Front-runner Donald Trump’s boycott of the final debate before the Iowa caucuses created space for his rivals to delve more deeply into their differences on immigration, foreign policy and their approach to governing.
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“Donald did not want his record challenged”, Cruz said, explaining why Trump skipped Thursday’s Republican debate.
It was a risky move politically, but Donald Trump helped raise $6 million to benefit veterans at an event three miles away from the debate stage. That likely generated as much attention from Iowa conservatives as anything said at the GOP debate. Conservative commentator Glenn Beck introduced Cruz at the Ames rally.
Stephen Colbert had one of his very own, declaring that “if Fox News has no Trump, then I am all-Trump!” But having defied political convention throughout his campaign, it was a risk the real estate mogul was willing to take.
“Look at all the cameras”, he said.
A whopping 71 percent of Trump’s supporters say they’re certain they’ll vote for him, compared to just 29 percent who may yet switch, the Iowa Poll found. Among Rubio’s supporters, 47 percent were committed while 53 percent said they may switch to another candidate. Broadening his point, he said, “We have to stick up for ourselves as people and we have to stick up for our country if we’re being mistreated”.
He’s been attacked by the likes of Bob Dole and the Wall Street Journal editorial page – both suggested that, in the face of a potential Cruz nomination, Trump might not be that bad.
On the Republican side, Ted Cruz tried to kick back against the rival closest on his heels, unleashing tough new television ads labeling Florida Sen. “‘How about now? Can you come over?’ And I said, ‘Hasn’t it already started?'”
“The desperation kicks in”, Rubio said in response. Marco Rubio’s imperative is to do well enough in the first four states to vote that he can make a sustained climb in the weeks that follow.
In total, Trump’s antisocial debate behavior won him almost 31,000 new Twitter followers and more than 17,000 new Facebook followers, according to Engagement Labs. “He’s a citizen of Canada and he was a senator from Texas…how the hell does that work?” All members of the media think they can do it better. “Success for us is going to be to exceed expectations…. If he doesn’t show up, maybe we will have fewer eyeballs, but either way it is going to be OK”. Ted Cruz is quickly shifting focus to an opponent he thought he once vanquished: Sen.
The state’s popular junior senator, Joni Ernst, appeared on stage with Rubio and praised him – a tacit blessing, but not necessarily an endorsement – and its largest newspaper, The Des Moines Register, did endorse him. A proponent of a more isolationist foreign policy, Paul also raised concerns about the US getting involved militarily in Syria, where the Islamic State group has a stronghold.
In some cases, super PACs have been even more active with social-media ad campaigns than the candidates themselves.
“She is not qualified to be president of the United States”, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said.
In the last major preference poll before the caucuses, Trump had the support of 28 percent of likely Republican caucus-goers, with Cruz at 23 percent and Rubio at 15 percent.
One development – the weather – was beyond the candidates’ control.
The self-described democratic socialist says Iowa could be a model for the nation if “ordinary people – working people, middle-class people, seniors, young people – become involved”.
Bush said his life has been much different from his father’s. “That’s the way it is”.
Bush and Christie, along with Ohio Gov. John Kasich, are looking beyond Iowa and hoping New Hampshire’s February 9 primary jumpstarts their campaigns. There’s “no such thing as an election violation related to frequency of voting”, he said, and insinuating otherwise is “not in keeping in the spirit of the Iowa caucuses”.
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Cruz made the connection between fear-mongering and militarism most explicitly, declaring, “I will apologize to nobody for the vigorousness with which I will fight terrorism, go after ISIS, hunt them down wherever they are, and utterly and completely destroy ISIS”.
