One week after facing each other in the Detroit GOP debate the final four candidates met again to face-off in Miami for the twelfth debate. Last week’s historical debate saw presidential candidate (and GOP frontrunner) Donald Trump dispute that he has “small hands” and therein a small penis. He would then call refer to Marco Rubio as “Little”, which was never explained, so take that as you will.
Days later Trump fell just short of a sweep on Super Tuesday part two this week after Ted Cruz pulled off a win in Idaho. As voters in Rubio’s home state of Florida prepare to head to the polls on Tuesday, in addition to Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, and a caucus in the Northern Mariana islands, the candidates discussed, in what has been the calmest debate so far, immigration, social security, and whether or not Trump supports violence after a Trump supporter punched a black protester in the face. He would later add the protester should be killed.
Before the debate began the RNC debunked the conspiracy theory that there was a plot to not support Trump should he become the GOP nominee.
A more subdued Trump acknowledged how civil everyone has been up to that point. There hasn’t been any attacks at that point, marking complete flip from last week.
But that didn’t last too long. Trump is asked about his comments to CNN last night in which he said, “Islam hates us.” A moderator asks if he meant all “1.6 billion Muslims” to which Trump answered, “I mean a lot of ‘em” getting laughs from the audience. That didn’t sit well with Rubio who said, “a president’s word has consequences around the world.” Trump pushes back accusing Rubio of trying to be politically correct and Rubio says he’s not trying to be, just wants to be correct.
Asked about climate change affecting flooding in his home state of Florida Marco Rubio brushes off climate change saying it’s always changing and that there’s no law that can be made to “change the weather.”
Last week Trump repeated that he disavowed the KKK and the former Gran Wizard who endorsed him. This week Trump said he does not condone violence. Trump’s statement was in response to a laundry list of examples of violence at his rallies and some of his own quotes being read back to him inciting violence. One of the examples was Feb. 23 when he said, ““I’d like to punch him in the face” when talking about a protester at his rally. He was asked about his supporter who was arrested for punching a black protester in the face at a North Carolina rally.
Trump said people “love this country” and so they’re angry because they’re not happy with problems like job loss. He would then blame the protesters.
When @realDonaldTrump blamed "protesters" for inciting violence at his events. #GOPDebate pic.twitter.com/8ZYT6X4RDo
Cruz criticizes Trump for having his supporters pledge to him at a rally, says they’re the ones pledging to them as they “interview” for the job as POTUS. Trump responds taking a dig at Cruz about having bigger crowds, but also complains about the media comparing the photo of his supporters to Nazi Germany. He called it a “disgrace.”
