if we’re not safe”, he said. It is in this space – the charismatic, can-do governor – that Christie has his best chance to move into contention.
“How do we bring back economic growth?”
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Other candidates, like Carson, struggled with detailed explanations of foreign policy in response to questions. “We completely eliminate it. Because the government has no business knowing how much money we make, and how we make it….” “And what we have to recognize is that Putin is trying to really spread his influence throughout the Middle East”, he continued, before talking about how to make jihadists look like “losers”.
