Sen. Ted Cruz declined to repeat the campaign-trail criticisms he has made of Donald Trump’s temperament, prompting the real estate mogul to mock the Texas senator for “back[ing] down” during the New Hampshire debate.
“If you notice, he didn’t answer your question and that’s what’s going to happen with our enemies and the people we compete against,” Trump said. “We’re going to win with Trump, we’re going to win. We don’t win anymore, our country doesn’t win anymore. We’re going to win with Trump, and people back down with Trump.”
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It was a punchy conclusion the opening exchange of the debate, a back-and-forth in which the candidates had seemed to avoid directly criticizing each other. In the end, only Cruz declined to throw a punch.
Cruz demurred twice when asked if he was willing to “stand by” his claim that Trump lacked the temperament needed in a president. “I think that is an assessment the voters are going to make and they’re going to make it of every one of us,” he said when asked the final time.
The Texas freshman has avoided attacking Trump directly throughout most of the campaign season, and the strategy has served him well; Cruz beat Trump in the Iowa caucuses on Monday night. Candidates who make attacks on the campaign trail that they refuse to make when standing on a debate stage with their rivals have suffered in the past, however. In 2012, for instance, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty was embarrassed when he refused to repeat the “Obamneycare” term he had previously used to portray Mitt Romney as an architect of the Obamacare healthcare law.
Trump defended his temperament at the outset of the debate by taking credit for galvanizing a national debate about illegal immigration and Muslims coming into the United States. He also noted that he had opposed the Iraq war (only after the invasion, though). “I’m not one with the trigger, I’m not one with the trigger,” Trump said. “Other people up here, believe me, would be a lot faster.”
