Donald Trump says Fox News Channel apologized in their feud leading up to Thursday’s presidential debate in Iowa, but he was still a no-show for the last scheduled forum before voters begin to make their voices heard.
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The controversy over Cruz’s immigration reform record were part of the main stage Republican debate, held by Fox News in Des Moines within days of the Iowa Caucus. And it didn’t help the nerves of Team Cruz that Frank Luntz’s post-debate focus-group report for Fox News was practically a Rubio rally. Cable news networks CNN and MSNBC provided extensive coverage of his event.
In a campaign where the front-runner wants to round up all 11 million unauthorized immigrants, Marco Rubio’s initial support of bipartisan legislation to tighten border security and offer a path to citizenship was so unpopular that he renounced his position.
When Ted Cruz became the first Republican presidential aspirant to formally announce his candidacy in a March 2015 speech at Liberty University, he was generally considered a very long shot (oddsmakers initially rated him the sixth-most-likely nomination victor, with 16-1 odds). Like every other candidate, Cruz has been intermittently challenged and marginalized by Donald Trump, but through most of the invisible primary Cruz has handled that better than anyone else.
Paul jumped in by calling Cruz’s statements on immigration “insulting” and said Cruz had no place accusing his rivals of being for amnesty. “I’m a maniac and everyone on this stage is stupid, fat and ugly”, Cruz said. “I was for legalization”, Paul said.
In Trump’s absence, sparks flew between the candidates on the issue of immigration. “Now that we’ve gotten the Donald Trump section out of the way…” And Ben, you’re a bad surgeon.
(Although the Persian Gulf war bombing was incessant, it was targeted at military sites and sought to avoid civilian casualties.) Rubio then jumped on Cruz, saying that the Texan hadn’t taken action as a senator to rebuild the military. Eventually, Rubio hopes, he’ll be able to place higher than the rest of the non-Trump candidates, turning the battle into a two-man race between him and Trump. He could lock himself in a porta-potty, knock it over trying to get out, crawl out covered in piss and toilet paper, and they’d go, ‘See?
Two footnotes here. One: If you’re looking for evidence that Jeb’s “kill Rubio” strategy really is more about ruining Rubio’s chances than about passing him in New Hampshire, watch Bush’s response in the first clip.
For the Republican candidates for president, it was a glimpse of what could have been. “And they’ve wanted me there”, he said at the beginning of the fundraiser for veterans.
Maher also took some time to compliment moderator Kelly, aka the Face of Fox News, for being a far more intelligent, viable candidate for POTUS than the Republicans’ current crop of candidates.
“You said more than that, sir”, Kelly said.
“Trump will not be hurt by the debate boycott because he still is commanding all the media attention”, Brookings Institution’s senior fellow Darrell West told Xinhua. “He seems to be obsessive-compulsive when it comes to Megyn Kelly of Fox“.
That assumes that Trump doesn’t steamroll the entire field as he’s done the entire cycle and leave nothing but scraps for any potential late-surging candidates.
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“I supported him because I think people, when you’re elected, you need to do things”, Bush said.
