Ted Cruz Tries To Fill In As Trump Surrogate At Debate

Trump clashed with moderator Megyn Kelly that time – and avoided a rematch by skipping Thursday’s debate.

With the absence of Donald Trump from the Republican debate stage on Thursday night, much of the attention and criticism was focused squarely on the no-show’s closest rival in Iowa: Ted Cruz.

With 24 million viewers up for grabs, Stephen Colbert made a decision to go after them as hard as he could.

Former Florida governor Jeb Bush and New Jersey governor Chris Christie sucked up lots of the oxygen on offer in the Trump-less vacuum, pitching themselves to voters seeking a moderate alternative.

Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly, a co-moderator at the debate and one of Trump’s chief nemeses, began by asking Ted Cruz to address “the elephant not in the room tonight”. “And hey, Howie, I think I did a smart thing”, Trump told Boston radio host Howie Carr, laughing.

Trump was his typically blustery self Thursday night, but it’s within the margin of possibility that some percentage of Iowa voters take offense at his dissing their only GOP debate in this cycle. Cruz’s joke became one of the standout moments in the first half of the debate, gaining momentum on Twitter among news outlets and average Twitter users alike. During the 2012 campaign, the host used the device to highlight the differences between the newly hard-line conservative Mitt Romney and the far more progressive Mitt Romney who brought universal health care to MA.

CNN obtained Nielsen’s ratings data, which said the Fox News debate pulled in an 8.4 rating.

(AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall). Republican presidential candidates (L-R) retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, and Sen.

We’ll get our first indication on Monday, when the Iowa Caucuses start the 2016 primary season.

For the Republican candidates for president, it was a glimpse of what could have been.

“Clearly Cruz has watched the daily poll trends and he sees an uptick for Rubio and then another uptick”, said Republican California U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, a Rubio surrogate.

Trump enjoys greater support in New Hampshire-recent polls have him up about 19 points over Marco Rubio and John Kasich, who are almost tied in second.

Bush was once considered a shoo-in for the GOP nomination, but his prospects fell as those of Trump rose, and his debate performances sharing the stage with Trump have been fair to lousy.

Fox News Channel would like you to know its GOP presidential candidates debate numbers were, well, huge! “Nobody knows. Who the hell knows”.