Rivals gang up on Donald Trump in US Republican presidential debate

Donald Trump and Jeb Bush speak in the heated debate
AFP/Getty Images
David Gardner27 November 2015

The gloves came off in the Republican presidential debate early today as the candidates ganged up on outspoken frontrunner Donald Trump.

The brash tycoon came out with all guns blazing as he bragged about his wealth and fired insults at his rivals.

But they hit back in what appeared to be a concerted effort to discredit the bombastic billionaire who has surprised everyone by charging to the front of the race despite making a series of controversial remarks.

'I wrote ‘The Art of the Deal,’ I say that not in a braggadocios way,' he said in his opening statement. 'I've made billions of billions of dollars.'

Standing at centre stage, Trump, stooping over his lectern with his signature comb-over hairstyle, swatted away suggestions that he wasn’t qualified for America’s highest office, insisting his unmatched record as a businessman made him a perfect fit.

'Believe me my temperament is very good, very calm,’ he boasted. 'But we will be respected. We are not respected now.'

(L-R), Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee , Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, real estate magnate Donald Trump, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker
AFP

He immediately launched an unprovoked attack on right-winger Rand Paul, saying he shouldn’t even have been included among the eleven candidates on the stage, claiming he only polled one percent in the polls.

But the other candidates were soon piling into Trump with many of the opening questions in the CNN-hosted debate designed to put the property magnate in the hot seat.

Leading the assault was former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, the only woman taking part, who suggested he would pay a heavy price for blasting her appearance in a Rolling Stone interview in which he said, ‘Look at that face. Would anyone vote for that?’

‘I think women all over the country heard very clearly what Mr. Trump said,’ she responded to great applause.

Sheepishly, Trump backed down, saying: ‘I think she’s got a beautiful face and I think she’s a beautiful woman.’

It didn’t curry him much favour with Fiorina who dismissed him as ‘an entertainer’ and said he had little chance of balancing the nation’s books when his companies had gone into bankruptcy ‘a record four times.’

‘Why should we trust to you to manage the finances of this nation any differently than you manage the finances of our casinos?’ she asked.

Angered by being singled out by Trump, Rand Paul weighed in.

‘I’m very concerned about having him in charge of the nuclear weapons because I think his response, his visceral response to attack people on their appearance.

‘Short, tall, fat, ugly. My goodness. That happened in junior high, are we not above that? Are we not at all worried to have someone like that in charge of the nuclear codes?' he said, referring to his opponent’s confrontational style.

Trump shot back at Paul: ‘I never attacked him on his looks — and believe me, there’s plenty of subject matter there.’

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush argued with Trump over the record of his brother, former President George W. Bush, insisting: ‘He kept us safe.’

‘I don’t know. You feel safe right now? I don’t feel so safe,’ said Trump, who, asked to come up with a nickname for himself, joked, ‘Humble.’

As the debate turned to the legalisation of marijuana, Bush confessed to smoking the drug as a young man, an admission he said would upset his mother, Barbara Bush. There was a sombre moment when Carly Fiorina revealed she had lost a stepdaughter to the ravages of drugs.

‘The marijuana kids smoke today is not the same as the marijuana Jeb smoked in high school,' she said.

The three-hour debate in Simi Valley, California, covered subjects from immigration to Iran, same sex marriage and the Syrian crisis.

But the topic soon turned back to Trump’s qualifications and he was more than happy to play along.

‘We don’t need an apprentice in the White House — we have one right now,’ Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker said, invoking the name of Trump’s popular reality show.

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckerbee gave Trump the name ‘Mr T’ from a 1980s TV show, ‘The A-Team.’

‘There are some in the Wall-Street-to-Washington axis of power who speak of all of us contemptuously. But I'm here to say that I think we are, in fact, the A team,’ he said.

‘We have some remarkable people, and, in fact, not only are we the A team; we even have our own Mr. T, who doesn't mind saying about others, "you're a fool.’’

That brought a smirk to Trump’s face, but he was angered later by a claim by Bush that he’d tried and failed to open casinos in Florida. ‘If I'd wanted it, I would have gotten it,’ he insisted.

It got more personal when the moderator quoted Trump as saying Bush’s views on immigration were moulded by his marriage to a Mexican-born wife.

Bush angrily insisted Trump apologised to his wife, who was sitting in the audience.

‘No, because I said nothing wrong,’ the businessman replied, pouting.

But the sparring eventually annoyed another of the candidates, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who chided Trump and Fiorina.

‘You’re both successful people, congratulations,’ he said. ‘Stop this childish back and forth.’

According to a New York Times poll released this week, 39 percent of Republicans see Trump as their best bet of winning the November 2016 election.

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