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Tensions Flare Between Trump And Kasich

by Hope Racine

It was only a matter of time before tempers began flaring at the during the GOP debate, and tensions definitely heated up when John Kasich went after Donald Trump on immigration. While discussing his approach to immigration reform, Kasich dropped some serious truth bombs about the best way to handle reform — and Trump didn't like it one bit.

As many Republicans love to do, Kasich invoked Ronald Reagan's amnesty policy on allowing law-abiding immigrants to stay. But while acknowledging that Reagan's policy wasn't entirely successful, Kasich didn't agree with Trump's "build a wall and deport 11 million people" plan — especially when it came to breaking up families. "But for the 11 million people, come on, folks. We all know you can't pick them up and ship them across, back across the border," Kasich said. "It's a silly argument." But Kasich might not have been prepared for the full breadth of Trump's response.

To counter Kasich's argument, Trump chose to invoke Dwight Eisenhower (who was president over 50 years ago). According to Trump, Eisenhower "moved a 1.5 million illegal immigrants out of this country, moved them just beyond the border," and they didn't come back.

At this point, Jeb Bush, who has worked to make immigration reform a cornerstone of his campaign, sought to get in on the discussion. But Kasich wasn't very interested in hearing from Bush.

Instead of allowing Bush to put in his two cents, Kasich instead chose to speak over him in order to respond to Trump. Apparently tired of hearing the Ohio governor speak, Trump dismissed him. "You should let Jeb speak," Trump said, apparently annoyed. Kasich didn't.

But the sniping didn't stop there. The best diss of the night, once again, came from Trump. "I've built an unbelievable company worth billions and billions of dollars. I don't need to hear from this man," Trump said dismissively. Kasich looked torn between laughing and pulling Trump's head off.

It's not surprising that the two men haven't butted heads before this. With Chris Christie demoted to the undercard debate, Kasich and Trump are by far the most hot-headed of the group. Kasich, in particular, has established a reputation of being brash and blunt, yet strangely logical in his arguments, and like Trump, has been applauded for his direct, straight forward approach.

And in addition to being amusing, the exchange also ran over Bush, who hesitated to wade into the discussion. It was one of many times that Bush was cut off through the night, and instead of making him look polite, it read as him being left out and dejected. Which is kind of a good description for Bush's overall campaign so far.