“I’ve gained great respect for the Republican leadership”, Trump said, adding that he also respected his rivals “in different forms”. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio clashed sharply over national security and immigration in Tuesday’s Republican presidential debate, thrusting their evolving feud to the forefront of the GOP race. The first heated exchange was between Donald Trump and Jeb Bush, over Trump’s recent comment about banning muslims from coming into the U.S.
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And Trump, by the way, promised anew he’d stick with the GOP. However, he revived the idea of mounting a third-party bid late last month, following reports that super-PACs were planning to launch attacks against him.
This was the fifth and last GOP debate of 2015. But Rubio was put on the defensive by Cruz and Sen.
When Rubio responded by calling the program a necessary tool to protect the country, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul? Check, check, check.
Cruz’s campaign has dismissed the criticism, with spokesman Rick Tyler saying, “Nobody believes Senator Cruz is weak on national defense and security”.
“There is nothing we are allowed to do under this bill that we could not do before”, he said.
The two also tussled over immigration, with each accusing the other of changing his tune on the contentious topic. “Walls work, if they’re properly constructed”, Trump said.
The first spat in what was until then a fairly monotonous debate broke out when Trump knocked Bush for criticizng a blanket ban on Muslims entering the U.S. Trump, in one of his favorite refrains, called Bush a well-meaning fellow, but said he didn’t possess the ruthlessness required to be commander-in-chief. “Donald is great at the one-liners”.
The former Florida governor was viewed as having his strongest debate performance so far on Tuesday night, going hard after Trump and labeling him the “chaos candidate”. Media have deemed each an “outsider” taking on the Republican “establishment”, but the debate revealed little serious distinctions among the foreign policies of the nine.
“It is nonsense, it is absolute nonsense”, Bush said.
Trump’s reaction was to remind Bush of the wide gulf between them in preference polls.
Trump: Will you apologize Jeb? “And he gets his foreign policy experience from the shows”. That can lead our country to safety and security. “It’s like suggesting a fireman and an arsonist have the same record because they were both at the fire”.
Fed up by Trump’s taunts, Bush declared: “Donald, you’re not going to be able to insult your way to the presidency”. He promoted his own legislation as more appropriate and narrowly focused. Lindsey Graham on the Islamic State. “Which is, is Donald Trump a serious candidate?” Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said of Trump’s proposal, “It isn’t going to happen”.
Any budding spats between Trump and Cruz fizzed on stage.
Trump’s debate performance was like that of his first four – not particularly splashy.
In the end, who do you think won Tuesday’s debate?
“It has been a disaster”, the real estate developer said. “I’m honored to be the front-runner”. Trump spoke like a front-runner with a double-digit margin: “I’m totally commmited to the Republican party”. The questioners pressed Trump on whether he would stick to his vow not to run as an independent candidate if he is not the eventual Republican nominee next year. He called for a no-fly zone over Syria and vowed to shoot down a Russian plane if it were to violate that space. He also repeatedly referenced his time as a federal prosecutor, saying he was the only one who’d dealt with issues related to terrorism.
Christie frequently addressed the cameras directly – a different strategy than most of the others.
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Christie mocked the senators running against him, and the Senate in general, for “endless debate about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin”.
