Trump’s preternatural ability to blend ideological incoherence and amazingly vague policy prescriptions with a consistently combative debate style makes him truly special. Ted Cruz, between Cruz and Florida Sen.
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While many people are saying that Jeb Bush’s performance was not really anything worthwhile, but the way he responded to the onslaught of Donald Trump against his family shows that he isn’t really afraid of the reality czar. Now that the field is smaller, the candidates have more at stake, and that tension showed on stage in SC.
Forget the governors’ alliance. In December, when he started attacking Cruz, Trump brought up his rival’s Cuban ancestry which he linked with his faith. All those debate-stage friendships are over.
While Saturday’s debate insults and outbursts are hardly unique to political discourse, what’s different is the nasty tone, hostile undercurrents and the inability of moderator John Dickerson to control the brawling candidates. Was the attack a smart move considering the negative response by the debate audience?
In one of the most memorable exchanges of the night, Donald Trump unloaded on his former friend Ted Cruz. He said it is up to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Republicans in the Senate to block it. “It’s called delay, delay, delay”, Trump said. The two went back and forth sparring on the right way to beat ISIS, with Trump saying, “You’ve got to fight ISIS first”.
At one point Trump attacked the Texas senator by saying: “This guy will say anything. He’s a nasty guy”.
Their exchanges over immigration are at this point nearly a Republican debate tradition.
“We want everyone to rise and we will make them personally responsible for the help they get”, said Kasich, whose fledgling campaign gained new life after a second-place finish in the New Hampshire primary. “He doesn’t speak Spanish” – Rubio on why Cruz doesn’t know what he said on Univision. Rubio replied “I don’t know how he knows what I said on Univision, he doesn’t speak Spanish”. Now if you want to become a terrorist you go to Iraq.
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., was third in the CBS poll at 15 percent, roughly the same support he has received in the state since November. Cruz opposed it, but offered his own amendment swapping out a path to citizenship for legal status. The immigration bill co-authored by Rubio failed to pass in the House.
“For a number of weeks, Ted Cruz has just been telling lies”, Florida Sen.
“I’m rescinding the invitation”, Bush said.
He even said Jeb’s mother should have been the 2016 Bush candidate instead of her son.
For Trump voters, who have been relatively steadfast in their support over the last few months, the percentage who say they’ve firmly decided on Trump has increased.
Trump said if he were president he would “certainly want to try and nominate a justice”, but added he hoped the GOP-controlled Senate would be able to block Obama’s pick. Bernie Sanders’ 40 percent, according to the SC primary poll.
“I am sick and exhausted of him going after my family”, Bush said. Even later, he called out Trump for making offensive comments.
“I lost hundreds of friends”.
Not that Trump had to do that, he said.
“That’s not keeping us safe”. “That is not safe”. The World Trade Center came down during the reign of George Bush.
When the audience booed Trump for his remarks, Trump dismissed the reaction as catcalls from Bush-supporting “lobbyists”. Unfortunately, moderation doesn’t seem to be getting a lot of traction with primary voters and that’s unlikely to change. Ohio Gov. John Kasich is running an admirable campaign and has continued to play up his (comparatively) more moderate stance on the issues.
Trump was quickly goaded when Bush criticized Trump’s past statements that Russian Federation has a role to play in Syria. “It’s just a fact”. “If all the people who say, ‘I love Ben Carson and his policies, but he can’t win, ‘ vote for me, not only can we win, but we can turn this thing around”, he said in closing. “But then, when he was engaged with Bush, Kasich would revert to interrupting and appearing incensed, as he has in other debating appearances”. “I think we’re fixing to lose the election to Hillary Clinton if we don’t stop this”, he said, asking for peace.
Kasich campaigned relentlessly in New Hampshire, casting himself as the positive pragmatic alternative to the more strident voices in the GOP.
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The importance of the court, and of the party of the president who nominates the justices, has been made ever more clear to Republicans during the Obama administration. Trump asked repeatedly. Look at my website and see, Cruz said. Who indeed? “That will be what I will do if I’m elected president”, Cruz asserted.
