Fight night: Personal attacks, court debate for GOP hopefuls

“The point is, is he a popular Republican?”

Marco Rubio, R-Fla., embraces his wife Jeanette Dousdebes Rubio after the CBS News Republican presidential debate at the Peace Center, Saturday, Feb. 13, 2016, in Greenville, S.C.

The debate comes a week before the SC primary, the first test of the candidates in a diverse state and in the solidly Republican southern U.S.

This video includes clips from ABC, Marco Rubio for President, Donald J. Trump for President, Inc.

Scalia’s death thrust the future of the high court into the center of a heated presidential campaign.

Only Jeb Bush said Obama had “every right” to nominate a justice during his final year in office.

The five other candidates on the stage urged the Republican-led Senate to block any attempts by the president to get his third nominee on the court. As I said in my earlier post, Trump’s performance tonight may hurt him down the road.

“It’s called delay, delay, delay”, he said.

Clinton has the support of 59% of likely Democratic primary voters in SC, which is a lead that has narrowed slightly from last month, according to CBS.

Ted Cruz, calling him the “single biggest liar” on the stage.

Trump openly accused the Bush administration of knowingly lying about the presence of weapons of mass destruction in order to justify an invasion of Iraq in 2003, a step beyond anything that most Democrats, let alone any Republican, have said.

The debate became testy on the issue of national security, with Trump attacking Bush based on the record of his brother, George W. Bush, who served as president before Obama.

Trump was relentless in badgering Bush, even saying Jeb’s mother should have been the Bush candidate instead.

Mr. Bush will appear with his older brother, the 43rd president, at a campaign event Monday in the Palmetto State, where voters could winnow the GOP field on February 20.

GOP candidate Ohio Gov. John Kasich told NBC the debate was “like a demolition derby, but the good news is my car’s still going around the circuit”. “I think we’re fixing to lose the election to [Democratic front-runner] Hillary Clinton”, he said.

The governor’s warnings did little to deter his feisty colleagues. Cruz called the immigration bill Rubio co-sponsored in 2013 an “amnesty plan” and said the Floridian told the Univision network, in Spanish, that he would not reverse President Barack Obama’s immigration changes.

“I also feel I’m a common-sense conservative, because some of the views I don’t agree with”, Trump said.

Rubio entered the debate under huge pressure following his disappointing fifth-place finish in the New Hampshire primary. While he’s sought to shed some of his reliance on well-rehearsed talking points in recent days, the debate will be a prime test of whether he can rebound.

During Saturday’s contest, Rubio defended his proposed 25 percent corporate tax rate – which is not as much of a tax cut as many of his rivals are pitching.

“He either wasn’t telling the truth then or he isn’t telling the truth now, but to argue he is a purist on immigration is just not true”, Rubio said. Many GOP leaders believe both would be unelectable in November. There was a sombre moment to mourn the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.

Cruz cast the moment in stark terms, saying allowing another Obama nominee to be approved would amount to Republicans giving up control of the Supreme Court for a generation.

If Jeb Bush’s campaign ends in SC, he’ll end it fighting on principle.

Candidate John Kasich advised the president to hold off on selecting a successor to Scalia, saying it would further divide the country.