The GOP’s first Debate—Move Over Donald Trump

On Thursday night, FOX broadcast the Republican Party’s first live debate. Only the candidates who were already polling in the top 10 were allowed to participate, leaving the other seven candidates out.

To the GOP’s surprise (but probably not to anyone else’s) polls showed that Donald Trump was the leading candidate going into the debate. But how did the business mogul stack up against the other politicians?

Many Republicans agree that the top performers of the night were Marco Rubio and the supposed underdog John Kasich. People agree that Jeb Bush had some weaker moments, but eventually ended with a strong performance.

Amongst the OMG-moments of the night, Donald Trump was the only candidate who didn’t promise not to run as an independent in the general election if he didn’t secure the GOP nomination—he received some pretty loud “boos” from the crowd. Mike Huckabee claimed that we shouldn’t have transgender citizens in the military because their medical services are too expensive—he claimed that the military’s purpose is for breaking things and killing people. Finally, the last question of the night was whether the candidates had heard anything from God about their presidential runs, to which most responded with a resounding “yes” and the country responded with: What happened to separation of church and state?

-Matré Grant