Debate takeaways: Without Trump, spotlight on Cruz, Rubio

“Obviously, Ted Cruz would be the front-runner”.

Instead, Kelly mentioned the Harry Potter character in reference to how the candidates had been treating the frontrunner. Trump has repeatedly questioned the validity of Cruz’s American citizenship. “Did you plan that?”

“It is a debate, sir”, was Wallace’s response.

Google data, however, gave Fox the upper-hand: Search interest for “debate live stream” was 170% higher than searches for “Trump live stream” on Thursday night.

By splicing together footage, he took viewers down memory lane to show that the billionaire has contradicted himself many times in the past. At one point, Cruz even mocked Trump’s absence by joking: “Gosh, if you guys ask me one more mean question, I may have to leave the stage”. Ted Cruz, R-Texas talks after the Republican presidential primary debate, Thursday, Jan. 28, 2016, in Des Mo… “I’m just going off what Ted Cruz’s campaign was saying a few weeks ago”.

Trump’s boycott has injected en element of chaos to the presidential race just days before the February 1 Iowa Caucus.

Trump, who continues to lead in polls in Iowa and elsewhere, held his own event-a benefit for veterans at Drake University. Trump, the statement said, “offered to appear at the debate upon the condition that Fox News contribute $5 million to his charities”.

“He was a little teddy bear to me”, Bush said. “I didn’t know about it. I didn’t know they were doing videos”. “I will tell you what, if she would have attacked me I would have had a much different attitude”, Trump said. It is barely larger than the number the last GOP debate drew on the Fox Business Network, and that is a platform with a smaller reach.

“(The campaign) is not about Donald Trump.

Florida Senator Marco Rubio stood by a previous pledge to shut down mosques where radicalisation is taking place – and promised to tear up the nuclear deal with Iran on “day one” of being president.

“They’ve been very nice and wanted me to go, and apologised and everything”, he said. Those networks aired segments of a Donald Trump rally, which was scheduled after the GOP contender withdrew from the Fox News debate.