Republicans take debate stage in race reshaped by attacks

The debate hosted by CNN, which lasted more than two hours at the Venetian in Las Vegas, focused nearly exclusively on foreign policy.

Republican presidential candidate Sen.

Trump is “great at the one-liners”, Bush added, “but he’s a chaos candidate and he’d be a chaos president”.

What he has to gain: Some think Marco Rubio may ultimately be one of the strongest GOP contenders, but his polling has remained flat since the last debate.

Donald Trump who has been the surprise leader of the Republican presidential race, has only gained i …

With seven weeks to go before the first nominating contest in Iowa, Trump, 69, has held or expanded his lead in national polls in the Republican race for the November 2016 presidential election but seen Cruz, 44, move past him in some Iowa surveys, making their debate encounter potentially combustible. Ted Cruz, who had 15 percent.

Mr Trump exuded confidence Monday night at a Las Vegas rally.

Update: Clarified that CNN has been vague about when exactly the debate, rather than its coverage of the debate, will begin. Now he’s dealing with the firestorm from his proposal to temporarily bar all Muslims from entering the United States.

Asked about Cruz, Trump said he had gotten to know him. Where his critics see bigotry, they see common sense.

An undercard debate featuring four lower-polling candidates – Lindsey Graham, Mike Huckabee, George Pataki and Rick Santorum – will unfold before the main event, from 2300 GMT. Ohio Gov. John Kasich derided it all as “too much noise”. Marco Rubio, particularly over the issue of national security.

“Donald, you’re not going to be able to insult your way to the presidency”, he said.

Tuesday night’s debate was the first for Republicans since the attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California, which heightened fears of terrorism in the United States. The attacks have ignited a political debate about President Barack Obama’s campaign to defeat ISIS in the Middle East and the nation’s security posture in preventing attacks in the U.S. He continues to make controversial comments that might disqualify more traditional candidates, including his recent call for a ban on Muslims entering the U.S.

Trump insisted he wasn’t seeking to discriminate against Muslims.

“We are not talking about isolation, we’re talking about security”, he said. We’re talking about security.

Trump responded that Bush did not really believe that he was unhinged.

“For God’s sakes, pick somebody who is worthy of the sacrifice of those who are fighting this war and who actually knows how to win”, Graham said, imploring Republicans not to nominate Trump.

The men first clashed over ending the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of American phone records, with Rubio accusing Cruz of weakening US ability to track terrorists and Cruz insisting that the new law, the USA Freedom Act, made it possible for the government to access cellphones and other technology that terrorists use.

According to the RCP average, no other candidate gets the support of more than 4% of likely voters. More Cruz: “If I’m elected President we will hunt down and kill the terrorists”.