Rubio comes under withering criticism in Republican debate

It seemed important to Rubio to establish that Obama’s failings and misdeeds were caused by wrong-headedness rather than any lack of maturity or experience.

Rubio embraced another Bush administration idea: opening the detention center used to house suspected foreign fighters at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

He said he could not “speculate” since he has not seen “the intelligence briefings” that Obama gets.

He said that if elected president, he would introduce legislation that would provide a pathway to legalization, though not citizenship, within his first 100 days in office.

Bush, who as Muir pointed out has in the past has said he “you won’t rule waterboarding out”, seemed to rule it out this time, saying he wouldn’t bring the practice back.

Typically, “carpet bombing” is a term for an intense bombardment of a large area, covering every piece of it like a carpet covers a floor.

On conflict in the Middle East, Cruz stood by his call for “carpet bombing” areas controlled by the Islamic State militant group. “Don’t engage in nation-building”. Then Donald Trump stepped out but missed his cue to come onto the stage, standing alongside Carson while other candidates continued to step out.

“What Trump did was use eminent domain to try to take the property of an elderly woman on the strip in Atlantic City”, Bush said. Bush had his best night, had a good night presenting his own case, but also he nailed Trump on the eminent domain, he took him on, number one, and second, I think that he really landed a blow.

Trump accused Bush of trying to be a “tough guy”. As is his custom after debates, Trump took the high road when asked if he thought Rubio did badly.

From there, Trump and Bush shouted over each other.

“Lemme talk. Quiet”, Trump said. The audience booed. “It’s all of his donors and special interests”, Trump snarked. You can’t get them. “The fact is that we have always believed, as has Ronald Reagan, that we have self defense for women who have been raped and impregnated because of it or been victims of incest and been impregnated for it. I believe that they do not have to deliver that child if they believe that is an act of self defence by terminating that pregnancy”.

The boos went on.

An eighth candidate of note who has been included in the debates since August, Carly Fiorina, was excluded when she did not meet the criteria set by ABC News and the Republican National Committee.

Christie and Rubio went at it again, with Rubio accusing Christie of spending time campaigning when a massive snowstorm hit New Jersey last month.

Christie pounced. “That’s what Washington, D.C., does”, he said, deconstructing the Rubio machine in real-time.

“The question is did he fight for his legislation”. It’s abundantly clear that he didn’t. “That’s not leadership”, Christie continued. “That’s what Congress is”.

Rubio’s responded with an uneven performance that could hurt his bid to emerge as a more mainstream alternative to Donald Trump and Texas Sen.

Earlier in the debate, Senator Rubio, perhaps his party’s most gifted communicator, struggled to defend an immigration bill he co-authored and walked into criticism from rivals that he relies too much on talking points.

– Marco Rubio Glitch (@RubioGlitch) February 7, 2016Here’s the bottom line, this notion that Barack Obama doesn’t know what he’s doing is just not true. Rubio never directly answered the question, but instead repeated that he didn’t want to give away to the U.S.’s enemies what he’d want to do. Cruz said the episode showed the importance of securing the border to keep drugs out. But here’s what I like about Trump: He can handle the negativity from the audience. Cruz continued: “I’ve got somebody in mind to build it”, meaning Trump.

Then, moderators asked him to answer for voicemails, emails, and text messages that his campaign sent out on the night of the Iowa caucuses, reporting that Ben Carson was suspending his campaign.

“What does that tell you?”

“Unfortunately, it did happen”. Turning to face Carson, Cruz said: “When this transpired, I apologized to him then, and I do so now”.

Such ethics ” say if it’s legal, you do what you do to win”, Mr Carson claimed.

Christie. Kasich and Rubio all answered a question about veterans health care.

“You have not been involved in a consequential decision where you had to be held accountable”, Christie said.

The most sustained attack was waged by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, whose presidential dreams depend on outperforming him on Tuesday and who has denigrated Rubio for being controlled by his team.

As a first-term senator with no executive experience, Rubio’s resume is remarkably similar to Barack Obama before he became president.

Christie mocked him for turning to a memorized speech. Christie’s senior strategist Mike DuHaime told Yahoo News that Rubio unquestionably had a “bad” night.