By Bradley Dick ’16, Perspectives Editor
In the latest and not-so-greatest GOP presidential debate, candidates struggled to take attention away from business mogul Donald Trump. During this unusual and oftentimes lackluster three-hour debate—which mostly consisted of personal attacks—Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Carly Fiorina and Chris Christie were able to successfully regain ground on Trump.
However, Trump came out swinging, personally attacking almost every candidate. In what has turned into an outsider’s race, Trump focused his personal attacks on the failures of every other candidate.
CNN’s Jake Tapper immediately delved into the drama that has defined this election thus far, asking former Hewlett-Packard CEO Fiorina to respond to Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal’s concerns about Trump as Commander-in-Chief. Tapper asked Fiorina, “Would you feel comfortable with Donald Trump’s finger on the nuclear codes?”
Fiorina danced around the question stating “I think Mr. Trump is a wonderful entertainer. He’s been terrific at that business.” Never actually responding to Mr. Tapper’s question. Fiorina has been careful not to stoop to Trump’s level throughout the campaign.
Trump seemed more hesitant to personally attack Fiorina. This is in part due to the Rolling Stone interview in which Trump asked how anyone could “vote for that face,” referring to Fiorina.
Fiorina capitalized on this opportunity as she had all week, when Tapper asked her to respond to Trump’s comments. Fiorina stated “I think women all over this country heard very clearly what Mr. Trump said.” This set up an incredibly awkward moment in which Trump responded “I think she’s got a beautiful face, and I think she’s a beautiful woman.”
Fiorina had many other successful moments throughout the debate. She laid out a foreign policy plan to control and stabilize the Middle East; stating having met Putin she wouldn’t deal with him. Instead she would regain America’s dominance as a world power in the Middle East by rebuilding the Sixth Fleet and the missile defense program. She even suggested arming the Kurds to defeat ISIS. The crowd seemed to like Fiorina’s plan, roaring with applause.
However, Fiorina wasn’t the only candidate that had a strong performance in last Wednesday’s debate. Jeb Bush showed passion defending himself against Trump; even attacking Trump saying he wasn’t swayed by Trump’s push for casinos in Florida. Bush then asked Trump to apologize to his wife over his comments of Bush’s weak immigration plans because of his wife’s descent. Later on in the debate, Jeb shocked the audience by admitting to once using recreational marijuana.
Christie shined a few times during the debate as well; most memorably when he interjected between Fiorina and Trump’s dispute over their successes and failures in business, stating “For the 55-year-old construction worker out in that audience tonight who doesn’t have a job, who can’t fund his child’s education? I’ve got to tell you the truth, they could care less about your careers, they care about theirs,” Christie continues to appeal to the middle class working men and women.
Rubio had a strong performance throughout the debate. Exuding a presidential persona, his answer were passionate and succinct. Most memorably, Rubio discussed his immigration policy in the eyes and viewpoint of his grandfather who was an immigrant from Cuba, stating “We cannot deal with all three of these problems in one massive piece of legislation.” Rubio went on to emphasize that we must “modernize our legal immigration system so you come to America on the basis of what you can contribute economically, not whether or not simply you have a relative living here.”
As the debate drew to a close the personal attacks continued. However uneventful the debate was, it did allow a few candidates to gain some ground on Trump. In a Morning Consult poll released Friday, Trump gained 8% to remain in the lead with 24%, while Ben Carson fell to 12%. Carly Fiorina’s strong debate performance proved successful as she rose from 3% to 10%, and finally Marco Rubio moved into 4th place with 9%.
The debate performances and polls continue to show establishment Republicans are struggling for support. As the primary elections draw closer, Fiorina will continue to close the gap between Trump if she remains passionate.
http://www.nytimes.com/live/second-republican-debate-cnn-election-2016/
http://time.com/4037239/second-republican-debate-transcript-cnn/
