The Undercards Come Out Swinging in First 2016 Debate

by  on  in Chloe Sommers, FEATURES • 0 Comments

GOP big picAnd they’re off! The first 2016 presidential debate of 2016 was held in Charleston, South Carolina on Thursday evening and presidential hopeful and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina came out swinging with this burn against Democratic presidential candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton:

On Twitter, many viewers said her comment set a certain tone for the debate.

While setting a combative tone, notice how Fiorina’s comments assert her as the winner of the Republican nomination and Hillary Clinton as the winner of the Democratic nomination.

It’s a strategy that is getting some people fired up on social media:

Accompanying Fiorina on stage is former Arkansas Governor and FOX host Mike Huckabee (L) and Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum (R). It’s hard to keep track of all the candidates with so many candidates this season but one notable Senator is missing from the stage.

So where is Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) in this undercard debate?

Sen. Paul is running in 2016 but with his polling numbers at a low 3 percent leading up to Thursday’s debate, he was cut from the primetime GOP debate and demoted to the undercard candidate panel.

In reaction, he chose to opt-out of the debate entirely, instead choosing to have a live town hall meeting online at Twitter’s headquarters.

Back to the action in the Palmetto State, where the moderators turned the topic to refugees.

Fiorina wants to secure the borders.

Although he didn’t address the question this time, Santorum has previously advocated for keeping refugees in camps in their home regions. In a previous statement Santorum said, “we can’t be politically correct to the point where we ignore that reality.”

Huckabee said this about religious discrimination against Muslims:

On the wave of Syrian refugees, Huckabee has previously said, “Syrian refugees should find temporary homes in or near their own countries, instead of coming to the United States.”

Meanwhile, on Twitter, The Washington Examiner’s political editor wrote about a more nuanced approach, pointing out the different conflicts that create refugees to begin with.

On homeland security, Santorum warned against lazy federal bureaucracies.

Fiorina’s answer to America’s foreign policy focused on prioritizing America’s interests.

Santorum vehemently opposed allowing Iran any nuclear capabilities and criticized Obama’s recent nuclear agreement with the Middle Eastern country.

This pro-GOP Twitter account lauded Santorum’s swing at Obama:

Santorum also passionately talked about getting foreign third world countries up and running ‘so they don’t have to come over here.’  On Iran, Santorum says nuclear plans are the most serious threat facing the United States today.

Huckabee said some of the most controversial comments of the first panel saying “the role of the US military is not to build schools, it’s not to build bridges, it’s not to… pass out food packages…it is our job to kill.”

While some completely agreed with Huckabee’s sentiments on Twitter,

others like Heather Parker couldn’t get behind his statement.

On gun control, Huckabee used an example of the lack of government oversight leading into his critique of Obama’s anti-gun rhetoric.

‘We need to make sure we don’t have idiotic programs like Fast and Furious putting guns in the hands of cartels that kill our border protection agents,’ Huckabee adds,  “the president keeps saying ‘the gun-show loophole.’ There is no gun-show loophole.”

Washington Examiner political editor Tim Carney agrees with Huckabee.

On taxes, Fiorina once again talks about her proposal for reformatting the 73,000 page tax code to 3-pages, saying it’s harder to get by as a middle-class American. She also got a few more jabs at Clinton in.

Fiorina zing:

In his closing comments, Huckabee played to his conservative Christian base with some controversial comments on prayer.

Reactions to Huckabee from the Twitterverse were split into two camps, one for prayer in public school and one against it.

Behind the scenes: This is how journalists write about what you were searching during the debate. Here we have Google analytics provided to the media:

And at the end of the first debate, you all searched Fiorina the most, according to Google analytics.

Overall, Fiorina gave a very strong performance. She showed America she wants back on the primetime stage with the likes of Donald Trump and Senator Ted Cruz.

Santorum came out fighting on foreign policy, stating that America’s top priority is keeping Iran from going nuclear.

Huckabee pandered to his far-Right and Christian supporters, especially with his closing remarks about instituting prayer in classrooms.

The GOP primetime debate begins Thursday at 9p EST.

The next Democratic debate will be Sunday, January 17th.

Chloe Sommers is the Executive Editor of the Never Daunted Radio Network. You can reach her on Twitter @ChloePalma

 

 

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