Gloves Off: Debate's 7 Most Brutal Attack Lines

Courtesy of Bush, Rubio, Trump
By Newser Editors,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 13, 2016 9:59 PM CST
Gloves Off: Debate's 7 Most Brutal Attack Lines
Republican presidential candidate, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush responds to Republican presidential candidate, businessman Donald Trump during the CBS News Republican presidential debate at the Peace Center, Saturday, Feb. 13, 2016, in Greenville, S.C.   (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

There were lots of boos, plenty of actual yelling, and no shortage of digs. Some standout lines, which happen to come courtesy of Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, and Donald Trump:

  1. Bush: "I'm sick and tired of Barack Obama blaming my brother for all of the problems that he's had. I'm sick and tired of [Donald Trump] going after my family. ... While Donald Trump was building a reality TV show, my brother was building a security apparatus to keep us safe."
  2. Trump: "The World Trade Center came down during your brother's reign. Remember that. That's not keeping us safe." [Memorable line worth a mention: John Kasich then quips, "This is just nuts."]
  3. Rubio: "Look, this is a disturbing pattern now. For a number of weeks Ted Cruz has just been telling lies. He lied about Ben Carson in Iowa. He lies about Planned Parenthood and marriage. And he makes things up."
  4. Bush on Rubio and Cruz: "I feel like I have to get into my inner Chris Christie, and point out the reason why I should be president is listening to two senators talk about arcane amendments to bills that didn’t pass."
  5. Bush on Trump: "But if you want to talk about weakness, you want to talk about weakness, it’s weak to disparaging women. It's weak to disparage Hispanics. It’s weak to denigrate the disabled. And it’s really weak to call John McCain a loser because he was a POW."
  6. Trump on Cruz: "You are the single biggest liar, you probably are worse than Jeb Bush. Nasty guy. Now I know why he doesn't have one endorsement from any of his colleagues."
  7. Rubio to Cruz: "I don’t know how he knows what I said on Univision. He doesn’t speak Spanish." [ABC News notes Cruz then said, as Rubio kept talking, "Vato, si quieres dicelo ahora mismo, dicelo ahora en Español si quieres." That's: "Dude/Man if you want to tell them now, tell them now in Spanish, if you want."]
(More GOP debate stories.)

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