. >> you were with us hadley manning. did you see anything last night that the other debates hadn't offered? >> well, it was certainly a different environment without donald trump's preps. i think the candidate that suffered the most with the absence of donald trump was ted cruz, he became the de facto front runner and suffered attacks from the other candidates. he also didn't have the opportunity as he's tried to take advantage to position himself as the middle ground between outer and establishment candidates. he became a punching bag from other candidates last night. last night's debate overall was substantive. there were more viewers, the ratings for last debate was higher than the one in which donald trump did participate. and so the theory may not run the way he thought. >> what do you think? >> he doesn't feel comfortable being the front runner. when you are the front runner you are going to be attacked. it got very odd that he complained about you are asking other candidates questions while they're attacking me an