Highlights from the Fifth Republican Debate
Republican candidates gathered in Las Vegas on December 15 for their fifth debate of the primary season. Read the highlights from the debate below and follow along at our blog Minutes, where we’ll be covering the action as it unfolds.
Jeb Bush calls Trump the “chaos candidate”
Jeb Bush had previously called Donald Trump “unhinged” for his plan to ban all foreign Muslims from entering the United States. When asked about that comment at the debate, Bush came out swinging. “Donald is great at the one-liners, but he is a chaos candidate. And he would be a chaos president,” Bush said.
"Chaos candidate" is Jeb's first good line of this campaign.
— Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) December 16, 2015Trump quickly rebuffed the jab, saying that Bush didn’t really mean it—he was just upset because he has been running such a bad campaign.
But even if Trump easily brushed it off, at least poor Jeb was able to have a strong moment after a series of lackluster debate performances.
Which PR professional coached Jeb with #ChaosCandidate knowing it would be fire?
— Joe Rodriguez (@jrodriguez713) December 16, 2015