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Cooper: Media GOP Debate's Biggest Loser Insurgents vs mainstream: Debate highlights GOP's 2 tracks
When the GOP candidates are asked a question they don't want to answer, they blame the media.
That was the take-away from Wednesday night's GOP debate. The Los Angeles Times pegged it: "Attacking the questioner is a long-standing get-out-of jail device in debates - particularly on the Republican side, where resentment of the 'liberal' media is a perennial grievance," wrote Noah Bierman.
Sen. Ted Cruz, asked if his opposition to the just-reached congressional deal raising the debt limit shows that he's not the kind of problem-solver Americans want, opted instead to demonstrate his deflection and note-taking skills by parroting back some of the debate questions intended to get the candidates talking about themselves and explaining their stands.
Donald Trump, asked about his criticism of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and fellow candidate Florida Sen. Marco Rubio over immigration, denied he had said that Rubio was "Zuckerberg's personal senator." When the moderator asked him if the quote was erroneous, Trump harrumphed: "I don't know. You people write this stuff." Actually Trump or his people wrote it - on the Trump website.
Rubio, asking if he could respond, instead then turned on the media, too. He said Democrats "have the ultimate super PAC, it's called the mainstream media." And he accused the media of going easy on Hillary Clinton. But he never responded to Trump's criticism that he was Zuckerberg's personal senator or his stand on immigration.
Chris Christie, who, of course, is never at a loss for words (or orange barrels), bellowed that the moderators asked "gotcha" questions, and when one of the questioners tried to move on to a campaign question and another candidate after an evasive Christie answer, the New Jersey governor kept talking and objected to being interrupted with this barb: "Even in New Jersey, what you're doing is called rude!"
On Thursday morning, Ben Carson said he would demand a new debate format in the future: "Debates are supposed to be to 'get to know the candidates,' what is behind them. What it has turned into is a gotcha."
Really? You want "gotcha" stuff? How about Trump calling Latinos criminals and saying gross and classless things about women? What about Ben Carson saying Jews themselves contributed to the Holocaust by not having guns. What's up with Jeb Bush insinuating that the working poor are poor because they don't work hard enough? How about Carly Fiorina making things up about Planned Parenthood, and Mike Huckabee making racist comments about Koreans and dogs?
The candidates themselves raised these questions, but now they don't want to answer them.