Here are five takeaways from Thursday’s debate. Bush edged him out for just a short moment, but Trump, who came into the event with the highest poll numbers, quickly regained his lead.
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Ms Fiorina acknowledged the real estate mogul has risen to the top of the polls because he is tapping “into an anger that people feel” about American politics as usual. But he said testily that he didn’t have time for “total political correctness”.
His answer drew an angry rebuke from Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul.
“Hey, look, look! He’s already hedging his bet on the Clintons, OK?”
He left some of the other nine candidates on stage at times struggling for attention from the moderators.
Mr Perry, who had been mocked by Mr Trump in one of the tycoon’s earlier speeches, said the frontrunner, a onetime reality television star, was “using his celebrity rather than his conservatism” in the race.
Mr Paul and New Jersey governor Chris Christie engaged in a heated exchange over the USA Patriot Act and laws giving government access to Americans’ phone records. Christie responded by invoking the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. If you don’t like it, Megyn, I’m sorry.
Fifteen months from the election, Mr Trump remains a longshot candidate to replace President Barack Obama.
” I do say this, and I was listening to you folks and Joe before, if you’re going to do that to me I think it’s great, but you have to do it to everybody else or ease it up”, Trump, the Republican presidential front-runner, said.
At Thursday night’s debate, Fox News host Megyn Kelly and billionaire bombast Donald Trump went head-to-head.
Kasich stuck fast to his message of compassionate conservatism, and he won some of the biggest applause when fielding a question on same-sex marriage. And you know who else has?
She then deftly explained Trump’s unexpected success thus far: “I think he’s tapped into an anger that people feel”.
We decided to see what the record says.
Avoiding the debate’s testy back-and-forth were Florida Sen. Both women are impressed with Marco Rubio.
“
If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t even be talking about illegal immigration,
Chris”, Trump said.
“I cannot say that I have to respect the person, that if it’s not me, the person that wins. He’s blessed the Republican Party with some very good candidates”, he said.
As his rivals talked policy, he boasted, parried, promised, denied, and hoped – all in that peculiarly Trump-ian language which actually contains very little substance. As to his various left-wing positions on abortion and health care he said that he’s evolved just like Ronald Reagan.
But, how will this performance among the top ten and even bottom seven change the standings in support for some of these candidates?
Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee also thought he did well, but like every candidate here, wished he or she had more time.
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Front-runner Donald Trump took most of the fire, finding an early way to separate himself from the rest of the field.
