On occasion, the set seemed to erupt in chaos with several candidates confronting each other as the increasingly beleaguered moderators sought, and sometimes failed, to maintain control. The first big battle of the night came between Senators Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Rand Paul over surveillance. Rubio accused Cruz of having weakened American security by opposing NSA metadata collection. Cruz was quick to punch back: “I would note that Marco knows what he’s saying isn’t true.” Paul fought his way in, noting that there was no evidence that metadata would have prevented the attacks in San Bernardino, yet simultaneously accusing Rubio of being an ally of Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer. It was a peculiar left-right combo. (Finally, Chris Christie quipped, “If your eyes are glazed over like mine, this is what it’s like to be on the floor of the Senate.” He went on to argue bluntly that posture rather than mastery of policy details is what matters in a leader. Fair enough.)

That set the tone for the Rubio-Cruz dynamic all night. Later, Rubio again assailed Cruz for voting against the National Defense Authorization Act—evidence, he said, that his colleague from Texas was an insufficiently staunch backer of the American military. It was a tricky move from Rubio, trying to turn Cruz’s famous inclination to vote against things into a liability. Again, Cruz said that Rubio was lying. Cruz continued to chart a course that was slightly more hawkish than Paul’s but more dovish than Rubio’s, a sort of realpolitik that says not every despotic dictator is worth deposing. Rubio fired back: “Obama and Clinton’s strategy is to lead from behind. It sounds like his strategy is not to lead at all.”

Later, the two men tangled over immigration. Cruz criticized Rubio for his role in the Gang of Eight immigration plan, while Rubio claimed Cruz was softer on immigration than he wanted voters to believe, eventually eliciting a lawyerly answer from Cruz: “I have never supported legalization, and I don’t intend to support legalization.”* It was a clever move by Rubio, pinning Cruz down on an issue where he has stayed strategically quiet, and forcing him to take a position that could be damaging later.

Despite predictions to the contrary, Cruz didn’t tangle much with Trump. That was left to Jeb Bush. Bush was, once again, stumbling and unsteady at times, and it’s hard to remember many memorable points he made. Trump repeatedly steamrolled Bush, but Jeb went after Trump again and again, eventually seeming to get under Trump’s skin—the first time that has happened in any of these debates.

Meanwhile, Kasich and Christie competed to offer the most hawkish views on the Middle East. All of the candidates agreed that one essential part of fighting ISIS was to get Arab nations to field large numbers of ground troops. That’s been a staple of the Obama administration’s strategy, too, but it’s been unsuccessful—a failing the Republican candidates blamed on broken trust after the Iran nuclear deal. But most were ready to put American boots on the ground. Kasich bragged that he’d been calling for large numbers of ground troops since February. Christie, not to be one-upped in belligerence, confidently asserted he’d shoot down a Russian plane even if it led to World War III.