Republican debate: The best lines from the GOP event, Trump’s veterans benefit

Christie used the opportunity to bash both senators Rubio and Cruz for using what he described as Washington double-speak.

Trump has accused Fox and other networks that have carried the Republican debates of taking advantage of him by boosting their advertising rates for the half dozen debates that have been held. But Bush held his own and Kasich annoyed as always. The crowd gave one of the bigger cheers of the night when moderator Chris Wallace referred to Gov. Terry Branstad. But the exchange just served to remind Iowa caucusgoers that the longest-serving governor in history thinks Cruz is unfriendly to one of Iowa’s important industries. “I’ve enjoyed that. All the online polls said I’ve done very well with that, with the debates”. He said immigration reform efforts died in Congress after Rubio “cut and run because it wasn’t popular with conservatives… he cut and run and that’s a tragedy”. Paul said Cruz had been inconsistent when discussing what to do with the 11 million immigrants in the country illegally.

Christie is part of a crowded field of more mainstream candidates who have struggled to break through in an election year where Trump, and increasingly Cruz, have tapped into voter anger with the political system. “And Ben, you’re a bad surgeon”, Cruz said.

Ted Cruz, who is competing with Trump for the lead in Iowa. Then he thanked his fellow candidates for showing Iowa voters respect by showing up.

In an interview Thursday night with five reporters aboard his plane on the tarmac at Des Moines International Airport, Donald J. Trump said he had had “many” conversations with Fox News’s chief, Roger Ailes, in the past 48 hours about whether he would participate in the debate.

Donald Trump laughs as Rick Santorum jokes at an event in support of veterans at Drake University in Des Moines.

Trump abruptly pulled out of the debate earlier this week, alleging unfair treatment from host Fox News. When you got to the Senate … you said on the issue of people here illegally, we can reach a compromise.

Rubio said he would send captured terrorists to the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba that President Barack Obama has vowed to close “and we’re going to find out everything they know”. We can not afford a president who will run away when things get tough or just because they don’t like the hand they were dealt.

Paul – back on the main debate stage after being downgraded to an undercard event because of low poll numbers earlier this month – warned against closing down mosques. A proponent of a more isolationist foreign policy, Paul also raised concerns about the USA getting involved militarily in Syria, where the Islamic State group has a stronghold.

The candidates largely sidestepped direct confrontations with each other, focusing some of their most pointed attacks on Democrat Hillary Clinton.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie made another appeal for blue-collar voters anxious about security.

About halfway through the event, Trump yielded the stage for Staff Sgt. John Wayne Walding, an Afghanistan war veteran who lost his leg to sniper fire, and who spoke powerfully about his experience overseas and about coping with the aftermath of war at home.

Without the specter of Trump, the man against whom the other candidates could direct their attacks, it seemed that Rubio and Cruz were fishing for a fight. Party leaders have grown increasingly antsy for some of the more traditional candidates to step aside after the first contests to allow one to rise up and challenge for the nomination.

But I have to admit, I kept shifting my attention whenever I thought I could get away with it to the screen showing Donald Trump’s counterprogramming event for veterans. The first vote hasn’t been counted. “They don’t think they work for us”.

Bush argued against a Puerto Rico bailout, but said the island’s residents should be free to vote in favor of statehood, which he would personally support. “That’s the way it is”.

If Trump wins the Iowa caucuses, the move will be lauded as proof that he has built a movement capable of circumventing establishment media.