In second Republican party debate, Jeb Bush, John Kasich, Rand Paul oppose immediate reversal of nuclear pact between Tehran, world powers
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said the next president should not immediately reverse the nuclear agreement with Iran.
The Republican party was staunchly against the deal cut by the Obama administration and world powers, which seeks to curb the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. Several GOP candidates have vowed to overturn the agreement, which has been fiercely criticized by Israel, should they win the White House.
But at the party’s second debate, Paul took a different approach, saying it would be “absurd” to “cut up the agreement immediately.”
Bush echoed that position, saying “it’s not a strategy to tear up an agreement.” Instead, he would strengthen ties with Israel, a move he says will create “a healthier deterrent effect than anything else I can think of.”
Kasich also took a measured approach, saying ripping up a deal agreed to not only by the US but also several allies was not a strategy for stopping Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
During the debate, Republican presidential candidates collectively turned their sights on frontrunner Donald Trump, taking aim at his lack of political experience and his sometimes abrasive style.
Fellow candidates hoping to check his lead in the polls painted the controversial real estate mogul as an insult monger, a loose cannon and an “entertainer” — a reference to his time as a television reality star.
From the starting gun of the primetime debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, Trump was front and center, with a question about whether he could be trusted with the nuclear codes.
Former Hewlett-Packard chief executive Carly Fiorina damned Trump with faint praise.
“Mr Trump is a wonderful entertainer,” she said. “He’s been terrific at that business.”
But, she added pointedly, “one of the benefits of a presidential campaign is the character and capability, judgment and temperament of every single one of us is revealed over time and under pressure.”
“All of us will be revealed over time and under pressure. I look forward to a long race.”
The rest of the field was eager to pile on.
One-time favorite Bush tacitly questioned whether Trump was up to the job.
“You can’t just, you know, talk about this stuff and insult leaders around the world and expect a good result,” the former Florida governor said.
“You have to do this with a steady hand, and I believe I have those skills.”
Trump responded with his trademark bluster: “My temperament is very good, very calm, but we will be respected outside of this country. We are not respected now.”
Wisconsin governor Scott Walker jumped in with a seemingly well prepared punchline playing on the title of Trump’s past reality show.
Turning on the billionaire, he said: “Mr Trump, we don’t need an apprentice in the White House — we have one right now.”
With regard to the Syrian civil war, Trump attacked President Barack Obama for lacking courage.
The billionaire, asked whether Congress bears responsibility for the Syrian refugee crisis, said he would have gone in with “tremendous force” when the Syrian regime attacked its own people.
That was in response to a question about whether Congress is responsible for backing Obama, who refused to order military action after the Assad regime attacked Syrians.
Trump said: “Somehow he just doesn’t have courage. There’s something missing from our president.”
As reported by The Times of Israel