During Thursday night's primary debate of the top 10 Republican candidates, Google tracked searches for each person on the stage. Not surprisingly, businessman Donald Trump was the most-searched candidate, followed by neurosurgeon Ben Carson, Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas), former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.).
Searches for each candidate ebbed and flowed throughout the debate, generally increasing when the candidate was speaking. Now, thanks to Google, we know what the candidates were saying when the greatest number of people were searching their names.
Searches for Trump had several major spikes, four of which corresponded to specific statements he made. The largest jump occurred during his closing statement -- most candidates saw an increase in searches during their final remarks -- and during his response to moderator Chris Wallace's question about his past business bankruptcies. Trump claimed he had never gone bankrupt, then clarified that he had "taken advantage of the [bankruptcy] laws of this country" in four business deals in the past. Perhaps viewers were fact-checking him.
Carson's largest spike seems to have come when he stated that "there is no such thing as a politically correct war." He was briefly interrupted by applause from the crowd at Cleveland's Quicken Loans Arena before he continued, praising the intellect of military leaders and saying they could carry out any mission a commander in chief gives them "if we don’t tie their hands behind their back."
Cruz's most-Googled moment was during his opening statement. He was the third-most searched candidate, but didn't have as many ups and downs as the other top-searched candidates. His immigration and foreign policy comments got some attention, but not as much as his opening remarks.
Bush, on the other hand, saw several spikes in Google searches -- some not necessarily related to anything he said. The first occurred when he attempted to make his habit of vetoing budget line items as governor of Florida into a Godfather joke. Another was when he referred to the Iraq invasion, led by his brother then-President George W. Bush in 2003, as a mistake. And later, Bush denied a report that he had called Trump a "clown" and a "buffoon," but did grab attention by saying Trump's language is divisive.
Rounding out the top five in Google search traffic, Rubio first caught attention defending his relative youth and inexperience by saying the election "cannot be a resume competition." If it is, he warned, "Hillary Clinton’s gonna be the next president." Rubio also gained attention for his statements on immigration and education, but his largest spike was when he called for lowering the tax rate for all small businesses to 25 percent, limiting regulations and repealing Obamacare all in one breath.
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