Rubio responded, as he always does, that a powerful America makes the world a safer place, and called Paul was a “determined isolationist”. Kasich and Trump fought over illegal immigration policy, Rubio went on the defensive by calling Paul a “committed isolationist”, and Kasich argued for a chance to answer someone else’s question.
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Most of the Republican presidential candidates concentrated their efforts Wednesday in Iowa, New Hampshire and SC, all states with early contests.
Trump may have been in the middle of the debate stage, but that didn’t stop him from playing moderator. “I think that’s very different from somebody misinterpreting when I said that I was offered a scholarship to West Point”.
The debate comes at a critical time in the race for the Republican nomination, with retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson and Trump fighting to hold their spot atop polls and Rubio trying to build on the momentum of his last strong debate performance. “I really don’t”, Trump said.
“We all know you can’t pick them up and ship them back across the border”, he said.
And since these debates are not going to be a forum for sorting out the facts from the considerable fictions in a few of the proposed tax plans, it was all good.
“She thinks it’s pretty fantastic but she also thinks it’s normal, she was born during all this stuff going on so we asked her the other day who are her favorite people on Fox News and she said grandma and grandpa”. “We either have a country or we don’t have a country”, he said. He was swiftly taken to task by Ohio Gov. John Kasich. Come on, folks. It’s a silly argument, it’s not an adult argument.
Kasich called it childish, provoking the night’s lone putdown when Trump petulantly said he was worth billions of dollars and didn’t have to listen to Kasich.
After a back and forth between Trump and Kasich, Bush tried to get a word in asking the moderators, “What happened to my time?”. Latecomers to the lineup include Florida Senator Marco Rubio and Texas Senator Ted Cruz.
A sprawling argument over the size and objective of the US military developed later on in the night.
When Trump suggested the US can not be the world’s policeman, Bush said “he is absolutely wrong on this” and the USA needs to be the “world’s leader”.
“The Democrats are laughing – because if Republicans join Democrats as the party of amnesty, we will lose”, Cruz said.
Carly Fiorina is a good debater.
The next GOP Presidential debate is scheduled for December 15 in Nevada. This latest debate gave candidates an opportunity to speak more substantively on issues such as immigration and economics, and distinguish themselves from their rivals. The same was true at the evening debate, where Jindal repeatedly touted his own record cutting spending while challenging executives like Christie and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
“It was bare land, we had no living quarters, no running water.” one deported man explained.
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This debate was headlined as a discussion about the economy, and it provided the framework for much of the interplay.
