The first Republican primary debate was this Thursday, Aug. 6. Thanks to Donald Trump and the "Donald Trump Effect," this debate had some pretty ridiculous moments because the other candidates were trying to express controversial, to say the least, ideas to steal some of Trump's attention. Here are some of the highlights:
1. Donald Trump stood smugly at the center of the stage when he was announced number one in an average of five national polls.
Unfortunately, Fox News has not specified exactly which polls were used.
2. When asked who would consider running an independent campaign and not supporting the Republican nominee in the general election, Donald Trump, of course, was the only one to raise his hand.
He defended himself even after the moderators pointed out an independent candidate could help the Democrats in the general election.
3. Megyn Kelly started to state Donald Trump has "called women [he doesn't] like fat pigs, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals…” Trump interrupted and declared, "Only Rosie O'Donnell."
This comment might have received numerous laughs, but Trump's sexism is definitely a problem. Trump felt Megyn Kelly, one of the moderators of the debate, was mean and unfair to him, so he told Don Lemon of CNN after the debate, "You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes. Blood coming out of her wherever."
4. Who was mentioned more: Ronald Reagan or God?
5. Rand Paul and Chris Christie had a heated argument about the constitutionality of collecting people's records in order to obtain information about terrorists. Paul stated, "I don’t trust President Obama with all records. I know you gave him a big hug. If you want to give him a big hug again, go right ahead.” Christie retorted, "The hugs that I remember are the hugs I gave to families who lost their people on Sep. 11. Those are the hugs I remember. And those had nothing to do with politics unlike what you're doing like cutting speeches on the floor of the Senate then putting them on the Internet within half an hour to raise money for your campaign.”
Governor Scott Walker joked, "It's sad to think right now but the Russian and Chinese government know more about Hillary Clinton's email server than do the members of the United States Congress.”
Senator Marco Rubio said, "He’s blessed the Republicans with some very good candidates. The Democrats can't even find one.”
Former Governor Mike Huckabee teased, "It seems like this election has been a whole lot about a person who's very high in the polls but doesn’t have a clue about how to govern. A person who has been filled with scandals and who could not lead. And, of course, I'm talking about Hillary Clinton.”
7. Former Governor Mike Huckabee made a clearly insightful and patriotic comment about the military: "The purpose of the military is to kill people and break things.”
8. Megyn Kelly sarcastically asked Trump, "When did you actually become a Republican?" The audience booed Trump, and he responded, "They don't like me very much."
9. Dr. Ben Carson made the brilliant decision of reminding voters that he is a neurosurgeon, not a politician. He declared, "Well I haven’t said anything about being the only one to do anything so let me try that. I’m the only one to separate Siamese twins. The only one to operate on babies while they're still in the mother's womb. The only one to take out half of a brain. Although, you would think if you go to Washington that someone had beat me to it.”
10. Trump insulted...well, everyone!
"Our leaders are stupid. Our politicians are stupid. The Mexican government is much smarter, much sharper, much more cunning, and they send the bad ones over because they don’t want to pay for them."
"We have a president who doesn’t have a clue. I would say he's incompetent, but I don’t want to do that because that’s not nice.”
