GOP front-runner Donald Trump

  
12/15/2015 at 11:43 PM
By Chelsea Schilling and Garth Kant

In the fifth and final GOP debate of 2015, Republican front-runner Donald Trump pledged he would remain loyal to the party and not run as an independent.

With America less than 50 days away from the first votes of the 2016 election season, the Republican candidates converged on Las Vegas Tuesday for a high-stakes debate that could make or break their chances of winning the White House.

CNN hosted the debate at the Venetian hotel on the Las Vegas Strip. CNN’s Wolf Blitzer moderated the main event. CNN’s Dana Bash and Salem Radio Network’s Hugh Hewitt served as panelists. The following nine candidates appeared at the prime-time debate: Trump, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Dr. Ben Carson, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul.

Trump ended speculation that he might run as a third-party candidate when Hewitt asked, “Are you ready to reassure Republicans tonight that you will run as a Republican and abide by the decision of the Republicans?”

“I really am. I’ll be honest, I really am,” was Trump decisive response.

Hewitt joined the audience in applauding. Then Trump explained, “I’ve gained great respect for the Republican leadership. I’ve gained great respect for many, I’m even going to say all, in different forms, for the people on the dais. In different forms. I have great respect for the people I’ve met through this process. I’ve never done this process before. I’ve never been a politician. I mean, for the last six months, I’ve been a politician.

“But, I will tell you. I am totally committed to the Republican Party. I feel very honored to be the front-runner. And I think I’ll do very well if I’m chosen. If I’m so fortunate to be chosen, I think I’ll do very well.

“I’ve gained great respect for the Republican leadership,” Trump said. “If I’m so fortunate to be chosen, I think I’ll do very well.”

Trump reasserted his promise after the debate, insisting he’d run as a Republican “no matter what.”

Cruz and Trump are locked in a two-man race in Iowa, with Cruz leading in those polls. Nationally, Cruz is still lagging far behind Trump, who hit a new high of 41 percent in a Monmouth University poll conducted Dec. 10-13.

Trump’s surge came after the GOP front-runner proposed a temporary ban on Muslims entering the U.S. until Congress can get a handle on the issue of terror.

Trump’s ban on non-American Muslims entering the U.S.
The very first question was about Trump’s call for the ban on Muslims entering the U.S.

Blitzer somewhat incongruously asked the front-runner, “Is the best way to make America great again to isolate it from much of the rest of the world?”

Trump took issue with the implication and responded, “We are not talking about isolation. We’re talking about security. We’re not talking about religion. We’re talking about security.

“Our country is out of control. People are pouring across the southern border. I will build a wall. It will be a great wall. People will not come in unless they come in legally. Drugs will not pour through that wall.

“As far as other people, like, in the migration, where they’re going – tens of thousand of people having cell phones with ISIS flags on them? I don’t think so, Wolf. They’re not coming to this country. And if I’m president and if Obama has brought some to this country, they are leaving. They’re going. They’re gone.”

Then Bush ripped into the front-runner and his plan: “Donald is great at the one-liners, but he’s a chaos candidate. He’d be a chaos president.” Bush said Trump wouldn’t keep America safe.

That attack caused Trump to fire back at Jeb, saying the former Florida governor has failed in his campaign for president: “I don’t want our country taken away from us, and that’s what’s happening. … We want to make America great again. And Jeb, he doesn’t want to do that.”

http://www.wnd.com/2015/12/republicans-debate-in-vegas-trump-cruz-and-the-rest/ 

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