After an all-out brawl of a debate last week in Michigan, which featured Donald Trump at one point defending the size of his genitalia, the Republican presidential hopefuls adopted an unusual tone in the opening minutes of their latest head-to-head in here: civility.
In
the first half hour of Thursday’s debate, Trump and his GOP rivals
seemed to almost go out of their way to avoid attacking one another even
as they debated heated topics like entitlement reform and immigration.
As
recently as a day ago, Trump was still trashing Florida Sen. Marco
Rubio as “Little Marco” and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz as “Lyin’ Ted,” but on
Thursday, the Republican frontrunner put his name-calling on pause,
talking up party unity in what seemed to be an effort to cast a more
presidential air. And his rivals also seemed to hold back—most notably
Cruz, who has sought to cast himself as the chief alternative to Trump.
At
one point, Cruz trashed Democrat Hillary Clinton, suggesting she
believed that Social Security could be made solvent by cutting waste,
fraud and abuse. When a moderator pointed out that Trump had only
minutes earlier voiced the same position and asked if he was comparing
Trump to Clinton, Cruz backed off. “I’ll let Donald speak for himself,”
he replied.
Just
seconds later, Trump and Cruz tangled over immigration—with the real
estate mogul accusing his rival of previously supporting amnesty for
illegal immigrants. But instead of blasting Trump—as he has previously
on the issue—Cruz just laughed it off.
Trump
repeated his charge—albeit in a softer tone—but then he notably shifted
back to a more conciliatory tone. “We’re all in this together. We’re
going to come up with solutions. We’re going to find the answers to
things,” Trump said.
It
was a somewhat jarring shift in tone, after weeks of in-the-gutter
attacks. And even the GOP frontrunner took note. “So far I cannot
believe how civil it’s been up here,” Trump said.
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