Midway through the debate after the entrance debacle, as I was watching Rubio take a decent beating from Christie regarding his three time repeat of the same canned 30 second response and Ben Carson being stunned awake by a taser, there was a feisty exchange between Trump and Jeb! regarding eminent domain that ended involved Trump chastising Jeb! for interrupting and tell him, in his most stern "you are fired" voice to be "QUIET"! This resulted in booing. Lots of booing.
And Trump's response? He doubled down, as he is oft to do, by insulting the very audience that was booing him.
Washington Post provided the transcript of this hilarious exchange between Jeb! Bush and Donald Trump re emiment domain.
Moderator Question:
"Here in New Hampshire, a project, though, known as the Northern pass would bring hydro-electric power from Canada into the Northeastern grid. Do you see eminent domain as an appropriate tool to get that done?"
Trump:
"Well, let me just tell you about eminent domain because almost all of these people actually criticize it, but so many people have hit me with commercials and other things about eminent domain.
Eminent domain is an absolute necessity for a country, for our country. Without it, you wouldn't have roads, you wouldn't have hospitals, you wouldn't have anything. You wouldn't have schools, you wouldn't have bridges. You need eminent domain. And a lot of the big conservatives that tell me how conservative they are -- I think I'm more than they are -- they tell me, oh -- well, they all want the Keystone Pipeline. The Keystone Pipeline, without eminent domain, it wouldn't go 10 feet, OK? You need eminent domain. And eminent domain is a good thing, not a bad thing.
And what a lot of people don't know because they were all saying, oh, you're going to take their property. When somebody -- when eminent domain is used on somebody's property, that person gets a fortune. They get at least fair market value, and if they are smart, they'll get two or three times the value of their property. But without eminent domain, you don't have roads, highways, schools, bridges or anything.
So eminent domain -- it's not that I love it, but eminent domain is absolutely -- it's a necessity for a country. And certainly it's a necessity for our country."
Jeb! kicked back:
"The difference -- the difference between eminent domain for public purpose -- as Donald said, roads and infrastructure, pipelines and all that -- that's for public purpose. But what Donald Trump did was use eminent domain to try to take the property of an elderly woman on the strip in Atlantic City. That is not public purpose, that is down right wrong."
(APPLAUSE)
And here's the problem with that. The problem was, it was to tear down -- it was to tear down -- it was to tear down the house...
Trump, not liking Jeb!'s response threw a lame punch
Jeb wants to be -- he wants to be a tough guy tonight. I didn't take the property.
Jeb! punched back
And the net result was -- you tried.
Trump, not taking the accusation lying down
"I didn't take the property."
Jeb! got a good dig in
"And you lost in the court."
Trump, getting heated
"The woman ultimately didn't want to do that. I walked away."
Jeb! getting a solid right hook in
"That is not true. And the simple fact is to turn this into a limousine parking lot for his casinos is a not public use."
(APPLAUSE)
"And in Florida, based on what we did, we made that impossible. It is part of our Constitution. That's the better approach. That is the conservative approach."
Trump, sufficiently annoyed that Jeb! got in such good jabs
"Well, let me just -- you know, he wants to be a tough guy. A lot of times, you'll have -- you'll have -- and it didn't work very well."
Jeb! throwing down the gauntlet
"How tough it is to take away property from an elderly woman?"
Trump, steam coming from his ears
"A lot of time -- let me talk. Quiet. A lot of times -- a lot of times..."
(yes, he told Jeb! to be "QUIET"). The room got very quiet.
(BOOING)
Trump continued, unbothered by the booing
"... that's all of his donors and special interests out there."
(BOOING)
Trump continued...
"So -- it's what it is. That's what -- and by the way, let me just tell you, we needed tickets. You can't get them. You know who has the tickets for the -- I'm talking about, to the television audience? Donors, special interests, the people that are putting up the money."
(BOOING)
Trump started insulting the audience...
"That's who it is. The RNC told us. We have all donors in the audience. And the reason they're not loving me..."
(BOOING)
Trump continued to insult basically everyone in the room
"... the reason they're not -- excuse me. The reason they're not loving me is, I don't want their money. I'm going to do the right thing for the American public. I don't want their money. I don't need their money. And I'm the only one up here that can say that."
(BELL RINGS)
Jeb! managed to land a few solid punches, but not a TKO. Trump looked like a brat by telling a fellow candidate to be "quiet" and also lost points by talking down to the audience and insulting them,
