Southern Illinois University has the nation's top debate team, and that team's coach says after Thursday's Republican forum, whoever is prepping one of the candidates has their work cut out for them.Todd Graham says if he were debate coach for the GOP, he'd sit them all down and tell them he has to focus his attention on Donald Trump.
Graham calls Trump's performance "cringeworthy." He says Trump has sometimes been seen as entertaining, or comical. But Graham says Trump needs to understand he's playing for keeps now:
"Those things that he says are no longer funny. They're dangerous, and they're scary, and they're bad for America. So I would spend all of my time with Donald Trump."
When it comes to the other candidates, Graham says many had salient points and made their cases for the audience. He points to Chris Christie and Rand Paul, who were able to back up their base arguments, and also says Jeb Bush did well - but needs to work on his speech and delivery if he wants to be successful.
Graham calls last night's event more of a "forum" than a debate, and says it's the first in a long series between the many candidates.
