--- title: Republican Debate: Donald Trump Loses and Wins vs. Ted Cruz description: The upshot of his showdown with Ted Cruz canonical: https://time.com/4182354/republican-debate-donald-trump-ted-cruz-new-york/ author: Joe Klein article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-15T16:33:50.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-05T08:40:48.140Z article:section: Politics og:title: How Donald Trump Lost—and Won og:description: The upshot of his showdown with Ted Cruz og:url: https://time.com/4182354/republican-debate-donald-trump-ted-cruz-new-york/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8ab20d7c844c5a97/69887957524fc00f84df6506/republican-debate2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: GOP Presidential Candidates Debate In Charleston og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Donald Trump Lost—and Won twitter:description: The upshot of his showdown with Ted Cruz twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8ab20d7c844c5a97/69887957524fc00f84df6506/republican-debate2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How Donald Trump Lost—and Won > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=6288ab3d-38be-44ca-b8e0-c7d8064040b6&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: FOX January GOP Debate in Under 4 minutes [Watch (HLS stream): FOX January GOP Debate in Under 4 minutes](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/43Jv4tOR.m3u8) (3:59)  _Published 2016-01-15. GOP DEBATE 011416: The FOX January GOP Debate in Under 4 minutes_ by [Joe Klein](https://time.com/author/joe-klein/) ## Joe Klein Jan 15, 2016 4:33 PM UTC by [Joe Klein](https://time.com/author/joe-klein/) ## Joe Klein Jan 15, 2016 4:33 PM UTC Donald Trump lost, and won, [the latest Republican presidential debate](http://time.com/4182083/republican-debate-donald-trump-nasty/). The nature of his loss was subtle; the nature of his victory was scary. Let’s talk about the loss first. The centerpiece of the debate was [his battle with Ted Cruz](http://time.com/4181973/donald-trump-ted-cruz-iowa/), in which I suspect Trump was beaten. Cruz simply pulverized him on [the nonsense that The Donald has been peddling](http://time.com/4182043/republican-debate-donald-trump-ted-cruz-legal-advice/) about Cruz’s Canadian birth. When Trump tried to respond, he was booed, really booed, for the first time in these debates. Cruz is a very strong, and nimble, debater and can handle anything Trump throws at him. Well, almost anything. Cruz couldn’t handle [Trump’s “I love New York” response](http://time.com/4181975/republican-debate-trump-defends-new-york/) to his sleazy “New York values” jibe. He even applauded Trump’s celebration of the 9/11 first responders at one point. Many of the pundits—especially those at Fox News—cited this as a clean kill for Trump, perhaps his best moment in any of the debates. But I wonder: Was Cruz playing a deeper game? He had to know Trump’s response was coming—indeed, Trump had already trotted it out in several pre-game interviews. Is it possible Cruz thought that merely getting the New York as Sodom image out there was worth it because of the resonance it has with his evangelical supporters, even though he knew Trump would slash back effectively? Was this a solidify-the-base effort? After all, the big news of the day was that Cruz’s wife Heidi has been an executive at Goldman, Sachs—Manhattan’s big bad bank. That was the real on-the-ground import of [the New York _Times_ story](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/14/us/politics/ted-cruz-wall-street-loan-senate-bid-2012.html) that Cruz [had taken a big loan from Goldman to fund his Senate campaign](http://time.com/4180061/ted-cruz-goldman-sachs-citibank-loan/). This was, potentially, lethal mud. The paranoid populist heart of the new GOP believes the party’s biggest problem is that its leadership—its establishment—is in cahoots with big money. Cruz points this out on the stump all the time, and very effectively: There is a tangle of interests that run Washington, the big money guys pay lobbyists—and that’s who the federal government works for, the bankers and lobbyists… and insiders who can get low-interest loans to finance their Senate campaigns. So, perhaps Cruz felt that he had to suffer the 9/11 hit in order reinforce his anti-Sodom bona fides. But make no mistake, we have not heard the last of Heidi Cruz’s career at Goldman. As for Trump’s victory, it was more zeitgeisty. He has clearly taken control of Republican Party’s tone and soul. His style sets the standard for behavior and we media-bots are playing along. The new gold standard is the over-the-top personal insult. Trump had his “best” debate, many of my fellow pundits concluded, even though he continues to say, and propose, things that are spectacularly at variance with the truth. The notion—which he’s trotted out repeatedly—that the Syrian refugees are mostly big “muscular” guys wasn’t even challenged by Neil Cavuto. (The people who are actually monitoring the refugee flow say it consists mostly of women and children.) **Read More:** [_Are the Syrian Refugees All ‘Young, Strong Men’?_](http://time.com/4122186/syrian-refugees-donald-trump-young-men/) Success in these debates is now measured by how Trump-like, or how boorish, the candidates can be. Cruz was always there. On the stump, he jokes about closing the Department of Education and turning it into the Bill Clinton Museum of Youth Outreach. The two other candidates deemed to have “done well” in the South Carolina debate, Marco Rubio and Chris Christie, are those who have slid toward Trumpery in recent months. Christie got a big roar when he said that they were going to “kick \[Obama’s\] butt” out of the White House in the fall. _Reality check:_ If Christie wins the presidency, he and Mary Pat will enter the White House awestruck and respectful on the morning of next Jan. 20 for a very polite cup of coffee with Barack and Michelle Obama before traveling to the Capitol to take the oath. I know Christie and like him personally, and it makes me sad to see him bending to the mob in this way. The three least Trumpitudinous candidates on the stage—Jeb Bush, John Kasich and Ben Carson—were judged to have been losers of the debate. This is sad, too. In a Trumpless world, Kasich and Bush would have been judged in a different way. Both had effective, substantive nights. Both have been excellent governors. Bush still stumbles about on stage; his sword is dull when he attempts to use it—even though he is speaking palpable truth (like the fact that we need Muslim allies in our struggle with the Islamist extremists). Kasich radiates decency without rancor; he does not even come equipped with a pocket-knife. I’ve been watching both of these men on the stump and either one would make me happy, as an American, if he won the nomination. And Kasich does seem to be creeping up in the latest New Hampshire polls. But they are afterthoughts in a Trump-driven marketplace. As for Carson, one wonders about the impermeable state of his ego: He is making a fool of himself, but doesn’t seem to notice it. He is likely to be humiliated at the ballot box. One wonders why he persists. Finally, another reality check: The easiest laugh or applause line in these debates inevitably comes at the expense of the President or the Clintons. It should be noted that neither Barack Obama nor Bill Clinton nor Hillary Clinton has ever been beaten by a Republican (outside Arkansas). This seems mystifying, and frustrating, to the GOP’s base, and cause for the most puerile sort of attacks. Let me give the Republicans a hint: Both Obama and the Clintons, especially Bill, came from the moderate wing of their party. Clinton saved the Democrats from 20 years of left-liberal claptrap; Obama followed suit—for starters, Bernie Sanders can tell you how far from socialism Obamacare really is (the individual mandate came out of the Heritage Foundation). There may be a visceral satisfaction to the biff-and-pow of the Republican debates, but it is not the way to the White House. ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] The next Commander in Chief is standing on this stage. On Tuesday night I watched story time with Barack Obama and I gotta tell you, it sounded like everything in the world was going amazing... Hillary Clinton would be a national security disaster. She wouldn't just be a disaster. Hilary Clinton is disqualified from being Commander and Chief of the United States. Well Maria, thank you for passing on that hit piece on the front page of the New York Times. [ APPLAUSE ] And the entire New York Times attack is that I disclosed that loan on one filing with the United States Senate that was a public filing, but it was not on a second filing with the FEC. Both of those filings were public. Ted Cruz And yes I made a paper work error disclosing it on one piece of paper instead of the other but if that's the best hit the New York Times has got they better go back to the well. On the issue of citizenship Donald I'm not going to use your mother's birth against you. Donald Trump >> In the last three polls I'm beating you so you shouldn't misrepresent how well your doing. I win I choose him as my vice presidential candidate and the Democrats sue because we can't take him along for the ride. I hate to interrupt this episode of Court Tv [ LAUGH ] but the real. I like Chris Christie, but we can not have a president of the United States that supports common core. We cannot afford to have a president of the United States that supports gun control [ APPLAUSE ] South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham is out of the race but he joins us tonight in the audience Is this America anymore? Do we still have standards? You know, we have a war on virtually everything. Race wars. gender wars, income wars. Every war you can imagine, we have people at each other's throats. And our strength is actually in our unity. I also want to recognize the people in that church that showed the grace of God, and the grace of forgiveness, and the mercy they showed. [ APPLAUSE ] i don't know if any of us could've done what they did, one after another, within 48 hours of that tragedy taking place. The guns don't pull the trigger, it's the people that pull the trigger [ APPLAUSE ] And we have to find out what is going on. The Second Amendment is not an option, because criminals don't buy their guns from a gun show. And let me tell you, ISIS and terrorists do not get their guns from a gun show. This [ APPLAUSE ] Everyone understands that the values in New York City are socially liberal, are pro- abortion, are pro gay marriage, focus around money and the media. Not a lot of conservatives come out of Manhattan. I'm just saying. [ LAUGH ] When the World Trade Center came down I saw something that no place on Earth could've handled more beautifully, more humanly than New York and everybody in the world watched and everybody in the world loved New York and loved New Yorker's and I have to tell you, that was a very insulting statement that Ted made. [ APPLAUSE ] I said from the beginning That we should take no Syrian refugees of any kind. If we do not know who you are and we do not know why you are coming, when I am President, you are not getting into the United States of America. [ APPLAUSE ] This was a question on entitlements [ CROSSTALK ]. [ APPLAUSE ] Oh, I'll ask the entitlement question [ CROSSTALK ]. And the reason. No, you're. Already had your chance, Mark, and you blew it. But here's the thing. If I become President, I couldn't care less about my company. It's peanuts. I have Ivanka and Eric and Don sitting there. Run the company, kids. Have a good time. I'm gonna do it for America. [ APPLAUSE ] I saw you on the Senate floor flip your vote on crop insurance cuz they told you it would help you in Iowa. And last week, we all saw you flip your vote on ethanol in Iowa. [ APPLAUSE ] Iowa, for the same reason. That is not consistent conservatism. That is political calculation. This last back- and- forth between two sen -, two back bench senators. You know, it explains why we have the mess in Washington, D. C. We need a president that will fix our immigration laws and stick with it, not bend with the wind. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4182354/republican-debate-donald-trump-ted-cruz-new-york/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4182354/republican-debate-donald-trump-ted-cruz-new-york/"},"headline":"How Donald Trump Lost—and Won","datePublished":"2016-01-15T16:33:50.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-05T08:40:48.140Z","description":"The upshot of his showdown with Ted Cruz","url":"https://time.com/4182354/republican-debate-donald-trump-ted-cruz-new-york/","keywords":["Debates","2016 Election"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8ab20d7c844c5a97/69887957524fc00f84df6506/republican-debate2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Joe Klein","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/joe-klein/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8ab20d7c844c5a97/69887957524fc00f84df6506/republican-debate2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"GOP Presidential Candidates Debate In Charleston","caption":"GOP Presidential Candidates Debate In Charleston","creditText":"Scott Olson—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/debates/","name":"Debates"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4182354/republican-debate-donald-trump-ted-cruz-new-york/","name":"How Donald Trump Lost—and Won"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"FOX January GOP Debate in Under 4 minutes","description":"GOP DEBATE 011416: The FOX January GOP Debate in Under 4 minutes","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/43Jv4tOR/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-01-15T05:22:12.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/43Jv4tOR.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4182354/republican-debate-donald-trump-ted-cruz-new-york/","duration":"PT3M59S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4182354/republican-debate-donald-trump-ted-cruz-new-york/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```