The debate marked the first time the White House hopefuls shared a stage since terror attacks in Paris and San Bernardino.
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“Repeat after me: We must combat anti-Muslim bigotry and all forms of discrimination in our country and in our world”. How did he talk about that today? According to the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, Trump was at 27 percent, followed by Cruz with 22 percent. Politico’s Mike Allen said the night proved that “Marco Rubio is the Barack Obama of 2008”. But the country has already suffered through two terms of a foreign policy greenhorn, and we can’t afford another. “And we need a commander in chief who has the foresight of understanding what happens if we do nothing at all”. You’ve been out there on the campaign trail. “He had avoided doing that in the first four debates”. Rubio’s campaign has been endorsed by Lt. Gov. Mark Hutchison, former Gov. Bob List and several prominent members of the Church of Latter-day Saints. And Cruz will be campaigning in states that have primaries on Super Tuesday in early March. Donald Trump, of course, had steadily above-average search interest.
“I’m having my staff look at the transcripts of the debate right now”, Senator Richard Burr, told reporters on Wednesday morning. Trump and Cruz declined to go after each other despite prompting from the moderators. In one testy exchange, Rubio noted that Cruz had voted against the Defense Authorization Act, which includes funding for Iron Dome, the short-range anti-missile program Israel has used to deflect rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip.
Rubio and Cruz are among the top tier of candidates in most polls on the GOP race in Iowa.
Cruz countered by saying that Rubio was spreading “knowingly false” information about his record. “They knew exactly what was going on”. The findings underscore the growing sense that the languishing former frontrunner is likely past the point of no return, amid a GOP electorate that’s shown a seemingly boundless appetite for Trumpian bombast.
But Rubio has to be careful how he does that. “I oppose legalization for illegal aliens”, Cruz said.
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“I like his facial expressions when they rip on him”, said 67-year-old Robert Stearns, a retired mechanic and Vietnam veteran from Apache Junction. Well, that’s fine, but you have to have something to do that with. “The new program covers almost 100%”, Cruz said. He said he’d carpet bomb ISIS. “That is not what you said at the time”. Voters know where he stands. “I think what you have tonight is a couple of individuals who fundamentally agree that Washington is broken, and they have their own vision to change that, and that’s what came across on the stage tonight”. They don’t want to hear Republicans tearing each other down, and they’re anxious that infighting will weaken the party’s eventual nominee and give a win to the Democrats. Marco Rubio (R-Florida).
