Republican candidates joke over Trump no-show

“Donald Trump isn’t scared of anything”.

Gilmore, who has not qualified for most undercard debates, mocked Trump’s rival event, as he called himself “the only veteran” running for president this cycle. There was a lot less spectacle and even fewer ad hominem attacks.

Without the billionaire on the stage for the seventh Republican presidential debate, U.S. Sen.

Ben Carson seemed happy to take his place, however. “We’ll focus on the arrogance”, said Craig Lang, a Brooklyn dairy farmer who backs Sen.

There was no Trump pile-on…

After the debate, Cruz and Rubio surrogates traded nearly identical talking points from when the immigration issue first flared up between the two candidates at the fifth GOP debate. “You can’t blame him”, said John Ryan 2nd, a Knoxville community college student. “But if you’re a Republican caucus goer, that’s, like, good stuff”.

A writer for the liberal publication Mother Jones claims she was not allowed in to cover Donald Trump’s rally in Des Moines, Iowa, Thursday night – and she wasn’t the only one. Lord knows, she would have reason to be: After she questioned Trump sharply at the first debate concerning how he talks about women, Trump suggested that she was hormonal. The senator has to hope his own highlights and whatever backlash Trump gets for skipping out (if there is any) can reverse his polling slide.

Trump’s absence put the spotlight on Cruz, and Florida Sen.

Jeb Bush, who has grown increasingly combative with Trump over the months, joked that he wished the real estate mogul was there.

“This is the last interview before people go take a vote, and I think the people of Iowa expected him to be on that stage”, Vander Plaats said of the Des Moines debate. Ted Cruz stood center stage, as Trump opted to sit out the debate and instead host an event at nearby Drake University.

The candidates will only have to wait eight days between now and the next GOP debate. Trump may have been gone, but Trumpism hung in the air.

Cruz, fighting to retake his December lead in Iowa, took a swipe at Rubio, saying he campaigned for the U.S. Senate in 2010 by opposing amnesty for immigrants living in the country illegally, but then flipped his position after being elected.

Trump noted that skipping the debate was a “risk” given that other candidates could have shifted the dynamic of the race in Trump’s absence. The networks provided live coverage of Mr. Trump’s competing event in Iowa – an appearance honoring and raising money for veterans – for about 15 minutes before moving on to round-table discussions and analysis.

“So did you!” Bush responded. “But I did not hear that from Rubio or [Ted] Cruz or any of the other candidates”.

Christie, who has been critical of Cruz’s vote to end the NSA’s bulk data collection program, said the senator’s vote “made the country less safe”. The debate had about 12.8 million viewers during that time block.

Of course, none of this necessarily means that the shifting immigration policies of Republican candidates will satisfy voters.

“He’s the king of saying ‘Oh, you’re for amnesty, everyone’s for amnesty except Ted Cruz, ‘ but it’s a falseness, and that’s an authenticity problem”, Paul said.

But Trump said he wasn’t concerned. There are many potential outcomes, writes David Harsanyi, and every one of them is a disaster for conservatives.

That left an opening for Christie, who argued the debate over esoteric amendments and failed legislation indicted all the senators onstage.

“Stop the Washington bull and let’s get things done!” he said.

In general, the debate was less combative than the last one in SC, which was one of the most contentious of the campaign.