Donald Trump "had a good night" after Tuesday's fifth Republican debate in Las Vegas — and his opponents did not challenge the front-runner over his call to ban Muslims from entering the United States because "he actually went up in the polls" after making that statement, political consultant Roger Stone told
Newsmax TV.
"What was interesting was that nobody sought to engage him really on his temporary ban on Muslim immigration as they were last week," Stone said on the "Newsmax TV Post-Debate Special," which was hosted by Steve Malzberg.
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"Every one of these candidates was denouncing him, distorting his position trying to make it sound like he favored an all-time complete ban on Muslim immigration forever," Stone said.
"No one engaged him on that particularly because they realized that his candidacy went forward."
Stone said CNN moderators Wolf Blitzer, Dana Bash and Hugh Hewitt sought to pit the candidates against one another — particularly Trump, Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio.
"It's very clear that CNN wanted Jeb and Trump to mix it up," Stone told Malzberg. "They wanted Rubio and Cruz to mix it up.
"The moderators tried to lead in that direction. There were some fireworks, some crosstalk — everybody-talking-at-once kind of a food fight — but I really didn't see anything tonight that would change anything dramatically.
"Trump remains the front-runner."
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