Trump And Rivals Pull Their Punches In Unusually Civil GOP Debate

Something strange happened during Thursday night's GOP presidential debate — it was actually civil and reserved.

There were no mentions of body parts and or mudslinging between Donald Trump and the other candidates — all which punctuated the Republican presidential stage just a week ago.

The first half of the debate was policy-driven, talking about immigration, trade and tariffs, Social Security and more.

Marco Rubio had home field advantage in the CNN debate from Miami, Fla., and delivered a strong debate performance. But it might be too little too late as Florida senator tries to stave off Donald Trump in his backyard. And with no punches thrown against the presumptive front-runner, Trump didn't leave damaged.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich's low-key style that was a welcome relief for some during the other higher-octane debate instead caused him to fade into the background. He needs to win his home state on March 15th to keep his long-shot White House hopes alive.

And Texas Sen. Ted Cruz continued to make the argument he's the only candidate with a real chance of stopping Trump, even as the real estate mogul struck a unifying tone as he urged the GOP to come together behind him.

Here were some of the top moments.

Trump's general election pivot

There were no insults or bombast from the GOP front-runner as he kicked off the debate. Instead, he made an argument to the so-called GOP establishment — unite behind me, and we can win.

"Millions and millions of people are going out to the polls and they're voting. They're voting out of enthusiasm. They're voting out of love," he argued. "We're taking people from the Democrat Party. We're taking people as independents, and they're all coming out and the whole world is talking about it. It's very exciting. I think, frankly, the Republican establishment, or whatever you want to call it, should embrace what's happening."

Political correctness

Trump was still pressed on his controversial statements by moderator Jake Tapper, specifically some of his heated rhetoric on Muslims and his comments on Wednesday that "Islam hates us."

"Did you mean all 1.6 billion Muslims?" Tapper asked.

"I mean a lot of them. I mean a lot of them," Trump maintained.

Rubio pushed back, arguing that such heated rhetoric is harmful to the country at home and abroad.

"The problem is, presidents can't just say anything they want. It has consequences, here and around the world," he said, pointing to the many Muslims serving in the U.S. armed forces.

"Marco talks about consequences. Well, we've had a lot of consequences, including airplanes flying into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and could have been the White House. There have been a lot of problems," Trump argued back. "Now you can say what you want, and you can be politically correct if you want. I don't want to be so politically correct. I like to solve problems. We have a serious, serious problem of hate."

But Rubio jabbed back, with one of his strongest lines of the debate: "I'm not interested in being politically correct. I'm not interested in being politically correct. I'm interested in being correct."

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