For some in the audience at Detroit’s Fox Theatre, the blitz against Trump was too much.
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During the show Friday, Lauer noted that Romney’s criticism of Trump, coming from a former presidential candidate toward a current candidate, is unprecedented. “Donald has mocked everyone and has done so to people on this stage”, Marco said.
Going into the weekend round, Trump leads with 329 delegates, Ted Cruz has 231, Marco Rubio 110 and John Kasich, 25. Ted Cruz “Lyin’ Ted” and an “all-talk-no-action politician”. At the debate, Rubio said he would like to discuss policy issues, but he also defended his aggressive strategy. “He inherited over 100
million dollars”.
“You’re looking well. You’re looking well”.
Mr Trump, asked if he would support the Republican nominee if it was someone other than him, seemed startled by the question given the momentum behind him, but eventually said: “Yes I will”.
“[Rubio] said if my hands were small, then something else is small”, Trump said, holding up his hands. Nobody has ever hit my hands. “I don’t want us to have a nominee that people have to make up an excuse why their voting for or hold their nose and vote for”. Look at those hands. “Are those small hands?”
Trump says he believes in free trade – but only if it’s beneficial to the country. “You’re angry, you’re angry with Washington”, Cruz said, adding that “Donald has been part of the corruption” for 40 years. “But the question is: Do you understand the principles that made America great in the first place?”
Trump was assailed on his positions on immigration, pressed by both the moderators and his rivals in the wake of a Buzzfeed report that he had told the New York Times in an off the record conversation he was willing to moderate some of his hard-line positions. But he did concede: “You have to be able to have some flexibility, some negotiations”.
Meanwhile, fourth-place nominee John Kasich barely got a word in edgewise after referring to himself as the “only adult on the stage”. Trump returned the courtesy.
The two previous debates on Fox News Channel reached 24 million viewers last August and 12.5 million in January.
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It was also the first Republican debate without retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who said he would no longer participate in the events, signaling a possible suspension of his campaign.
