Republicans sharpen attack lines at Milwaukee debate

— Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz

Jeb Bush flashed a feistier edge. Ben Carson defended a biography under siege. Ted Cruz trumpeted his opposition to illegal immigration amnesty. And Donald Trump sniped at his rivals.

A smaller cast of characters gathered Tuesday in Milwaukee for the fourth Republican presidential showdown of the year. But the eight candidates on the main stage proved just as desperate as ever to stand out from the crowded field.

Bush, the former Florida governor, tried to shake off three flat performances in the previous GOP debates with a feisty, aggressive style. He bristled at the debate’s start when another rival tried to interrupt him – “I’m going to get my question now,” he declared – and cast himself as Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton’s biggest nemesis.

“I’m going to fight as hard as we can to make sure we shift power away from Washington,” said Bush, who is trying to reboot his campaign with a focus on his eight years in Florida’s top job. “People are really struggling right now. Jobs are being created. But they’re lower income jobs.”

Pushing back against growing questions about his background, Ben Carson shed his mild-mannered persona to counter reports that scrutinized whether he was offered a scholarship to West Point and questioned other parts of his biography.

“The fact of the matter is we should vet all candidates. I have no problem with being vetted,” he said. “What I do have a problem with is being lied about.”

And Cruz, the Texas senator, tried to score points with evangelicals by attacking the tax system — “there are more words in the IRS code than in the Bible,” he said — and pivoting an economic question into a warning that Republicans will lose the White House if they offer amnesty to illegal immigration.

“I would say the politics of it would be very, very different if a bunch of lawyers or bankers were crossing the Rio Grande,” Cruz said. “Or if a bunch of people with journalism degrees were coming over and driving down the wages in the press.”

Trumping Donald

Long the front-runner, Donald Trump found himself in a rather strange position. For the first time in months, he didn’t command the unwavering attention of the gathered media, as Carson inches closer to him in many national polls.

Fresh off a self-deprecating performance on “Saturday Night Live,” the billionaire returned to his wise-cracking ways when he clashed with Ohio Gov. John Kasich over his plan to remove the 11 million immigrants illegally in the country.

“You’re going to have to send people out,” Trump said, adding: “We’re a country of laws. We either have a country or we don’t have a country.”

In a biting response, Kasich said that his plan amounted to a joke.

“Come on folks: we all know you can’t pick them up and ship them back across the border,” Kasich said. “It’s a silly argument.”

Answered Trump: “You’re lucky in Ohio that you struck oil.”

When the debate shifted to foreign policy, Bush seized a chance to contrast himself with the front-runner.

“We can’t be the policeman of the world,” Trump said about the expanding violence in the Middle East. “We have to start investing in our country.”

Bush, echoing the policies of his brother and father, said interventionism is a necessary evil.

“We don’t have to be the world policeman, but we need to be world leader,” Bush said. “We have to lead, we have to be involved.”

Staying largely above the fray, Florida U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio was eager to hone his conservative chops after Cruz claimed in a TV interview that he was a closet “moderate.”

“We need to make America the best place in the world to start a business through tax reform and regulatory reform,” Rubio said. “We need more welders and less philosophers.”

The media may have been under the most scrutiny of all. The candidates erupted at CNBC's moderators after last month's debate over what they deemed to be "gotcha" questions. Many of the campaigns cobbled together a series of demands for future debates, and some Republicans urged the party to take over the event.

This time, moderators from the Fox Business Network and Wall Street Journal tried to set a firmer tone by steering the debate toward skeptical — though not snarky — questions on the economy. They elicited many specifics from the candidates, including explanations from Carson, Rubio and Trump about why they wouldn’t raise the minimum wage.

“I would not raise it specifically because I’m interested in making sure that people are able to enter the job market and take advantage of opportunities,” Carson said.

Cruz, meanwhile, struggled over a question about whether he would let Bank of America fail. “Yes,” he said, attacking legislation that allowed the consolidation of financial behemoths at the expense of “mom and pop shops” that don’t get federal bailouts.

The missing candidates

Gone from Tuesday's main debate were two familiar faces. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee were both relegated to the undercard — an earlier debate along with two lesser-known rivals — due to dismal poll standings.

It was a demotion that could haunt their campaigns, though both tried to take advantage of the extra speaking time afforded by the smaller stage. Christie used the pulpit to try to position himself as the grown-up in the room — the GOP leader who can unite the party against the Democratic front-runner.

“Believe me — Hillary Clinton is coming for your wallet,” Christie said. “Don’t worry about Huckabee or Jindal. Worry about her.”

He had his own target on his back. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal repeatedly needled Christie, casting himself as the only true conservative with executive experience in the crowded race. He compared Christie to a “liberal” and mocked his administration’s record in left-leaning New Jersey.

“I’ll give you a ribbon for participation and a juice box,” Jindal quipped. “But in the real world it’s about results. It’s about actually cutting government spending — not just talking about cutting government spending.”