Eight Republicans vying for the party nomination took the debate stage on Wednesday night in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, throwing punches over Ukraine, a federal abortion ban and more, hoping to increase their chances at defeating the no-show frontrunner.
Absent was Donald Trump, whose pre-taped interview with the rightwing media personality Tucker Carlson simultaneously published on Twitter, now known as X, and sought to siphon away screen time from the debate housed on Fox News, which memorably ousted Carlson earlier this year.
But Trump’s presence loomed over the debate, even as candidates seemed to somewhat hold back from criticizing the ex-president, as Fox debate moderator Bret Baier put it, “the elephant not in the room”.
Here are eight key takeaways from the night:
A memorable opening with a viral song and jabs at ‘Bidenomics’
The debate kicked off with a question about a controversial conservative country song, Rich Men North of Richmond, whose lyricist complains about taxes and nods to conspiracy theories surrounding the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein.
“Our country is in decline,” said Ron DeSantis, to whom the Fox News hosts Martha MacCallum and Bret Baier lobbed the first question. “We need to send Joe Biden back to his basement and reverse American decline.”
Tim Scott touted his record of voting down government spending bills in the Senate, as well as his work on the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, a Trump-era piece of legislation that cut taxes for corporations and wealthy individuals.
But Nikki Haley placed the blame on Republicans for spending exorbitantly during the pandemic, calling out Trump for increasing the national debt by $8tn and DeSantis, Scott and Mike Pence for voting to raise the national debt.
Energy independence was also a focus, with candidates broadly advocating for increasing domestic energy production.
“Unlock American energy. Drill, frack, burn, embrace nuclear,” said Ramaswamy, who later claimed that “the climate change agenda is a hoax”.
Trump, ‘the elephant not in the room’
Although Trump was absent, hosts asked candidates to show where they stand on the ex-president.
Responding to a call for a show of hands by Baier, most candidates seemed to agree they would support Trump as president, even if he is convicted. Trump has amassed 91 felony counts in four criminal cases this year.
“Someone’s got to stop normalizing this conduct,” said Christie, who raised his hand briefly and begrudgingly and has been a loud critic of Trump. “Whether or not you believe the criminal charges are right or wrong. The conduct is beneath the office of the president of the United States.” His comments were met with boos from the audience.
Ramaswamy, who has defended Trump across all four indictments, continued to do so. He has repeatedly said he would pardon Trump as president and repeated that on the debate stage.
Haley added her derision: “Trump is the most disliked candidate in America. We can’t win an election that way.”
The candidates overall said they supported Mike Pence in his decision to refuse to stop the electoral certification, though Ramaswamy ardently defended Trump through the night and DeSantis refused to answer a question about whether he agreed Pence was right.
The war in Ukraine was a sticking point
Ramaswamy came out the strongest against increased aid to Ukraine, calling it a “disastrous” decision and a “no-win war”. And DeSantis, who walked back earlier statements calling the war a “territorial dispute”, said : “I would have Europe pull their weight,” adding: “I think our support should be contingent on them doing it.”
Haley, who served as US ambassador to the United Nations under Trump, delivered perhaps the strongest stance yet, calling Ukraine “a pro-American country that was invaded by a thug”.
Ramaswamy took a dig at Haley, wishing her “well” on her “future career on the boards of Lockheed and Raytheon”.
Haley countered, saying that Ramaswamy would hand Ukraine to Russia and China and make America less safe. “You have no foreign policy experience, and it shows,” Haley shot back at Ramaswamy, who said: “Ukraine is not a priority for America.”
Christie, who made a visit to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, weeks earlier, took the opportunity to blast Trump, who has said the war in Ukraine isn’t a vital interest. “This is the Vladimir Putin who Donald Trump called brilliant and a genius. If we don’t stand up against this type of autocratic killing in the world, we will be next,” said Christie.
DeSantis would send troops to the southern border
DeSantis said he would use lethal force at the US southern border to counter drug cartels entering the country and treat them as “foreign terrorist organizations”. DeSantis also said he would divert funds from Ukraine to do so and vowed to send troops.
“When these drug pushers are bringing fentanyl across the border, that’s going to be the last thing they do. We’re going to use force and we’re going to leave them stone cold dead,” said DeSantis.
Scott echoed DeSantis’s rhetoric, saying the southern border was the “most pressing need” when it comes to national security. He also laid out spending plans to complete Trump’s border wall with $10bn, though he did not mention Trump. Hutchinson also agreed that he would use lethal force, nodding to his time as an undersecretary on border security for George W Bush.
Candidates split over federal abortion ban
Each of the eight candidates have at some point identified themselves as anti-abortion but differed over implementing a federal abortion ban.
Haley, the only woman on the debate stage, called herself “unapologetically pro-life” but warned against “demonizing” the issue, hedging against a federal abortion ban. DeSantis, who signed into law a six-week ban in Florida saying he believes in a “culture of life”, refused to answer whether he would approve a national ban.
Pence, an evangelical Christian who has been the most outspoken anti-abortion candidate, said he would move to implement a national ban at “when a baby is capable of feeling pain” though he did not explicitly describe that length.
Tim Scott also weighed in and said he would fight for a minimum 15-week ban on abortion. Burgum, who signed into law a six-week ban in North Dakota, said he would not sign a federal abortion ban.
(Mostly) quiet on the climate crisis
With the exception of Ramaswamy declaring “the climate change agenda” a “hoax”, the candidates largely avoided a question about whether Republicans care about the climate crisis, a top issue among younger voters.
DeSantis dodged the question, which pointed to the Hawaii wildfires, attacking “corporate media” for treating Republicans and Democrats differently, claiming Biden was on a beach in Delaware during the disaster.
Haley was the only candidate to wholly assert that the climate crisis is real but said the onus should be on China and India to “really lower their emissions”.
Night of introductions
With the frontrunner absent, the lineup on the debate stage featured a bunch of relatively unknown faces.
In his first remarks, Ramaswamy didn’t answer a question about the economy but instead said he guessed the audience would want to know “Who the heck is this skinny guy with a funny last name and what the heck is he doing in the middle of this debate stage?”
That earned him a later attack from Christie, who said: “The last person in one of these debates … who stood in the middle of the stage and said: ‘What’s a skinny guy with an odd last name doing up here’ was Barack Obama, and I’m afraid we’re dealing with the same type of amateur.”
Ramaswamy shot back: “Come on and give me a hug! ... Give me that bear hug bro.”
Scott, the only Black candidate on the debate stage, repeatedly brought up his back story, growing up in poverty and being raised by a single mom.
And Burgum, the governor of North Dakota who arrived at the debate after a trip to the ER earlier on Tuesday, mentioned at several points his “small-town” identity.
