Donald Trump has come under attack from all sides in a fiery debate between the top Republican presidential candidates in the 2016 election.
The party’s frontrunner, a billionaire businessman with no political experience, refused to apologise over comments about the wife of Jeb Bush, and he was on the receiving end when Carly Fiorina drew huge applause facing up to his recent jibe over her looks.
Fifteen Republicans are vying to be the party’s White House nominee in 2016.
With more than a year until polling day, the second Republican debate in the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California saw Bush and Trump trading blows several times.
Their most notable clash in the debate, hosted by CNN, came when the former Florida governor demanded that the tycoon apologise to his wife for saying he was weak on immigration because she is Mexican. Trump refused.
But the loudest audience response of the night came when Ms Fiorina was asked about an interview in which Trump said she could not be president because “Look at that face”.
She replied, to thunderous applause: “I think women all over this country heard very clearly what Trump said.”
Trump’s exchange with Bush
JB: “To subject my wife into the middle of a raucous political conversation was completely inappropriate and I hope you apologise for that Donald.”
DT: “Well, I have to tell you I hear phenomenal things, I hear your wife is a lovely woman. I don’t know her.”
JB: “She is, she’s fantastic. She is absolutely the love of my life, and she’s right here, and why don’t you apologise to her right now?”
DT: “No, I won’t do that because I said nothing wrong, but I do hear she’s a lovely woman.”
In their second TV debate, Carly Fiorina rebuked Donald Trump for his recent comment that voters might not back her because of her looks.
Trump’s exchange with Ms Fiorina:
Moderator Jake Tapper gives Ms Fiorina the chance to respond to Trump’s comments about her in Rolling Stone magazine in which he said: “Look at that face. Would anyone vote for that. Can you imagine that as the face of our next president?” Trump later said he was talking about her persona, not her appearance.
CF: “You know it’s interesting to me. I think women all over this country heard very clearly what Trump said.”
(Loud applause)
DT: “I think she’s got a beautiful face and I think she’s a beautiful woman.
But if Trump predictably took plenty of punches, as the candidate who has held a commanding lead for much of the campaign, he gave as good he got throughout the debate in his trademark style.
He returned fire on Kentucky Senator Rand Paul with an oblique personal insult about his appearance, mocked the fiscal record of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and introduced himself with the words: “I say, not in a braggadocious way, I’ve made billions and billions of dollars.”
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