Last night, the 2016 presidential election heated up. Most, if not all, of the potential candidates have declared their intentions to seek their party nominations (at the moment there are currently a little over 20 hopefuls angling for the White House, five seeking the Democratic party nomination and 17 trying to nab the Republican nomination) and at 9 p.m. last night the top GOP contenders duked it out in Cleveland for Fox News viewers.

It was crowded stage, mainly because it’s early days in the election process, with many Republican heavyweights including Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, Ex-Florida Governor Job Bush, Senator Rand Paul, Senator Ted Cruz and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.

But the star of last night’s show was Donald Trump. The New York billionaire and reality TV star that’s been making media waves since the 1980s has been leading the packed GOP field in the polls almost as soon as he entered the race back in June. He’s also made one provocative declaration after another, from his comments about Mexicans to saying John McCain wasn’t “a war hero” and giving out Lindsay Graham’s cellphone number during a rally.

And last night was no different. So in that vein, here are four of Trump’s most memorable, outrageous, and downright nutty moments from the first GOP debate of 2015.

Refusing to Pledge Not to Run as an Independent Candidate


It’s pretty much a common knowledge among political experts and watchers that Trump isn’t going to get the Republican nomination. While he’s leading in the polls now, party leaders see him as too extreme and controversial to appeal to mainstream voters. That also means that many fear he’ll run as an independent candidate and syphon off conservative voters (like Ross Perot did in the ’92 election). So when Bret Baier asked all the candidates to raise their hands if they would refuse to pledge their support for the eventual nominee (if it wasn’t him), it was a question meant for Trump and he responded as such.

Taking On Megyn Kelly (And Political Correctness)


Moderator and Fox News Host Megyn Kelly kicked off her grilling of Trump by asking him about his habit for making disparaging comments towards women, his response was a rant against political correctness and led to one of the tersest exchanges of the evening. It also revived his feud with former The View co-host and comedienne Rosie O’Donnell, who tweeted a comment during the debate, as well as sparked a new one with Kelly, whom Trump excoriated on twitter early Friday morning.

Taking Credit for Making Immigration a Hot Button Issue & Revealing His “Evidence” Against the Mexican Government


Trump grabbed the national spotlight during campaign announcement when he made comments about undocumented immigrants, claiming that most were criminals sent by the Mexican government. When Chris Wallace pressed Trump about what proof had had to make such a claim, he responded by taking credit for raising awareness on one of the most contentious issues in American politics and then completely failed to answer Wallace’s question when the moderator asked him to answer it again.

Claiming He Made Hilary Clinton Attend His Wedding


In what was probably the most bizarre moment of the night, Trump responded to questions about his previous comments on donating to politicians in exchange for favors by giving an example of what he called the “broken system”: ordering Hilary Clinton to attend his wedding in 2005. Although, we should point out that Clinton was a Senator representing New York at the time and Trump was one of her most famous constituents (along with being a donor), so being invited to his wedding doesn’t exactly smack of cronyism.

Think we missed any particularity crazy Donald Trump moment from the first debate? Let us know in the comments section. And don’t forgot to tune to CNN on September 16, for the next GOP debate.

Tags
Republican party, GOP debate, Donald trump