Ben Carson and Marco Rubio will try Tuesday night to maintain their momentum while several once-formidable candidates battle for survival at the fourth Republican presidential debate of the campaign.
The debate, taking place in Milwaukee and hosted by Fox Business, comes at a critical time in the 2016 race.
Carson, the retired neurosurgeon who’s surged to the top of the polls, is facing questions about key aspects of his biography, including his descriptions of being involved in violent encounters dating back to his childhood. Similarly, Rubio’s rising poll numbers have invited closer scrutiny. The Florida senator will likely have to defend his use of a state Republican Party charge card, an issue that his critics have seized on.
Meanwhile, the struggles of Jeb Bush — once viewed as the party’s eventual front-runner but now stuck in the single digits — have created an opening that his peers are jockeying to fill.
And then there’s Donald Trump.
The colorful businessman — fresh off an appearance hosting “Saturday Night Live” — remains on top of most polls but is facing increasingly fierce competition from Carson.
Trump is poised to dominate the stage with his populist message and larger-than-life personality. He offered a preview of some of his potential lines of attack on Monday night.
Trump went after Rubio on Twitter, calling him a “total lightweight.”
During a rally in Springfield, Illinois, Trump blasted Carson’s efforts to prove the veracity of troublesome parts of his childhood.
“A lot of weird things are happening. This is a strange election, isn’t it? Man!” Trump said. “You stab somebody and the newspapers say you didn’t do it. And you say, ‘Yes, I did. I did it.’ ‘No, you didn’t.’ ‘Yes, I did! I stabbed him and it hit the belt!'”
Trump went on: “This is the only election in history where it’s better off if you stabbed somebody. What are we coming to?”
The Carson camp fired back with harsh words for Trump on Tuesday, calling the businessman “desperate.”
“It would not be wise for Mr. Trump to attack him. It’s not a winning approach,” Armstrong Williams, Carson’s business manager and adviser, told Jake Tapper on “The Lead.” “If he thinks Dr. Carson is going to drop out of the race or be intimidated by his tactics, he’s lost and confused.”
The format of Tuesday night’s debate should benefit the candidates participating in the prime-time event. As a result of new criteria established by Fox Business, only eight GOP hopefuls qualified for the main debate, offering each of them more time to make the case for their candidacies.
Carson, Trump, Rubio and Bush were joined by Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina, John Kasich and Rand Paul for the prime-time showdown.
Before the prime-time debate, four lower-tier candidates — Chris Christie, Mike Huckabee, Bobby Jindal and Rick Santorum — kicked off the evening with a one-hour “undercard” debate. Christie and Huckabee had qualified for the main debates in previous gatherings.
Christie, known for his bold style, used the earlier debate to repeatedly slam Hillary Clinton — part of a strategy to make the case that he could take on the Democratic front-runner during a general election.
“If you listen to Hillary Clinton,” Christie said, “she believes that she can make decisions for you better than you can make them for yourself.”
The New Jersey governor, whose political fortunes have fallen drastically following the state scandal dubbed “Bridgegate,” also called on Republicans to train their fire on Clinton rather than each other.
“She is the real adversary tonight, and we better stay focused as Republicans on her,” he said. “Hillary Clinton’s coming for your wallet, everybody. Don’t worry about Huckabee or Jindal, worry about her.”
Jindal made a contrasting case, insisting that not just any Republican was capable of taking on Clinton.
“Let’s not just beat Hillary — let’s elect a conservative,” Jindal said, before going after Christie for his record in New Jersey. “Records matter.”
Tempers flared at the media when a moderator asked each of the candidates to name a Democratic member of Congress they admire the most.
“I think this is why people were so frustrated with the last debate, with these kinds of silly questions,” Jindal shot back, adding that he would fire everyone in Washington as president.
The other three candidates declined to engage the question, offering up unrelated answers.
Lindsey Graham and George Pataki did not qualify for either debate.