Key quotes from Republican primary debate

A Reuters/Ipsos rolling national poll on January 12 showed Trump had 39 percent of the vote, Cruz 14.5 percent, Bush 10.6 percent, Carson 9.6 percent, while 6.7 percent favored Rubio, once viewed by the Republican establishment and many donors as a rising star.

Most of the remaining candidates for the GOP nomination for president will gather here tonight for the second-to-last debate before the February 1 Iowa caucuses. That’s no surprise at this point. “And frankly if you would’ve been there, and if you would’ve lived through that like I did with NY people – the way they handled that attack was one of the most incredible things that anybody has ever seen”.

According to this poll, though… not so much.

Cruz accused Trump of making this an issue because Cruz has been catching up to him in the polls.

In a head-to-head contest between Trump and Rubio, Trump wins, 52 percent to 45 percent. Cruz’s super PAC’s hits on Rubio on immigration haven’t helped.

“Oh I’m very angry”, said Donald Trump in regards to the direction the country is heading.

Cruz is correct: Any child of an American parent is automatically an American citizen, one of the reasons why the questions about Obama’s birth certificate were always fairly meaningless.

Trump continued to raise questions about Cruz’s eligibility to be president – even playing “Born in the U.S.A.” at his rallies.

Seven Republican presidential hopefuls made their case for the nation’s top job during the sixth primetime GOP debate from North Charleston, South Carolina, on Thursday night.

The heated exchanges signaled an end to months of relative civility between Trump and Cruz, both of whom are appealing to Republican voters deeply frustrated with Democrats in Washington and sometimes with their own party leaders.

Cruz defended himself by countering that his ineligibility would also likely result in other candidates including Trump, whose mother was born in Scotland, being ineligible for Presidential office.

For the Democratic side on CNN’s Political Prediction Market, Hillary Clinton is still leading at 81% while Bernie Sanders is slowly gaining, though his odds are just 20%. The criticisms have echoed the so-called “birther” movement, which questioned Barack Obama’s US citizenship. Earlier in the evening, Carly Fiorina, Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum met for the undercard debate, which Rand Paul boycotted. Paul, however, decided not to join the undercard.

Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, Chris Christie, Jeb Bush and John Kasich will join Cruz and Trump at the main event.

Trump is also suggesting the Canadian-born senator may be challenged by Democrats as ineligible to be president.