Ted Cruz, Rick Perry among 17 Republicans debating today
Ted Cruz, Rick Perry–and 15 other Republican presidential aspirants–get to debate today.
PolitiFact reporters from Florida to Washington, D.C., to Wisconsin and Texas will live-tweet both rounds, to be cablecast on the Fox News Channel, and the Austin American-Statesman will have it all too.
Perry, the former Texas governor, landed in the 4 p.m. round on Fox News, featuring seven lower-polling contenders.
Cruz, the first-term Texas senator, is among the 10 candidates squaring off from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.
The Austin American-Statesman‘s Jonathan Tilove has five things to watch for.
Such as…
Will Perry be the king of daytime TV? He didn’t make the cut for the main event. Now he needs to avoid being upstaged at the afternoon debate, perhaps by Carly Fiorina, the only woman in the GOP field and who specializes in mano-a-mano attacks on Hillary Clinton.
How silver is Cruz’s tongue? A champion college debater, Ted Cruz is very good at this. But can he present himself as the man most likely to upend “the Washington cartel” without provoking Trump?
Again, we’ll be watching and live-tweeting, all of that visible here and on the statesman.com website.
Our Sources
Two Texans will be part of the debates. See U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz’s Truth-O-Meter report card here. See former Gov. Rick Perry’s Truth-O-Meter report card here.
Sixteen of the 17 Republican presidential candidates have had claims fact-checked by PolitiFact or PolitiFact Texas:
