MILWAUKEE – Governor John Kasich and the seven other Republicans who took part in Tuesday night’s presidential debate in Milwaukee talked economics, foreign policy, trade, immigration — and over each other.
In the fourth Republican debate, there were few real fireworks but some of the candidates did more than try to get their words in edgewise.
Some analysts say Kasich was the worst offender and his performance did not help his candidacy, which is mired near the bottom of the polls. The Columbus Dispatch writes that he got the second most air time but much of it was due to talking out of turn.
The newspaper dubbed him the “interrupter-in-chief.”
At one point, he found himself coming to Jeb Bush’s defense, criticizing front-runner Donald Trump’s call for mass deportations of illegal immigrants as “silly.”
”We all know you can’t pick them up and ship them across, back across the border. It’s a silly argument,” he said.
Other critics say Kasich is too critical of the GOP.
Policy played a key role in the debate with Bush highlighting his fluency on domestic issues and describing himself as best prepared to take on Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton.
The candidate who’s been rising in the polls in a challenge to Trump is suggesting that he’s facing tougher scrutiny than Democratic candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton. Ben Carson swatted away mounting questions about the veracity of his celebrated biography, which talked about his trying to stab a close friend when he was a teenager.
Carson said he has no problem being vetted, but he says, “What I do have a problem with is being lied about.”
Fox Business Network hosts avoided attempts to get candidates to engage more with one another.