Debate brawl: Rubio and Cruz go hard after Trump

Rubio’s team had signaled that he had no intentions of attacking Trump directly, and that he’d instead focus on getting Cruz out of the race first, but this new round of panic over his chances might spur him to gamble on taking Trump on tonight.

Even with his bombast, Trump turned in a more measured performance than usual, defending his moderate positions on Planned Parenthood and retaining popular parts of the Obamacare law, perhaps mindful that he is closing in on a victory in the Republican race.

In Cruz’s announcement speech for president March 23, 2015, Cruz said, “Instead of the lawlessness and the president’s unconstitutional executive amnesty, imagine a president that finally, finally, finally secures the borders”.

Rubio said if Trump hadn’t received a large inheritance, he’d be “selling watches in Manhattan”.

Trump responded by noting that Rubio has not hired anyone in his life. “There’s still an opportunity for Rubio to bring together elements of the electorate that are anti-Trump or open to an alternative, but every day from here on out is another day where that opening gets smaller”.

“The position you’ve taken is an anti-Israel position”, Rubio said.

“Thirty-eight years ago”, Trump said.

“I’ve hired tens of thousands of people”, said in his rejoinder to Rubio.

“Now he’s repeating himself”, Rubio responded.

Trump on Rubio and Cruz: “This guy’s a choke artist and this guy’s a liar”.

“Are you going to ask anybody else a question?” an agitated Trump asked at one point.

A recent poll conducted by The Washington Post and Spanish-language broadcaster Univision shows that Trump is resoundingly unpopular among Latino voters. Romney told FOX News that Trump had a “bombshell” in his taxes suggesting Trump has been dishonest about his tax returns.

Unfortunately for Trump’s critics – and there are many in the Republican Party – his main rivals waited until five days before Super Tuesday to attack him so aggressively in a debate.

Kasich “came across as the adult in the room”, said Jack Pitney, a political-science professor at Claremont-McKenna College in Claremont, Calif.

“Excuse me, he ran one bad campaign”, Trump said.

When Cruz vowed to nominate principled constitutionalists to the bench as president, Trump shot back: “Justice (John) Roberts was strongly recommended and pushed by Ted”. “That is a rough thing and I know Ted feels badly about it”.

Then Trump defended his criticism of Mitt Romney: “He should’ve won that election”, he said, referring to 2012.

The poll surveyed 705 likely Republican primary voters in Florida between February 21-24 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points. “I watched him melt down on the stage like I’ve never seen anybody”. “I seem to have a very good track record when to do go after me”, the NY real estate mogul told NBC.

Standing to the right of Trump, Rubio delivered one blow after another at the billionaire businessman, attacking him on everything from immigration to foreign policy and health care to the businessman’s hiring practices.

“I’ve appointed over a hundred judges in OH and you know what they are?”