Trump, Cruz clash in first Republican debate of the year

With just over two weeks until voting begins, Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump and Ted Cruz firmly asserted their standing atop the GOP race in a fiery debate, overshadowing a crowded field of rivals still grappling for a way to overtake the front-runners.

Trump, 69, and Cruz, 45, whom opinion polls have locked in a tight struggle to win the February 1 Iowa caucuses, clashed at several points, befitting their leading-men status.

NY businessman and reality TV star Donald Trump has made questions about Cruz’s eligibility a regular attack line on the campaign trail and the debate stage. “I’m exhausted of seeing what’s going on, people come in, they live, they shoot”.

While President Obama’s State of the Union dominated the news cycle, it was the temporary arrest of ten USA sailors by the Iranian government that led Texas Sen.

“Well, Neil, I’m glad we are focusing on the important topics of the evening”, Cruz said, to laughter and applause. “Everybody in the world watched, and everyone in the world loved NY and loved New Yorkers”, he said.

Cruz also noted some “birther theories” say a candidate must have two parents born on US soil to be eligible to run.

And Cruz, tied with Trump in polls in Iowa, said the mogul was playing up the issue of Cruz’s birth in Canada for political reasons.

Mr Trump, who has proven to be a master at finding a perceived weakness in an opponent, has made an increasing issue of Mr Cruz’s Canadian birth.

“When the World Trade Center came down, I saw something that no place on Earth could have handled more beautifully, more humanely than New York”, Trump said. “There is a big question mark on your head”, Trump said. Among them: Donald Trump, whose mother was born in Europe.

In that speech, Obama sought to offer a more optimistic vision for America’s future and he singled out Mr Trump, without naming him, for calling on the United States to ban Muslims temporarily from entering the country.

Cruz accused Obama of painting a rosy picture of the country’s economic situation while working Americans are being “left behind”. Marco Rubio of Florida and Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey. Thursday’s session, hosted by Fox Business Network, at times was less of a debate than a forum in which the candidates turned every question into an attack on President Obama, Hillary Clinton, or both.

“I think most people know exactly what NY values are”, Cruz said.

“Everyone understands that the values in New York City are socially liberal or pro-abortion or pro-gay marriage, focus around money and the media”, said the senator, explaining what he meant.

Mr. Rubio said that she would be disqualified from heading the United States as the result of her inability to manage intelligence data and being a liar too. “You can not make these rash statements”, Bush said.

Overall, the other candidates were just stage warmers for the real fight between Cruz, Trump and Rubio.

During this debate, Rubio highlighted Christie’s past support for gun control and attacked Cruz’s tax plan, but sidestepped opportunities to criticize Trump. Mr. Bush said in the eventuality of her getting elected; in the first hundred days she would be making multiple trips between the courthouse and the White House.