Republican presidential hopefuls attacked President Barack Obama over his “weak” handling of the ISIS challenge even as they went after one another in an acrimonious debate on Tuesday night that also saw front-runner Donald Trump at the receiving end for his controversial call to bar the entry of Muslims into the United States.
With national security and foreign policy being the overarching theme of the final Republican debate of the year, hosted by CNN in las Vegas, most candidates slammed Obama for “leading from behind”, bracketing with him his first-term Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who also happens to be the Democratic front-runner for the 2016 White House race.
“Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, through their foreign policy, have betrayed the American people,” thundered New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, one of the 13 Republican aspirants who is otherwise running low in polls. Obama has for long faced the Republican charge of “leading from behind”.
“Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are responsible for the growth of ISIS because they precipitously withdrew from Iraq in 2011 against the advice of every single general and for political expediency,” charged Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, who has also been trailing in polls despite her smart debate performances.
The only common thread among the debaters was their insistence that President Obama has failed to keep American safe. Otherwise, it was a free-for-all, with the candidates attacking each other over their positions vis-à-vis various policy matters.
One of the surprise winners of the evening was Jeb Bush, who was unsparing on Trump from the word go. Often derided by Trump as a “low-energy” contender, Bush was at his energetic best as he challenged the billionaire front-runner, branding him a “chaos candidate” who, if elected, would prove to be a “chaos president” of the United States.
Trump, in turn, called Bush’s campaign “a total disaster”. The back-and-forth continued between the two with Bush trying to exploit every opening and Trump responding in kind. At one point, when Bush put it to Trump that he cannot “insult” his way to the presidency, the latter shot back: “Well, let’s see. I’m at 42 (per cent in polls), and you’re at 3.”
Trump, who faced criticism from several rivals over his “temporary ban” on Muslims entering the US, commented: “We’re not talking about religion. We’re talking about security. Our country is out of control.” Bush, however, reminded him: “Banning all Muslims will make it harder for us to do exactly what we need to do, which is to destroy ISIS.”
Differing with Trump, Senator Ted Cruz, who has emerged as No. 2 in the polls, made a pointed reference to “millions of peaceful Muslims across the world, in countries like India”, cautioning that it’s not a war on a faith, but one that meant to “defeat radical Islamic terrorism”.
In contrast to the Bush-Trump face-off, there was an unexpected truce between Trump and Senator Cruz, who had made some unflattering references to the billionaire businessman’s electoral prospects at a private fundraiser event, a recording of which went public last week.
Triggering speculation that the two may have worked out a deal, Trump remarked that he has “gotten to know” Cruz “over the last three or four days” and has found that he has “a wonderful temperament”. Trump’s friendly comment came against the backdrop of speculation that he, if chosen the party nominee, could name Cruz as his vice-presidential running mate.