| New York Times | - |
The
battle for the Republican nomination appeared more splintered than ever
between two halves of a bitterly divided party as several candidates
scrambled Friday to consolidate the support of more moderate
conservatives a day after a raucous debate.
Republicans Intensify Attacks After a Pitched Debate
The
battle for the Republican nomination appeared more splintered than ever
between two halves of a bitterly divided party as several candidates
scrambled Friday to consolidate the support of more moderate
conservatives a day after a raucous debate.
With Donald J. Trump and Senator Ted Cruz finally now engaged in an open feud for the most disillusioned voters, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey and Jeb Bush,
the former Florida governor, were battling to win over a group of more
traditional Republicans who are showing little sign of coalescing around
any single candidate.
This
fracture was most vividly apparent in New Hampshire, where both Mr.
Bush and Mr. Rubio campaigned on Friday, and polls show that no one is
emerging as the obvious alternative to Mr. Trump or Mr. Cruz, two
candidates that many Republicans fear would doom their party in the
general election.
Mr.
Bush sought to highlight his image as the candidate of his party’s
seasoned, sober-minded wing on Friday with the endorsement of a former
rival in the presidential race, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, as Mr. Rubio went on the attack against Mr. Cruz and Mr. Christie.
Highlights From the Sixth Republican Debate
Seven Republican presidential candidates faced off for the first time this year on Jan. 14 in North Charleston, S.C.
The
jockeying to become that alternative came a day after a Republican
debate in which simmering tensions between Mr. Cruz and Mr. Trump
exploded, opening up the harshest and most antagonistic phase of the
Republican presidential race yet.
Mr.
Rubio, who in the earlier phase of his campaign vowed to remain above
any intra-party bickering, engaged in repeated broadsides against his
rivals.
Questioning
Mr. Cruz’s devotion to conservative principles, he said on Fox News,
“The only thing consistent is the consistent political calculation.” He
added, “So don’t run as a consistent conservative if in fact you have
consistently calculated your position. And that’s what he’s done.”
Speaking
later to voters in Derry, N.H., Mr. Rubio was more theatrical, whipping
out a piece of paper from his pocket to read verbatim a quote from Mr.
Christie in support of Justice Sonia Sotomayor, a liberal Supreme Court
appointee of President Obama’s.
“I
support her appointment to the Supreme Court and urge the Senate to
keep politics out of the process,” Mr. Rubio read from the page, adding
sarcastically, “That sounds like support.”
“Let
me be very clear and very blunt,” he continued. “When I am president of
the United States, we are not appointing justices like that to the
Supreme Court.”
The
pressure on Mr. Rubio to break out as the choice of Republicans who
cannot stomach the thought of voting for Mr. Cruz of Mr. Trump is
growing. He trails Mr. Trump and Mr. Cruz in Iowa and polls show a tight
race with Mr. Cruz in New Hampshire and South Carolina. While he has
won backing from some of the Republican Party’s wealthiest and most influential donors, he has not yet charted a clear path to winning the nomination.
As he campaigned on Friday, he presented himself as the person who could best stitch back together a divided party.
“We
can elect someone that is angry and frustrated about what Barack Obama
has done to America,” he said, a nod to Mr. Trump and Mr. Cruz’s angrier
appeals. “But also someone that knows what to do about it, to fix it,
someone who will unite our party and also attract new people to our
cause.”
Mr.
Bush, who lags behind Mr. Rubio in national polls as well as those in
Iowa and New Hampshire, made his own play on Friday to be the
alternative to Mr. Trump and Mr. Cruz with the endorsement of Mr.
Graham. At their event in North Charleston, S.C., Mr. Graham extolled
him as a sensible and steady choice who has not given into anger and
despair. “He’s the one guy to push back against Donald’s demagoguery at a
time when somebody needs to push back,” he said.
Talking
to reporters after the event, though, Mr. Graham was more sober about
Mr. Bush’s prospects with a Republican electorate that seems to have
little appetite for candidates advocating conciliation. And he confessed
he did not know whether a party so divided could repair itself in time
to win the White House.
Graphic: 2016 Primary Calendar and Results
“I don’t know if he’ll win, I want him to win,” said the senator, adding: “I don’t know how it’s going to end for the party.”
In
Republican circles, many see the division in the center-right coalition
part of Mr. Bush’s own doing. There has been a bitter debate lately
whether his strategy of trying to take out Mr. Rubio is futile and
ultimately destructive to both men. Mr. Bush reserved much of his fire
for Mr. Trump during the debate and in his remarks on Friday morning.
But as Mr. Bush prepared to leave South Carolina to campaign in New Hampshire later in the day, his “super PAC” ads were running across both states criticizing Mr. Rubio for being soft on immigration.
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