Maybe the polls will prove me wrong, but I didn’t think the night actually went well for Trump.
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“Although it is hard to know the limits of what Trump’s supporters are willing to tolerate, my hunch is that the debate damaged his prospects”, Galston writes.
“Trump tweeted: “@FrankLuntz is a low class slob who came to my office looking for consulting work and I had zero interest. And it wasn’t aborted. “And I saw other instances”, Trump said.
While Trump was characteristically bombastic, most of the contenders standing alongside him clamored for their piece of the spotlight without engaging him directly. “He buys and sells politicians of all stripes”, the Kentucky senator said.
It was more a Fox News assault on Donald Trump than a debate. He asked Trump what has changed in his views because now the businessman calls Obamacare a “disaster”. In the (unlikely) event that Trump survived the campaign long enough to have a mathematical chance at the nomination, influential members of the Republican Party would be expected to coordinate – some might even say conspire – to deny it to him.
He called for a private system without “artificial lines” around every state.
Paul and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie got into a shouting match at one point over a disagreement on the Patriot Act and the country’s surveillance program – a beef that had been building for weeks.
Kasich had the lowest poll numbers of the GOP candidates going into the prime-time debate, but he received a warm welcome from his home state crowd and won praise for a series of answers that stood out, including his response about same-sex marriage. Rand Paul representing a segment of GOP voters frustrated with military action overseas and what they see as infringements on personal liberties.
“When you have people that are cutting Christians’ heads off, when you have a world at the border and so many places that it’s medieval times… we don’t have time for tone”. Instead, they’ll experience it as snippets and media sound bites. But I don’t recognize those words, so you know, she was spewing out these words, and I’m sitting there.
“This election better be about the future, not the past”, he said. I would note only that most of the audience was from Ohio.
“I don’t trust President Obama with our records”.
As for me, I’ll give it a week or so. “In Florida, they call me Jeb because I earned it”. “And do you know what?”
Trump said he got Clinton at his wedding because he gave to her foundation.
“I didn’t tell you I approve of everything he’s doing”, Kasich said Friday.
I personally thought Kelly and her co-moderators did an excellent job with the debate.
Paul was also the most aggressive in taking on Trump, challenging him early on his refusal to commit to supporting the party nominee.
One other group has pulled in a lot of money from Trump: Florida Republicans.
Baier pointed out that experts have said that mounting an independent campaign “would nearly certainly hand the race over to Democrats and likely another Clinton”.
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“People are frustrated”, Rubio said. “I want to win as the Republican”. But when pressed, he repeated, “I will not make the pledge at this time”.
