GOP rivals mock Trump, try to make the most of his absence

As Thursday night’s Republican presidential debate progressed, it became clear that Donald Trump had pulled the rest of the G.O.P. candidates into his gravitational well, locking them into near-permanent orbit around his personality.

Many thought that Trump’s absence would give Ted Cruz a real chance to shine, but it was Rand Paul who seemed to be most liberated by it. Maybe he was just refreshed from sitting the last debate out, but he seemed like a different person. Cruz handled it well when Fox News moderator Megyn Kelly opened by asking Cruz about “the elephant not in the room tonight”.

Pawlewski said he and his wife once liked watching Kelly – before she asked Trump about his various denunciations of women at the August Republican debate. I didn’t expect that it would diminish both men a little.

But Ford O’Connell, a Republican strategist who is not aligned with any candidate, said Cruz may be too beholden to the conventional ways to win the nomination.

“I don’t think you need to be a politician to tell the truth”, he said.

Rick Santorum, the victor of the 2012 Iowa caucus, said the media sought to “segregate” the candidates and “take Iowans out of the process”. Contributions to the site will go to The Donald J. Trump Foundation, Trump’s nonprofit charitable organization. When Trump’s around, Paul has a hard time hiding his disdain for him and that crankiness has severely hampered him in the other events. “And everyone on this stage is stupid, fat and ugly and Ben (Carson), you’re a bad surgeon”.

Senator Marco Rubio is a distant third, at eight percent, followed by retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson at six percent and former Florida governor Jeb Bush at five percent.

He’s holding his own competing event just three miles away at Drake University in Des Moines to benefit veterans instead – and he’s standing strong on his promise to boycott the mainstage debate over his feud with Fox News.

Fox News was poised to rule television on Thursday night with the Republican presidential debate.

But Trump’s insurgent candidacy has carved new fissures into the party, splitting conservative talk-radio hosts, religious leaders, and Washington pundits, with some sounding the alarm while others implore the party to respond to the anger toward Republican incumbents among voters who are fueling Trump’s rise.

On the campaign trail Wednesday, Cruz challenged Trump to a one-on-one debate, while mocking his rival for his decision to stay away. Cruz said to rousing applause and laughter.

“Bill, you badgered Donald Trump, what’s the matter with you?”

The statement concluded with a show of support for host Megyn Kelly, who Trump has relentlessly attacked and blasted as a “lightweight” journalist.

Wallace replied, “Well, this is a debate…” and Cruz got off his second zinger of the night, quipping, “Gosh, if you guys ask one more mean question I may have to leave the stage”.

Hillary Clinton might do well to brush off the campaign slogan that defined her 2000 campaign for a U.S. Senate seat: “You go, girl!”

Once Trump took the stage at his veterans event, the spike was huge and he completely crushed the competition.

Fox News Channel issued a statement saying Trump had offered to appear at the debate on the condition that Fox contribute $5 million to his charities, which the network said was not possible.

The commercial, which is set to begin airing Friday in Iowa and also will soon debut in New Hampshire, is sponsored by Our Principles, an anti-Trump super political action committee led by Katie Packer, a former aide to 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney.

But in many ways the event was typical Trump.

“Donald Trump, for example – I mentioned his name again if anybody was missing him – Mr. Trump believed in reaction to people’s fears that we should ban all Muslims”.

“He cut and run because it wasn’t popular among conservatives, I guess”, Bush said.