But outside of a couple testy exchanges between Trump and Texas senator Ted Cruz and some other small jabs, the mogul’s rivals barely attacked him during Thursday night’s debate in SC. Cruz was forced to explain to an audience of millions that he is in fact eligible to run for president because his mother is an American citizen, even though the Texas senator was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Advertisement
Pointing out Trump’s mother was born in Scotland, Cruz said: “On the issue of citizenship, I’m not going to use your mother’s birth against you”.
The debate provided candidates with an opportunity to offer their sharp contrast to the optimistic vision of America that President Barack Obama painted in his State of the Union address earlier this week, and the Democratic front-runner for president was often on their minds.
“I like Chris Christie”, said Senator Marco Rubio of the New Jersey governor, who is competing for the same sort establishment voters he is pursuing. “Go back to Canada!” His lead in a NBC/Wall Street Journal poll that was released Thursday soared to 13 percent over Cruz. “And I recognize that Donald is dismayed that his poll numbers are dropping in Iowa, but the facts and the law here are really clear”.
“Everyone understands that the values in New York City are socially liberal… focused around money and the media”, Cruz charged.
Party leaders are anxiously looking on, hoping that someone will be able to dampen Trump’s and Cruz’ momentum.
Neither candidate could land a knock-out punch at the televised Republican debate in North Charleston, North Carolina, but it was not for the want of trying. Cruz suggested Trump was only turning on him because he’s now challenging for the lead in Iowa, and the businessman agreed.
“We do not need to be lectured about why we’re angry and frustrated and fearful because we’ve had an illegal immigration problem in this country for 25 years”, Fiorina said.
Framing it another way, Mr Cruz said: “Not a lot of conservatives come out of Manhattan – I’m just saying”.
“We saw more death, and the smell of death and it was with us for months”, Trump said. I win. I choose him as my vice presidential candidate, and the Democrats sue because we can’t take him along for the ride.
During Thursday’s debate, Trump invoked September 11 in his response to Cruz’s attacks on his city.
Encouraged by the traction that his extreme views gain among the Republican primary goers, Mr. Trump reiterated them all today, albeit in a calmer and more measured way compared to his earlier speeches. “And we rebuilt downtown Manhattan, and everybody in the world watched and everybody in the world loved NY and loved New Yorkers”.
This opened up a prolonged back-and-forth of attacks between Rubio and Cruz.
Once cordial in the campaign, the two leading Republicans have locked horns recently as Mr Cruz, a Tea Party favourite who is popular among Iowa’s conservatives and evangelicals, has soared in polls of Republican caucus-goers in the state to challenge Mr Trump’s lead. “It’s a right”, Rubio said. In that conversation, Trump said that he did not oppose gays entering the military and characterized himself as “very pro-choice”.
Advertisement
While former Governor Jeb Bush claimed of Clinton was to get elected, her first hundred days would be spent going between the White House and the court house.
