The seven Republican candidates on stage for the first GOP debate of 2016 produced clash after clash, as the voting in the early-primary states gets ever closer.
Cruz accused "my friend Donald" of questioning his eligibility for president only because of that fact — and because the real-estate mogul's poll numbers had been sinking.
"Back in September, my friend Donald said he had his lawyer look at this from every which way and there was no issue there," Cruz said to whistles and cheers from the crowd. "There was nothing to this 'birther' issue. Since September, the Constitution hasn't changed. But the poll numbers have."
"And I recognize that Donald is dismayed that his poll numbers are falling in Iowa," he added. "But the facts and the law here are really quite clear."
Trump responded by touting his poll numbers. But he was booed while citing a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, published earlier Thursday, that gave him a 13-point national lead over Cruz. The businessman claimed that the crowd was booing Cruz, not him.
"You have a big lawsuit over your head while you're running," Trump said. "And if you become the nominee, who the hell knows if you can even serve in office."
Cruz has suggested voters in Iowa should consider the real-estate mogul's hometown in recent days. Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo asked Cruz to explain what he meant by the term "New York values." Cruz initially declined to elaborate.
Cruz eventually praised "many wonderful, wonderful working men and women in the state of New York, but everyone understands that the values in New York City are socially liberal, are pro-abortion, are pro-gay-marriage, focused around money and the media."
"I guess I can frame it another way: 'Not a lot of conservatives come out of Manhattan,'" Cruz said later. "I'm just saying."
Trump then fired back at Cruz.
"Conservatives do actually come out of Manhattan," the Queens-born businessman said, citing William F. Buckley Jr., the founder of the conservative magazine National Review.
As he did earlier this week, Trump said "New York values" could be seen in how the city came together and rebuilt itself after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
"He insulted a lot of people," Trump said of Cruz. "When the World Trade Center came down, I saw something that no place on earth could have handled more beautifully, more humanely than New York."
Marco Rubio Ted Cruz
(AP) Marco Rubio and Cruz.
But Trump and Cruz didn't provide the only fireworks of the night.
Bartiromo noted that the US was on track to issue more green cards and asked why Rubio was said to be supporting opening borders to foreign workers when Americans were having a hard enough time getting jobs.
This opened up a prolonged back-and-forth of attacks between Rubio and Cruz.
Rubio accused Cruz of flip-flopping on certain key positions, namely immigration and defense spending, and listed a litany of issues about which he accused Cruz of changing his mind.
"That is not consistent conservatism," Rubio said. "That is political calculation."
Cruz demanded time to respond to what he said were at least "11 attacks" from Rubio. He told Rubio, "I appreciate you dumping your oppo research folder."
"At least half of the things Marco said are flat-out false," Cruz said. "They're absolutely false."
On immigration, Cruz said Rubio stood with Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-New York) and President Barack Obama.
Christie Rubio
(Screenshot/Fox) Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida.
Cavuto asked Rubio if he went too far and whether he wanted to apologize.
Rubio didn't apologize and accused Christie of supporting gun control, Planned Parenthood, and the controversial educational standards that make up the Common Core.
"All I'm saying is that our next president cannot be someone that does the damage that Barack Obama does to this country," Rubio said. "It cannot be someone that continues his agenda."
Rubio warned that if US voters didn't "get this election right," then there might be "no turning back for America."
Christie responded by saying he stood on stage watching Rubio "rather indignantly" tell former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida that "someone told you that because we're running for the same office, that criticizing me will get you to that office."
Before defending his record, he then said of Rubio: "It appears that the same someone's been whispering in ol' Marco's ear, too."
