Seven Republican candidates clashed over immigration, border security and government surveillance in the final Republican presidential debate before the Iowa caucuses, yet found their messages overshadowed by Donald J. Trump’s boycott of the event.
His absence left the other Republicans with the most at stake in Iowa, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, trying mightily to dominate the debate with policy-driven arguments rather than lose the spotlight to a phantom candidate.
Mr. Cruz, who has fallen behind Mr. Trump in polls here, portrayed himself to the state’s many evangelical conservatives as one of their own and seized chances to try to undercut Mr. Trump as well as Mr. Rubio, who is hoping to upset him with a surprise second-place finish. Mr. Rubio made his own hard sell as the best-suited Republican to take on the leading Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton.
Mr. Cruz and Mr. Rubio had one of their fiercest exchanges of the race over their records on illegal immigration after the Fox News moderators ran a particularly damning compilation of clips in which Mr. Cruz said he was seeking “common ground” and “middle ground” on immigration reform, phrases that are politically toxic to many conservatives.
“This is the lie that Ted’s campaign is built on,” Mr. Rubio said, arguing that Mr. Cruz had supported providing legal status to undocumented immigrants.
Mr. Cruz hit back by calling Mr. Rubio “very charming and very smooth,” but saying that he had never supported citizenship for illegal immigrants, and that he had backed immigration positions that were supported by some of the most conservative Republicans, like Representative Steve King of Iowa.
The absence of Mr. Trump made for a strange start to an off-kilter evening. More widely watched and crowded with candidates than in previous election years, this cycle’s debates have frequently descended into shouting matches, dueling insults and, in Mr. Trump’s case, frequent mockery of his rivals as listless, flailing and even ugly.
The first debate, in August, revealed Mr. Trump to be an unpredictable force as he bashed one of the moderators, Megyn Kelly, the Fox News talk-show host whose participation on Thursday night was Mr. Trump’s reason for skipping.
Ms. Kelly began the questioning by noting “the elephant not in the room” and lobbed a softball question to Mr. Cruz about the missing Mr. Trump, giving him an opportunity at the top of the debate, when the most viewers were watching, to speak directly to Iowans with the caucuses nearly at hand. It amounted to an in-kind contribution from Fox News to the Cruz campaign as the senator portrayed Mr. Trump as an unserious insult artist not fit for high office.
“I’m a maniac, and everyone on this stage is stupid, fat and ugly — and Ben, you’re a terrible surgeon,” Mr. Cruz said, recalling some of Mr. Trump’s gibes, including his suggestion that Ben Carson, a renowned neurosurgeon, had been a mediocre physician.
“Now that we’ve gotten the Donald Trump portion out of the way,” Mr. Cruz continued, before being interrupted by laughter and applause. “I want to thank everyone here for showing the men and women of Iowa the respect to show up.”
While attacking Mr. Trump was a recurring theme of the night, Mrs. Clinton was also a favorite target, as the candidates tried to showcase themselves to Iowans as her strongest foes. Mr. Rubio, briskly dismissive of Mr. Trump (“He’s an entertaining guy”), pivoted to Mrs. Clinton and warned that she would continue President Obama’s agenda, as she has promised to do. He noted that Mrs. Clinton even indicated this week that she would consider appointing Mr. Obama to the Supreme Court.
“Hillary Clinton cannot win this election,” Mr. Rubio said.
Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, who has not been shy about lashing his Republican rivals at past debates, also trained his fire on Mrs. Clinton as he tried to project a positive message about Republican leadership. Asked whether Mr. Cruz and Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky were qualified to be president in light of their support for curbs on the National Security Agency’s surveillance practices, Mr. Christie quickly said he disagreed with their views and then moved on.
“Let me tell you what the country should really be worried about,” Mr. Christie said, before bringing up Mrs. Clinton’s email practices as secretary of state.
While the concerns and values of Iowans were an ongoing motif at the Iowa Events Center here, with the debate coming four days before the caucuses, several candidates who are far behind in the polls sought to look beyond the Iowa vote. Former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida brought up the needs of New Hampshire voters, who have their primary on Feb. 9. Gov. John Kasich of Ohio, also hoping to appeal to viewers in New Hampshire as much as in Iowa, argued that he would be the best steward of the nation’s economy, given his record of creating jobs and a budget surplus in his state.
Mr. Paul, hoping for a surprise performance in Iowa or New Hampshire, made some of the sharpest attacks against the Republicans who were on the stage with him. Trying to appeal to both libertarian-leaning Republicans and the broader conservative primary electorate, Mr. Paul called a past suggestion from Mr. Rubio that the country might have to consider shutting down mosques “a huge mistake,” but also attacked Mr. Rubio for his support of an immigration overhaul in 2013.
“He made a deal with Chuck Schumer that he would oppose any conservative amendments,” Mr. Paul said, referring to a Democratic senator from New York and noting that Mr. Rubio had tried to file an amendment to the bill. “Marco can’t have it both ways. You can’t be in favor of defending us from radical Islam if you’re not supporting border security.”
Mr. Rubio said that Mr. Paul’s amendment had been wrongheaded and added, “When I am the president of the United States, if we don’t know who you are and why you’re trying to come to the United States, you’re not going to get in.”
Even well after the opening question, Mr. Cruz was trying to make hay out of Mr. Trump’s absence. As he had in previous debates, he sought to get into a fight with the debate moderators — but this time, he came with a line reminding viewers of who was not there.
“If you guys ask one more mean question, I may have to leave the stage,” Mr. Cruz said, drawing fewer laughs from the crowd than he might have expected.
Sensing that Mr. Cruz’s line had fallen flat, Mr. Rubio jumped in and won applause: “I’m not leaving the stage no matter what you ask me.”
Mr. Bush mocked his Republican rivals at one point for trying to act tough against Mr. Trump, noting that he had been the first to wrangle with Mr. Trump in last year’s debates. “Everyone else was in the witness protection program when I went after him,” Mr. Bush said.
Mr. Trump’s will-he, won’t-he debate stunt was only the latest instance of his attention-getting showmanship, but perhaps the most daring, given how closely it preceded the Iowa caucuses.
In the days leading up to the debate, Mr. Cruz sought to portray Mr. Trump’s withdrawal as an affront to Iowans, suggesting it was tantamount to skipping a job interview.
“What does it say when Donald tells the men and women of Iowa, ‘My time is more important than your time?’ ” Mr. Cruz asked at a rally Wednesday in West Des Moines.
But Mr. Trump earned a measure of cover in the state on Thursday when its long-serving Republican governor, Terry E. Branstad, declined to criticize him for his decision.
Mr. Branstad did say he would not have advised Mr. Trump to skip the debate, but he pointed out that it was not Mr. Trump’s first unconventional campaign move. “He’s held up through all of this,” Mr. Branstad added, a touch of wonder in his voice.
He is not the only Republican in a state of amazement about the race.
While Mr. Trump has dominated the Republican campaign for months, enjoying a wide lead in national surveys, the race has been far more competitive in Iowa, where evangelical Christians may make up a majority of Republican caucusgoers.
That is in large part because of questions about how many voters will participate. About 121,500 Iowa Republicans cast votes in the 2012 caucuses, a number that most in the state expect to be exceeded on Monday. The question is by just how much.
Mr. Trump’s lead is significantly higher under polling models that project a turnout above 150,000. The race narrows substantially when turnout is projected closer to 130,000.
Mr. Cruz’s campaign expects turnout to be in the range of 135,000, perhaps reaching as many as 150,000. But other Republicans here think it could go even higher, pointing to the thousands of attendees at Mr. Trump’s rallies in the state. The larger the number, the better Mr. Trump is likely to do, most here believe, because that would reflect a wave of voters new to the caucus process.
Mr. Cruz had been uneasy about getting locked in an ugly battle with Mr. Trump, and resisted airing negative ads against him until this week. Now, though, Mr. Cruz and his allies are running a battery of commercials attacking Mr. Trump over his views on eminent domain and abortion, and playing a clip from late last year in which Mr. Trump asked “how stupid” Iowans could be.
Mr. Cruz’s urgency has grown each day. He warns that a vote for anybody but him in Iowa is effectively a vote for Mr. Trump, and that Mr. Trump may steamroll his way to the nomination if he is not defeated in the caucuses here.
But in a sign of how volatile the race has become, Mr. Cruz also quietly began airing an ad in Iowa on Thursday assailing Mr. Rubio over his support of “amnesty” for immigrants who are in the country illegally.
Mr. Cruz’s pivot to confront his fellow senator underscores the degree to which he is fighting a two-front war in Iowa. He is furiously trying to portray Mr. Trump as an inauthentic conservative while also scrambling to tamp down an emerging threat from Mr. Rubio.
After hovering in single digits for months in Iowa, Mr. Rubio has moved into the teens in many surveys here. If he were able to finish close behind the runner-up, or even climb into second place, it would give him an important burst of momentum going into New Hampshire.
Source : New York Times
His absence left the other Republicans with the most at stake in Iowa, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, trying mightily to dominate the debate with policy-driven arguments rather than lose the spotlight to a phantom candidate.
Mr. Cruz, who has fallen behind Mr. Trump in polls here, portrayed himself to the state’s many evangelical conservatives as one of their own and seized chances to try to undercut Mr. Trump as well as Mr. Rubio, who is hoping to upset him with a surprise second-place finish. Mr. Rubio made his own hard sell as the best-suited Republican to take on the leading Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton.
Mr. Cruz and Mr. Rubio had one of their fiercest exchanges of the race over their records on illegal immigration after the Fox News moderators ran a particularly damning compilation of clips in which Mr. Cruz said he was seeking “common ground” and “middle ground” on immigration reform, phrases that are politically toxic to many conservatives.
“This is the lie that Ted’s campaign is built on,” Mr. Rubio said, arguing that Mr. Cruz had supported providing legal status to undocumented immigrants.
Mr. Cruz hit back by calling Mr. Rubio “very charming and very smooth,” but saying that he had never supported citizenship for illegal immigrants, and that he had backed immigration positions that were supported by some of the most conservative Republicans, like Representative Steve King of Iowa.
The absence of Mr. Trump made for a strange start to an off-kilter evening. More widely watched and crowded with candidates than in previous election years, this cycle’s debates have frequently descended into shouting matches, dueling insults and, in Mr. Trump’s case, frequent mockery of his rivals as listless, flailing and even ugly.
The first debate, in August, revealed Mr. Trump to be an unpredictable force as he bashed one of the moderators, Megyn Kelly, the Fox News talk-show host whose participation on Thursday night was Mr. Trump’s reason for skipping.
Ms. Kelly began the questioning by noting “the elephant not in the room” and lobbed a softball question to Mr. Cruz about the missing Mr. Trump, giving him an opportunity at the top of the debate, when the most viewers were watching, to speak directly to Iowans with the caucuses nearly at hand. It amounted to an in-kind contribution from Fox News to the Cruz campaign as the senator portrayed Mr. Trump as an unserious insult artist not fit for high office.
“I’m a maniac, and everyone on this stage is stupid, fat and ugly — and Ben, you’re a terrible surgeon,” Mr. Cruz said, recalling some of Mr. Trump’s gibes, including his suggestion that Ben Carson, a renowned neurosurgeon, had been a mediocre physician.
“Now that we’ve gotten the Donald Trump portion out of the way,” Mr. Cruz continued, before being interrupted by laughter and applause. “I want to thank everyone here for showing the men and women of Iowa the respect to show up.”
While attacking Mr. Trump was a recurring theme of the night, Mrs. Clinton was also a favorite target, as the candidates tried to showcase themselves to Iowans as her strongest foes. Mr. Rubio, briskly dismissive of Mr. Trump (“He’s an entertaining guy”), pivoted to Mrs. Clinton and warned that she would continue President Obama’s agenda, as she has promised to do. He noted that Mrs. Clinton even indicated this week that she would consider appointing Mr. Obama to the Supreme Court.
“Hillary Clinton cannot win this election,” Mr. Rubio said.
Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, who has not been shy about lashing his Republican rivals at past debates, also trained his fire on Mrs. Clinton as he tried to project a positive message about Republican leadership. Asked whether Mr. Cruz and Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky were qualified to be president in light of their support for curbs on the National Security Agency’s surveillance practices, Mr. Christie quickly said he disagreed with their views and then moved on.
“Let me tell you what the country should really be worried about,” Mr. Christie said, before bringing up Mrs. Clinton’s email practices as secretary of state.
While the concerns and values of Iowans were an ongoing motif at the Iowa Events Center here, with the debate coming four days before the caucuses, several candidates who are far behind in the polls sought to look beyond the Iowa vote. Former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida brought up the needs of New Hampshire voters, who have their primary on Feb. 9. Gov. John Kasich of Ohio, also hoping to appeal to viewers in New Hampshire as much as in Iowa, argued that he would be the best steward of the nation’s economy, given his record of creating jobs and a budget surplus in his state.
Mr. Paul, hoping for a surprise performance in Iowa or New Hampshire, made some of the sharpest attacks against the Republicans who were on the stage with him. Trying to appeal to both libertarian-leaning Republicans and the broader conservative primary electorate, Mr. Paul called a past suggestion from Mr. Rubio that the country might have to consider shutting down mosques “a huge mistake,” but also attacked Mr. Rubio for his support of an immigration overhaul in 2013.
“He made a deal with Chuck Schumer that he would oppose any conservative amendments,” Mr. Paul said, referring to a Democratic senator from New York and noting that Mr. Rubio had tried to file an amendment to the bill. “Marco can’t have it both ways. You can’t be in favor of defending us from radical Islam if you’re not supporting border security.”
Mr. Rubio said that Mr. Paul’s amendment had been wrongheaded and added, “When I am the president of the United States, if we don’t know who you are and why you’re trying to come to the United States, you’re not going to get in.”
Even well after the opening question, Mr. Cruz was trying to make hay out of Mr. Trump’s absence. As he had in previous debates, he sought to get into a fight with the debate moderators — but this time, he came with a line reminding viewers of who was not there.
“If you guys ask one more mean question, I may have to leave the stage,” Mr. Cruz said, drawing fewer laughs from the crowd than he might have expected.
Sensing that Mr. Cruz’s line had fallen flat, Mr. Rubio jumped in and won applause: “I’m not leaving the stage no matter what you ask me.”
Mr. Bush mocked his Republican rivals at one point for trying to act tough against Mr. Trump, noting that he had been the first to wrangle with Mr. Trump in last year’s debates. “Everyone else was in the witness protection program when I went after him,” Mr. Bush said.
Mr. Trump’s will-he, won’t-he debate stunt was only the latest instance of his attention-getting showmanship, but perhaps the most daring, given how closely it preceded the Iowa caucuses.
In the days leading up to the debate, Mr. Cruz sought to portray Mr. Trump’s withdrawal as an affront to Iowans, suggesting it was tantamount to skipping a job interview.
“What does it say when Donald tells the men and women of Iowa, ‘My time is more important than your time?’ ” Mr. Cruz asked at a rally Wednesday in West Des Moines.
But Mr. Trump earned a measure of cover in the state on Thursday when its long-serving Republican governor, Terry E. Branstad, declined to criticize him for his decision.
Mr. Branstad did say he would not have advised Mr. Trump to skip the debate, but he pointed out that it was not Mr. Trump’s first unconventional campaign move. “He’s held up through all of this,” Mr. Branstad added, a touch of wonder in his voice.
He is not the only Republican in a state of amazement about the race.
While Mr. Trump has dominated the Republican campaign for months, enjoying a wide lead in national surveys, the race has been far more competitive in Iowa, where evangelical Christians may make up a majority of Republican caucusgoers.
That is in large part because of questions about how many voters will participate. About 121,500 Iowa Republicans cast votes in the 2012 caucuses, a number that most in the state expect to be exceeded on Monday. The question is by just how much.
Mr. Trump’s lead is significantly higher under polling models that project a turnout above 150,000. The race narrows substantially when turnout is projected closer to 130,000.
Mr. Cruz’s campaign expects turnout to be in the range of 135,000, perhaps reaching as many as 150,000. But other Republicans here think it could go even higher, pointing to the thousands of attendees at Mr. Trump’s rallies in the state. The larger the number, the better Mr. Trump is likely to do, most here believe, because that would reflect a wave of voters new to the caucus process.
Mr. Cruz had been uneasy about getting locked in an ugly battle with Mr. Trump, and resisted airing negative ads against him until this week. Now, though, Mr. Cruz and his allies are running a battery of commercials attacking Mr. Trump over his views on eminent domain and abortion, and playing a clip from late last year in which Mr. Trump asked “how stupid” Iowans could be.
Mr. Cruz’s urgency has grown each day. He warns that a vote for anybody but him in Iowa is effectively a vote for Mr. Trump, and that Mr. Trump may steamroll his way to the nomination if he is not defeated in the caucuses here.
But in a sign of how volatile the race has become, Mr. Cruz also quietly began airing an ad in Iowa on Thursday assailing Mr. Rubio over his support of “amnesty” for immigrants who are in the country illegally.
Mr. Cruz’s pivot to confront his fellow senator underscores the degree to which he is fighting a two-front war in Iowa. He is furiously trying to portray Mr. Trump as an inauthentic conservative while also scrambling to tamp down an emerging threat from Mr. Rubio.
After hovering in single digits for months in Iowa, Mr. Rubio has moved into the teens in many surveys here. If he were able to finish close behind the runner-up, or even climb into second place, it would give him an important burst of momentum going into New Hampshire.
Source : New York Times
Comments
Post a Comment