Thom, who raises Alaskan Malamute and Pomalute puppies in Minnesota, and plans to spend Monday in Iowa volunteering for Trump, dismissed Cruz as “a Canadian-born citizen” and described the Texas senator, as well as the other GOP contenders as “weak”. “This is like the Academy Awards”, the real estate magnate said as he took the stage in an auditorium at Drake University about 20 minutes after the debate began a few miles away.
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Thursday marked the first time that Trump’s rivals found out what it’s like to debate without his bluster and theatrics dominating the stage. He boasted of his “amazing polls”.
“The game is rigged”, businesswoman Carly Fiorina told the audience.
Beyond a few playful jabs, the two-hour debate was a Trump-free zone, one of the few such events in the race so far.
“Illegal immigrants are treated better in some case than our vets”, Trump said.
Since then, Trump has continued to bully Kelly and most recently backed out of Thursday’s debate on Fox News when he found out she would be moderating. In an interview with CNN just before the rally, Trump said Fox News “apologized” to him for a mocking statement the television network issued. “Nobody knows. Who the hell knows”.
It was unclear exactly which groups would receive money raised from the event and new website Trump launched for collecting donations: donaldtrumpforvets.com.
Trump repeated earlier statements that Fox “very much” wanted him to attend the debate and said he’d fielded repeated phone calls from the network during the day.
“Let me say I’m a maniac”, Cruz said, leaving us not clear on where he was headed with this, “and everyone on this stage is stupid, fat and ugly”.
“It’s not about Donald Trump, he’s an entertaining guy, the greatest show on earth”, said Marco Rubio.
Kelly pressed. What, she asked, about his one-time embrace of his rival?
Christie, however, delivered one of the strongest performances of the immigration exchange, casting Cruz and Rubio and products of Washington making procedural arguments that don’t resonate with voters. Rand Paul, who was relegated to the undercard event in the last debate.
Others picked up the beat, even when the question was not specifically about Trump.
Those participating in the “primetime” debate Thursday were Sen.
In a rare standout debate moment for Bush, the former Florida governor sharply sided with Cruz in accusing Rubio of having “cut and run” on the Senate immigration bill.
Jeb Bush, Trump’s favorite punching bag on the campaign trail, joked that he missed the outspoken billionaire.
“I think something has to change, I think it’s a big thing that our party needs to be part of and I’ve been a leader in Congress in trying to bring about criminal justice reform”, Paul said. We always had such a loving relationship during these debates and the tweets and in between. “Everybody else was in the witness protection program when I went after him”. “I wish he was here”.
For months, Cruz avoided a direct confrontation with Trump, refusing to throw “rocks” back at the frontrunner. Rivals attacked him as a come-lately conservative. Nobody likes him. Nobody in Congress likes him. Tell thousands of people that, by the way folks, I’m going to go do the debate?
“You don’t like something, you don’t whine”, said Tom Moore, a 55-year-old casket maker from Asbury, Iowa.
The Trump campaign has released its own set of attack ads hitting Cruz on immigration.
Carson discussed how he’s taken more life-and-death 2 A.M. calls than “everybody here put together”. “This election is not about our pedigree”, he said.
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Texas’ junior senator/champion debater lost the Thursday night GOP debate to an amateur who didn’t show up and a fellow freshman senator who did.
