Associated Press
Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz head into Thursday’s Republican debate eager to seize one last chance to slow Donald Trump‘s momentum before next week’s Super Tuesday mega-round of voting. The situation is likely more dire for Trump’s rivals than they’re publicly letting on.
Rubio and Cruz so far have shown little willingness to take on the former reality television star when the national spotlight shines brightest. But that may well change Thursday night, in the ninth GOP debate of the presidential campaign.
“The vast and overwhelming majority of Republicans do not want Donald Trump to be our nominee,” Rubio told NBC, suggesting Trump is winning only because the other candidates are splitting the GOP voters who don’t like him.
For his part, the New York billionaire predicted the relative civility until now between Rubio and himself won’t last. Thursday’s debate will take place just a few days before 11 states hold GOP elections that could either cement Trump’s dominance, or let his rivals slow his march to his party’s nomination.
Can Trump’s rivals stop him? To date, Trump has proved largely immune to traditional political attacks, something he reveled in on Wednesday. “I seem to have a very good track record when they do go after me,” he told NBC.
One of the early casualties of the GOP presidential race, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, showed no reluctance Thursday to assail Trump head-on, calling him “a nut job” who’s likely to win the GOP nomination but lose the general election.
Graham singled out Trump’s assertion that illegal immigration from Mexico brings rapists and drug dealers into the U.S.
Thursday’s debate, with CNN and Telemundo as partners, is the only one of the season steered to a Spanish-speaking as well as English-speaking audience, so immigration could be a closely watched issue.
Vice President Joe Biden said during a visit in Mexico on Thursday that some of the campaign rhetoric about Mexico has been “dangerous, damaging and incredibly ill-advised.” Biden said the GOP candidates “do not represent the view of the vast majority of the American people.”
The presidential campaign is now shifting to a broader new phase, making a strong debate performance even more important.
“Now these campaigns are in the position of having to use debates to try and shape or change voter perceptions across more than a dozen states in the space of 18 or 19 days,” said Republican strategist Kevin Madden. “That’s a daunting task.”
Trump won Nevada’s presidential caucuses on Tuesday with more than 45 percent of the vote, scoring his third consecutive primary victory in dominant fashion. Rubio edged Cruz for runner-up for the second straight time, with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush – now out of the race – Ohio Gov. John Kasich and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson far off the pace.
Seeking to become the Trump alternative, Cruz and Rubio have significant liabilities of their own.
Cruz comes into the debate at the weakest point of his campaign after a staff shake-up and three consecutive third-place finishes.
The Texas senator ousted a senior aide on Monday after the aide promoted an inaccurate news report about Rubio, a turn of events that helped legitimize Trump and Rubio charges that Cruz has been running an unethical campaign.
Still, Cruz signaled an aggressive stance heading into the debate, lashing out at Trump and Rubio as “Washington dealmakers.” Rubio, Cruz said, had worked with Democrats to craft an immigration overhaul, while Trump has given money to Democrats and backed their priorities at times in recent years.
Rubio, meanwhile, is barely past a prime-time flop. The Florida senator repeated himself several times in a New Hampshire debate less than three weeks ago, triggering what he now calls “the New Hampshire disappointment.”
He avoided a similar mistake in the subsequent debate, but critics in both parties will be focused on anything that suggests the 44-year-old legislator isn’t sufficiently prepared to move into the White House.
Rubio has been reluctant to talk about Trump by name but stepped up his aggressiveness Wednesday, criticizing Trump for what he called a failure to strongly oppose President Barack Obama‘s health care overhaul. He also faulted Trump for saying “he’s not going to take sides on Israel versus the Palestinians because he wants to be an honest broker.”
Rubio said there was no such thing, “because the Palestinian Authority, which has strong links to terror, they teach little kids, 5-year-olds, that it’s a glorious thing to kill Jews.”
Since the departure of Bush from the race, Rubio has won a number of endorsements from Republican leaders. The latest came Thursday from Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam.
Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
