Republican contender Marco Rubio struggled at a presidential debate on Saturday at the worst possible time, potentially confounding his bid to emerge as Donald Trump’s chief rival in New Hampshire and giving hope to three rivals desperate for a strong showing.
Advertisement
Of all the GOP candidates, our New Jersey governor has spent the most days and most hours campaigning in New Hampshire – 70 days at last count.
Attendees cheer during a Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton campaign stop in Hudson, N.H., on Monday. The Democrats’ Clinton-Sanders duel is veering into gender politics. Not so, said Sen. Ted Cruz for what the real estate mogul sees as his weakness on the issue.
“Jeb is having some kind of a breakdown, I think”, Trump told CNN, calling Bush, the son and brother of presidents, a spoiled child and an embarrassment to his family. “I’m very confident in the people that I have”.
The enmity was mutual.
Jeb Bush called Donald Trump a “loser, liar and a whiner” on the eve of a key vote in the race for the Republican nomination. After hearing his answer, the woman said Christie had earned her vote.
Hours before voters go to the polls in New Hampshire, Donald Trump turned to the topic of waterboarding at a rally in Manchester.
Footage from the event shows Trump laughing after telling the woman to “shout it out”, then telling her, “I never expect to hear that from you again”.
But, the young Senator made sure that his message would not go unheard by pessimists, his supporters and the rest of the voters in New Hampshire. At its core, it relies on Rubio using his political talents to convince outside observers that he is winning primaries by not actually winning primaries, and he managed to pull that off in Iowa, emerging from his third-place finish in the caucus with the aura of a conquering hero.
But the Florida senator stumbled in the debate when challenged about his qualifications, repeatedly falling back on a retort meant to distinguish himself from President Barack Obama, who also won the White House as a first-term senator.
Growing doubts about Rubio seemed to portend a fight for delegates that could extend for weeks or months – to the dismay of Republican Party leaders hoping for a quick consolidation behind anyone but Cruz or Trump.
The Iowa caucuses, not really primary voting contests, are already in the rearview mirror.
Mr. Rubio, for his part, came out swinging in a series of events.
“I can guarantee you this – those guys who are chopping off heads of Christians in the Middle East, and many others-when they hear we are arguing that waterboarding may be too severe and it’s not nice, they are laughing like hell to themselves and they just go further”, Trump said, according to The Hill. “I’m going to say it again”.
Just a few minutes later, Rubio repeated himself, almost word for word, prompting Christie to remark, “There it is”.
Cruz attacked him. A political group poured $1 million into negative ads. Christie and Bush both piled on Rubio, claiming he hadn’t been tested the way that governors have.
A victory in New Hampshire could put Trump on track for more wins in SC on February 20 and beyond on the way to the November 8 election. “What happened in Flint is immoral”.
The former first lady insisted it was all overblown.
Still, most expect Sanders to win on Tuesday, 65% say they think he will win compared with 20% who say they think Clinton will win. “We’re going to take stock, but it’s going to be the campaign that I’ve got”.
Advertisement
Sanders told a crowd of about 500 people in Nashua that his call to eradicate income inequality and level the economic playing field for lower- and middle-class workers was resonating.
