Rubio endures an assault in a rollicking Republican debate

Source: Washington Post

GOFFSTOWN, N.H. — Marco Rubio came under withering assault in a debate here Saturday night as opponents for the Republican presidential nomination sought to cut down the senator from Florida over his relative inexperience and for abandoning his push for comprehensive immigration reform.

Donald Trump, the race’s national front-runner, also was put on the defensive by a newly invigorated Jeb Bush, who accused Trump of taking advantage of an elderly woman by using eminent-domain laws to take her Atlantic City, N.J., property as part of a casino development.

But it was Rubio, riding momentum after a surprisingly strong third-place finish in the Iowa caucuses, who became the top target in a rollicking ABC News debate that veered — sometimes chaotically — from Islamic State terrorists and North Korea to health care and immigration.

In an urgent bid to slow Rubio down ahead of Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie savaged the 44-year-old senator for never having made a “consequential decision,” lacking principled leadership on immigration and being unprepared for the presidency.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/rubio-endures-an-assault-in-a-rollicking-republican-debate/2016/02/06/d8a9bd60-cc5b-11e5-a7b2-5a2f824b02c9_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_no-name%3Ahomepage%2Fstory