The sixth Republican debate, at the North Charleston Coliseum in
the swing state of South Carolina, takes place at a tense time for
the Republican field with the clock ticking toward Feb. 1 in Iowa,
the first contest in the race to choose the party's nominee for the
Nov. 8 general election.
"Everybody has to avoid making mistakes," said David Yepsen,
director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern
Illinois University. "If you mess something up in this debate you're
going to have almost no opportunity to correct it."
The 9 p.m. EST debate features the top seven candidates ranked by
Republican voters: New York real estate businessman and reality TV
star Trump, Texas Senator Cruz, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, retired
neurosurgeon Ben Carson, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, New
Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Ohio Governor John Kasich.
Nearly every candidate has had a bone to pick with one or more of
the others this week. Beyond the Trump-Cruz theatrics, Bush has
blasted Trump and Rubio, Rubio has slammed Bush as well as Cruz and
Christie, and Christie has attacked most everyone else.
If Fox Business Channel moderators Neil Cavuto and Maria Bartiromo
focus on these disputes, the debate could be one of the liveliest of
the series.
But whether the bickering helps is questionable.
“I think the Republicans have to stop beating up each other and let
their opponents do that in the Democratic Party," said Republican
voter J.P. Marzullo of Deering, N.H.
Front-runner Trump has put Cruz, his main obstacle to an Iowa
victory, on the defensive by suggesting Cruz may not qualify to be a
candidate because he was born in Canada (to a U.S. citizen mother
and a Cuban father).
This was a change in posture by Trump on the issue, however, after
saying in an interview with ABC News last September that he had
heard that lawyers believed it was not a problem for Cruz.
Trump and Cruz have been friendly over the past year, until now.
Being targeted by Trump is a new position for Cruz, who has taken
the lead in some polls of Iowa Republican voters in part by avoiding
tangles with Trump.
In the Reuters rolling national poll on Jan. 12, Trump had 39
percent of the vote, Cruz 14.5 percent, Bush 10.6 percent, Carson
9.6 percent and 6.7 percent favored Rubio, once viewed by the
Republican establishment and many donors as a rising star.
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Cruz told reporters in New Hampshire on Tuesday that Trump is
relying on a judgment on the birthright question from Harvard law
professor Laurence Tribe, who Cruz described as "a liberal,
left-wing, judicial-activist" and a supporter of Democratic Party
front-runner Hillary Clinton.
"The past couple of elections we saw the Democrats thrilled that
they got the nominee they wanted to run against in the general
election, and it seems the Hillary folks are very eager to support
Donald Trump," Cruz said.
Trump, who has proved to be a master at finding a perceived weakness
in an opponent, insisted Cruz's Canadian birth violated the U.S.
Constitution's requirement that only native-born Americans can be
president.
"Sadly, there is no way that Ted Cruz can continue running in the
Republican Primary unless he can erase doubt on eligibility. Dems
will sue!" he tweeted on Wednesday.
Mudslinging abounds elsewhere in the field as a grouping of other
candidates fight to be the alternative to Trump with battles over
national security and immigration.
"Given all the attacks that are taking place and the counter
attacks, I think it will be a more lively debate than we’ve seen at
this point," said Eric Fehrnstrom, who was a top adviser to 2012
Republican nominee Mitt Romney. "Donald Trump is still in complete
command and the race is still about who will become his main
challenger."
For more on the 2016 presidential race, see the Reuters blog, “Tales
from the Trail” (http://blogs.reuters.com/talesfromthetrail/)
(Reporting By Steve Holland; editing by Grant McCool)
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