The 9th Republican debate on Saturday night delivered its fair share of explosive moments. Below are the most memorable of the night--
Trump blames 9/11 on George W Bush
Donald Trump blamed the September 11 attacks on George W Bush’s national security failures. “The World Trade Centre came down during your brother’s reign. Remember that,” Trump shouted at Jeb Bush. The comment elicited loud boos from the audience members and caused Marco Rubio, once friend and now rival of Bush’s, to defend the former president’s record, saying blame for the attacks falls on Bill Clinton. Trump unleashed: “The World Trade Centre came down during the reign of George Bush. He kept us safe? That is not safe. That is not safe, Marco. That is not safe.” He continued: “The World Trade Centre came down because Bill Clinton [didn’t] kill Osama bin Laden when he had the chance to kill him. And George Bush-- by the way, George Bush had the chance, also, and he didn’t listen to the advice of his CIA.”
No habla español
Marco Rubio responded to Ted Cruz’s criticism of his immigration position by calling Ted Cruz the worst kind of liar – the kind that can only speak English. “He went on Univision in Spanish and sailed he would not rescind president Obama’s illegal exclusive amnesty on his first day in office,” Cruz said of Rubio. “I have promised to rescind every single illegal executive action.” “First of all, I don’t know how he knows what I said on Univision because he doesn’t speak Spanish,” Rubio said. Cruz chimed in with a sentence in Spanish to prove his proficiency. “Look, this is a disturbing pattern now,” Rubio continued. “For a number of weeks Ted Cruz has just been telling lies. He lied about Ben Carson in Iowa. He lies about planned parenthood and marriage. And he makes things up.”
Candidates mourn Justice Scalia
On whether President Barack Obama should nominate a Supreme Court justice to replace the late Antonin Scalia, the answers were nuanced. Ted Cruz argued that the GOP-controlled Congress should refuse to confirm any nominee put forth by President Obama. “We have 80 years of precedent of not confirming Supreme Court justices in an election year,” Cruz said, after acknowledging that the president maintains the constitutional authority to nominate a justice to the court until the end of his term. Donald Trump brushed past the question of whether Obama should submit an appointee to the Senate, also putting the onus on the Senate to stop any Obama appointees to the Court. “If I were president now, I would certainly want to try to nominate a justice,” Trump said. “I think he’s going to do it whether I’m okay with it or not. I think it’s up to Mitch McConnell and everybody else to stop it. It’s called delay, delay, delay.” John Kasich, not a partisan fighter in the mold of Cruz but presenting himself as a unifier, urged the president to wait or seek a consensus candidate.
