US 2016 Election:Republican debate turns dirty
The Republican presidential race got dirty Thursday
night.
Donald Trump opened the GOP debate here by boasting
about the size of his genitals. He responded to recent comments from Marco
Rubio in which the Florida senator joked about the size of Trump's hands and
said "you know what they say about men with small hands."
On the debate stage, Trump stretched his hands out
for the audience to see -- then insisted the suggestion that "something
else must be small" was false.
"I guarantee you there's no problem," Trump
said to howls from the audience at the Fox debate.
It was perhaps the most surreal moment yet in a
presidential race that has already been dominated by unprecedented drama and
personal attacks. Trump went into the debate after spending the day in a heated
war of words with the party's 2012 nominee, Mitt Romney.
Romney, who has blasted Trump for days, delivered
a sharp condemnation of Trump earlier Thursday -- a deeply unusual move for
a former presidential nominee.
He hit back during the debate, calling Romney an
"embarrassment" to the GOP.
"He was a failed candidate, he should have
beaten President Obama very easy. He failed miserably and it was an
embarrassment to everybody," Trump said. "I guess obviously he wants
to be relevant, he wants to be back in the game."
During a rally in Maine earlier Thursday, Trump
blasted Romney for "begging" for his endorsement.
"I don't know what happened to him," Trump
said. "You can see how loyal he is. He was begging for my endorsement. I
could have said, 'Mitt, drop to your knees.' He would have dropped to his
knees."
With Trump emerging as the undisputed GOP
front-runner, many party leaders and insiders insist he's not a true
conservative. They also worry that Trump's inflammatory rhetoric on immigration
could permanently unravel the GOP's efforts over the years to reach out to
Latinos and other minorities.
But even as Romney and others try to lead the effort
to stop Trump, the belated push may only reinforce the real estate mogul's
appeal as his supporters have already shown their deep loathing for
establishment figures.
Amid the GOP establishment's revolt against Trump,
all three of Trump's rivals pledged on the debate stage to support the party's
eventual nominee even if that ends up being Trump.
Trump, who has repeatedly threatened the possibility
of launching a third-party bid should he feel that the party is treating him
unfairly, also said he would back whoever the party crowns.
"The answer is, yes, I will."
The debate comes as the GOP field is quickly
winnowing. When Trump took the debate stage for the first time in August, 17
candidates were seeking the Republican nomination. Eight months later, Trump is
the undisputed front-runner and is on stage with just three rivals: Rubio, Ted
Cruz and John Kasich.
The candidates met two days after Trump dominated the
Super Tuesday contests, notching seven victories and picking up hundreds of new
delegates. Cruz, who kicked off the GOP primary season by winning the Iowa
caucuses, added three victories on Tuesday, including in his delegate-heavy
home state of Texas. Rubio also got his first win of the season, coming in
first in Minnesota's caucuses.
Trump fielded attacks from Cruz and Rubio throughout
the night.
Rubio, who is banking on winning his home state of
Florida on March 15, went after the GOP front-runner for selling products made
in China and Mexico.
Trump shot back: "This little guy has lied so
much about my record. He has lied so much about my record."
Rubio, seemingly amused by the new nickname he's
earned, accused Trump of being incapable of having a substantive policy debate.
"You see what happens again when you challenge him on a policy
issue?" Rubio said. "The first thing he does is launch an attack on
some little guy thing."
"Don't worry about it, little Marco," Trump
quipped.
Cruz, as he has done for weeks, also seized the
spotlight to hit Trump for having supported and donated money to Democrats in
the past.
"For 40 years, Donald has been part of the
corruption in Washington that you're angry about. And you're not going to stop
the corruption in Washington by supporting someone who has supported liberal
Democrats for four decades," Cruz said.
Trump was put on the spot about a recent report from
BuzzFeed that indicated he was flexible on his immigration policy proposals during
an interview with The New York Times editorial board earlier this year.
In a revealing moment, Trump didn't deny that he may
be willing to take a softer stance on deporting the millions of undocumented
people living in America, an idea that has been central to his hardline
immigration platform.
"Sometimes you ask for more than you want and
you negotiate down to the point. I may have discussed something like that with
Yhe New York Times," Trump said. But he insisted that those discussions
were off the record, an agreement he said he would honor.
"I would not do that," he said when
moderator Megyn Kelly asked whether he would release the recordings from the
meeting. "I have too much respect."
Rubio and Cruz called on Trump to release the tapes
for the sake of transparency.
"That's not up to The New York Times. That's up
to you, Donald," Rubio said.
"Simply release the tapes," Cruz said.
"If in fact you went to Manhattan and you said, 'I'm lying t There was
also a tough exchange over Trump's business record, especially the
controversial "Trump University." Thousands of students signed up for
a course that the businessman promised would "teach success," but
there are now multiple lawsuits that claim
that the course scammed students across the country while Trump took in
tens of millions of dollars.
Trump argued that he is confident he will win these
lawsuits, and that "many of the people that are witnesses did tremendously
well and made a lot of money by taking the course." He also claimed to
have offered refunds to dissatisfied customers.
Rubio claimed that he spoke to one former student
this week, who said they spent thousands of dollars to participate in Trump
University, only to get "stuff they can pull off of Zillow."
"He's making promises he has no intention of
keeping, and it won't just be $36,000 that they'll lose. It's our country
that's at stake here," Rubio said. "He's trying to con people into
give him their vote, just like he conned these people into giving him their
money."
Trump was also on the defensive throughout the
evening for changing his stance on issues such as the Iraq War and whether to
accept Syrian refugees into America.
The real estate developer argued that it is important
for leaders to be "flexible." On why he initially said Syrian
refugees should be allowed to enter the United States before changing his mind,
Trump said he initially believed that the migration consisted of only a
"very small number" of refugees.
"When I first heard the question," Trump
said, "the migration had just started. I was very much like -- OK."
This gave an opening for Kasich, who has been
reticent to attack Trump, to make a clear dig at the front-runner.
"Politicians all the time tell (voters) what they want to hear, and then
they go to Washington ... and they don't deliver on those promises,"
Kasich said.
Rubio also jumped in.
"There's a difference between flexibility and
telling people whatever you think you need to say to get them to do what you
want them to do," he said.
The colorful zingers continued throughout the two
hours, with Rubio showing off his improvisational skills.
Trump and Cruz tangled in a heated exchange on
nominating conservative Supreme Court justices, with Cruz repeatedly asking
Trump to "breathe, breathe, breathe." Rubio turned to ask the
moderators: "When they're done with the yoga, can I answer a
question?"
"You cannot. I really hope that we don't see
yoga on that stage," Cruz said.
Rubio responded with this joke about Trump:
"Well he's very flexible, so you never know."
o the American people,' the American people have a
right to know."
CNN
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