GOP candidates gather in Vegas for debate

Republican Candidates on Tuesday criticized front-runner Donald Trump for proposing to ban Muslims from entering the United States and blamed him for hogging the media spotlight with his controversial comments.

APPHOTO NVTS136: Marco Rubio speaks during the CNN Republican presidential debate at the Venetian Hotel & Casino on Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2015, in Las Vegas.

“I am giving them a chance for them to make total fools of themselves in front of millions of people”, Trump said, adding that he was expecting to be attacked. “They are not coming to this country and if I am president and if Obama has brought some [Muslims] to this country they are gone”.

Trump responded by reasoning that family members of domestic terrorists, in some cases, knew that their sons or daughters were going to commit a terrorist attacks but did not stop them or alert authorities. And he’d be a chaos president. And he’d be a chaos president.

“If elected, we will hunt down and kill the terrorists”, Cruz said.

Cruz, who voted against the program, shot back, saying that NSA surveillance is now stronger than it was before. “With Jeb’s attitude we will never be great again”, Trump said, and defended his Muslim proposal.

“We have people across this country who are scared to death”, said Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey on a day when Los Angeles closed its schools out of an abundance of concern after a threat, which later turned out to be false. “How would intentionally killing innocent civilians set us apart from ISIS?” the student asked.

“We are not talking about isolation, we’re talking about security”, Mr Trump said.

“I think the strategy Cruz has is working, bear hugging Donald Trump. Yes, sir. I am”.

Sen. Lindsey Graham of SC, who has staked his campaign on hawkish foreign policy positions, apologized to USA allies in Muslim countries for Trump’s rhetoric and offered a plea to GOP primary voters. I thought – you want to go? He accused Christie of advocating “World War 3” and accused Trump of being opposed to the First Amendment and the Geneva Conventions. “Okay. No small feat”.

Bush interrupted Trump at one point, leading Trump to angrily ask “Are you talking or am I talking?”

Throughout the evening, Bush and Trump engaged in several heated exchanges, often talking over one another in an attempt to gain the upper hand.

“We have people that know what is going on, you take a look at the attack in California the other day, there were numerous people, including the mother, that knew what was going on”. “I think Jeb is a very nice person, a very nice person, but we need toughness”.

The main Republican presidential debate is underway in Las Vegas following a faceoff among four other White House hopefuls in the undercard event. “Donald Trump has done the one single thing you can not do, declare war on Islam…. ISIL would be dancing in the streets, they just don’t believe in dancing”, Graham said.