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Cruz and Rubio Heavily Criticized During New Hampshire Debate

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GOP presidential candidates faced off another spirited debate, Saturday night, just three days before the New Hampshire primary.
 
Senator Ted Cruz and Senator Marco Rubio faced a barrage of attacks in Saturday's debate as rivals challenged Cruz's controversial campaign tactics and Rubio's readiness to be president.
 
While the trio of governors Jeb Bush, John Kasich, and Chris Christie finished six, eight and ten respectively in the Iowa caucus they all needed a very strong performance to do well in Tuesday's primary and successfully continue their campaigns.
 
Cruz was the victor in Iowa, triumphing over billionaire Trump by drawing heavily on the support of evangelical voters. But he's faced criticism for messages his campaign sent to voters ahead of the caucuses saying rival Ben Carson - another favorite of religious conservatives - was dropping out and urging the retired neurosurgeon's supporters to back him instead.
           
Cruz apologized for his campaign's actions, but not before Carson called him out for having "Washington ethics."
           
Those ethics, Carson said, "say if it's legal, you do what you do to win."
           
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie took immediate aim at Rubio, declaring that the Florida senator has "not been involved in a consequential decision where you need to be held accountable."
 
Christie also accused Rubio of being a candidate governed by talking points - then pounced when the senator repeating multiple times what appeared to be a planned response to criticisms about his qualifications.
           
"That's what Washington, D.C., does," Christie said. "The drive-by shot at the beginning with incorrect and incomplete information and then the memorized 25-second speech that is exactly what his advisers gave him."
 
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush also criticized Rubio, warning that voters should avoid putting a first-term senator in the White House again.
           
"We've tried it the old way, with Barack Obama and soaring rhetoric," said Bush, who served as a political mentor to Rubio in Florida.
           
Rubio said he was proud of his service in the Senate and suggested Obama's problems were less about experience and more about ideology.
 
Trump returned to the stage after skipping the last debate before the Iowa caucuses and did none of his familiar debate tactics of bashing other candidates. Instead he focused on  the core messages of his campaign, including immigration  and "making America great again".  Although he finished second in the Iowa caucus he leads in preference polls in New Hampshire.
           
Kasich, who has staked his White House hopes on New Hampshire, offered a more moderate view on immigration, though one that's unpopular with many GOP primary voters. He said that if elected president, he would introduce legislation that would provide a pathway to legalization, though not citizenship, within his first 100 days in office.
           
Debate host ABC News closed the contest by asking who would win Super Bowl 50.
 
Cruz, Trump, Kasich, Rubio say that the Carolina Panthers will take hold of the championship. Bush and Christie anticipate that the Denver Broncos will win and Carson predicts "with 100-percent certainty that it will be either Denver or Carolina."
 

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