A fellow Republican is investigating whether presidential candidate Ted Cruz released classified information while discussing the National Security Agency during Tuesday night’s debate.
The candidates who now pose the stiffest challenge to Trump – Rubio and Texas Sen.
Though Rubio seemed at times to grab the upper hand, he appeared and sounded somewhat rattled as Cruz portrayed him leaning with liberal such as Senator Chuck Schumer in favoring an amnesty for undocumented immigrants.
The prime-time event also featured New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who said his experience as a federal prosecutor makes him the most experienced in going after terror suspects.
Trump seized on Bush’s dismal standing in recent polls and largely shrugged off the criticism.
Winner: Mr Bush definitely baited Mr Trump into losing his temper, and the former governor held his own in the ensuing exchanges.
It is inconceivable that such a highly educated group of accomplished people know so little about foreign policy, national security and the tortured history of conflict in the Middle East. Yet again and again viewers were subjected to mind-numbingly shallow answers that were beneath most of the candidates who offered them.
Trump, asked to provide details on his proposal to somehow prevent terrorists from using social media, said, “We should be using our brilliant people, our most brilliant minds to figure a way that ISIS can not use the Internet”.
Cruz said he led the fight that was against the amnesty and legalization bill and that claiming the record for the two on the issue were the same was like suggesting an arsonist and firefighter have the same record because the two were at the scene of a fire.
When the topic turned to immigration, however, it was Mr Cruz who went on the offensive, accusing Mr Rubio of backing amnesty for undocumented immigrants in the US.
“If you’re a Republican candidate trying to demonstrate your toughness in opposition to Barack Obama‘s policies, to show that you’re a good Republican, you’re fighting Obama hard, you get why Obama is quote-unquote a failure, which I think is a message that particularly base Republican voters respond to”.
Trump continued, “They’re not coming to this country if I’m president”.
Also on the main stage Tuesday night were former business executive Carly Fiorina, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Kentucky Sen.