Top 10 Moments from the GOP Debate!

Aside from his poll numbers, he’s seen a top aide get indicted and his father’s former director of fundraising pen a scathing editorial about how the younger Paul was apparently abandoning libertarian principles during his presidential run.

Chris Christie wanted everyone at the first Republican presidential debate of the 2016 cycle to know that he has experience prosecuting terrorists. According to the official Twitter Government account, he was the most mentioned candidate during the GOP debate.

Trump, who dominated headlines with his controversial comments about Mexican illegal immigrants, entered the Quicken Loans Arena Thursday night with a target on his back.

One by one, his opponents said they had never taken Trump money.

The exchanges left a mark.

For longtime watchers of the second-term governor, it was vintage Christie, a throwback to the frequent YouTube moments that marked his rise in the tough world of New Jersey politics. However, his polished performance may also be his downfall. He got the best of Mike Huckabee in a debate on entitlement reform and flat-out embarrassed Rand Paul on civil liberties versus national security.

The campaign also denied that Christie’s statement during the debate amounted to a lie. Nonetheless, he remains confident he has a path forward.

Carson says I’m the only one who has removed a half a brain, but if you go to Washington you might think that someone beat me to it.

What ensued was Christie vs. Paul on security vs. freedom. Christie mocked Paul’s notion as naive that the U.S. could somehow only seek information about terrorists but not normal citizens along the way. Or if that wasn’t quite his point, it was at least his line of reasoning: Obama “abandoned Iraq”;. the Islamic State “was created because of the void that we left”; “to honor the people that died, we need to stop the Iran agreement, for sure”, and “we need to take out ISIS with every tool at our disposal”.

Monmouth University pollster Patrick Murray said the exchange “gave Christie a chance to shine”. “I think there needs to be a substantive debate”. “Part of the reason why there are so many people in the race is because they’re hoping the early front-runners trip over the runway carpet and fall and break their nose”. “Those are the hugs I remember”, Christie said.

Fox’s moderators intentionally tried to undermine the candidates in the first debate by openly demeaning their prospects, despite the fact everyone on that stage had an impressive resume. Still, very few conservatives I interacted with during and after the debate thought Fox was “fair and balanced”. “But I’d say he’s already hedging his bets because he’s used to buying politicians”, thundered Paul. “I am the only person on this stage who has put out a detailed entitlement reform plan”.

“That’s a completely ridiculous answer”, Christie interrupted in an aside to moderator Megyn Kelly.

And even though he faced a heap of skepticism about his plan for 4 percent annual economic growth – which hasn’t been achieved since President Lyndon Johnson was in office – Bush remained sunny and optimistic: “We can do this”, he said.

That was a reference to Christie’s public embrace of the president after he delivered critical relief and rebuilding funds following the devastating impact of Super Storm Sandy on the New Jersey shoreline. “That there are too many in the Washington cartel that support amnesty”.