Donald Trump and Ted Cruz take the stage with mainstream Republican candidates desperate to knock them off their perch in Saturday night’s Republican presidential debate, where fireworks are expected ahead of South Carolina’s primary.
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That was a fairly civil discussion.
He cut a commercial for Right to Rise, the super PAC supporting Jeb Bush, which aired during the Super Bowl; and is featured in a radio advertisement running in SC.
The two men will have a chance to contrast their records Saturday night, but until then, Bush said he has plans with his grandchildren. Next up: Trump v. Cruz.
It was the smallest GOP field on the debate stage yet, after the departures of Chris Christie and Carly Fiorina.
Bush will appear with his younger brother at a rally in North Charleston, S.C., the Jeb Bush campaign said on Thursday. Bush said he was proud of what his brother did as president.
She says Republicans calling on the seat to remain vacant until the next president enters office “dishonor our Constitution”.
Sen. Marco Rubio said President Obama should not appoint a replacement. When Bush released 33 years of tax returns last summer, they showed that Bush made a little more than half a million dollars when he sold $1.1 million worth of company stock in 2013.
Trump was back in attack mode toward Bush, repeatedly saying “Jeb is so wrong” on national security and more, and laying into former President George W. Bush for failing to keep the nation safe from the 9/11 terror attacks.
Rubio, too, needs to have a particularly strong debate coming off a disastrous performance last Saturday in New Hampshire’s GOP face-off where he was drilled for repeating rehearsed lines from his stump speech.
Bush, who has been among the most aggressive Republican candidates in taking on Trump, said that while he doesn’t mind the real estate mogul criticizing him – “It’s blood sport for him” – he is “sick and exhausted of him going after my family”.
Trump invoked September 11, shooting back that the “Twin Towers came down”. “That’s Jeb’s special interests and lobbyists talking”, Trump responds.
If Cruz “doesn’t clean up his act, stop cheating, & doing negative ads, I have standing to sue him for not being a natural born citizen”, Trump wrote. Cruz also accused Rubio of taking a more moderate approach when speaking to Spanish-language media in an attempt to appeal to Hispanics. But his answer was heavily accented, making it hard to understand – even for bilingual listeners.
The relationship between the billionaire and the Texas senator has become increasingly acrimonious in recent days.
Cruz began the round by questioning Trump’s conservative credentials, saying “For most of his life, his policies have been very, very liberal”.
Other candidates, including Donald Trump and Jeb Bush, sidestepped the question of who should nominate Scalia’s replacement in statements mourning the justice. “He’s a nasty guy”.
Kasich notes his rivals are already ramping up attacks against him after his second place finish in New Hampshire on Tuesday.
At one lull in the slugfest, he declared: “This is just insane”.
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He says, “I really wish the president would think about not nominating somebody”, he says.
