Eight Republican presidential candidates traded barbs on Wednesday at their first debate of the 2024 election as they jockeyed for position behind the absent front-runner, Donald Trump, who derided the event in a pre-taped interview aimed at siphoning away viewers.
The raucous two-hour debate offered a view of the deep challenges the contenders face in seeking to dislodge Trump from his perch at the top of the field.
While the former president took the extraordinary step of skipping the debate entirely, his rivals were left taking shots at one another to try to emerge as the most viable alternative, five months before the first Republican presidential nominating contest in Iowa and more than 14 months before the election.
While Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has consistently stood in second place in polls, albeit well behind Trump, it was Vivek Ramaswamy, the 38-year-old tech entrepreneur and political neophyte, who was at the center of many of the Fox News debate’s most dramatic moments.
Ramaswamy, a fierce Trump defender who is rising in national polls, faced plenty of incoming fire from his more experienced rivals, who appeared to view him as more of a threat than DeSantis.
“We don’t need to bring in a rookie,” former Vice President Mike Pence said, while former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie accused Ramaswamy of sounding “like ChatGPT,” a reference to artificial intelligence.
Ramaswamy fired back by emphasizing his status as an outsider, calling everyone else on stage “bought and paid for” and accusing DeSantis of being a “super PAC puppet,” a reference to independent political action committees that typically raise unlimited sums of money from corporations and individuals.
He also took the most isolationist position on the Ukraine-Russia war, arguing that it was not a priority for the U.S. and saying he would end military aid to Ukraine. That drew a sharp rebuke from Nikki Haley, a former ambassador to the United Nations.
The debate had been seen as a potentially pivotal moment for DeSantis, whose campaign has been riven by staff turmoil amid a slow but steady decline in the polls.
Trump, who remains the clear-cut favorite among Republican voters despite his four criminal indictments, chose to skip the event in favor of a friendly interview with conservative commentator Tucker Carlson that began streaming online minutes before the debate began. The interview had about 74 million views on X, formerly known as Twitter, during its 46 minutes.
Trump declined to directly answer provocative questions posed by Carlson, such as whether a civil war was coming in the United States. Instead, he stuck to well-worn themes: false claims that he won the 2020 election, a promise to tighten immigration controls and insults of President Joe Biden and some of his Republican rivals.
“Do I sit there for an hour, or two hours, whatever it’s going to be, and get harassed by people that shouldn’t even be running for president and a network that isn’t particularly friendly to me?” he asked Carlson.
The debate took place a day before Trump planned to surrender in Atlanta to face charges he sought to overturn his election loss in the state.
Six of the eight debaters on Wednesday raised their hands when asked whether they would support Trump as the nominee even if he had been convicted of a crime – North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, DeSantis, Haley, Pence, Ramaswamy and U.S. Senator Tim Scott.
Christie, who appeared to start raising his hand before wagging his finger, and former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson declined. Both have been vocal critics of Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.
“Whether or not you believe that the criminal charges are right or wrong, the conduct is beneath the office of president of the United States,” Christie said to boos from a rowdy and partisan crowd.
That led to a sharp back-and-forth between Christie, Trump’s biggest critic among Republican candidates, and Ramaswamy, Trump’s most ardent defender.
“Honest to God, your claim that Donald Trump is motivated by vengeance and grievance would be a lot more credible if your entire campaign were not based on vengeance and grievance against one man,” Ramaswamy said, prompting Christie to retort, “You make me laugh.”
Polls show that most Republicans view the criminal charges against Trump, 77, as politically motivated, making the topic a tricky one to navigate for his rivals.
In the most recent Reuters/Ipsos poll released this month, Trump held 47% of the Republican vote nationally, with DeSantis dropping six percentage points from July to 13%. None of the other candidates has broken out of single digits.
‘COUNTRY IN DECLINE’
The candidates also went after Biden, a Democrat, from the outset. Moderators Martha MacCallum and Bret Baier, both Fox News hosts, started the debate by asking about the U.S. economy.
“Our country is in decline,” DeSantis said. “We must reverse Bidenomics so that middle-class families have a chance to succeed again.”
While the economy has shown surprising resilience, defying recession predictions with a robust labor market, polls show many voters – including a plurality of those who supported Biden in 2020 – feel the economy has worsened during his first three years in office amid persistent inflation.
The candidates were also asked about abortion, an issue that has bedeviled Republicans ever since the U.S. Supreme Court last year eliminated a nationwide right to abortion.
Pence, the staunchest anti-abortion opponent in the field, criticized Haley for saying that a bipartisan consensus must be reached on a federal approach.
Haley, who would be the first woman to win the Republican presidential nomination, responded that it was impractical to back nationwide limits given Democratic opposition.
DeSantis, who signed a six-week ban into law in Florida, did not specify whether he would back a similar national ban, saying he understood that different states would take different stances.
“Look, I understand, Wisconsin is going to do it different than Texas,” he said. “But I will support the cause of life as governor and as president.”
KEY TAKEAWAYS IN MILWAUKEE DEBATE
NO BREAKOUT MOMENT FOR DESANTIS?
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis stood at center stage, but he wasn’t at the center of the evening.
No candidate came into the debate facing more pressure than DeSantis. For weeks, his poll numbers have been sliding and the gap with Trump widening, jeopardizing his argument that he is voters’ preferred alternative to Trump.
But for much of the night, DeSantis, 44, stood and watched as his rivals seized the spotlight.
His fellow candidates threw few attacks his way, something that came as a surprise. Whether that was a sign that they weren’t threatened by his flagging candidacy or that they had other priorities was unclear.
Before the debate, DeSantis’ campaign told Reuters that all he needed to do was “hold serve” and stay steady – that he didn’t need a game-changing moment to reverse his downward momentum. The pressure was on the rest of the field to break out of single digits in national polls, an aide said.
It remains to be seen however whether DeSantis made a strong enough case to voters to boost his prospects in the weeks ahead.
NEW KID IN TOWN
In his first political debate, Vivek Ramaswamy, 38, was widely expected to be a wild card. He quickly learned that fire brings fire.
Ramaswamy, a businessman with no political experience who has been rising in some opinion polls, branded his rivals as “bought and paid for.” He also referred to DeSantis as a “super PAC puppet,” a dig at the deep-pocketed political action committee supporting his bid.
Mike Pence, 64, defending his four-year record as Trump’s vice president, tried to cut Ramaswamy down to size. “We don’t need to bring in a rookie, we don’t need to bring in people without experience,” Pence said.
Pence’s problem? There seemed to be more supporters of the outsider Ramaswamy in the audience than for Pence, illustrating the difficulty his candidacy has had mustering traction. His critique brought forth a cascade of boos.
That didn’t stop Christie, 60, who tried to finish Ramaswamy off much as he famously took down Senator Marco Rubio during the 2016 presidential campaign.
“I’ve had enough, already tonight, of a guy who sounds like ChatGPT standing up here,” Christie said.
Nikki Haley, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under Trump, assailed Ramaswamy’s lack of foreign policy experience after he said he would not support the U.S. role in Ukraine.
“He wants to hand Ukraine to Russia, he wants to let China eat Taiwan, he wants to go and stop funding Israel,” Haley said. “You don’t do that to friends.”
‘ELEPHANT NOT IN THE ROOM’
Trump skipped the debate for a pre-recorded interview with conservative broadcaster Tucker Carlson posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, as the debate began.
His absence from the stage gave the debate the feel of an undercard in boxing, with the winner seeking a shot at the champ. Come Thursday, he is likely to wipe the debate from the news cycle when he turns himself in at a Georgia courthouse on racketeering charges stemming from his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Debate moderator Bret Baier of Fox News on Wednesday called Trump “the elephant not in the room.”
As the debate entered its second hour, the candidates on stage were asked about Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
By and large, they fell into predictable patterns. Pence defended certifying the electoral vote in the U.S. Congress despite pressure from Trump. Christie, Trump’s most persistent critic, said his conduct was beneath “the office of president.” DeSantis argued the party needed to focus on the future.
Trump had a fierce defender in Ramaswamy, who called him “the best president of the 21st century” and vowed to pardon him if he is convicted of federal crimes.
Haley spoke to the millions of Republicans watching at home.
“We have to look at the fact that three quarters of Americans don’t want a rematch between Trump and Biden,” said Haley, 51. “And we have to face the fact that Trump is the most disliked politician in America. We can’t win a general election that way.”
ANGST OVER ABORTION
The debate found the candidates grappling with the best way to approach abortion as a political issue. While most on stage support restrictions in some form, the issue has proven to be a profound vulnerability for the party in recent general elections.
Haley, who said she was strongly anti-abortion, seemed to try to find a better way to speak to moderate voters on the topic.
“Can’t we all agree that we’re not going to put a woman in jail or give her the death penalty if she gets an abortion?” said Haley, the only woman on the debate stage. “Let’s treat this like a respectful issue that it is and humanize the situation and stop demonizing that situation.”
DeSantis was pressed on his support for Florida’s six-week abortion ban, which he signed into law in April, a move some wealthy supporters found too extreme.
Asked if he would support a six-week federal ban, DeSantis was evasive, suggesting it was an issue that would be best left to the states but also saying he would support “the cause of life.”
Pence accused Haley of being too soft on the issue.
“Consensus is the opposite of leadership,” he told her. “It’s not a states-only issue. It’s a moral issue.”
Haley countered by saying Pence wasn’t being honest with voters. She argued there would not be enough support in Congress for a federal ban.