Rubio likened Christie’s policies to President Obama’s, particularly on guns and education reform – an attack Christie declared false.
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At the debate in the State of South Carolina, Cruz accused Trump of focusing on his birth in Canada because of his strong poll numbers, saying “the Constitution hasn’t changed, but the poll numbers changed”. There’s a big question mark on your head.
Trump last week abandoned his promise not to attack Republican rivals except in retaliation to attack Cruz when polling showed that the latter had either equalled him or pulled ahead in Iowa. Earlier this week, Cruz went after 2016 rival Donald Trump by arguing that the businessman had “New York values” and, thus, wasn’t aligned with Iowa voters.
Trump concluded with a dramatic description of the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
“That was a very insulting statement that Ted made”, Trump said.
Cruz was asked to address the allegations lodged against him – namely by Trump – that his Canadian birth made him ineligible to seek the presidency.
Republican presidential candidates, from left, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Sen.
The Texas senator claimed Mr Cruz’s support for a Senate bill overhauling the country’s immigration laws expanded Barack Obama’s power to let in Syrian refugees.
Unlike most candidates in the GOP race, Rubio has connections to the grassroots activists and the establishment.
Trump and Cruz have been friendly over the past year, until now. His lead in a NBC/Wall Street Journal poll that was released Thursday soared to 13 percent over Cruz.
The top two contenders in the fight to become the next Republican presidential nominee have gone toe-to-toe after months of refraining from attacking each other. “It’s peanuts”, Trump said. I’ll tell you what. “I will gladly accept the mantle of anger”. Trump was steadfast in wanting to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the United States.
Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor, was just OK.
“What kind of signal does that send to the rest of the world?” said Bush, who has struggled to gain any momentum in the race and often appeared overshadowed Thursday night. “But we don’t want to put everybody in the same category”.
While focusing their fury at each other, the candidates also lashed out at Obama and his would-be Democratic successor, Hillary Clinton, in a debate that threatened to make or break some of their campaigns.
The candidates also took plenty of shots at Obama. The former Florida governor said Clinton would be a “national security disaster” who might be shuttling “between the White House and the courthouse”. “Someone who can not handle intelligence information can not be commander in chief”, he said. However, the question remains whether or not the seven candidates on stage will be able to shift the polls heading into the first election contests. “When you’re a senator what you get to do is talk and talk and talk and no one can keep up to see if what you’re saying is accurate or not”, Christie said.
Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum joined Fiorina at the earlier undercard debate.
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Missing from the stage was Rand Paul and Carly Fiorina.
