donald trump, that s a decision that is obviously too early to make. he certainly is someone that wants to have who wants to have a national profile. so this was a moment for him. he could break with the administration or he could in the end go with them and clearly he decided that he didn t want to risk the ill will that would come had he voted against this nominee. shepard: you figure when mccain of arizona and graham of south carolina you could describe it as an endorsements. he would have been left on an idea of one. yeah, he would have been out there as the administration s opponent on this issue. you know there are some risks in that. clearly trump has a powerful voice. he s the bully pulpit of the president. in this presidency, it s more the twitter pulpit of the presidency. i think rubio didn t as you point couldn t, he didn t want to be out there on his own.
thank you, kaylee. how hard was that? rubio didn t have his facts. it s so crazy that rubio could look at cruz, the only elected official on the stage who has never supported amnesty. i say elected official because donald trump has not supported amnesty. for him to accuse him of he has no facts to support that. i thought it was, you know, when we were talking about yes or no answers and we talked about this. i think when cruz said i never have and never will support that. i think that appeals to the american people because someone is answering the question directly. people go around and around. and marco rubio went around with that answer and dana had to come back to him. that was the purpose of me asking that question. but here is what dylan buyers tweeted out.
cause rubio success and therefore it s not a matter of who is between the two of them winning right now they are both winning when they are in these exchanges. i think cruz clearly won that exchange. thank you, kaylee. how hard was that? rubio didn t have his facts. it s so crazy that rubio could look at cruz, the only elected official on the stage who has never supported amnesty. i say elected official because donald trump has not supported amnesty. for him to accuse him of he has no facts to support that. athought it was, you know, when we were talking about yes or no answers and we talked about this. i think when cruz said i never have and never will support that. i think that appeals to the american people because someone is answering the question directly. people go around and around.
obviously in this case donald trump is the brawler. if cruz doesn t take the bait, what is his next game plan? what s the next strategy on that debate stage? reporter: well, remember, carson didn t really take the bait either. rubio didn t really take the bait either. jeb tried not to take the bait. cruz may not be taking the bait right now. he is a much more disciplined candidate than the rest. he s very calculated and he seems to have a strategy to deal with donald trump. but in the past, even when they haven t necessarily taken the bait, donald trump has come out on top. his attacks have worked with his supporters. now the cruz supporters and the donald trump supporters are very similar. they are fighting for the same base of support in a lot of ways so it will be interesting to find out exactly who donald trump is going to maybe alienate with these attacks or who he will be able to convince to come over to his side. that remains to be seen. but right now we re seeing ted cruz be
local industry there. cruz is against it. trump is a big supporter of federal subsidies for ethanol. that s the first issue. and, you know, i think he might go i think the second issue is on nsa reform. we ve seen marco rubio and cruz split on this. cruz supported the reforms they made to the telephone metadata program. rubio didn t. i have not heard where trump is on that issue. it s an important issue in terms of national security, which trump has been talking about a lot. those are two spots to watch. all right. but let s remember that it was not long ago that trump signed this pledge not to run as an independent. he did it very publicly. yeah. and in recent days, he appears to be leaving certainly at least some wiggle room for that. here s what he told our don lemon this week. what do you mean, you say, if they break this pledge, then