Tuesday’s GOP presidential debate on foreign policy could have been sidetracked by front-runner Donald Trump’s trolly talk about temporarily barring Muslims from entering the United States and about fighting ISIS by shutting down parts of the Internet.
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The Las Vegas debate was dominated by national security, reflecting the reshaping of the 2016 presidential contest by the recent attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California.
Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush countered by slamming Trump as a “chaos candidate” and defending comments in which he described the Republican frontrunner as “unhinged”. Cruz was second at 15 percent, followed by retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson at 12 percent, Rubio at 10 percent and Bush at 9 percent.
Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina also leaned heavily on her resume – not only as a corporate chieftain, but as someone grounded on the intricacies of high technology. There is no denying the fact that many people are impressed the way Jeb took on Trump.
“We need a president who is going to understand what actionable intelligence looks like and act on it. And we need a president and a cabinet who understands that the first and most important priority of the president of the United States is to protect the safety and security of Americans”, he said.
“You know I think it’s all been about ratings and saying outrageous things and way more than half of the entire coverage the media has given to the Republican candidates has been about Donald Trump”. But one candidate who disagreed but hasn’t criticized Trump to his face – Texas Sen. “Any time you deal with numbers… the question is, ‘Is that classified or not?’ Or is there an open source reference to it?” A poll from The Washington Post and ABC News conducted entirely after Trump proposed the Muslim ban found support for Trump at 38% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents – up six percentage points from a Post/ABC poll in mid-November.
“I know you’re trying to build up your energy, Jeb, but it’s not working”, he said.
“I don’t think he’s a serious candidate”.
Donald Trump found himself defending his controversial temporary ban of Muslims from entry into the USA early in the fifth Republican debate. But later on, they love me. “They are going. They’re gone” if he becomes president.
The conversation quickly broadened to broader issues of foreign policy and national security.
“We will not be able to do anything on immigration until we first prove to the American people that illegal immigration is under control”, he said.
“When you have number two and number three mixing it up, that’s always good for the front-runner, ‘ he said”. “I think they’re concerned about the momentum our campaign has been getting”. He said that very simply because he has failed in this campaign.
He said that means completing a full 700 miles of fencing on the southwest border, adding 20,000 more Border Patrol agents and requiring all businesses to use E-Verify to check their new hires against government databases.
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Donald Trump, the longtime GOP front-runner, will take center stage at the prime-time event sponsored by CNN and set to begin at 8:30 p.m. ET in the Venetian theater.
