Debate notes.

Originally shared by Jeremy Nixon

Debate notes.

Another Saturday debate. Whee!

Dramatis personæ:

Donald Trump. Still the frontrunner. Someone’s going to have to attack him sooner or later. Will it be Jeb?

Marco Rubio. Nearly taken out by Chris Christie’s kamikaze run but, somehow, hanging on. Can he redeem himself?

Ben Carson. Still, inexplicably, clinging to his podium after finishing eighth in New Hampshire. When will he finally fade away?

Jeb Bush. Fourth place in New Hampshire gave him new life—but for how long?

John Kasich. A surprise second place has thrust him into the spotlight. Will he figure out what to do with it?

Ted Cruz. It’s time for Sen. Cruz to step up and hit Marco Rubio. Or Donald Trump, who recently called him a naughty word. Will he step up?

With the passing of Antonin Scalia this morning, I expect some talk about the Supreme Court. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio have already joined Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell is demanding that the seat on the Court remain vacant for the next year, which would be absurd, but that’s Republicans for you. They’re about to turn the 2016 election into a referendum on the Supreme Court.

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“The World Trade Center came down when your brother was president.” —Donald Trump

Well, tonight was the debate when the candidates gave up the pretense and just got into an old-fashioned brawl. I thought they might pick up the podiums and start throwing them at each other.

Donald Trump was particularly unhinged. His ire was focused on Jeb Bush, perhaps owing to Mr. Bush’s better-than-expected New Hampshire result. But it seemed personal.

After Mr. Bush talked about the usual getting rid of Bashir al-Assad, not allowing Iran to get a nuclear weapon, and so forth, Mr. Trump cut in with “Jeb is so wrong.” The audience booed him, which they did a lot tonight. Of the booing, Mr. Trump said, “That’s Jeb’s special interests and lobbyists talking.” He said we’ve spent five trillion dollars in the middle east because of thinking like that, and we’re supporting people that “we don’t even know who they are.”

“Obviously the war in Iraq was a big, fat mistake,” Mr. Trump said. “George Bush made a mistake, people can make mistakes, but that one was a beauty.” It should be noted that Republicans still think invading Iraq was the right move, by a wide margin—so when Mr. Trump said “they lied, they said there were weapons of mass destruction, there were none, they knew there were none,” the audience’s booing should come as no surprise.

Jeb Bush, though, took it personally. “I’m sick and tired of him going after my family,” he said. “While Donald Trump was building a reality TV show, my brother was building a security apparatus to keep us safe. And I’m proud of what he did.” Apparently, Mr. Bush thinks the country was nice and safe on 9/11.

“The World Trade Center came down during your brother’s reign,” Mr. Trump replied. “Remember that.” The audience, apparently so twisted that they think 9/11 was an example of the country being kept safe, booed him again.

Marco Rubio repeated the bizarre, disturbing assertion that George W. Bush “kept us safe,” and Mr. Trump again pointed out the World Trade Center. “I lost hundreds of friends,” he said. “That’s not safe.” He just wasn’t letting go tonight.

But think about this: On a Republican debate stage, a Republican candidate accused George W. Bush of lying the country into a war and accused him of sharing some responsibility for 9/11.

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“You are the single biggest liar. You probably are worse than Jeb Bush. This guy lied.” —Donald Trump

Ted Cruz took the gloves off and went after Mr. Trump as well, for having said he supports federal funding for Planned Parenthood performing abortions. Mr. Trump called Mr. Cruz the “single biggest liar,” and then went off. Mr. Cruz, he said, lied about Ben Carson, stole votes from Ben Carson, ran robocalls saying Mr. Trump wasn’t running in South Carolina… “He’s a nasty guy,” Mr. Trump concluded.

Mr. Cruz responded by pointing out that Mr. Trump hadn’t denied supporting Planned Parenthood. “Hey, Ted, where did I support it?” he insisted. “Where did I support it?” He insisted that Planned Parenthood does “wonderful things” having to do with women’s health, he just doesn’t like the abortion part. Mr. Cruz flung the accusation that if Donald Trump is president, “he will appoint liberals” to the Supreme Court.

Defending Planned Parenthood, even on non-abortion services, also goes against the Republican majority. That’s twice tonight that Mr. Trump did that.

Mr. Trump’s counterattack was pointing out that Mr. Cruz supported John Roberts’s appointment to the Supreme Court, and John Roberts upheld Obamacare. “You pushed John Roberts. Why do you lie?”

“Adults,” Mr. Cruz said, “learn not to interrupt people.” Mr. Cruz said he wouldn’t have nominated John Roberts.

“This is just crazy. This is just nuts.” —John Kasich

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“My wife tells me I’m wrong all the time, and I listen.” —Donald Trump

Mr. Trump brought up eminent domain without even being asked a question on the topic, and got into a bickering match with Jeb Bush about it. He brought up Mr. Trump trying to use eminent domain to build “a parking lot” for one of his casinos. Mr. Trump stuck to his guns on eminent domain—this is the third topic on which he went against the majority of Republicans. Will it ever matter what he says?

At one point Mr. Trump talked about Jeb Bush saying he would “moon everybody.” The actual quote from Mr. Bush, in an interview in New Hampshire: “I could drop my pants. Moon the whole crowd. Everybody would be aghast, except the press guys would never notice.” Mr. Trump just wanted to invoke the image of Jeb Bush mooning people. Mission accomplished.

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“The weakest person on this stage by far on immigration is Jeb Bush.” —Donald Trump

Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio got into it on immigration. “The lines are very clear,” Mr. Cruz began, “Marco supports citizenship for twelve million people here illegally. I oppose that.” He accused Mr. Rubio of having a “long record” supporting amnesty, and that he want on Univision in Spanish and said he would not rescind President Obama’s executive actions on amnesty.

“I don’t know how he knows what I said on Univision,” Mr. Rubio replied, “because he doesn’t speak Spanish.” Mr. Cruz responded by speaking a little Spanish. Mr. Rubio accused Mr. Cruz of supporting legalization of people in the country illegally. Then, roughly, we got “Did not!” “Did too!”

Donald Trump said Mexico was going to pay for the wall.

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Now, don’t get the wrong idea: Antonin Scalia did come up. But the debate was so vicious that the topic basically got lost in the noise.

Ben Carson suggested that maybe lifetime appointments for Supreme Court justices should be rethought, because the average lifespan when the Constitution was written was fifty years. I just did the math, and the average age of death of Supreme Court justices appointed by George Washington was sixty-six, and four of them lived past seventy, two past eighty. Ben Carson is a doctor; he should know that “average lifespan” numbers are heavily skewed by childhood deaths from causes that have been largely eliminated.

At one point Ted Cruz asserted that it’s been eighty years since a justice was confirmed in an election year. The moderator pointed out that Justice Kennedy was confirmed in an election year, and said he just wanted to “get the facts straight.” The audience booed.

Yes, the audience booed the idea of getting facts right.

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Donald Trump says he can save social security by saving all the money we’re wasting on people who are 106 years old and obviously don’t exist. That’ll take care of it.

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“Gentleman, I’m going to turn this car around.” —CBS moderator John Dickerson

Someone on TV in post-debate commentary said this debate wasn’t high-school, it was middle-school. Yes, but it wasn’t a middle-school debate—it was a middle-school locker-room brawl. It was ugly. The Republican party is probably hoping the Saturday night time slot ensured few people were watching, because people watching may just come to the conclusion that no one on that stage should ever set foot in the White House.

If you’re a Republican, it was a disaster. There is no consensus emerging; the candidates are drawing blood; the frontrunner openly defies party orthodoxy; the interaction among the candidates is bickering and insults. And the frontrunner basically said the last Republican president deserved blame for 9/11.

And as for the audience booing Donald Trump: as he suggested, the audience was basically packed against him.

http://www.vox.com/2016/2/13/10987776/republican-debate-audience-booing

“Not using profanity is very easy.” —Donald Trump