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 The CNN-hosted debate at the University of Houston was the two
first-term senators' last, best chance to try to shake up the race
for the Republican nomination. The contest is dramatically shifting
toward Trump, who is leading in opinion polls in nearly all 11
states set to make their choices on next Tuesday.
Rubio and Cruz landed blows on Trump, took some withering fire in
return and may wonder why they did not pursue such a strategy in the
debates of past weeks and months when former Florida Governor Jeb
Bush, now out of the race, was the lead Trump attacker.
A confident-sounding Trump was unbowed and dismissed the attacks
from his center-stage position. He declared Rubio a "choke artist"
for a faltering debate in New Hampshire, again labeled Cruz "a liar"
and urged his rivals to take their best shot.
"Swing for the fences," he said, wielding a baseball metaphor.
Rubio, who got some momentum with a second-place finish to Trump in
South Carolina last Saturday and has picked up some Bush supporters,
gave his most aggressive performance to date. The senator from
Florida wants to be the last Trump opponent standing and perhaps
stretch the contest to the Republican nominating convention in July.
 He brought up Trump's four past bankruptcies and his use of imported
Polish workers to work at a Florida resort, and pointedly suggested
the New Yorker would not be where he is today in the real estate
business without a family inheritance.
Without the family money, Rubio said, "You know where Donald Trump
would be right now? Selling watches in Manhattan."
Significantly, Rubio sought to raise doubts about the depth of
Trump's policy knowledge, a point of attack that Trump's critics in
the Republican establishment have been urging candidates to pursue
for months.
Rubio pointed out that Trump's sole plan to replace and repeal
Democratic President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law is to
allow insurance companies to operate across state lines.
When Trump repeated the same point twice, Rubio interrupted.
"Now he's repeating himself," said the senator, who was skewered at
a debate in New Hampshire last month for robotically repeating his
talking points.
Trump fired back: "I watched him repeat himself five times four
weeks ago, and I gotta tell you it was a meltdown. I watched him
melt down on the stage like I've never seen anybody."
Cruz, who needs to win his home state of Texas when it votes on
Tuesday, also piled on Trump, saying his rival would be a weak
Republican opponent to Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in the
Nov. 8 general election because he had donated to the Clinton
Foundation founded by her husband, former President Bill Clinton.
Cruz said Hillary Clinton would say to him, "'Gosh, Donald you gave
$100,000 to the Clinton Foundation. I even went to your wedding.'
... He can't prosecute the case against Hillary."
Trump ridiculed Cruz for his inability to win more than the early
voting state of Iowa and taunted him for being behind Trump in
opinion polls in Texas. Since a second-place finish in Iowa, Trump
has won New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada.
"If I can't beat her (Clinton), you're really going to get killed
aren't you? ... I know you're embarrassed, but keep fighting," Trump
said.
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The crossfire was so intense that CNN moderator Wolf Blitzer lost
control of the proceedings at times.
Among the other two candidates on the stage, Ohio Governor John
Kasich turned in a positive performance with an optimistic message,
hoping Rubio and Cruz will falter and he will end up as the central
Trump alternative.
Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, flagging in the polls, provided
some comic relief. He said that, as president, when considering
potential Supreme Court nominees he would look at "the fruit salad
of their life" and asked plaintively for more time to talk: "Can
someone attack me please?"
Even with his bombast, Trump turned in a more measured performance
than usual, defending his moderate positions on Planned Parenthood
and retaining popular parts of the Obamacare law, perhaps mindful
that he is closing in on a victory in the Republican race.
He said he would not support a ceasefire deal about to go into
effect in Syria and declared that Libya would be better off had
Colonel Muammar Gaddafi not been toppled from power by a U.S.-backed
uprising in 2011.
Pressed on whether he would release his tax records as 2012
Republican nominee Mitt Romney said he should do, Trump said he
would eventually do so after a "routine audit" is completed.
This did not satisfy Romney, who tweeted that there was no
legitimate reason for withholding them even if they were under
audit.
Rubio went after Trump hard on illegal immigration. He said Trump
may talk tough on illegal immigration now, but previously said
Romney lost his race against Obama by promoting the idea that
illegal immigrants should self-deport.
"A lot of these positions that he's taken now are new to him," Rubio
said.
Trump said Romney lost in 2012 because he was a terrible candidate.
"Excuse me, he ran one terrible campaign," Trump said.
While Trump has scored early victories and is well ahead in national
opinion polls, he has some ways to go to clinch his party's
nomination, which is decided by the number of delegates sent to the
July party convention following the state-by-state nominating
contests.
So far Trump leads the race with 81 delegates, with Cruz and Rubio
well behind at 17 apiece. To secure the nomination, a candidate
needs 1,237 delegates.
Super Tuesday will be critical because there are nearly 600
delegates at stake in Republican races that day.
(Additional reporting by Ginger Gibson and Valerie Volcovici in
Washinton; Writing by Steve Holland; Editing by Peter Cooney, Leslie
Adler and Jonathan Oatis)
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