Republican debate on ABC: news and updates

One of the nagging questions of the Republican primary has been why the GOP establishment hasn’t united behind Marco Rubio. The move seemed obvious — they feared Donald Trump, they loathed Ted Cruz, and Rubio seemed like a more serious threat to Hillary Clinton than Jeb Bush or Chris Christie.

But it didn’t happen. And it kept not happening. Even as Bush tanked and Christie struggled, Rubio got a few endorsements, but never the flood that would have signaled GOP elites were closing ranks; he raised some money, but nothing that approached Bush’s early haul.

The last Republican debate before Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary was an intense event, full of heated exchanges and attacks. But unlike previous debates, Donald Trump wasn’t the center of attention this time around. Marco Rubio was.

Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz spoke the most with 18:18 and 17:08 minutes respectively. Donald Trump — who had most the airtime in previous Republican debates — faded into third.

I didn’t watch last night’s Republican debate, and catching up on it the day after, Rubio’s programming glitch — in which he responded to allegations of robotically repeating talking points by robotically repeating his talking points — certainly struck me as funny:

But was it bad in the kind of way that people would actually care about? David Frum, one of the smartest conservative pundits around, made the case that it was that bad in a series of tweets that are very much worth your time.

Marco Rubio’s being widely mocked for his performance at the Republican debate Saturday night, where he said the same Barack Obama attack line again and again and again … and again.

But what was he actually trying to say?

For most of this week, it seemed like the Iowa caucus results had finally imposed some order on the sprawling, chaotic Republican presidential contest. Sure, Ted Cruz and Donald Trump had finished first and second, but among the more establishment-friendly candidates, it was Marco Rubio who was rising above the pack. It was suddenly easy to envision more mainstream GOP voters and the party’s elites quickly falling behind Rubio, which would transform the race into a three-way battle between him, Trump, and Cruz.

That still might well happen. But Saturday’s debate shows it’s far from certain.

Normally during a presidential debate, it is the candidates who defend their records against attacks from their rivals. On Saturday night, it was CNN.

CNN took the extraordinary step of sending out a press release during an ABC News Debate accusing Sen. Ted Cruz of “knowingly” misrepresenting its reporting about the Ben Carson campaign.

Marco Rubio is a very intelligent person. Marco Rubio is a very talented politician. Marco Rubio is a very good debater.

Where the hell was that Marco Rubio during the last debate before the New Hampshire primary?

Donald Trump doesn’t like being interrupted. At the Republican debate on Saturday, when Jeb Bush broke into one of Trump’s answers, Trump turned around and shushed Bush.

This was a continuation of how Trump has long handled Bush, often verbally bullying the Florida governor and characterizing him as weak.

Update: This article, which originally ran on Thursday after Rubio’s initial comments, has been updated to include his discussion of the issue in Saturday’s debate.

Republican presidential candidates are naturally running on a platform of challenging the Obama administration and its policies, and this leads them to criticize things the president does. No surprise. That’s how politics works.

Marco Rubio had a very bad night at the Republican debate on Saturday. And no video makes it clearer than the one above, showing Rubio repeating the exact same line over and over again — even after he was criticized for it by Chris Christie.

The context is important here: Early in the debate, Christie mocked Rubio for relying so much on his stump speech at the debate. Christie said, “Every morning when a United States senator wakes up, they think about, ‘What kind of speech can I give, or what kind of bill can I drop?’ Every morning, when I wake up, I think about what kind of problem do I need to solve for the people who actually elected me. It’s a different experience.”

Chris Christie went after Marco Rubio at the Republican debate Saturday night for giving canned answers.

Rubio’s response: canned answers.

The Republican debate Saturday night started with a traffic jam.

After ABC’s moderators called Chris Christie to the stage, they called Ben Carson. But Carson missed the cue and stayed in the wings even as the camera panned to him, and Sen. Ted Cruz walked past.

Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz joked about Republicans having a debate on Super Bowl weekend — in a thinly veiled attack against those who have criticized the Democratic leadership for scheduling debates on weekends to limit viewership and, in effect, protect Hillary Clinton from making a widely televised blunder.

Wasserman Schultz later clarified she was only pointing out that both parties schedule debates on weekends, and there’s nothing nefarious about it.

The next Republican presidential debate is tonight in Manchester, New Hampshire, and will air on ABC. The network has said that coverage of the debate will begin at 8 pm Eastern, though it is not clear if the debate will begin right then or a bit afterward. You’ll be able to view a live stream online at ABCNews.go.com.

After skipping out on the last GOP debate — and losing the Iowa caucuses — Donald Trump has announced that he will show up this time. He’ll be joined by Iowa winner Ted Cruz and Iowa “media winner” Marco Rubio, whose unexpectedly competitive performance in the caucuses has bolstered his prospects for winning the nomination in the eyes of political elites. Ben Carson, who finished a weak fourth in Iowa and whose candidacy has been in decline for months, will also be in attendance, though his campaign seems like it might not be going for too much longer.

The next primetime Republican presidential debate is tonight in Manchester, New Hampshire. It will air on ABC, and the network has said that coverage of it will begin at 8 PM Eastern, though it is not clear if the debate will start right then or a bit after that. A live stream will be available at ABCNews.go.com.

This time around, seven candidates met Fox’s polling qualifications for the primetime event. They are Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, Chris Christie, Jeb Bush, and John Kasich. And, though he skipped out on the most recent GOP debate, Trump has confirmed that he’ll attend this one.

How much time have we spent watching presidential debates this campaign season?

There are two possible correct answers to this question: One is the actual time, 28 hours and 18 minutes. But there’s another right answer: too much time.