Many Republican Candidates Will Be At Their Last Debate Tonight

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Many Republican Candidates Will Be At Their Last Debate Tonight

This is Ray Mossholder with a timely article by David A. Fahrenthold of The Washington Post

CONCORD, N.H. — Donald Trump will return to the presidential debate stage tonight in New Hampshire — trying to reclaim his front-runner status and momentum after a surprise loss in Iowa earlier this week.

Tonight’s debate, which will be broadcast at 8 p.m. Eastern time on ABC, is the last one before Tuesday’s crucial New Hampshire primary. Trump, who skipped the debate before the Iowa caucuses because of a feud with Fox News, is still ahead in this state’s polls.

“So many things to say, so much at stake,” Trump tweeted yesterday. He didn’t make it to New Hampshire to campaign on Friday, as planned, because of a snowstorm. “It will be an incredible evening!”

Trump will be returning to a different race — and an emboldened group of challengers. Iowa proved, after all, that the race’s bombastic front-runner could be beaten.

Tonight Trump is likely to face new attacks from Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.), the winner in Iowa, who has been mocking Trump for what Cruz calls “Trumpertantrums.” Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.), the third-place finisher in Iowa, is also closing the gap between himself and Trump in some New Hampshire polls.

But Rubio could face serious attacks from a group of three other “establishment” candidates who see him pulling away from them.

“This isn’t a student council election, everybody. This is an election for president of the United States. Let’s get the boy in the bubble of the bubble,” New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said this week, lambasting Rubio as a media creation, too young and too inexperienced to be president.

Christie — along with Ohio Gov. John Kasich and former Florida governor Jeb Bush — are all in a desperate situation here. All three had counted on New Hampshire as the state that would launch their campaign. But it can’t launch all of them; each, at least, has to beat the other two.

“I’ve got to beat Jeb and Kasich here, and if I don’t beat Jeb and Kasich here, I have to think long and hard about whether I go forward or not,” Christie said in an interview with The Washington Post earlier this week.

Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson says he lost votes to Sen. Ted Cruz in Monday’s Iowa caucus because of rumors he says Cruz staffers spread about him leaving the race. (AP)

But, in the most recent polls, Christie is running behind Rubio, Bush and Kasich. That means Christie will need to make a memorable impression in Saturday’s debate.

In past debates, Christie has sought to stand out with brusque put-downs of other candidates, frequently mocking Rubio and Cruz as congressional gasbags who would rather talk than face hard decisions. On the campaign trail recently, Christie has compared Congress to grade school, saying that senators are told where to sit, what to talk about and when to go to recess.

The good news for all of these second-tier candidates: One-third of likely Republican voters in New Hampshire said that they could change their minds before Tuesday, according to a Suffolk University-Boston Globe poll released Friday.

The seventh candidate in the debate will be retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who has little hope of success in the Granite State; New Hampshire has far fewer evangelical voters, Carson’s base in Iowa.

Carson, however, may still have a path forward, aiming at evangelicals in the Southern primaries, but his campaign is showing signs of sputtering. He recently laid off about half of his campaign staff.

Carson might use tonight’s debate to press allegations that Cruz used “dirty tricks” to steal some votes in Iowa. He says Cruz’s campaign misled voters around caucus time by spreading false reports that he was dropping out of the race. In fact, Carson says, he was just heading home briefly “to get some fresh clothes.”

This will be the first GOP debate without an “undercard” preceding it.

Of the four candidates in the last undercard, two — former senator Rick Santorum (Pa.) and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee — have dropped out. The other two candidates, former tech executive Carly Fiorina and former Virginia governor Jim Gilmore, are still in the race. But their poll numbers were so low, they weren’t invited to tonight’s debate.

“The game is being rigged against you–by the political class & the media elites,” Fiorina tweeted in protest. She added the hashtag “#LetCarlyDebate.”

Gilmore, for his part, used Twitter to complain about Fiorina. He was unhappy that she wasn’t asking for him to be included, too.

“@CarlyFiorina is so busy playing the victim, she’s forgotten there r 9 candidates in the race. Let’s stop whining & talk issues #LetThemDebate,” Gilmore tweeted.

David A. Fahrenthold covers Congress for the Washington Post. He has been at the Post since 2000, and previously covered (in order) the D.C. police, New England, and the environment.

Many Republican Candidates Will Be At Their Last Debate Tonight