Donald Trump certainly hasn’t doomed his campaign by raising the question of Sen. Ted Cruz’s status as a natural born citizen, but the issue did elicit rounds of boos from an otherwise enthusiastic and sometimes rowdy audience for Thursday night’s GOP debate. Most cheers seemed reserved for Cruz, if only because of his desire to shut down the issue and move along.
#GOP Debate: Almost halfway through & biggest clash is Trump&Cruz over questioning of whether Cruz is "natural born" citizen.
— Jana Katsuyama (@JanaKTVU) January 15, 2016
Neil asking Cruz about birth issue.
"Natural born citizen" question–Neil invokes Trump.
It just got ugly.#GOPDebate— Linda Suhler, Ph.D. (@LindaSuhler) January 15, 2016
#Cruz fears the birther question so much he attacks #Trump accusing him of not being citizen. The fun begins.#GOPDebate
— P4SED_blog (@P4sedBlog) January 15, 2016
Donald Trump Vs. Ted Cruz over Natural Born Citizen Issue – 6th GOP Debate #GOPDebate #FoxBusinessDebate https://t.co/1UGyoaYtHA
— ViralBreaking (@viralbreaking) January 15, 2016
Trump saying that Cruz is not a "natural" born citizen, is not playing well with the crowd. Ouch, Cruz has argued won 8 cases before SCOTUS
— D Townsend (@pogger) January 15, 2016
Cruz trumped Trump on the natural born citizen issue. Got worse as Trump dug in.
— Trevin Wax (@TrevinWax) January 15, 2016
Ted Cruz is crushing Trump on this "natural born citizen" topic. #GOPDebate
— Chidike Okeem (@VOICEOFCHID) January 15, 2016
Cruz just murdered Trump on the natural born citizen thing. Literally dying. ?
— Allie Ross (@Allie_mack95) January 15, 2016
Cruz confronting Trump hard on this "natural born citizen" stuff. Trump looking a little uncomfortable about direct confrontation #GOPDebate
— Eddie Scarry (@eScarry) January 15, 2016
Why is Trump trying to make something out of Cruz being born in Canada? His mother was a citizen so that MAKES HIM A CITIZEN smh trump
— ⚡Sadie Harper™ (@SayDay_12) January 15, 2016
Biggest moment of the debate so far was watching Cruz and Trump go after each other on who is a natural born citizen. Advantage CRUZ!
— R. Scott MacLaren (@RichMacLaren) January 15, 2016
Cruz NAILED it on the birther issue. Natural-born citizen for sure, Shut Trump down, Trump got booed. Nice one Cruz!
— FeetToTheFire (@Feet2TheFireOrg) January 15, 2016
Cruz and Trump just took 5 minutes from our lives we can't get back talking about all that "natural born citizen" nonsense. SMH #GOPDebate
— Chris Winn (@ChristianWinn) January 15, 2016
@ohlacy Cruz just killed trump about his assertion that Cruz isn't an American citizen
— Todd Probus (@tprobus) January 15, 2016
Give it up Trump! Cruz is a US citizen.
— Steve Hazard (@hazards4) January 15, 2016
The Trump "natural born citizen" attack on Cruz is the most asinine thing I've heard #CIDebate #GOPDebate
— Just Jen (@somethingabtjen) January 15, 2016
Can you believe the level of discourse in this Cruz/Trump discussion of who is a naturalized citizen who can be president??
— Paula England (@EnglandPaula) January 15, 2016
Cruz is totally nailing it on the question of him being a natural born citizen and is taking on Trump boldly & with humor! #GOPDebate
— Pam Olsen (@pamolsen) January 15, 2016
New line from Cruz at debate – if you take Trump's birther theories to their logical conclusion, Trump isn't a natural born citizen either
— Katie Hinman (@khinman) January 15, 2016
Uh, oh! Cruz slams Trump up his rump. Says natural born citizen claim would disqualify Trump cuz both his parents weren't US citizens.
— Crystal Wright (@GOPBlackChick) January 15, 2016
Not really a Cruz fan but he just smoked Trump on the citizen thing
Like call the fire department
— ad94irish (@ad94irish) January 15, 2016
"Citizen Cruz" digs back at "Birther Trump:" "Since September, the Constitution hasn't changed but the poll number's have."
— Cathy Lynn Grossman (@CLGrossman) January 15, 2016
Cruz really hitting Trump on this Citizen issue man. Pow! #GOPDebate
— Damocles (@Damocleansword) January 15, 2016
Cruz masterfully just deflected that "naturally born citizen" question to slam Trump on slipping poll #'s in Iowa.
— Zachary Cohen (@ZcohenCNN) January 15, 2016
After that exchange, the boos died down and things got back on track.
@frankmorano After the Trump/Cruz dust-up over natural born citizen, it has quieted down, so you aren't missing that much.It's lively though
— Tom Lew (@c1artar) January 15, 2016
Other than the Cruz-Trump “birther” exchange, this debate has been pretty unmemorable so far: https://t.co/Mm6wS8l2IV #GOPDebate
— FiveThirtyEight (@FiveThirtyEight) January 15, 2016
