Donald Trump took centre-stage Thursday night in Texas’ Houston as the irrefutable front-runner in the final Republican debate before Super Tuesday. Flanking the billionaire, Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio sought to make clear that the quest for the Republican nomination is a three-man race, not a one-man show.
Here are the most memorable moments of the night--
Rubio engages Trump
Fielding a question on immigration, Rubio in his response went after Trump for hiring illegal immigrants and paying $1m after a suit was filed. Rubio pointed to some of the businessman’s past stances on immigration, remarking that many of Trump’s positions are new. Trump said he hired immigrants for part-time jobs during hot seasons in Florida that most people didn’t want to work.
After a tense exchange, Rubio concluded, “He hired workers from Poland and he had to pay a million dollars or so in a judgment. That’s a fact.” While Trump maintained Rubio was wrong, Cruz later jumped in to say Trump was found guilty as part of a conspiracy for hiring people illegally.
Statute of limitation on Trump’s lies
Trump supporters rarely challenge Trump on the veracity of his often controversial remarks. But Rubio isn’t a Trump supporter and accused him of lying about the lawsuit in Poland. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was 38 years ago,” Trump said. “Oh, he lied 38 years ago,” Rubio said sarcastically. “I guess there’s a statute of limitation on lies.”
Trump praises Planned Parenthood
Trump said he would defund the women’s health organisation because he’s anti-abortion, but he also lavished praise. “I’m totally against abortion having to do with Planned Parenthood, but millions and millions of women, cervical cancer, breast cancer, are helped by Planned Parenthood,” Trump said. “So you can say whatever you want, but they have millions of women going through Planned Parenthood, that are helped greatly.”
Trump to release his tax returns…after his audits
Mitt Romney this week called on the top three presidential candidates to release their tax returns, hinting that Trump’s could contain a “bombshell.” In reply, He slammed Romney on the debate stage for looking “like a fool” when he released his tax returns during the 2012 cycle under pressure from Democrats. “I want to file it except for many years, I’ve been audited every year — twelve years or something like that,” Trump explained. “Every year they audit me, audit me, audit me.” Trump will “absolutely” release his tax returns, “but I’m being audited now for two or three now so I can’t.”
‘Middle East peace isn’t a real-estate deal’
Rubio slammed Trump for remarking that he would be an “honest broker” in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and stay neutral, calling that stance “anti-Israel.” Trump disregarded Rubio’s response because he’s not a negotiator. “I watched him melt down and I’ll tell you it was one of the saddest things I’ve ever seen. And these people may even be tougher than Chris Christie,” Trump said in a clear jab at Rubio, who quickly shot back that Middle East peace isn’t a real-estate deal. “No, no, no. A deal is a deal,” Trump declared, before conceding that that particular scenario would probably be “the toughest deal of any kind.”