Two former presidential candidates, 60 foreign policy and security experts and numerous other leaders of the Republican Party got together to slow down Donald Trump’s seemingly unstoppable march towards winning the party's presidential nomination, but that may not be sufficient to halt the front runner.
Mr. Trump’s main challengers in the nomination race, Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, sought to pin him down on policy issues in a debate on Thursday. Their exchanges turned the debate into the ugliest of 11 Republican held so far.
The moderators of the debate also confronted Mr. Trump with a series of contradictions and inconsistencies in his stances but he still could get away with his characteristic style that combines insults and boasts.
This time, the boasts also included one about his manliness. “Look at those hands. Are they small hands? And he referred to my hands — if they’re small, something else must be small. I guarantee you there’s no problem, I guarantee,” Mr. Trump said.
After all this was over, commentators pointed out that Mr. Trump could not explain his stance on many issues. However, Internet polls declared Mr. Trump the winner. In one poll, Mr. Trump scored 79 per cent against Mr. Cruz’s five, Mr. Rubio’s three and Ohio Governor John Kasich’s 12 points.
Mr. Rubio and Mr. Cruz have for months failed to unequivocally condemn Mr. Trump for his hate speeches. In this regard, Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential candidate for the 2012 elections, on Thursday made the clearest and the most unambiguous condemnation of Mr. Trump from anyone in the GOP. “Mr. Trump is directing our anger for less-than-noble purposes. He creates scapegoats in Muslims and Mexican immigrants. He calls for the use of torture. He calls for the killing of innocent children and family members of terrorists. He cheers assaults on protestors,” Mr. Romney said.
John McCain, the 2008 Republican candidate, supported Mr. Romney’s views.
In another development, 60 members of the Republican national security community, said in a statement: “We have disagreed with one another on many issues, including the Iraq war and intervention in Syria. But we are united in our opposition to a Donald Trump presidency.”
Mr. Trump hit back at Mr. Romney, calling him a failure who is seeking to find relevance. “He was begging for my endorsement. I could have said, ‘Mitt, drop to your knees’. He would have dropped to his knees.” Mr. Trump said, recalling his endorsement of Mr. Romney in the 2012 race.
Mr. Trump says his campaign has energised Republican base and pulled in more voters to the party, an assertion for which there is some evidence. On Super Tuesday, the Republican primaries recorded a turnout of more than 8 million, compared to 5.5 million in the Democratic primaries.
