With Ronald Reagan’s Air Force One for a backdrop, 11 presidential hopefuls took the stage last night in the second primetime GOP debate. CNN’s hosts played the candidates against each other in an attempt to spark true one-on-one debate — an effort that worked at times, but fell flat at others. Here are five things that stood out through the rhetoric:
1. New Issues: Domestic and International
The CNN debate discussed the current refugee crisis, planned parenthood, ISIS and its threat to the U.S., minimum wage, immigration and birthright citizenship. When discussing foreign affairs, Rubio said in a recent interview Trump was unable to recognize names of international leaders and this worries him and should worry our nation. Interestingly, Trump said his personality and business background would allow him to “get along with Putin and other leaders.”
2. Carly Fiorina and Donald Trump
Both business leaders and Republican candidates are known for their attacks on each other. When asked about issues of creating jobs for the American people, Fiorina and Trump both went back and forth discussing the successes of the businesses while pointing out the failures of the others. Additionally, when moderator Jake Tapper asked candidates about a recent incident when Trump commented on Fiorina’s appearance, Fiorina brought roaring applause with the response, “women all over this country heard very clearly what Mr. Trump said.”
3. Ben Carson
From the beginning of the debate, Dr. Carson noted his experience as a pediatric neurosurgeon, stressing the importance of the future of the nation’s children and direction. This experience — and its stark difference from many of the other candidates — was most apparent in an exchange Carson had with Trump on medical vaccines. Trump used bombast and rhetoric to shore up his claim that vaccinations can cause autism, while Carson calmly repeated what science repeatedly showed — there is no correlation.
4. Kim Davis, Gay Marriage and the Conservative viewpoint
In addition to national issues and foreign policy, gay marriage and Kim Davis — a Kentucky county clerk who briefly went to jail after refusing to issue same-sex marriage licenses — were discussed. Huckabee said the Supreme Court’s action to rule gay marriage a law was “out of thin air” and called the situation “judicial tyranny.” On the other side, Bush said religious conscience is a religious freedom and the rule of law should be respected. He argued Kim Davis was sworn to uphold the law in her position and that she could have accommodations for people such as getting another employee to hand out the marriage license.
5. ISIS and other threats to the U.S
All candidates discussed the issue of international threats as well as terrorist threats. Trump said when it comes to ISIS and Syria, the U.S. should let them fight it out amongst themselves, then the U.S. should pick up the remains. Huckabee discussed the threat of Iran on the Middle East, Israel and the U.S. Fiorina said when it comes to Putin, the U.S. needs to rebuild missile defenses in Poland, send troops to Germany, and put negotiations with Putin on hold to show him that the U.S. is in control.
