Trump spats dominate debate
Back-and-forth jabs take up much of time
Amid the frequent insults — usually directed by or at Donald Trump — the Republican presidential debate Wednesday night displayed substantive disagreements on Iran, Russia, taxes, immigration, abortion, marijuana and climate change.
And it demonstrated the diversity of the Republican field, showing the many fault lines among the top tier of 11 GOP candidates: Outsiders versus insiders; business leaders versus politicians; Tea Party stalwarts versus pragmatic moderates; neoconservative hawks versus anti-war globalists; law-and-order prosecutors versus libertarians.
In the first debate, most of his competitors were wary of taking on Trump. They calculated that he would bring down himself. That didn’t happen.
dinarily difficult” problems “requires a steadiness, that requires an understanding of how the world works. You can’t just, you know, talk about this stuff and insult leaders around the world and expect a good result.”
That reflects a change of strategy since the first debate, when most of his competitors were wary of taking on Trump. Then, they calculated that his bombast and penchant for outrageous statements would catch up with him — that, in effect, he would bring down himself.
That hasn’t happened. Even Trump’s suggestion that Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly might have asked tough questions because of hormones didn’t dent his standing — or prompt an apology. In the current RealClearPolitics averages of recent polls, Trump leads retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, his closest competitor, by 5 percentage points in Iowa, 15 points in New Hampshire and 11 points nationwide.
Take a step back to consider that state of affairs: A real-estate mogul mocked as The Donald has managed to build and hold a significant lead over the summer among likely Republican voters nationwide and in the states that hold the first two contests.
Meanwhile, the more credentialed contenders who were viewed as credible nominees have had to rethink their approaches. Bush, whose fundraising clout haven’t been enough to keep him out of single digits, faced the problematic imperative during the debate to disprove Trump’s jibe that he is “low energy.”
That said, the hurdles now get higher for Trump. The debate Wednesday marked a new phase of the campaign. After a “Summer of Trump,” an onslaught of TV ads financed by candidates and their super PACs will begin to air and the record-sized field will begin to be sorted out.
For another, all the candidates face sharper questions about what, precisely, they would do as president. That applies to Trump, who up to now has relied more on sweeping declarations — “We have to build a wall” — than detailed policies. One of the ques- tioners at the CNN debate, conservative radio talk-show host Hugh Hewitt, stumped Trump in an interview last week when the candidate confused the Iran’s Quds Force with the Kurds.
In the debate, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina referred to Trump’s stumble in that interview when the candidates were asked about policy toward Russia, then pointedly ticked off a series of specific steps she would take to curtail Putin. Trump answered in much more general terms. “First of all, they have to respect you,” he said, and went on, “I would get along with a lot of the world leaders that this country is not getting along with.”
Fiorina, by the way, got some of the most sustained applause of the evening, including when she declined to accept Trump’s explanation that he was referring to her “persona” when he told an interviewer, “Look at that face!” in describing Fiorina as an unelectable candidate. “I think women all over this country heard very clearly what Mr. Trump said,” she said unsmilingly.
Trump has made inroads in convincing Republicans he has the qualities and experience a president needs, but he continues to face wide skepticism from others. In an ABC News- Washington
Post Poll released this week, Republicans by close to 2-1 said Trump was “qualified to serve as president,” but Americans overall by nearly 2-1 said he wasn’t.
During the debate, Trump sighed loudly and made interjections — “Wrong!” — when others criticized him. When Bush tangled with Trump over whether, as governor, Bush had prevented Trump from opening casinos in Florida, Trump delivered a backhanded compliment. “You’re showing more energy tonight,” he said patronizingly. “I like that.”
Bush was briefly speechless.