Sparks fly at the Republican Debate in Charleston

Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speaks during the Fox Business Network Republican presidential debate at the North Charleston Coliseum, Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016, in North Charleston, S.C.

Both candidates, one a billionaire developer with no political experience and the other a U.S. Senator from Texas with a reputation for clashing with his Washington D.C. colleagues, stood center stage Thursday night and, for the most part, dominated the proceedings.

Christie delivered the strongest debate performance of the establishment candidates as he touted his record as a governor and let his no-nonsense New Jersey spirit shine. At first the crowd seemed to be behind Cruz in his duel with Trump, but it later seemed to be with Rubio when he went after Cruz. And Trump, in particular, may have had his finest debate performance. They were making their last best-televised appeal until they meet in Iowa to debate just days before the caucuses in that state kick off the actual voting season on February 1. “It’s The New York Times, said Trump, “they are always wrong”. Said Cruz, “Everyone understands that the values in New York City are socially liberal… focused around money and the media”.

“I think most people know exactly what NY values are”, Cruz said.

Cruz raised the specter of Trump’s “New York values” after the real-estate mogul brought up Cruz’s birth in Canada nearly daily for two weeks. And some responded about the way you’d expect New Yorkers to react. “That was a very insulting statement that Ted made”. In response, Cruz pointed out that Trump was only pursuing the birther issue as a means of retaliating against Cruz’s rise in the polls.

“The Constitution hasn’t changed”, Cruz quipped.

Pressed on whether he regretted his call to bar Muslims from entering the U.S., Trump had a one-word answer: “No”.

For the first time this year, Republican presidential hopefuls sparred in a two-and-a-half-hour debate hosted by Fox Business.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who has emerged as a frequent critic of Trump, urged the front-runner to reconsider the policy.

“All Muslims? Seriously? What kind of signal does that send to the rest of the world?” Bush said. “What we need to do is destroy ISIS”. The other Arab countries have a role to play in this.

“I guess the bromance is over”, Donald Trump concluded in an interview on CNN after the Republican debate, reflecting on a relationship that might never be the same again.

None did. But not for lack of trying. Trump leads the field at 30.2 percent.

It’s notable that Christie’s best moments came as he battled Rubio, as the two have been sparring for support in New Hampshire where Christie is on the rise. Kasich called for unity. In that scenario, Cruz was at 31 percent; while Rubio was at 26 percent.

Rubio likened Christie’s policies to President Obama’s, particularly on guns, Planned Parenthood and education reform – an attack Christie declared false.

“That is not consistent conservatism”, Rubio said. “And you can’t do that to the party….you have to have certainty”.

They also monitored the top questions searched about the candidates in the early debate and the main debate.

“She’s under investigation with the FBI right now”, Bush said, adding that the country should avoid a situation with a president who “might be going back and forth between the White House and the courthouse”. He argued that the fact he had left it out of his FEC report was simply a “paperwork error”. He also accused her of telling “lies” to the families of victims in the attack on the US outpost in Benghazi. “What do you do, concede the election to Hillary or insane Bernie?”

There was little love for Clinton’s rival, Bernie Sanders.

Republican presidential candidate, Sen.