WASHINGTON – Republican front-runner Donald Trump moves into the critical Super Tuesday primary elections next week after a series of brutal rhetorical attacks from his top opponents in the party’s tenth debate.
But did it weaken the bombastic billionaire? His candidacy has defied all the rules that normally apply in the contest for the highest office in the United States.
Trump repeatedly has made politically incorrect statements, used salty language and denigrated Hispanics and Muslims. Nevertheless, he holds a big lead in national polling heading into the Tuesday primaries and a caucus in 11 states with a treasure of 595 delegates that could make his nomination all but certain.
So far, after four primary and caucus contests, Trump has 82 delegates, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has 17 and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has 16. A candidate must have 1,237 state delegates to win the Republican nomination at the party’s convention this summer.
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Trump’s unexpected candidacy and front-runner status reflects Americans’ anger over government deadlock, a slow recovery from the Great Recession and a fear of terrorism.
From the start of Thursday night’s debate, a fiery Rubio went hard after Trump, attacking his position on immigration, his privileged background, his speaking style and more.
Cruz piled on, questioning the New York businessman’s conservative credentials. The debate reflected the increasing urgency of their effort to take Trump down before he becomes unstoppable.
It was a rare night where Trump found himself on the defensive.
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The other two candidates, Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, and John Kasich, the Ohio governor, were largely left to watch the fireworks.
The debate saw the candidates shouting over one another so much that it was hard to follow at times.
When Trump faulted Rubio on a deal to buy a $179,000 house, the Florida senator shot back that if Trump “hadn’t inherited $200 million, you know where Donald Trump would be right now? Selling watches in Manhattan.”
Rubio kept up the assault in a campaign appearance Friday, calling Trump a “con artist.”
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As for Cruz, Trump took a more personal tack in the debate, touting his own ability to get along with others and adding: “You get along with nobody. … You should be ashamed of yourself.”
Cruz is widely disliked by fellow Republicans.
Rubio was the principal aggressor of the night. Taking on Trump’s declaration that he’d build a wall on the Mexican border, Rubio declared: “If he builds a wall the way he built Trump Tower, he’ll be using illegal immigration to do it.”
Trump insisted that even though officials in Mexico have said they won’t pay for his planned wall, “Mexico will pay for the wall.” And he said that because Mexico’s current and former presidents had criticized him on the issue, “the wall just got 10 feet taller.”
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Trump, known for his frequent use of coarse and profane language on the campaign trail, also scolded former Mexican President Vicente Fox for using a profanity in talking about Trump’s plan for the wall.
“He should be ashamed of himself and he should apologize,” declared Trump.
WATCH: US Vice President Joe Biden says that campaign rhetoric about Mexico has been “damaging and incredibly inaccurate,” and does not represent the views of the majority of Americans
At a congressional dinner Thursday night, former Republican candidate and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham derided Trump and said the party had gone “batshit crazy.”
On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton has South Carolina mostly to herself two days before the first-in-the-South primary Saturday, and she’s using it to capitalize on her advantage over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders with black voters.
Sanders, meanwhile, was traversing the Great Lakes region in states that hold early March primaries with much whiter electorates than South Carolina and the Deep South.