Donald Trump was accused of trying to bully his way into the White House and branded a “chaos candidate” by Republican rivals during last night’s debate in Las Vegas.
“Donald, you’re not going to be able to insult your way to the presidency — that’s not going to happen,” insisted fellow candidate Jeb Bush, who led the assault on the controversial front-runner.
“Leadership is not about attacking people and disparaging people. Leadership is about creating a serious strategy,” added Mr Bush, trying to revive his fading campaign by going head to head with the property tycoon.
“He is a chaos candidate, he would be a chaos president,” continued Mr Bush. “He would not be the commander in chief we need to keep our country safe.”
Mr Bush, vying to become the third Bush in the Oval Office following his father and brother, said the only thing Mr Trump was great at was “one-liners”. He also attacked The Apprentice TV star’s plan to bar Muslims from the US. “Banning all Muslims will make it harder for us to do exactly what we need to do, which is to destroy ISIS,” he said. “That’s not a serious proposal. We need a serious leader to deal with this, and I believe I’m that guy.”
Unbowed by the criticism, Mr Trump belittled the former Florida governor, saying: “Jeb doesn’t really believe I’m unhinged. He said that very simply because he has failed in this campaign. It’s been a total disaster.”
With seven weeks to go before Republicans go to the polls in Iowa to start voting for the party’s nominee, nobody has emerged as a clear candidate to put the brakes on Mr Trump’s campaign.
Once again Mr Trump played up to the crowd to avoid being drawn on policy detail, preferring to boast how America was going to be stronger and “great again” if he’s elected president. “Our country doesn’t win any more,” he said in his closing remarks. “We don’t win on trade, we don’t win on the military, we can’t defeat ISIS, we’re not taking care of our great people, the veterans. We have to change our whole way. If I am elected president we will win again.” The other fireworks came from Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, a contest which could move to the fore if Mr Trump’s campaign falters.
Texas senator Mr Cruz hammered Florida’s Mr Rubio over his conservative credentials, accusing him of siding with Democrats on immigration. Mr Trump remains the undisputed national Republican front-runner with a Monmouth University poll placing him at 41 per cent. A Washington Post and ABC News poll after he proposed the Muslim ban found support for him at 38 per cent of Republicans, up six points on mid-November.
