Cruz later argued that Trump would not be a feasible Republican presidential nominee because he refuses to release his tax statements, despite promising to do so earlier on.
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Trump said at the debate, “I will, and the wall just got 10 feet taller, believe me”.
“You’re only person on this stage that has ever been fined for hiring people to work on your projects illegally”, Rubio said of Trump. “You haven’t hired anybody”, Trump shot back, calling Rubio’s allegation “wrong”. “You’ve hired nobody”, Trump charged.
Rubio wasn’t the only one swinging at Trump though.
Vicente Fox, Mexico’s president from 2000 to 2006, took a harsher tone, using an expletive in telling the Fusion television network that Mexico was not going to pay for the border wall proposed by Trump.
A few minutes later, Rubio got in another dig at Trump’s business record, suggesting he is not as successful as he suggests on the campaign trail. I’m sure people are Googling it right now.
“If Rubio can’t win in his home state, it is hard to see how he can win elsewhere”, said Peter Brown, the poll’s assistant director. The candidates are meeting for the last Republican debate before the Super Tuesday primaries on March 1.
Both Cruz and Florida Senator Marco Rubio also noted that Trump had employed illegal immigrants on his properties, pointing out as well that he had funded the “Gang of Eight”, which offers individuals a path to citizenship.
Until Thursday, you could’ve been forgiven for thinking that Marco Rubio and Donald Trump weren’t seeking the same job.
Trump fired back. Cruz stands on the Senate floor and engages in “talk and talk and talk”.
As for Cruz, Trump took a more personal tack, touting his own ability to get along with others and adding: “You get along with nobody….”
But Rubio, despite not having won a primary contest yet, has been racking up endorsements from fellow lawmakers and big-name Republicans, trying to position himself as the best candidate to win a general election in November and the best choice to take on Trump.
Do I want to aggressively attack Trump as the ill-prepared, ill-tempered, ill-mannered, curiously-coiffed charlatan of a carnival barker that he is?
“Here’s the guy who repeats himself”, Rubio said with obvious delight.
With an attitude like that, Mr. Trump warned that Mr. Rubio would never be able to bring peace to the region. They focused on the qualities a strong president should have and noted that health care programs should be reformed.
Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump was asked during Thursday night’s Republican debate to clarify comments that he would be “neutral” on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – and whether such an approach would be consistent with the US’ close alliance with the country. “The fruit salad of their life is what I will look at”, he told CNN moderator Wolf Blitzer, coining another Carson-ism for the ages. “The biggest thing we’ve got, and the reason we’ve got no competition, is because we have lines around the states”.
This year, the New York Daily News reported that Trump’s involvement was potentially much deeper. During the trial workers testified that they had been threatened with deportation by Trump associates if they became a problem, and Trump admitted that he learned the workers were undocumented after the Bonwit Teller building was demolished.
The candidates were pressed on why they haven’t released their tax returns as promised. When questioned on their position about whether or not Apple should comply with the FBI’s court order following the December 2015 San Bernardino shooting, candidates Ben Carson, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and John Kasich all agreed and expressed their support for the US government.
Trump, characteristically, resorted to offense when the moment called for defense.
Rubio, meanwhile, is just one debate removed from a primetime meltdown. “They want the Constitution followed and not the liberal policies that we see”, said Frank Hunt of West Delray, who describes himself as “retirement age”. “You should be ashamed of yourself”, Trump to Cruz.
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“If the Mexicans don’t pay for the wall, will you start a trade war with Mexico?”
