One minute it was Trump and Jeb Bush going toe-to-toe, with Jeb trash-talking Trump for his harsh words about Muslims and charging him with playing on the terrorism fears of Americans. “When he gave his opening remarks (at the GOP debate) last night, I got the impression that he didn’t want to be there”, Long said.
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But according to analysts, the frontrunner did not lose any momentum Tuesday night in Las Vegas.
The question was asked, Rubio said, to spark an argument between himself and Trump, but Trump had come up with an idea that was not significant in the days after the San Bernardino attacks to bring attention to himself.
Of course, better and stronger are relative terms here. He played Trump – he always does – and held his own.
Bush was asked if he stood by his assertion last week that Trump’s plan to ban most Muslims from entering the country meant Trump was “unhinged”.
He doesn’t know doodly-squat about the USA nuclear triad – “For me, nuclear, the power, the devastation, is very important to me”, he said in response to a question about that Tuesday – but still he’s rising in the polls and doesn’t have to bother with all that Bill of Rights stuff. Trump’s grasp of policy, meanwhile, remained as shaky as ever. “Therefore I asked them to look at it and see if there was any validity to it”. His relationship with the truth continued to be tenuous.
Like I said, the debate offered clear distinctions.
In this context, the nine Republican candidates seem to agree on only about two things: the Obama administration’s foreign policy in the Middle East is wrong, and a GOP administration should be tougher on terrorism and ISIS.
Update: Even for Trump, this is pretty Trump. The November tally had Rubio and Carly Fiorina tied for third with Paul and Trump following.
“I thought Trump was pretty rude, as usual”, she said. Trump responded not by debating issues, but by lashing out at the media and Bush.
Having shifted his views on immigration and on a number of foreign policy issues, Cruz has a particular difficulty. I don’t think so. But Assad, he implied, was not the greatest of our worries right now. Christie said. “Let’s talk about how we do this, not about which bill, which one these guys like more”.
“In this instance, there are millions of peaceful Muslims across the world, in countries like India, where there are not the problems we are seeing in nations that are controlled – have territory controlled by Al Qaeda or ISIS”, he said. Assad is fighting ISIS. Thank goodness we could watch them react in real time. Sure, that pledge is utterly worthless, but it was Trump’s magnanimity that was striking.
Tuesday night’s Republican presidential debate was the party’s first since the terrorists attacks in Paris and California, and security thus dominated the two-hour event. “He’s competing for the 40% of the party that finds Trump repulsive and wants someone to punch him in the nose”. “I feel very honored to be the front-runner”. And “he would be phenomenal in a debate against Hillary Clinton”, he said.
He predicted Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida could have a hard time making it through the GOP primaries because of his past support for comprehensive immigration reform, including a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants now in the us illegally. But for the moment, it’s a sideshow-and a distracting one at that. It strengthened the tools of national security and law enforcement to go after terrorists. “Will they be at a loss for a witty comeback when Trump insults them mercilessly?” The former Governor of Florida called him a “chaos candidate” saying he would also be a “chaos president”. But in prior debates, Bush had pulled back from the sort of full-throated assault he leveled at Trump time and again on Tuesday.
Cruz isn’t the first senator to discuss the amount of information collected under the NSA’s old program.
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Trump leads the polls in New Hampshire, where success in the February 9 primary could make or break Bush’s ability to continue running.
