Ohio Governor John Kasich criticized the idea of shipping people across the border though, with estimates of at least 11 million people living in the USA illegally.
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Kasich also skirmished with – and prevailed over – Jeb Bush as the two sought to interrupt early in the debate. Perhaps it was the more expansive time allotted for answers and rebuttals, or the moderators.
The fourth Republican debate of the 2016 presidential election had the distinct feel of, well, a real debate. “It makes no sense”. But he doesn’t support deporting immigrants.
“So people will face ramifications if they don’t leave, if they harbor them?”
“Think about the families”.
Asked if Mr. Carson is qualified to be president of the United States, Mr. Trump said: “Well, I don’t want to say”. Rubio punched back: “They are coming to us, ” he said of terror cells in the Middle East. “It’s not an adult argument”.
No clear victor emerged but no-one had a disastrous debate. Kasich rebutted the charge.
Carson has faced a rough week of scrutiny about whether he embellished key aspects of his biography, while Rubio, 44, is under pressure to show he can fight off recent criticism of his inexperience as he tries to unseat fellow Floridian Bush as a favorite of the party’s mainstream.
He said the government must first prove to the American people that “illegal immigration numbers are down significantly” and then “modernize our legal immigration system so that it’s merit-based”.
Trump responded affirmatively: “You’re going to have a deportation force, and you’re going to do it humanely, and you’re going to bring the country – and, frankly, the people, because you have a few excellent, wonderful people, a few fantastic people that have been here for a long period of time”.
“That’s very different from, you know, somebody misinterpreting when I said that I was offered a scholarship to West Point”.
But Kasich prevailed, telling Trump: “Little false little things, sir, they really don’t work when it comes to the truth”, Kasich said.
“I built an unbelievable company, worth billions and billions of dollars”.
And the Milwaukee crowd booed.
That’s especially true after Rubio gave another strong showing punctuated by his handling of an attack from Rand Paul who attacked Rubio as not “a conservative” for advocating greater military spending. I don’t see how anything gets a whole lot fairer than that. “But we cannot [raise the minimum wage] if we are going to compete with the rest of the world, we just can’t do it”. Philosophy doesn’t work when you run something.
“This is clearly not something we were not planning on doing today”, Donald Jr. said.
“My argument is going forward the banks have to reserve the capital….”
“It would tear communities apart and it would send a signal that we’re not the kind of country I know America is”, said Bush, who is fifth in the polls.
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The candidates at one point argued over who has gotten to know Vladimir Putin best, so they could hate him the most; Cruz and Rubio had small, uncharacteristic flubs; Trump looked more flustered than he has in the past.
