The overall winners of the 2016 Republican presidential debate in N. Charleston, S.C. were Texas Senator Ted Cruz, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, and Donald Trump, this I expected.
We finally saw Trump and Cruz mix it up between them, as Cruz was able to effectively stave off Trump’s questioning of his presidential electability for being born in Canada.Recent polls have Trump cutting into Cruz’s lead in Iowa, which prompted Cruz to respond by saying that Trump’s birther attacks on him are based on the recent poll numbers.
“Back in September, my friend Donald said he had his lawyers look at this in every which way,” Cruz said. “There was nothing to this birther issue,” adding that “since September, the Constitution hasn’t changed. But the poll numbers have.”
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Cruz then went on to say that one of the birther theories that is being floated is that both parents of a presidential candidate have to be born in the U.S., which according to Cruz, would disqualify him, Trump, and Senator Rubio.
“On the issue of citizenship, Donald, I’m not going to use your mother’s birth against you.”- Sen. Ted Cruz
Both of Rubio’s parents were born in Cuba, while Trump’s mother was born in Scotland. Cruz’s father Rafael was also born in Cuba.Ted Cruz is usually right on the money, very measured when he points out an issue, or delivers an attack against one of this opponents. Cruz seems to have slipped when he accused Trump of having “New York values,” saying that those Americans living in New York tend to have more liberal views. Trump called him out on that accusation, and came out on top with his response to Cruz.
“I saw something that no place on Earth could have handled more beautifully, more humanely than New York,” Trump said. “The people in New York fought and fought and fought. We saw more death and even the smell of death and it was with us for months.”
Trump added, “We rebuilt downtown Manhattan and everybody in the world watched and everybody in the world loved New York and loved New Yorkers. And I have to tell you, that was a very insulting statement that Ted made.”
POW!
Senator Rubio also mixed it up with Cruz, accusing him of flip flopping on his past positions on issues such as immigration.Cruz shot back and pointed out that it was Rubio who stood with liberal Senator Chuck Schumer and President Obama in pushing for the now-infamous Senate “Gang of 8” immigration bill of 2013.
Cruz voted against the Obama agenda, while Rubio supported it.
At one point, Cruz and Rubio really butted heads over immigration. Rubio seemed to have gotten the best of Cruz, but not by much, as Cruz response to Rubio’s attack was limited by the debate moderators.
Here is the exchange:
Rubio: You used to support TPA [trade promotion authority]. Now you say you’re against it…I saw you on the Senate floor flip your vote on crop insurance, because they told you it would help you in Iowa. And last week, we all saw you flip your vote on ethanol in Iowa for the same reason. That is not consistent conservatism — that is political calculation.”“When I am president, I will work every single day to keep this country safe — not call Edward Snowden, as you did, a great public servant…Edward Snowden is a traitor. And if I am president and we get our hands on him, he is standing trial for treason.”
“Every single time there has been a defense bill in the Senate, three people team up to vote against it: Bernie Sanders, Rand Paul and Ted Cruz. In fact the only budget you’ve ever voted for, Ted, in your entire time in the Senate, is a budget for Rand Paul that brags how it cuts defense. Here’s the bottom line, and I’ll close with this: If I’m President of the United States, and Congress tries to cut the military, I will veto that in a millisecond.”
Cruz: “He had no fewer than 11 attacks there…I appreciate your dumping your oppo-research folder on the debate stage. But I will say at least half of the things Marco said are flat-out false.”
“Today, standing on this stage, Marco supports legalization and citizenship for 12 million illegals…I opposed and oppose legalization and citizenship and by the way the attack he keeps throwing out [there] on the military budget, Marco knows full well that I voted for his amendment to increase military spending to $697 billion. What he said — and he said it in the last debate — is simply not true. And as president, I will rebuild the military and keep this country safe.”
As always, Rubio was on his game, and dominated when it came to foreign policy. Sounding ever scripted and rehearsed, Rubio was able to outline just how tough he would be in executing a plan to defeat radical Jihad, and would send captured terrorists to the prison on Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the controversial prison that he vows will stay open under his watch.
An interesting observation to make is that Rubio has moved away from using the term “Islam” or “Islamic” when referring to radical Islamists. Instead, Rubio is using the term “Jihad” or “Jihadists,” which have the same meaning.
While Rubio did great on the issues, but the one issue that continues to haunt him is immigration reform, as the junior Senator from Florida struggled with and dodged moderator Maria Bartiromo’s question on immigration.
Question: Why are you so interested in opening up borders to foreigners when American workers have a hard enough time finding work?
Rubio: The issue is a dramatically different issue than it was 24 months ago. Twenty-four months ago, 36 months ago, you did not have a group of radical crazies named ISIS who were burning people in cages and recruiting people to enter our country legally. They have a sophisticated understanding of our legal immigration system and we now have an obligation to ensure that they are not able to use that system against us.Instead of answering the question, Rubio pivoted to attacking Ted Cruz.
Again, Trump ,Cruz, and Rubio did will. It will be very interesting to see if anyone of them was able to move the needle much in polls to follow.
On another note, Jeb Bush did very well and came of presidential, but it may have been too late to save his campaign.
