Most chose the latter. The republicans will next square off on January 14, just over two weeks before the Iowa caucuses. He seemed at a loss when asked about the nuclear triad, the three kinds of delivery systems for USA nuclear weapons. But Trump has neither backed down nor dropped in national opinion polls. Speaking to reporters after the debate, Trump said Bush’s attacks were because he was having a “hard time” in the polls. He was on for about 13 1/2 minutes, roughly as long as Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida. “Ted Cruz supported a 500-percent increase in the number of H-1 visas, the guest workers that are allowed into this country, and Ted supports doubling the number of green cards”.
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Even when the CNN moderators threw some of his own harsh words back at him, Trump refused the bait.
Cruz said during the debate that Rubio in 2013 chose to “stand with Barack Obama and (Democratic New York U.S. Sen.) Chuck Schumer and support a massive amnesty plan”.
“Donald is great at the one-liners, but he is a chaos candidate and he would be a chaos president”, said Bush, 62, the former governor of Florida, who called Trump’s proposal to kill the families of Islamic State militants “just insane”. They were expected to clash but largely avoided direct confrontation in the two-hour debate.
“Oh yea, you’re a tough guy, Jeb, I know”, chided Donald Trump, (R) Presidential Candidate. “It’s been a total disaster”, Trump said.
In response to a question about Donald Trump’s proposal to halt the immigration of Muslims into America until they can be securely vetted, presidential contender Rick Santorum said it was a “legitimate issue”, and stressed that “not all Muslims are jihadists” but “all jihadists are Muslims”. Trump said Cruz has a “wonderful temperament”, reaching over to give him a little pat on the back.
Mr. Bush termed Mr. Trump a “chaos candidate”, who would make a “chaos president”, and Mr. Trump returned the favour by questioning Mr. Bush’s energy levels and declaring, “under him America would never be great again”.
And not the only ones, surely.
Mr. Cruz and Mr. Rubio locked horns several times over issues of immigration and national security. And by taking aim at – and holding his ground against – Rubio, Cruz did nothing to stall his burgeoning momentum.
Rand Paul probably came off the worst of all of them on the policy front, with his quasi-isolationist take on handling ISIS being very poorly received.
Gov. Chris Christie returned to the main stage after being relegated to the “kiddie table” at the previous debate.
The candidates also debated whether to implement and enforce a no-fly zone in Syria, where ISIS controls large swaths of territory. I don’t think so.
“Sen. Rubio’s campaign has been running attack ads against me, and I think they’re concerned”, Cruz told CNN after the debate at The Venetian hotel and casino. Ted Cruz talked about purple unicorns.
“This is why the nation is fed up with the political class”. Because you know – Reporter: Some like Dr. Ben Carson struggling to break out of the pack. For a time, he had a lead in Iowa, the site of the first voting test in February.
It was the first debate since the ISIS-inspired terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif., which sparked even more concern over national security in a race that has been dominated by the subject.
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Former Ohio Gov. John Kasich arguably played the smallest role in the debate; he spoke the fewest minutes and wasn’t once mentioned by any of the other candidates. Carly Fiorina, (R) Presidential Candidate.
