The Republican presidential candidates are debated for the fourth time in the 2016 nomination contest, this time in Milwaukee, as they compete to narrow down the wide-open contest.
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He instead struck a conciliatory tone, saying he “didn’t think anybody did poorly”, and noting that the GOP candidates were “getting better” with each passing debate. Twitter said there were more tweets about Cruz than any other candidate. Kentucky Senator Rand Paul vowed to reign in defense spending.
During the debate Tuesday, billionaire businessman Donald Trump declared himself a “stablemate” with Putin because both were on the same TV program – once and thousands of miles (kilometers) apart.
Mr Trump was also booed when he asked of the only woman on stage, the former executive Carly Fiorina, “why does she keep on interrupting everyone?”
Here are a few other takeaways from the Milwaukee matchup.
But if the moderators were to cut to a screen of which Republican voters are more likely to support after the debate, they’d likely get a different answer: It’s complicated.
He went on to tell Kasich that if it was good for President Dwight Eisenhower to deport millions in the 1950s, it would be good for a Trump presidency. “People are going to come in and they’re going to come in legally”.
Kasich derided Trump’s plan to deport 11 million people in the USA illegally, calling the idea “not an adult argument”.
“He’s going to do a great job for you and for this country”, said Trump Jr. And if you think walls don’t work, all you have to do is ask Israel.
“It is not complicated that on the seminal fight over amnesty in Congress, the Gang of Eight bill, that I stood with the American people and led the fight to defeat it”, Cruz said. “We protect the wall, anybody else comes over, they go back”, he said. “They’re doing high-fives in the Clinton campaign right now when they hear this”.
Things candidates would repeal include Obamacare (Fiorina, Rubio, Bush, Trump), Dodd-Frank (Rubio), energy regulations (Paul, Bush).
In a statement, Democratic National Committee spokesperson Christina Freundlich said Rubio “is offering no solutions to provide relief for our country’s immigrants”. Rubio missed the Senate’s Planned Parenthood vote.
Cruz interjected that there’s a way to “split the difference”. “Try not defending it”. Cruz didn’t say it on the debate stage, but Rubio has defended that subsidy – which greatly benefits the Florida-based industry.
Mr Trump replied that he had built a company worth billions of dollars. Cruz said flatly that he would not, for example, give the Bank of America bailout money even if it were teetering on the brink.
There was more substance than style at the Fox Business Networks debates, but there was still plenty of big personality.
It should be interesting to see how Clinton responds to these claims and separates herself from Obama in the coming months.
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“While Carson chuckled, Cavuto grinned, and then said, I will forget that follow-up”. Yet moderators touched only lightly on that topic.
