There were plenty of slings and arrows all around, yet Trump did nothing to discourage his fans while watching his main rivals carve each other up.
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“I think most people know exactly what NY values are”, Cruz said.
The Ted Cruz and Donald Trump love story – don’t call it a “bromance”, now that Carly Fiorina’s used the word – is over.
Thursday’s debate comes less than three weeks before the Iowa caucuses kick off this year’s voting.
But what is new from after Thursday night’s debate is the possibility of a Trump/Cruz alliance as we move through the primaries.
During the debate, moderator Maria Bartiromo asked Cruz to explain past comments he had made about Trump embodying “New York values”.
The former secretary of state was mentioned often by all the candidates, and the attacks were often in the form of one-liners.
Moderators asked Cruz, who was born in Canada to an American mother and Cuban father, to respond to Trump’s suggestion that he’s not eligible to be president because he was not born on American soil.
The Texas senator sought to dismiss Trump’s questions about his “natural-born” status as ridiculous by introducing questions about Trump’s own eligibility given the billionaire’s Scottish-born mother. But in this debate he raised a competing theory instead, saying “the more extreme conspiracy theorists” thought someone had to be born in the USA to parents who were also both born in the U.S. “But we cannot afford to have a president of the United States that supports Common Core”.
“Because it wouldn’t work”, Trump quipped.
This was not the only clash between the two men who are leading in Iowa polls as well as in national soundings of the GOP.
Republican front-runners Cruz and Trump tossed aside their past debate detente, opting to hash out GOP party squabbles in full view of millions.
NEW YORK (AP) – When Ted Cruz sneered at what he called Donald Trump’s “New York values”, some New Yorkers took it very personally.
Trump went on the offensive, invoking the terrorist attacks of 9/11 to describe the resilience of New Yorkers.
Some of the crowd loved Trump’s lines; others loudly booed. Sen.
“The Constitution hasn’t changed – but the poll numbers have”, Mr Cruz said.
Trump disputed the notion that his poll numbers are on the decline, specifically in Iowa. But, as the visualization below shows, much of the debate was dedicated to candidates defending their personal records and addressing the records of their competitors.
Later, Christie interrupted a wonky tax policy exchange between Cruz and Rubio by shifting the discussion toward entitlements – and swatting down Rubio’s attempt to interject, saying: “You already had your chance, Marco”. They say the Supreme Court has never ruled on the definition of a natural-born citizen for the purposes of seeking the presidency. “When I’m president if we can get our hands on him, Snowden will be prosecuted as a traitor”. Cruz said that in September, “my friend Donald had had his lawyers look at this from every which way … and there was nothing to this birther issue”. But he spent his time primarily on answering the assertion he had favored lower military spending.
They were joined by Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Ben Carson and John Kasich.
Christie also reprised a popular thrust he had made in earlier debates by referring to the Washington way of debating issues on the floor of the Senate, contrasting it with a governor’s obligation to actually govern.
Rubio likened Christie’s policies to President Barack Obama’s, particularly on guns, Planned Parenthood and education reform – an attack Christie declared false.
“The people in NY fought and fought and fought”, Trump said.
On the economy and national security, the candidates agreed any of them would be better than Obama or Hillary Clinton.
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Trump said he’d rather go back to building buildings.
