Cleveland
In the first Republican debate of the 2016 presidential campaign, frontrunner Donald Trump spoke for two minutes more than anyone else on stage, a fact that provided a distinct advantage for the other nine candidates on stage. Trump’s performance here tonight was part populist bravado, part indignant defensiveness—and a whole lot of incoherence. Trump opened the debate by refusing to pledge his support for the Republican nominee.
When Chris Wallace asked for specific evidence of Trump’s claim that the Mexican government is sending criminals northward, Trump responded that U.S. government officials are “stupid.” Trump said he’d long been opposed to “the concept of abortion” – as if the procedure is merely theoretical. And his answer on how he would respond to Iranian General Qassem Suleimani breaking U.N. sanctions and travel restrictions was little more than a series of occasionally related words. It was the kind of performance that would probably sink a normal politician. But thus far, Trump’s style has mattered more than his substance – or lack of it – and he’s proven remarkably durable. Still, while Trump won the stopwatch and was involved in several fiery exchanges, with both his rivals and the moderators, he didn’t dominate the debate the way many of the rival campaigns had feared beforehand.
