The republican debate in South Carolina turned ugly on Saturday night with just one week left until voters in the key state go to the polls.
The candidates repeatedly clashed and threw accusations back and forth, the audience also chimed in regularly booing. Trump called Cruz a "liar" and "a nasty guy" as the Texas senator took aim at the current frontrunner. Trump also called into question the validity of the Iraq war, sparking a heated argument with Jeb Bush.
It would be hard to pick a winner in the debate, but Trump will probably be less concerned at the course of the debate took as the other candidates and audience seemed to gang up on him and reinforce his narrative of being the anti establishment candidate, also Trump's combative ways are no secret and our actually what has endeared him to many voters sick of establishment politics. He did risk alienating some of his base who are fiercely opposed to Planned Parenthood saying "it does do wonderful things" but swiftly added "not as it relates to abortion".
Cruz also attacked Trump's liberal record saying "his entire life he's supported liberals from Jimmy Carter to Hilary Clinton to John Kerry", adding "in 2004 he contributed to John Kerry".
Ben Carson who a few months ago saw a surge and was the main contender to Trump, seemed lost within the debate whereas Kasich attempted to portray himself as a more serious candidate focusing on the issues as the chaos unfolded.
Rubio had a few tussles with Cruz early on but the moderators seemed to give him an easier time.
Hard to pick a winner from the debate, Carson would probably be the loser but due to his low numbers he has already become somewhat of an irrelevance.
