On post-debate trail, some do explaining

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump looks toward Jeb Bush (right) as Scott Walker watches Thursday during the first Republican presidential debate at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump looks toward Jeb Bush (right) as Scott Walker watches Thursday during the first Republican presidential debate at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland.

ATLANTA -- The large field of Republican presidential candidates hustled back before voters Friday, hoping to build on momentum from its first meeting of the 2016 campaign -- and clean up any debate-night messes left behind.

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AP

Republican presidential candidates (from left) New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Ben Carson, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Donald Trump, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Ohio Gov. John Kasich participate Thursday in the first Republican presidential debate at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland.

"I had fun last night," Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor, said during a New Hampshire town hall event that drew more than 300.

Bush bounded back on the campaign trail Friday with an open-ended, question-answer forum -- not the 10-way debate, which he called "not easy."

With billionaire businessman Donald Trump leading in several national polls, and none of the other 16 Republicans in the race ready to concede anything after just one debate, the contest for the Republican nomination is an unsettled affair that's just getting started.

"Party donors, party leaders need to take a deep breath, put down the sharp objects, step away from the window," Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said at the RedState Gathering of conservative activists in Atlanta. "The voters will decide who our nominee is. They'll decide who the president is."

Thursday night's debate was the most-watched program in the history of Fox News Channel and the most watched debate, with 24 million viewers, and by far the largest audience ever for any cable news event. The closest was the 1992 Larry King Live debate between Al Gore and Ross Perot on CNN, which was seen by 16.8 million people, the Nielsen company said.

Bush, the former Florida governor, complained that the debate didn't get into substance, and he marveled at all the public attention it drew.

"Was there no game on?" he asked as he spent his lunch hour Friday rehashing the forum at Brown's lobster shack in Seabrook, N.H.

Undoubtedly, the reason for the record ratings was Trump. Late Friday, he told CNN, "If I wasn't in the event, they probably would've done 2 or 3 million people max."

Earlier in the day, he was back on TV telling the morning talk shows he couldn't recall using words such as "dog," "fat" and "disgusting" to insult women in the past -- rejecting the premise of a debate question posed by Fox News' Megyn Kelly.

"You know, some of the statements she made about the women, I don't recognize those words whatsoever," Trump said on ABC's Good Morning America. "We're going to take a very serious look at it."

During the debate, Trump acknowledged making such comments -- but only about actor Rosie O'Donnell. When Kelly said Trump's comments had gone beyond O'Donnell and asked about his use of such insults on Twitter, Trump replied that he didn't "have time for total political correctness."

Before dawn Friday, Trump had re-tweeted a post calling Kelly a "bimbo." The post was later deleted.

"She's not very tough and not very sharp," Trump said during his phone interview on CNN. "I don't respect her as a journalist."

The post was later deleted, but a review of Trump's writings, televised interviews and Twitter feed shows he's long used such language to describe women.

In 2012, Trump wrote on Twitter of singer Bette Midler: "But whenever she sees me, she kisses my ass. She's disgusting."

Citing the comments, conservative commentator Erick Erickson said he was withdrawing his invitation for Trump to appear at his RedState Gathering in Atlanta today.

Trump was not the only candidate who had to answer for things he said in the heat of the debate. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida seemed to shift his position on restricting abortion when he said he never advocated for any exceptions, despite co-sponsoring a bill that made allowances in cases of rape, incest and when the life of a mother was at risk.

In an explanation to CNN, Rubio said he was adamantly anti-abortion in all cases and that he supported that legislation because it would have helped to reduce the occurrence of abortion. He also said he could not in good conscience accept the killing of an unborn child.

"I never said that I will only support a bill that has an exception in it," Rubio said, referring to rape and incest. "But I will support bills that have exceptions in it because they prevent abortions."

Meanwhile, many of the contenders headed south for RedState to work on shoring up their support among the party base.

Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry noted that he'd been relegated to the pre-debate forum for the seven candidates who failed to qualify for the main event. "I was up late last night," Perry said. "Not as late as I wanted to be."

But Perry campaigned as if one of the party's top-tier candidates, declaring that his 14 years as governor in Texas prove he's worthy of a promotion.

"It's important for our country to have this discussion about executive experience," Perry said, knocking President Barack Obama as "an inexperienced senator" who has "driven this country into a ditch."

Rubio, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina also were speaking Friday at RedState. Bush will be there today -- along with Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.

And as the Republican campaigns kick into gear, the high-level donor contributions to super political action committees keep rolling in. On Friday, Chris Cline, the billionaire coal baron, revealed himself as the donor behind a $1 million contribution to a super PAC supporting Bush's presidential campaign.

"Chris is proud to support Right to Rise," said Brian Glasser, a lawyer for Cline, in an email, using the name of the pro-Bush super PAC.

The Bush super PAC reported last week that it raised a record $103 million in the first half of the year, helped by almost two dozen donations of $1 million or more from individuals and companies.

Information for this article was contributed by Sergio Bustos, Kathleen Ronayne, Nicole Winfield, Bill Barrow, Laurie Kellman, Jill Colvin and David Bauder of The Associated Press; by Zachary R. Mider and Mario Parker of Bloomberg News; and by Alan Rappeport of The New York Times.

A Section on 08/08/2015

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