Seven Republican candidates met for their eighth debate in New Hampshire.
The final Republican debate before New Hampshire voters head to the primary polls kicked off with confusion – due to ABC News mix-ups over candidate introductions – and included several testy moments of back-and-forth among contenders, most notably between Gov. Chris Christie and Sen. Marco Rubio, and a much-anticipated broach of the topic of the week: The Ted Cruz-Ben Carson Iowa caucus flap.
The call to candidates to enter the stage about 8 p.m. Eastern Time was a bit of a bumpy ride, that saw a somewhat baffled Carson standing awkwardly by as ABC announcers skipped him and called instead on Trump, and then, nearly simultaneously, on Rubio. Rubio walked onto the stage, while Trump opted to stand backstage with Carson. Announcers ultimately forgot to announce Ohio Gov. John Kasich, and had to be reminded of his absense by Rubio.
“Yes, yes, we’re going to introduce … Governor John Kasich,” one ABC announcer said, while another commented about the loud applause.
Following, the questions began – and one of first up to Carson dealt with his accusations that Cruz campaign officials purposely and falsely spread the news he was suspending his run for the White House at the Iowa caucuses.
Carson turned the question into a joke, saying when ABC failed to introduce him as scheduled, he thought the news outlet was showcasing him as dropped from the race. He then said: “I will say I was very disappointed that members of [Cruz’s] t3eam thought so little of me that they thought … I would just walk away 10 minutes before the caucus and say ‘forget about you guys.’ … Unfortunately, it did happen [and] it gives us a very good example of certain types of Washington ethics. … That’s not my ethics. My ethics is you do what’s right.”
Cruz responded and spoke of the friendship he and his wife had developed with Carson and his wife, and said he had telephoned to apologize for the mistake.
“Ben is a good and honorable man,” Cruz said, “and I apologized to him then and I do now.”
Cruz also doubled down on earlier explanations of the mix-up, faulting CNN’s reports and saying his team was simply forwarding news that had been broadcast.
From there, the three-hour debate headed into nearly every policy direction, from immigration to ISIS to jobs.
from PropagandaGuard https://propagandaguard.wordpress.com/2016/02/07/candidates-spar-rubio-christie-spat-ignites-stage/
from WordPress https://toddmsiebert.wordpress.com/2016/02/06/candidates-spar-rubio-christie-spat-ignites-stage/
No comments:
Post a Comment