Marco Rubio came out on the winning end of a testy exchange with his longtime friend Jeb Bush and had an overall solid performance, according to many analysts, after the third Republican presidential debate of the primary season Wednesday.
Rubio, the fresh-face Florida senator, and Bush, the former governor of the same state, were among 10 presidential hopefuls that sparred, mostly over economic policy, at the debate in Boulder, Colorado.
Bush, who was once seen as a favorite of the Republican establishment but whose campaign has struggled to gain traction, attacked Rubio early in the debate for missing what he said were too many votes in the Senate.
Rubio shot back quickly, accusing Bush of attacking him out of political expediency: “Someone has convinced you that attacking me is going to help you,” Rubio said to the man who in the past served as his mentor.
The debate, broadcast on financial cable news channel CNBC, comes as real estate mogul Donald Trump appears to be losing his months-long grip on the race’s frontrunner position.
Trump, the outspoken reality television star who now trails retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson in several national polls, appeared more subdued and on the defensive, compared to previous debates.
Early on, Trump reacted angrily when a moderator asked whether his tax plans, which some say would cause deficits, and his proposal to build a border wall to keep out Mexican immigrants meant he was running a “comic book” presidential campaign.
“That’s not a very nicely asked question the way you said that,” said Trump. He went on to defend his tax proposal, saying it would ensure the U.S. economy “would take off like a rocket ship.”
Carson, the soft-spoken political outsider, also fielded several attacks from rivals, including on his own tax plan, which he has said is inspired by the biblical concept of tithing.
“I didn’t say the rate would be 10 percent. I used a tithing analogy…. the rate would be much closer to 15 percent,” said Carson, an evangelical Christian. “You also have to get rid of all the deductions and loopholes.”
Also at the debate were ex-Hewlett Packard executive Carly Fiorina, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, ex-Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Kentucky Senator Rand Paul.
