Senator Marco Rubio, projected by some analysts as the dark horse in the Republican presidential race after his strong showing in the Iowa caucuses last week, came under a wave of sharp and sustained attacks at a no-holds-barred debate ahead of the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday.
The assault on the first-term Senator from Florida, who has had a run of stellar performances in previous debates, was mounted by two rivals who have been trailing way behind him in polls – New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and one-time mentor and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush.
Christie repeatedly went after Rubio, the youngest in the contest, projecting him as someone who just did not have the experience to be the President of the United States. Dubbing him the “boy in the bubble”, Christie spoke of Rubio coming up with “memorized 25-second” responses to issues posed in debates.
Curiously enough, Rubio played into Christie’s hands by repeating an assertion about President Barack Obama four times in quick succession, using the very same phrases each time. When Rubio repeated the lines for the first time, Christie mocked him, saying: “There it is. The memorized-25 second speech.” But Rubio spoke in the same vein two more times.
Rubio briefly sought to hit back at Christie for not going right away to attend to the ravages of a massive snowstorm two weeks ago, “They had to shame you into going back. And then you stayed there for 36 hours and then he left and came back to campaign.” Denying the charge, Christie remarked: “Is that one of the skills you get as a United States senator ESP alsoIJ”
Front-runner Donald Trump, who leads the Republican polls nationally and in New Hampshire as well, was locked in an unseemly exchange with Bush, who attacked the billionaire businessman for trying to take the property of an elderly woman in Atlantic City where he had built casinos.
Trump got booed several times by Bush supporters in the audience. When Trump said he didn’t take the woman’s property, Bush shot back, saying that he tried to get the property and turn it into a limousine parking lot for his casinos, but lost his case in court.
Trump, otherwise projecting him as the boldest and strongest contender, said in reply to a question by the debate moderators that he would very much use waterboarding as a tool of enhanced interrogation of terror suspects, something denounced by the Obama administration as torture. Stating how ISIS militants are chopping off heads of Christians, Trump said: “I would bring back waterboarding and I’d bring it back a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding.”
Senator Ted Cruz, who inflicted a shock defeat on Trump in Iowa, remained largely subdued. When asked about the “dirty tricks” of his campaign sending word out that fellow-presidential hopeful Ben Carson was planning to drop out and mobilizing his votes, Cruz blamed the confusion on a CNN broadcast – something the cable network has denied. Cruz, who called Carson a friend, offered him a public apology.