The GOP Roast of Donald Trump

Quinn Dewey

The second debate of the Republican Party was held on Tuesday, September 15 at the Ronald Regan Presidential Library. The 11 Republican candidates highest in the poles were invited to share their views and answer questions about their policies. The candidates were Carly Fiorina, Donald Trump, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

The debate started with a small scuffle between Trump and Paul, with Paul calling Trump “sophomoric.” Paul also claimed that he would not trust Trump with the nuclear codes.

“I think his visceral response to attack people on their appearance –short, tall, fat, ugly– my goodness, that happened in junior high,” said Paul.

Trump responded to this comment by saying, “I never attacked him on his look, and believe me, there’s plenty of subject matter right there.” This back-and-forth banter set the tone for the rest of the debate.

A later jab in the debate between Carly Fiorina and Donald Trump was executed more subtly. When Fiorina was asked about a comment that claimed that she did not have the presidential look, she had this to say:

“I think women all over this country heard very clearly what Mr. Trump said.”

The issues that were spoken about the most were Planned Parenthood, foreign policy and immigration. Many of the candidates had similar views with varying degrees of conservative tendencies.

Other presidential candidates that were not apart of the debate had some of their opinions expressed on Twitter, including the Democratic nominee Bernie Sanders.

“Too much attention is paid to political gossip and polls,” said Sanders’s official Twitter page. “Not enough attention paid to the needs of working families.”

When asked about his opinion, Jeffery House, a junior political science major, stated that he felt the debate was Donald Trump versus everyone else.

“The first half of the debate was like the ‘Real Housewives of Reagan Library,’” said House.

When he was asked if after the debate his opinion of a favorite candidate may have switched, House explained that he had been following all the candidates prior to the debate and that his opinion was not changed, rather solidified.

When asked who he thought won the debate, House explained that he thought Carly Fiorina and Marco Rubio had the best performances.

When asked about his opinion on the debate, Dr. Bob Beatty, Washburn political science professor, explained that it was historical. He explained that this was the longest debate in Republican history and that it had the most candidates in a debate out of any other Republican debates.

“I found the whole debate rather hawkish,” said Beatty. “Hawkish” is a political science term essentially meaning warlike.

When asked about his favorite candidate Beatty said, “I’m a political science teacher, I don’t have a favorite.” He then explained that if you pick out a favorite candidate so early that you would show bias towards that candidate and overlook some of their flaws.

When asked about his opinion on Donald Trump, he explained that Trump was an unusual character. He said that Trump goes against the usual terms of engagement among candidates, and that it’s been working for him so far.

When asked who he believed was the candidate who lost, he explained that Scott Walker was being talked about like he had lost.