DES MOINES, IOWA -- Ted Cruz was happy to play Donald Trump's understudy as the Trump-less Republican debate kicked off, mockingly quoting Trump's greatest hits against him and his fellow candidates before asking debate moderators to move on to the issues.
"I’m a maniac. And everyone on this stage is stupid, fat and ugly, and Ben you’re a terrible surgeon. Now that we’ve got the Donald Trump portion out of the way I want to thank everyone here for showing the men and women of Iowa the respect to show up," he said to cheers.
Cruz's response came to moderator Megyn Kelly's question about "the elephant not in the room." Trump is instead hosting his own competing event across town after he decided it wasn't worth doing the final debate before Iowa's crucial caucuses Monday night.
Marco Rubio sounded a similar note , saying that while Trump is "an entertaining guy, he’s the greatest show on Earth," the debate needed to be about who was best ready to be commander-in-chief.