Clashes over national security at Republican debate

MESA, Ariz. (AP) – Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Wednesday shrugged off the barbs he received at the final GOP debate of the year, saying he’d been prepared for more criticism as the front-runner.

Long, R-Springfield, has not endorsed Trump – or any of his 12 rivals in the White House contest.

He said, “Donald is great at the one-liners but he’s a chaos candidate and he’d be a chaos president”.

Republican voters “didn’t show up for McCain”.

Even though Hewitt spelled out in his question what “triad” means, Trump clearly had no idea what Hewitt was talking about. Now, Rubio today said you can’t attack ISIS without a strong military, and he’s criticizing military spending cuts which Cruz has supported.

She also included congressional testimony suggesting the United States could expand the pool of calls available for screening, and said the information is “all publicly available”.

Paul came into last night’s debate struggling in the polls.

These forces largely and often loudly oppose immigration leniency; indeed many are on board with Trump’s provocative calls for mass deportation and a bar on Muslim arrivals.

Asked about Trump’s controversial statements, Long said much of his rhetoric was “over-hyped hyperbole”.

“Three times he voted against the Defense Authorization Act, which is a bill that funds the troops”, Rubio said of Cruz. “And so one of his amendments was to block citizenship, and he made it just to block citizenship for anybody who entered the country illegally, which I think is exactly right”.

“Would [Trump] make a better president than Hillary Clinton?”.

The Washington Post reported last week that Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus and others met privately to discuss the possibility of a floor fight at the convention if Trump racks up the delegates needed to snag the nomination. Marco Rubio during the debate of nine Republican presidential contenders, argued that the new version of the program covers “nearly 100 percent” of phone numbers to search for terrorists.

Long said he believed Trump, Texas Sen.

Neurosurgeon Ben Carson came in fifth at 7.7 percent, followed by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie at 6.1 percent, and the rest of the field registering less than 3 percent.

Christie has broad appeal because of his status as a governor who has worked across party lines, Long said.

“I’m never eating Oreos again”, he said.

He was not so charitable in his assessment of other GOP contenders.

“And we should direct at the problem, focus on the problem, and defeat radical Islamic terrorism”.

Trump, 69, shot back: “Oh yeah, and you’re a tough guy, Bush”, noting Bush’s falling standing in the polls and his resulting move down toward the end of the debate stage.