And Then There Were Nine...
Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio (and seven other people) squared off in the fifth Republican Presidential debate in Las Vegas Tuesday night. Terrorism and national security dominated the debate. In an attempt to infuse some drama into the presidential race (and boost its ratings), CNN announced that there would be nine candidates (instead of the expected eight). After some "massaging" of the poll numbers (and intense lobbying), CNN invited Rand Paul in at the 11th hour.
Here is a quick summary of what went down:
First, Marco and Ted:
The two senators went toe to toe on surveillance, defense budgets, immigration and how they would carry out the war against ISIS. Marco called Ted's approach as "not leading at all" vs. Obama's "leading from behind" and Ted insinuated that deep down inside Marco already agreed with him so it wasn't worth debating it much further. Both candidates vied to position themselves as the "not-Trump" candidate.
And the rest:
