The latest Republican presidential debate will be remembered for three exchanges. Which one voters find most important will determine Thursday night’s winner in South Carolina.
The first was the “birther” argument between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. Trump has been coyly implying Cruz isn’t a natural-born citizen and therefore isn’t constitutionally eligible to be president, or at least that the issue will wind up stuck in court. Cruz was ready to hit back.
“Back in September, my friend Donald said he had his lawyers look at this from every which way and there was no issue there. There was nothing to this birther issue,” Cruz shot back. “Since September, the Constitution hasn’t changed, but the poll numbers have. And I recognize that Donald is dismayed that his poll numbers are falling in Iowa, but the facts and the law here are really quite clear.”
Not only did Cruz emphasize his own experience arguing before the Supreme Court and portray Trump as a flip-flopper on his signature birther issue. He even mentioned Trump’s Scottish mother. But the Texas senator really hit Trump where it hurts: his poll numbers. And Trump didn’t handle it well, invoking liberal constitutional lawyer Laurence Tribe on the legal issues and belittling Cruz’s support in Iowa. On this back-and-forth, advantage Cruz.
The second big moment was when Cruz was asked to defend his assertion that Trump represented “liberal values.” The Texan obviously was tying Trump to a blue state.
“[E]veryone understands that the values in New York are socially liberal, are pro-abortion, are pro-gay marriage, focus around money and the media,” Cruz said. It was like Barry Goldwater suggesting we saw off the Eastern seaboard and let it float out to sea.
Except Trump was ready. “Conservatives actually do come out of Manhattan, including William F. Buckley and others just so you understand,” Trump replied, invoking the founder of National Review. He said Cruz insulted the “great” and “loving” people of New York. And then he went in for the kill.
“When the World Trade Center came down I saw something that no place on earth could have handled more beautifully, more humanely than New York,” Trump said. The split screen showed Cruz, sensing he was beaten, reduced to applauding his rival’s comments.
On that second exchange, a win for Trump.
The third defining argument of the Republican debate was between Cruz and Marco Rubio. Rubio received an uncharacteristically pointed question from Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo on his 2013 Gang of Eight immigration bill. “Why are you so interested in opening up borders to foreigners when American workers have a hard enough time finding work?” she asked.
Rubio pivoted away from the economics of immigration and argued that we now needed a tougher approach than his original bill because of the national security threats to America. “There is a radical jihadist group that is manipulating our immigration system, and not just green cards,” the Florida senator said. “They are recruiting people to enter this country as doctors and engineers and even fiances. They understand the vulnerabilities we have on the southern border. They’re looking to manipulate the visa waiver countries to get into the United States.”
“So our number one priority must now become ensuring that ISIS cannot get killers into the United States,” Rubio concluded. Cruz smelled blood and pounced. He pointed out that “radical Islamic terrorism wasn’t invented 24 months ago” and said he stood with immigration restrictionists like Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., and Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, agaisnt Rubio’s Gang of Eight because he understood even then that “border security is national security.”
Cruz added that the “Rubio-Schumer amnesty” also “expanded Barack Obama’s power” to approve Syrian refugees. He argued that he and Rubio were still voting against each other on refugee screening.
Rubio promptly unloaded on Cruz. “Ted Cruz, you used to say you supported doubling the number of green cards; now you say that you’re against it. You used to support a 500 percent increase in the number of guest workers; now you say that you’re against it. You used to support legalizing people that were here illegally; now you say you’re against it. You used to say that were you in favor of birthright citizenship; now you say that you’re against it.”
If that wasn’t enough, Rubio kept going. “And by the way, it isn’t just on immigration,” he continued. “You used to support TPA [trade promotion authority]; now you say you’re against it. I saw you on the Senate floor flip your vote on crop insurance because they told you it would help you in Iowa. And last week we all saw your flip your vote on ethanol in Iowa for the same reason.”
“That is not consistent conservatism,” Rubio added. “That is political calculation. When I’m president, I will work every day to keep this country safe, not call Edward Snowden a great public servant. Edward Snowden is a traitor and if I am president and we get our hands on him, he is standing trial for treason.” He also said Cruz regularly votes with Rand Paul and socialist Bernie Sanders to gut defense spending.
Rubio threw the kitchen sink at Cruz, so the attacks ranged from the well founded to the more dubious. But they were intended to negate Cruz’s advantage over Rubio on immigration, prevent Cruz from using immigration to undermine Rubio’s national security credentials and create doubt about Cruz’s conservatism by painting him as an unprincipled flip-flopper.
Cruz was clearly unprepared for this well rehearsed Rubio offensive, some of which will likely stick even if it doesn’t check out in subsequent fact checks. Rubio won here.
Jeb Bush tried to get into the debate, portraying Rubio and Cruz as squabbling Senate “backbenchers.” But it didn’t work. The former front-runner’s most memorable moment will probably be when he meekly pleaded with Trump to change his mind on Muslim immigration.
Chris Christie is clearly a bit steamed about his own feud with Rubio over the establishment lane in New Hampshire, repeatedly jabbing at “old Marco” who “blew it” when he didn’t answer questions promptly enough.
But Trump claimed the “mantle of anger” that perhaps defines the Republican mood. Cruz owns his conservative record and defended his very citizenship. Rubio added a righteous anger of his own to a repetoire that often seems limited to sunny optimism and happy talk about American exceptionalism.
Overall, the above were the three exchanges that defined the debate. The three candidates who starred in them — Trump, Cruz and Rubio — will likely get a future debate stage all to themselves sooner rather than later.
