Republican debate: Repeated attacks by Christie leave Rubio rattled
Rubio endures an assault in a rollicking Republican debate
(35 minutes later)
GOFFSTOWN, N.H. — Repeated attacks by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie left Sen. Marco Rubio rattled and repeating himself on Saturday night, in the last GOP debate before the crucial New Hampshire primary.
GOFFSTOWN, N.H. — Marco Rubio came under withering assault in a debate here Saturday night as opponents for the Republican presidential nomination sought to cut down the senator from Florida over his relative inexperience and for abandoning his push for comprehensive immigration reform.
Christie, who has been running far behind Rubio in the New Hampshire polls, criticized Rubio (Fla.) for a lack of accomplishments in the Senate, and then for using canned replies. Rubio replied with...a canned reply, and another. Rubio, who had seemed confidently on the rise here, had his worst moment of any debate.
Donald Trump, the race’s national front-runner, also was put on the defensive by a newly invigorated Jeb Bush, who accused Trump of taking advantage of an elderly woman by using eminent-domain laws to take her Atlantic City, N.J., property as part of a casino development.
Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas), the winner of the Iowa caucuses on Monday, cast himself as a conservative stalwart. But he was dogged by criticism by retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who said Cruz had spread false rumors to steal some of Carson’s voters in Iowa.
But it was Rubio, riding momentum after a surprisingly strong third-place finish in the Iowa caucuses, who became the top target in a rollicking ABC News debate that veered — sometimes chaotically — from Islamic State terrorists and North Korea to health care and immigration.
“I campaigned in Iowa foursquare against the ethanol mandate,” Cruz said in his closing statement, describing a stand unpopular with Iowa’s political establishment. “I will always stand with the American people against the bipartisan corruption of Washington.”
In an urgent bid to slow Rubio down ahead of Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie savaged the 44-year-old senator for never having made a “consequential decision,” lacking principled leadership on immigration and being unprepared for the presidency.
“That’s because he got Ben Carson’s votes, by the way,” said billionaire candidate Donald Trump.
“I like Marco Rubio, and he’s a smart person and a good guy, but he simply does not have the experience to be president of the United States and make these decisions,” Christie said, reiterating points he has made all week on the campaign trail.
The debate also gave another low-polling candidate -- former Florida governor Jeb Bush -- a chance to take on his nemesis, Trump. Bush criticized Trump for his use of eminent domain in Atlantic City, where Trump sought to seize a woman’s house to build a casino parking lot. Trump responded by shushing Bush, which led to boos from the debate audience, which in turn led to Trump denouncing the audience itself.
Likening Rubio to President Obama, Christie added: “We’ve watched it happen, everybody. For the last seven years. The people of New Hampshire are smart. Do not make the same mistake again.”
[The Fix: Winners and losers from tonight’s Republican debate]
Rubio appeared rattled by the assault, which came chiefly from Christie but was echoed by former Florida governor Bush. Rubio defended his Senate experience and suggested that Christie and other critics were discounting Obama’s skill in navigating Washington.
The question now is whether the debate was enough to knock Rubio out of his commmanding position among the “establishment” candidates in this race --- or to lift Christie or Bush out of the lower tier. Only three days remain before the primary, where a bad loss could be fatal to Christie’s candidacy.
In one damaging exchange, Christie pounced on Rubio for repeating talking points within minutes— seeming to support Christie’s characterizations of Rubio as an overly scripted “boy in the bubble.”
Along the way, a number of candidates endorsed a return to a policy of the George W. Bush administration -- the use of “waterboarding,” or simulated drowning, on terrorism suspects. Later, there was another moment of real change: several candidates endorsed requiring women to sign up for the Selective Service, to be eligible for the military draft.
“Let’s dispel with this fiction that Barack Obama doesn’t know what he’s doing,” Rubio said early in the debate. “He knows exactly what he’s doing. He is trying to change this country.”
“I would bring back waterboarding, and I’d bring back a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding,” said Trump, speaking of the “enhanced interrogation technique” that simulates drowning.
Rubio repeated the same answer moments later — nearly verbatim, down to its cadence — leading Christie to mock him.
President Obama banned waterboarding, which had been used by the CIA under the Bush administration.
“There it is,” the governor said. “The memorized 25-second speech. There it is, everybody.”
In the same exchange, Cruz also said he would be open to waterboarding in emergency situations, such as to stop an imminent terrorist attack. Rubio also approved of it, saying that “anti-terrorism” situations should be handled differently than “law enforcement,” and could follow different rules.
Rubio repeated similar phrasing two more times more during the night.
Rubio embraced another Bush administration idea: opening the detention center used to house suspected foreign fighters at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Obama has said he wants to close the center. “We should be putting people into Guantanamo, not emptying it out,” Rubio said.
He also came under criticism for his position on abortion. Rubio opposes abortion without exception for rape and incest, something Bush said was an extreme position that would make him vulnerable in a general election.
The main voice against waterboarding was George W. Bush’s brother Jeb, the former Florida governor. Jeb Bush said that waterboarding had been banned. “I think where we stand is the appropriate place,” Jeb Bush said.
Rubio’s retort: “I would rather lose an election than be on the wrong side of this issue.”
Cruz also defended his plan to use “carpet bombing” on the Islamic State -- but seemed to offer an unconventional definition of what “carpet bombing” means.
It was a difficult night for the freshman senator, who has shown himself in the previous seven debates to be an agile and prepared performer but had never faced such an onslaught from Christie and Bush. Both are desperate to revive their candidacies in New Hampshire or face the prospect of dropping out.
“When I say saturation, carpet bombing, that is not indiscriminate,” Cruz said. He described the kinds of strikes his carpet bombs would strike: Islamic State buildings, supply lines, and other relatively small targets. Typically, “carpet bombing” is a term for an intense bombardment of a large area, covering every piece of it like a carpet covers a floor. Strikes against individual buildings and convoys are not typically referred to in this way.
Trump, seeking to rebound in New Hampshire after a humbling Iowa second-place finish, returned to the debate stage after skipping the last event in Iowa because of a feud with the Fox News Channel. He ran into an uncharacteristically feisty Bush, who lashed out at him over the eminent-domain issue.
Cruz said that his philosophy for the Islamic State was simple: “Kill the enemy, and then get the heck out. Don’t engage in nation-building.”
Asked by co-moderator David Muir whether he supported the use of eminent domain, Trump said that he did. “The Keystone Pipeline, without eminent domain, it wouldn’t go 10 feet, okay? You need eminent domain,” Trump said, adding that “without eminent domain, you don’t have roads, highways, schools, bridges or anything.
After Cruz spoke, Trump discussed his own strategy for the Islamic State, which was to bomb the group’s oilfields -- which experts say is possible -- and then to “steal” the group’s oil, which they say is effectively impossible.
But Bush interjected to call out Trump for blurring the differences between eminent domain for public and private use.
Asked about rising concern about heroin addiction in New Hampshire and elsewhere, Cruz told the story of his half-sister Miriam’s descent into drug addiction, describing how he had tried -- but failed -- to help her recover before she died of an overdose.
“What Donald Trump did was use eminent domain to try to take the property of an elderly woman on the strip in Atlantic City,” Bush charged. “That is not public purpose. That is downright wrong.”
“This is an absolute epidemic. We need leadership to solve it,” Cruz said.
From there, Trump and Bush shouted over each other. “He wants to be a tough guy tonight,” Trump said. Belittling Bush, Trump held his index finger over his lips and said, “Let me talk. Quiet.”
Cruz said that he and his father Rafael had rescued his sister from a crack house, and that Cruz himself had taken out a loan to send her sixth-grade son to military school. Eventually, however, his sister was found dead by her son.
The audience booed Trump.
“I still remember my father and me driving up to get Miriam out of that crack house to try to convince her she needed to be a mom to -- to my nephew Joey,” Cruz said. “She wasn’t willing to listen. She was not willing to change the path she was on.”
“That’s all of his donors and special interests out there,” Trump said, noting that many debate tickets go to party benefactors. “The reason they’re not loving me is, I don’t want their money. I’m going to do the right thing for the American public.”
Cruz has told the story on the campaign trail in New Hampshire, where drugs -- particularly heroin -- have ravaged the state. The entire GOP seems to be shifting on the subject: earlier in the same exchange, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie had explained how his state had begun sending first-time drug offenders to treatment instead of jail.
Other candidates did not confront Trump as aggressively as Bush did. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who has eviscerated Trump on the campaign trail, whiffed when Muir asked in the opening question whether he stood by an earlier comment that he thought Trump lacked the temperament to be commander in chief.
Cruz’s story ended with a segue to a more conventional Republican subject: the need to secure the U.S. border with Mexico.
Trump pounced, suggesting America’s adversaries would shrink as Cruz had should they face a President Trump.
Earlier, Trump was booed repeatedly by the crowd at the debate, after Trump tried to shush former Bush during an exchange about Trump’s attempted use of eminent domain to seize a woman’s house in Atlantic City.
“If you noticed, he didn’t answer your question,” Trump said. “That’s what’s going to happen with our enemies and the people we compete against. We’re going to win with Trump.”
“To turn this into a limousine parking lot for his casinos, is not a public use,” said Bush, who has clashed repeatedly with the bombastic Trump in past debates.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich — one of three governors clawing to get a ticket out of New Hampshire when the campaign moves next week to South Carolina and beyond — avoided confrontation with the other Republicans.
“He wants to be a tough guy,” Trump said, returning to the line of attack he’d used in the past, casting Bush as a “low-energy” pushover.
Instead, he sought to project a sunny disposition and talked about his record of cutting taxes and balancing the budget in his state. He also said conservatism should be defined by helping “people who live in the shadows.”
“How tough is it to take property from an elderly woman?” Bush said, as the two tried to talk over each other.
“If I get elected president, head out tomorrow and buy a seat belt, because there’s going to be so much happening in the first 100 days, it’s going to make your head spin,” Kasich said. “We’re going to move America forward. I promise you.”
“Lemme talk. Quiet,” Trump said.
The candidates reopened a polarizing debate over George W. Bush’s counterterrorism policies, particularly the former president’s authorization of waterboarding, which has been criticized as torture.
The crowd booed.
Trump defended his earlier vow that he would deploy the tactic to extract information from potential terrorists.
Trump responded by telling the television audience that the crowd in the arena, at St. Anselm’s College, was full of donors who were unhappy that Trump wouldn’t take their donations.
“Not since medieval times have people seen what’s going on,” Trump said. “I would bring back waterboarding and I’d bring it back a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding.”
The crowd -- now personally insulted -- booed again.
Other candidates who were asked about the matter said they would abide by congressional restrictions on the practice, while Cruz said he “would not bring it back in any sort of widespread use.”
“We have all donors in the audience!” Trump said. “And the reason they're booing me…I don’t want their money!”
Rubio embraced another Bush administration idea: opening the detention center used to house suspected foreign fighters at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Obama long has wanted to close the center, but Rubio said, “We should be putting people into Guantanamo, not emptying it out.”
The boos went on. It was Trump’s roughest moment in a debate so far, on a night when lower tier candidates like Bush and Christie -- who both need a good showing in New Hampshire to rescue their candidacies -- aggressively took on the front-runners.
Cruz also was asked to explain his statement that he would authorize “carpet bombing” as a way of attacking Islamic State terrorists, which some have criticized out of concern that such action would kill innocent civilians.
Christie attacked Rubio repeatedly in the debate, the last before the New Hampshire primary, accusing Rubio of dodging questions from moderators and running away from his own immigration legislation.
Cruz stood by his phraseology but said that he meant he would authorize the bombing of targeted roads and other facilities as well as what he called a university for terrorists. He then said that he would wait until freshmen matriculated.
Christie, who had earlier savaged Rubio over Rubio’s experience in Congress, pounced after Rubio said he would no longer support the bill he had worked to pass.
Early in the debate, Cruz was led by Muir to apologize for what Ben Carson viewed as dirty tricks at the Iowa caucuses. Cruz’s campaign representatives suggested to caucus-goers that Carson was suspending his campaign minutes before the caucuses, which may have helped move some of Carson’s supporters to caucus for Cruz.
“The question was, did he fight for his legislation? It’s abundantly clear that he didn’t. It’s abundantly clear that he didn’t fight for his legislation,” Christie said. “That’s not what leadership is. That’s what Congress is.”
Cruz said he didn’t know about the matter at the time. Turning to face Carson, Cruz said, “When this transpired, I apologized to him then, and I do so now. Ben, I’m sorry.”
Christie and Rubio are fighting for the support of establishment voters and donors -- in essence, vying to be the establishment’s champions against Trump and conservative firebrand Cruz. Going into the debate, Rubio was far ahead of Christie -- and running on a message of above-the-fray optimism. Christie seemed determined to bring the fray to him.
In the debate’s later, more substantive exchanges, Carson, a soft-spoken retired neurosurgeon, was largely absent. At one point, he remarked, “I’m not here just to add beauty to the stage.”
[Watch: Christie and Rubio’s fiery fight at New Hampshire debate]
The candidates viewed Saturday night’s debate, held here on the small campus of Saint Anselm College that has quadrennially hosted presidential debates going back decades, as their most urgent of their eight debates so far.
Earlier in the same section of questions, Cruz was asked about his plans to reduce illegal immigration.
A discussion about the heroin epidemic that is especially bad in New Hampshire elicited a powerful, emotional moment for Cruz, as he talked about his sister, Miriam, who died from a drug overdose.
“We’re gonna build a wall,” Cruz said. Next to him, Trump -- who famously called for a wall on the southern border -- smirked and gestured, leading the audience to laugh. Cruz continued: “I’ve got somebody in mind to build it,” meaning Trump.
His voice cracking, Cruz described how she was addicted to painkillers, went to bed one night and never woke up.
Earlier, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson criticized Cruz for showing “Washington ethics,” after the Cruz campaign spread false reports that Carson was dropping out on the night of the Iowa caucuses.
“This is an absolute epidemic,” Cruz said. “We need leadership to solve it.”
“What does that tell you? Unfortunately, that did happen. It gives you a very good example of certain types of Washington ethics,” Carson said. “Washington ethics basically says, if it’s legal, you do what you need to do to win.”
David A. Fahrenthold in Goffstown, N.H., contributed to this report.
Cruz responded by apologizing to Carson: “Ben, I’m sorry.”
That was followed by the first sharp exchange between Christie and Rubio, in which Christie raised questions about Rubio’s experience, as a first-term senator. “You have not been involved in a consequential decision, where you had to be held accountable. You just simply haven’t,” Christie began, comparing Rubio unfavorably to President Obama, who was a first-term senator when he was elected.
Rubio responded by turning to a criticism of Obama, and away from his own experience in the Senate.
Christie mocked him for turning to a memorized speech. “When you’re governor of the speech, the memorized 30-second speech where you tall about how great America is, doesn’t help one person,” Christie said.
Rubio responded by saying that Christie had been unwilling to return to New Jersey during a recent snowstorm. “They had to shame you into going back,”
After another back-and-forth, Rubio launched into a repeat of his speech from before, about Obama’s failings.
“There it is,” Christie said. “The speech again.”
The debate turned strange even before it began, with candidates and moderators somehow managing to botch the process of walking in.
The problems began with Carson, who was introduced by the moderators, but then did not walk in as other candidates had. Carson waited, even as other candidates passed him and a stagehand waved at him to go on. Then billionaire candidate Donald Trump emerged out of turn, and stood stone-faced near Carson.
That left Bush to walk around them, tapping Trump -- his debate archenemy-- lightly on the arm.
The debate’s moderators were then flummoxed enough to forget the last candidate on the stage. “Forgot Kasich!” a voice was heard to say. Only then did moderator David Muir introduce the Ohio governor, John Kasich, who walked out last.
Once the debate began, Cruz declined to repeat an allegation that Trump lacked the temperament to be president. “I think that is an assessment the voters are going to make,” Cruz said.
Saturday’s debate, which began about 8:15 p.m. Eastern time on ABC, follows Trump’s surprise loss on Monday in the Iowa caucuses. Trump, who skipped the last debate before the Iowa caucuses because of a feud with Fox News, is still ahead in New Hampshire polls.
“So many things to say, so much at stake,” Trump tweeted Friday. He didn’t make it to New Hampshire to campaign on Friday, as planned, because of a snowstorm. “It will be an incredible evening!”
