And that, pretty much, summed up the humiliating nature of this undercard debate for candidates excluded from the main debate at 9pm, with an extra dash of sexist condescension for Mrs Fiorina, the only woman running for the Republican nomination.
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Naturally, the debate was geared up to morph into the Donald Trump Show and he was more than happy to oblige.
Cleveland rocked for home-state Gov. John Kasich on Thursday night at the first Republican debate, delivering some of the loudest applause for any candidate throughout the night and lighting a fire for a man who just barely made the cut for the big stage. His startling declaration left his onstage rivals scrambling to compete for attention the rest of the night. “If I’m our nominee, we’ll be the party of the future”, Rubio said.
While Trump was characteristically bombastic, most of the contenders standing alongside him clamored for their piece of the spotlight without engaging him directly.
Many Republican governors opted out of the Medicaid expansion tied to President Obama’s health care law.
The closest former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, a favorite of the party’s moderate, establishment wing, came to tangling with Trump was a gentle critique of the businessman’s over-the-top rhetoric.
“Mr. Trump”, Baier said in response, as the crowd inside the Quicken Loans arena roars.
It’s understandable if some of the Republican candidates may have felt as if they were at a rock concert instead of a political event.
“I want to collect more records from terrorists, but less records from innocent Americans”, said Paul.
Trump has dismissed, in particular, the Bloomberg estimate, saying it doesn’t know what he has. He said Thursday that he had been told that by border patrol agents, and he took credit for immigration being an issue in the2016 campaign.
“It was really informative for me to find out who’s out there campaigning for what”, said Lorinda Swearingen, adding she could not say that any one candidate had come out on top. And while Clinton didn’t specifically urge Trump to run, he was obviously feeding his giant ego.
The trio of moderators, including Megyn Kelly and Chris Wallace, had questions ready for every candidate’s pressure point.
While 17 Republicans are seeking the party’s nomination, only 10 were invited by debate host Fox News to participate in the main event. He said that while he favored traditional marriage, he had recently attended a same-sex wedding and would support his children if they were gay.
Sacramento-area Republicans enjoyed watching a crowded field of Republican presidential candidates tackle issues near and dear to their hearts at the GOP’s local headquarters.
While others felt they needed to see and hear more before they could decide, who will win their vote. Only late in the debate did Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker raise the controversy surrounding her use of personal email and a private server while serving in the Obama administration. “I also believe we need a fence”, said Sen.
Immigration and counterterrorism dominated the early stages of the debate, two issues that highlight the deep divisions within the Republican Party.
Rand Paul and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie over data gathering by the National Security Agency, and a more low-key effort by Florida Sen.
THE FACTS: Actually, the U.S. Air Force was created in 1947.
Paul jumped in immediately at the start of the debate to go after Trump’s refusal to rule out a third-party run, saying the billionaire “buys and sells politicians of all stripes” and accusing him of “hedging his bet on the Clintons”. He said the election “cannot be a resume competition”.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee suggested that he would defy the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision and block abortions.
Who had the most talk time?
“And honestly, Megyn, if you don’t like it, I’m sorry”.
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But Carly Fiorina, a former business executive and the only woman in the Republican field, acknowledged Trump had tapped into a broad sense of frustration with Washington.
