BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — Insurgent Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump and Ben Carson defended the seriousness of their White House bids under tough questioning as the third GOP debate opened Wednesday, as Floridians Jeb Bush and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) clashed for control of the party’s more mainstream wing.
Bush targeted Rubio, a freshman senator, for his spotty voting record on Capitol Hill since launching his presidential bid.
“You should be showing up to work,” said Bush, the one-time GOP front-runner who has struggled to gain traction in a race where voters appear eager for an outsider.
Rubio, who has had a close relationship with Bush, responded sharply: “Someone has convinced you that attacking me is going to help you.”
Three months before primary voting begins, the Republican field is a two-track contest between Washington outsiders and those with political experience. Trump dominated the Republican race for months, though he’s been overtaken by Carson in early voting Iowa.
Trump bristled when asked by a debate moderator if his policy proposals, including building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and deporting everyone who is in the U.S. illegally, amounted to a “comic book” campaign.
“It’s not a very nicely asked question, the way you ask it,” Trump responded. Then he defended his proposals as reasonable.
Carson, a soft-spoken retired neurosurgeon, came into the debate with a burst of momentum and stuck to his low-key style. He sought to explain his vague tax policy, which he has compared to tithing, in which families donate the same portion of their income to their church regardless of how much they make.
Carson said in an earlier debate that someone making $10 billion would pay $1 billion in taxes. Wednesday night he floated the idea of a 15 percent flat rate. Critics have questioned whether the government could still raise enough revenue under that type of flat tax system to pay for programs like Social Security.
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