“Why am I the only person on this stage at least who can say that Jan. 6 now does look like it was an inside job?” the 2024 candidate said during Wednesday’s GOP debate.
The smallest field yet of GOP candidates is facing off Wednesday in the fourth Republican presidential debate of 2023 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, while former President Donald Trump, who leads the field by a wide margin in the polls, will be holding a closed campaign fundraiser in Florida.
(From L) Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy participate in fourth GOP presidential primary debate at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on Dec. 6, 2023.
JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images
NewsNation is hosting the fourth debate, which will have three moderators, including NewsNation’s Elizabeth Vargas, former Fox News host Megyn Kelly and the Washington Free Beacon’s Eliana Johnson.
The debate runs from 8-10 p.m. EST.
Four candidates are appearing on stage:
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis
Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley
Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy
The first three debates have not done much to change the dynamics of the race among Republican primary voters. The latest CBS News poll, from early November, showed Trump winning 61% of likely GOP primary voters nationwide, more than all the other candidates combined. DeSantis polled at 18%, Haley at 9%, Ramaswamy at 5%, Sen. Tim Scott at 4% and Christie at 2%.
We’ll be adding highlights from the debate below throughout the night.
DeSantis and Ramaswamy team up to attack Haley: “I love all the attention, fellas”
DeSantis and Ramaswamy were quick to take shots at Haley, who is rising in the polls as the race for second place heats up.
“She caves anytime the Left comes after her, anytime the media comes after her,” DeSantis said.
Ramaswamy later joined in, questioning Haley’s wealth since she left government service.
“Nikki, you were bankrupt when you left the U.N. After you left the U.N., you became a military contractor,” he said, referring to Haley’s stint on the board of Boeing, “whose back you scratched for a very long time and then get foreign multinational speeches like Hillary Clinton is, and now you’re a multimillionaire. That math does not add up. It adds up to the fact that you are corrupt.”
Ramaswamy also criticized wealthy donors to Haley’s campaign, saying they’re funding “left-wing causes.”
“In terms of these donors that are supporting me, they’re just jealous,” Haley responded. “They wish that they were supporting them.”
DeSantis said, “Nikki will cave to those big donors when it counts.”
The pair also went after Haley for proposing that all social media users should be verified by their names online.
“I love all the attention, fellas,” Haley said. “Thank you for that.”
Christie hammers Ramaswamy in defense of Haley: “The most obnoxious blowhard in America”
Christie offered a forceful defense of Haley against Ramaswamy’s insults of her intelligence.
After Ramaswamy claimed that Haley could not name three provinces in eastern Ukraine where she would send U.S. troops, Christie accused the entrepreneur of habitually backing away from comments he makes on the campaign trail when he’s confronted by political opponents about his positions.
“This is the fourth debate that you would’ve been voted in the first 20 minutes as the most obnoxious blowhard in America, so shut the hell up,” Christie told Ramaswamy.
The former New Jersey governor accused Ramaswamy of insulting Haley’s intelligence, rather than her policy positions — claiming, for example, that she can’t identify regions in Ukraine or find Israel on a map.
“If you want to disagree on issues, that’s fine, and Nikki and I disagree on some issues,” Christie said. “I’ve known her for 12 years, which is longer than he’s even started to vote in the Republican primary, and while we disagree about some issues and disagree about who should be president of the United States, what we don’t disagree on is this is a smart, accomplished woman and you should stop insulting her.”
Christie went on to criticize Ramaswamy’s lack of experience and claimed that while he was serving as the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey, Ramaswamy was “learning about the provinces in Ukraine sitting with his smarta** mouth at Harvard.”
“All he knows how to do is insult good people who have committed their lives to public service and not say anything that moves the ball down the field for the United States,” Christie said.
Divisions emerge among Republican candidates on parental rights
A question about parental rights and gender-affirming care for young people showed a split between Christie and DeSantis over an issue that has gained traction with Republican voters.
Christie said he favors limited involvement from the government and believes parents should be empowered to make decisions about their children.
“I trust parents,” he said.
The former New Jersey governor, who opposes state restrictions on gender-affirming care for transgender youth, asserted it’s parents who should be making the decisions about this for their children. He made the point that he and his wife care more for their four children than a government official in a dysfunctional Congress.
“You look at these jokers in Congress — it takes them three weeks to pick a speaker, and up until two days ago, they couldn’t promote somebody in the military in the United States Senate who earned their new rank. And we’re going to put my children’s health and my decisions in their hands for them to make those decisions? For Joe Biden to make those decisions?” Christie said.
He warned parents that if they cede those rights on gender-affirming care for their children to states, it would just be the beginning.
“You start to turn over just a little bit of this authority, the authority they’re going to take from you next, you’re not going to like,” Christie said.
But DeSantis defended restrictions on gender-affirming treatment for minors he signed into law as governor of Florida and warned surgical procedures are “mutilating minors.”
“We cannot allow this to happen in this country,” he said.
Ramaswamy, meanwhile, suggested the federal government should take action on the issue of gender-affirming surgery.
Caitlin Yilek is a politics reporter at cbsnews.com and is based in Washington, D.C. She previously worked for the Washington Examiner and The Hill, and was a member of the 2022 Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellowship with the National Press Foundation.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy will take the debate stage in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, to debate one last time before the Iowa caucus. CBS News chief election and campaign correspondent Robert Costa looks ahead to the fourth GOP 2024 presidential debate.
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Five presidential candidates seeking the Republican nomination went toe-to-toe at the third primary debate in Miami on Wednesday night. CBS News chief Washington correspondent Major Garrett anchors a special edition of “America Decides.”
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John Dickerson reports on the third Republican presidential debate, testimony from Ivanka Trump in the New York civil fraud trial, and why Congress has not yet passed legislation to keep children safe online.
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What do Republican primary voters want to hear the candidates talk about ahead of tonight’s presidential primary debate? It isn’t abortion. Passing a national abortion ban is far down on a list of topics and issues. Instead, inflation is top of mind, followed by stopping illegal immigration and the teaching of “woke” ideas in schools.
Though most Republican primary voters think abortion should be illegal in most cases, less than half approve of a national ban. More broadly, just a quarter of Republican primary voters think their party needs policies that will restrict abortion access further, and just as many think the Republican Party has already gone too far.
What they also don’t want to hear about is Donald Trump, the Republican front runner who won’t be attending tonight’s debate. Few Republican primary voters think it’s important to hear the candidates talk about how loyal they are to him, and even fewer — just 14% — think it’s important to hear about their criticisms of him — and this is true even among voters who are currently supporting candidates other than Donald Trump.
Most do want to hear about support for U.S. aid to Israel, a stance that is widely popular among the Republican base. Republican primary voters overwhelmingly want a nominee who supports U.S. aid to Israel in its fight against Hamas. This stands in marked contrast with support for Ukraine against Russia, an issue which divides the Republican base nearly in half.
This CBS News/YouGov survey was conducted with a nationally representative sample of 2,185 U.S. adult residents interviewed between October 31-November 3, 2023, including 556 likely Republican primary voters. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, and education based on the U.S. Census American Community Survey and Current Population Survey, as well as past vote. The margin of error is ±2.7 points for the sample overall and ±5.5 points for likely Republican primary voters.
Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina has secured his spot in the third GOP presidential debate in Miami next week, announcing that he has met the final requirement — gathering enough individual donations needed to qualify for the event, his campaign announced.
“We’re excited about the response our campaign has received from conservatives across the country looking for a positive, optimistic message,” Scott said in a statement shared by the campaign on Tuesday. “Republicans are ready to elect faith-filled leadership to take on the biggest challenges facing our nation today.”
Having already reached the 4% polling threshold required for the debate stage, Scott revealed during an interview on Mark Levin’s radio show last Thursday that he needed a few thousand more donations to solidify his position. On Tuesday, Scott’s campaign said that he had successfully secured those donations over the weekend.
Scott “will be on the debate stage,” his campaign staff said.
Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, a Republican presidential candidate, gestures to attendees as he arrives at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s Annual Leadership Summit at The Venetian Resort Las Vegas on Oct. 28, 2023 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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Expected to join the senator on Nov. 8 will be Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who have all confirmed they will be participating in the debate, which is being held at Miami’s Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts.
Former President Donald Trump, who has a significant polling lead, is skipping the debate, as he has with the first two.
NBC News’ Lester Holt, Kristen Welker, and Hugh Hewitt will moderate, as the 2024 GOP hopefuls strive to gain an edge in the polls.
Scott’s latest breakthrough follows a major overhaul to his campaign strategy, as he shifts gears towards Iowa, doubling down on resources in the state and signaling a dedicated push to capturing crucial ground in the state’s upcoming Republican primary in January, amidst his campaign’s fight to elevate his platform.
In a bid to consolidate his position, the campaign also redirected planned television advertisement spending from New Hampshire to Iowa, banking on the state’s critical evangelical base to bolster the candidate’s backing.
Scott, who is polling in the single digits, far exceeded the 70,000 individual donations needed to make the debate stage, according to his campaign. But the candidate is still trailing behind his Republican rivals in polls.
Still, few 2024 GOP presidential candidates can rival the senator’s fundraising prowess. Apart from Trump, Scott holds the most available cash on hand, with about $13.3 million in his war chest, according to data from the Federal Elections Commission. This is partially attributed to his successful fundraising efforts during his 2022 reelection campaign.
And despite the decision of Scott’s allied super PAC to pull the plug on its fall TV ad spending, citing a lack of focus from the electorate for an alternative to the Trump legacy, Scott’s staff said the campaign is fully funded until the South Carolina primary in February.
There were knocks against Joe Biden. Some friendly fire against one another. There were even a few jabs at the conspicuously absent Donald Trump from someone other than Chris Christie, who is waging something of a kamikaze campaign to bring down the former president. But ultimately, the futility of the second GOP debate was best summed up by Vivek Ramaswamy: “The real divide is not between the Republicans on this stage,” he said early on in the affair Wednesday evening at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California. “We need to unite this party.”
If there was a point to any of this, it was for one of these candidates to finally stand out from the pack as a viable alternative to Trump, who once again skipped the debate, this time to campaign in Michigan. But the problem, as Ramaswamy unintentionally pointed out, is that these aspirants are too substantively similar to distinguish themselves from one another. Sure, there’s some slight variation in packaging, from Ron DeSantis’s awkward approximation of what a tough guy would say to the corny uplift of Tim Scott, who appears to be trying to reinvigorate his flagging campaign with some new facial hair. But open every box, and you find the same MAGA junk: fearmongering about immigrants and cities and transgender Americans; lots of talk about a decaying country; the misrepresentation not only of Biden’s policies, but of reality itself.
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The candidates did seem more willing to go after Trump—something most were reluctant to do in the first debate. But their attacks were still too tame or lame to really make an impact, whether it was DeSantis accusing Trump of being “missing in action” for skipping the debate or Christie taunting him as “Donald Duck.”
“I know you’re watching,” Christie said into the camera. “You’re afraid of being on this stage.”
Trump is surely afraid of a lot of things—namely, that one of his four indictments will result in jail time—but it’s hard to imagine he’s that nervous about seven challengers he’s currently leading by more than 40 points and who don’t even match his polling numbers collectively.
Especially when they all seem to be trying so hard to sound like him.
Indeed, the seven challengers spent the evening trying to out-extreme one another. We got Scott essentially arguing, when questioned about striking auto workers, that Americans should work more and for less money—surely a winning message. We got obfuscation about the looming government shutdown, which Christie said was the fault of “everybody”—though it is Kevin McCarthy and House Republicans who are holding government funding hostage. We got Ramaswamy, insufferable as ever, promising to “militarize” the southern border—something Nikki Haley, running as the self-styled adult in the room, more or less echoed later (“It’s how we deal with terrorists,” she said, calling for special operations to go after drug cartels). We got a humorless-as-ever Mike Pence, the former vice president and noted Christian, suggesting he would address mass shootings by passing an “expedited death penalty” law and proposing a “federal ban on transgender chemical or surgical surgery anywhere in the country.” And we got Christie bashing Biden’s education policy by quipping that the president was “sleeping with a member of the teacher’s union”—a reference, of course, to First Lady Jill Biden.
“I’m going to reverse this country’s decline,” DeSantis said at one point, recalling Trump’s “American Carnage” inaugural address.
These people are each trying, in theory, to position themselves as a more reasonable alternative to the former president. But what they’re actually doing is confirming that this remains the party of Trump, in all his absurdity. They might have their scraps with one another—“Every time I hear you, I feel a little bit dumber,” Haley told Ramaswamy, in what was perhaps the best (and most cathartic) line of the night—but at the end of the day, they’re not all that different. None of these seven actually offered up a vision of a post-Trump GOP; they offered up a vision of the current GOP, with a less charismatic extremist sitting at the top of it.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wasted no time in attacking former President Donald Trump in Wednesday night’s Republican debate, calling Trump out for refusing to participate in the event.
The debate had barely begun when DeSantis used his first opportunity to speak to take a shot at the former president.
“Donald Trump is missing in action,” said the Florida Republican. “He should be on this stage tonight. He owes it to you to defend his record where they added $7.8 trillion to the debt that set the stage for the inflation that we have.”
His comments drew applause from the audience.
DeSantis’ zing is a shift from the way he usually tiptoes around the subject of Trump. For months, he routinely defended Trump ― as Trump attacked him.
The former president may not have been onstage for Wednesday’s debate, but he looms over everything. He remains the party’s standard-bearer despite being impeached twice and currently facing four separate indictments.
As the GOP debate continued, DeSantis’ super PAC blasted out an email taking another swipe at Trump, suggesting he’s scared to face DeSantis.
“Trump Is Too Weak and Too Afraid to Debate Ron DeSantis,” the email from Never Back Down reads.
“Trump attacks DeSantis daily via email and social media – but he’s too afraid to do it in person on the debate stage because he knows he can’t defend his record on issues like COVID and Fauci, spending and debt, and draining the swamp,” the email reads.
“Trump used to mock Democrats who were too afraid to face their opponents on the debate stage,” it continues. “Now it’s Trump who is too afraid to debate.”
Seven candidates seeking the Republican nomination for president in 2024 will share the stage Wednesday night at the Reagan Presidential Library in California for the second primary debate.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, former ambassador Nikki Haley, former Vice President Mike Pence, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy met the Republican National Committee’s polling and fundraising threshold to qualify for the stage.
Former President Donald Trump, who remains the Republican frontrunner, is skipping the debate and instead will speak in Detroit, where Big Three union auto workers are on strike. A CBS News poll released Tuesday found Trump leads the Republican primary field comfortably in both Iowa and New Hampshire. His current margins would translate to winning half of Iowa’s delegates and the lion’s share in New Hampshire.
The eight candidates who participated in the first debate were asked if they would support Trump even if he is convicted of a crime. All but Christie and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (who will not be at the second debate) raised their hands in support.
The debate will air on Fox Business Channel and Univision from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m., and can be streamed on Rumble.
What were the requirements to participate in the second debate?
The threshold for the second debate was higher than for the first. Candidates had to poll at 3% in two national polls or 3% in one national poll and 3% in one early state poll from two separate early-voting states — Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina. For the first debate, the polling requirement was 1% in the same poll categories in surveys conducted on or after Aug. 1.
Candidates also needed to have a minimum of 50,000 unique donors to their principal presidential campaign committee or exploratory committee, with at least 200 unique donors per state or territory in more than 20 states and/or territories. That’s an increase of 10,000 unique donors over the 40,000 required to make it onstage for the first primary debate.
Who’s moderating the debate?
Stuart Varney and Dana Perino, of Fox News, will moderate the debate, with Univision’s Ilia Calderón.
A week before the second debate, primary opponent Nikki Haley criticized Trump for sitting out the debate. “You can’t just not be on a debate stage because you’re so high in the polls,” she said at an event in New Hampshire Thursday. “You’ve got to show not what you did in the last four years [but], what are you going to do in the next four, how are you going to fix what was broken?”
Trump has also not signed the RNC’s “loyalty pledge” to support the candidate who wins the Republican nomination.
The second Republican primary debate will be held Sept. 27 at 9 p.m. ET, at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, in Simi Valley, California.
Fox Business, along with Univision, will moderate the second debate, and the conservative online video platform Rumble will also stream it.
What are the requirements to qualify for the debate?
The threshold for the second debate is higher than it was for the first. Candidates must poll at 3% in two national polls or 3% in one national poll and 3% in one early state poll from two separate early-voting states — Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina — recognized by the Republican National Committee. For the first debate, the polling requirement was 1% in the same poll categories.
Polls must have been conducted on or after Aug. 1, and candidates have until 48 hours before the debate to meet the polling requirement.
Candidates will also need to have a minimum of 50,000 unique donors to their principal presidential campaign committee or exploratory committee, with at least 200 unique donors per state or territory in more than 20 states and/or territories. That’s an increase of 10,000 unique donors over the 40,000 required to make it onstage for the first primary debate.
Who has qualified for the second debate?
The RNC has not yet released its list of participants, but so far, it looks likely that former President Donald Trump, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamey, former Ambassador to the U.N. and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former Vice President Mike Pence, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott are likely to have qualified.
Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum appear not to have qualified yet.
Who’s moderating the debate?
Stuart Varney and Dana Perino, of Fox News, will moderate the debate, with Univision’s Ilia Calderón.
The exact time and audience have not been announced yet, but according to the New York Times, which first reported Trump would skip the debate, he will be addressing a union crowd. Trump is expected to speak in the same city where United Auto Workers members are striking to demand higher wages, better schedules and better benefits.
The former president also did not attend the first debate, and instead sat for an interview with Tucker Carlson that streamed at the same time the debate aired. Here’s what he said about why he didn’t participate: “You see the polls have come out, I’m leading by 50 and 60 points. And some of them are at one and zero and two. And I’m saying, ‘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? Should I be doing that? And a network that isn’t particularly friendly, frankly.’”
Trump has also not signed the RNC’s “loyalty pledge” to support the candidate who wins the Republican nomination.
Singer Oliver Anthony came out with a critical response to the way his viral hit “Rich Men North of Richmond” was used on Wednesday when the song was played at the beginning of the GOP presidential debate in Milwaukee and prompted the first question by Fox News moderator Martha MacCallum.
“The one thing that has bothered me is seeing people wrap politics up into this,” Anthony says in a 10-minute video released on YouTube.
The song — which describes a deep divide between wealthy and poor Americans — shot to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart this week, making him the first artist to do so without having any prior chart history. The 31-year-old country singer is based in Farmville, Virginia, but it wasn’t until a video of his performance posted to WV Radio’s YouTube, which features country, bluegrass and folk musicians in Appalachia, went viral and his musical career took off.
Oliver Anthony performs at the Oliver Anthony concert at the Eagle Creek Golf Club on August 19, 2023 in Moyock, North Carolina
Mike Caudill for Billboard via Getty Images
“It was funny seeing my song at the presidential debate,” Anthony says in the video, “because I wrote that song about those people.”
During the debate, MacCallum begins her first question by describing the No.1 hit and saying Anthony’s lyrics “speak of alienation, of deep frustration with the state of government and of this country,” adding, “Washington, D.C. is about 100 miles north of Richmond,” before rolling a clip of the top-charting chorus. Afterward, MacCallum asks Florida Governor Ron Desantis: “Why is this song striking such a nerve in this country right now?”
DeSantis replied saying, “Our country is in decline, this decline is not inevitable it’s a choice,” adding that America needs to “reverse” this decline and that starts with reversing “Bidenomics.”
But Anthony refuted that message in his video saying the song “has nothing to do with Joe Biden,” and that he “hates” the way his lyrics are being “weaponized.”
In the recorded video titled, “It’s a pleasure to meet you – part 2,” Anthony sits in the bed of his truck and directly speaks to the camera to address the frustration he feels following the debate and the uptick in the use of his song in conservative media.
“It’s aggravating to see people on conservative news try to identify with me like I’m one of them,” he says. “It’s aggravating seeing certain musicians and politicians act like we’re buddies and act like we’re fighting the same struggle.”
One such example is by Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene who wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the song is an “anthem of the forgotten Americans” and that it represents her district.
“I see the right trying to characterize me as one of their own and I see the left trying to discredit me… that s—- gotta stop.”
In a 10-minute long YouTube video, singer Oliver Anthony addresses the use of his hit No.1 song “Rich Men North of Richmond” as a GOP political anthem.
YouTube/ Oliver Anthony Music
About halfway through the video, which was posted Friday and was ranked as #8 in trending videos on Saturday, he starts to address the “left” who he says has characterized his song as “an attack against the poor.” He refutes that by saying his songs written about class such as “Doggonit” actually “defend the poor.”
Despite the exasperation he shows in the video, Anthony says he’s “not too concerned about the future” and that he’s “living in the present” where he’ll continue to keep writing because he’s “got a lot of words to put down on paper.”
Also on Friday, Anthony wrote on his X account that he doesn’t support “either side politically” and is just about supporting people and local communities, adding “Now, go breathe some fresh air and relax. Please? 🙂 I’m not worth obsessing over, I promise. Go spend time with your loved ones.”
Following what some are calling a disappointing presidential primary debate for Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor is back on the campaign trail in Iowa. CBS News political reporter Aaron Navarro breaks down how donors and supporters are responding to his remarks Wednesday and the lack of aggressive swings taken at him.
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Eight Republican presidential candidates traded barbs Wednesday night in the first debate of the 2024 campaign season. However, the front-runner in the GOP race, former President Donald Trump, did not take part. Robert Costa has more.
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What should the public know about a candidate who wants to become president? CBS News chief political analyst John Dickerson poses five questions that may help reveal whether someone is qualified or not.
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John Dickerson reports on the first Republican presidential debate, the reported death of a former ally to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and what India’s moon landing means for the international space race.
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Ron DeSantis was weird and hostile. An extremely hyper Vivek Ramaswamy, after cribbing a quip from Barack Obama in his introduction, sold himself as a truth-telling outsider. Chris Christie threw jabs at Donald Trump, who Mike Pence—bland as ever—tried his best to differentiate himself from without running afoul of the MAGA faithful. And the low-pollers, including North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, fresh off a basketball injury, tried their best to have a moment that could catapult them out of the basement. There were surprises: Nikki Haley laid the blame on Republicans, not Democrats, over spending; Burgum, the first of the field to pull out his pocket Constitution, offered an almost measured answer on abortion, while his stage-mates like DeSantis ranted about so-called “post-birth” abortion (isn’t this just…murder?); and even the Fox News audience seemed to boo Ramaswamy for calling climate change a “hoax.” There were strong barbs, including Christie comparing Ramaswamy to ChatGPT. But the question after the first debate is the same as it was heading into it: Will any of this actually matter?
Trump—who snubbed the proceedings in favor of a sit-down with Tucker Carlson, telling the former Fox News host that it “doesn’t make sense” to indulge his lower polling competitors—entered the night with polling higher than the eight debaters combined. And while Milwaukee might have some impact on the order of candidates two through nine (as ABC News pointed out, Ramaswamy led in Google searches during the debate), it’s unclear any of these hopefuls did much to take the leader down a peg.
Trump’s absence, in some ways, allowed for a more issue-focused evening—we got talk of tax cuts and spending, Ukraine and China and the border, without the former president steamrolling anybody, as is his preferred debate tactic. But it also gave his acolytes, like DeSantis and Ramaswamy, most notably, room to do the steamrolling instead. “We’re not school children,” DeSantis said after hosts Brett Baier and Martha MacCallum asked for a show of hands of who, among the eight candidates, believe in climate change.
Some of them sure did act like it sometimes, though. Ramaswamy cast himself as the leader of a “cold cultural civil war” and seemed the distillation of the dangerous extremism of the Trump-era GOP. DeSantis suggested he would order a military invasion in Mexico “on day one” of his presidency. And Tim Scott, a non-factor all night, kept trying to stand between the playground bullies by saying, Can’t we all just get along?
On one matter, most did: “If former President Trump is legally convicted, would you continue to endorse him as your party’s candidate?”
All but Asa Hutchinson, the former Arkansas governor, and Christie, the most viable of the anti-Trump candidates, said yes. That includes Pence, who Trump supporters wanted to hang on January 6 for declining to help him overturn his loss to Joe Biden, and DeSantis, who seemed to look around to see what his fellow rivals would do before raising his hand.
“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?” Ramaswamy said as his opening at the GOP presidential debate on Fox News.
Obama called himself “a skinny kid with a funny name” during the 2004 Democratic National Convention keynote speech ― when he was a relative unknown nationally, a state senator in Illinois running for the U.S. Senate.
The Recount posted the two clips side-by-side:
Christie quickly noticed the stolen line and called Ramaswamy out on it.
“I’ve had enough already tonight of a guy who sounds like ChatGPT,” Christie fired back. “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.”
“Come over and give me a hug!” Ramaswamy said, but the line was largely drowned out as the audience cheered Christie’s attack.
The first Republican debate of the 2024 presidential primary cycle is underway in Milwaukee, where eight GOP candidates are hoping to set themselves apart from a crowded field with less than five months until the Iowa caucuses.
The candidates debating Thursday night include:
The debate is also notable for who isn’t on stage: former President Donald Trump. The GOP front-runner chose to skip the showdown and instead taped an interview with Tucker Carlson, which is being released in tandem with the debate. A CBS News poll released Sunday showed Trump with a wide lead over the rest of the field, earning the support of 62% of likely Republican primary voters. DeSantis was a distant second, earning 16% support.
To kick off the debate, most candidates trained their fire at President Biden over inflation, the national debt, government spending and other economic issues. Haley was the first to criticize a fellow Republican, hitting Trump for his administration’s spending record. Pence then took aim at Ramaswamy, who has been rising in the polls. Pence called the 38-year-old a “rookie” who would need “on-the-job training” in the White House.
The debate, which is airing on Fox News, gives some of the lesser-known candidates a chance to break through and make their case before the largest audience of voters they have had to date. On the flip side, poor debate performances have doomed many candidates in the past before their campaigns have even gotten off the ground.
To qualify for the debate, the Republican National Committee required that candidates reach at least 1% in multiple eligible polls, gather at least 40,000 donors and sign a pledge committing to support the ultimate GOP nominee. They were also required to vow not to participate in unsanctioned debates.
We’ll be adding highlights and notable moments from the debate below throughout the night.
Nikki Haley criticizes Trump and other Republicans over government spending
Nikki Haley takes part in the first Republican presidential primary debate at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Aug. 23, 2023.
KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI/AFP via Getty Images
Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, came out swinging against several of her Republican opponents over the nation’s fiscal state, singling out DeSantis, Scott and Pence for voting on legislation that raised the national debt. She also took aim directly at Trump for adding $8 trillion to the debt during his only term.
“Our kids are never going to forgive us for this,” said Haley, who served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in the Trump administration.
She pointed the finger at Republicans for approving a $2.2 trillion COVID relief bill during Trump’s presidency and for bringing back earmarks. In the 2024 budget, Republicans requested $7.4 billion in earmarks compared to Democrats’ $2.8 billion.
“You tell me, who are the big spenders?” Haley said. “I think it’s time for an accountant in the White House.”
Haley has a bachelor’s degree in accounting and served as the chief financial officer of her family’s clothing business.
Pence takes aim at Ramaswamy: “We don’t need to bring in a rookie”
Pence targeted the 38-year-old Ramaswamy early in the debate, calling him a “rookie” who lacks experience to be president.
“I was the first person in this race to say that we’ve got to deal with the long term national debt issues. You’ve got people on this stage that won’t even talk about issues like Social Security and Medicare. Vivek, you recently said a president can’t do everything. Well, I’ve got news for you, Vivek. I’ve been in the hallway. I’ve been in the West Wing. The president of the United States has to confront every crisis facing America.”
Ramaswamy fired back that solving the country’s economic issues “isn’t that complicated” and listed off a number of his solutions.
“I’m not sure I exactly understood Mike Pence, his comment, but I’ll let you all parse that out,” he said.
“I’ll go slower this time,” Pence said.
“You know, I sometimes struggle with reading comprehension,” Ramaswamy quipped.
Pence added: “Now is not the time for on-the-job training. We don’t need to bring in a rookie. We don’t need to bring in people without experience”
Fast forward just over a year later, and the issue of abortion is likely to come up at the first Republican debate Wednesday night, but how much do rank-and-file Republican primary voters want to hear about stopping abortions now? And would the electorate go further and back a national abortion ban?
Fewer than half the GOP primary electorate would prefer a nominee who supports a national abortion ban, and for many others, policy on that doesn’t matter either way. Our latest CBS News Poll asked Republican primary voters about a range of policy goals and how important it is to hear about the candidates’ plans to achieve them. Plans to stop abortions ranked the lowest in importance of any policy goal asked about. Other policies, like plans to lower inflation, stop immigration and reduce violent crime were at the top.
The abortion issue motivated Democrats in the 2022 midterms, keeping them competitive, and after the passage of a string of state ballot measures protecting abortion rights, the issue of abortion is not an especially salient one among the GOP primary electorate right now.
Just over a third of the Republican primary electorate prefer a GOP nominee who supports a national ban, boosted by most evangelicals and the very conservative in the party. Seven in 10 of this group place high importance on hearing about candidate plans to stop abortions, but it still ranks behind other goals like stopping immigration, lowering inflation, reducing violent crime and cutting government spending.
There is a relatively smaller portion of primary voters — although not insignificant — who want a nominee who opposes a national ban. More women than men prefer a candidate with this view, and very few of them want to hear the candidates talk about stopping abortions at the debate. The moderates in the party tend to hold this view.
For another third, a candidate’s stance on an abortion ban doesn’t matter to them, and this group is the least likely to say it’s very important to hear candidate plans to stop abortions. Only 8% say it’s very important, compared to 92% who place that level of importance on hearing about plans to lower inflation.
While abortion may not be a priority issue for the GOP primary electorate right now, it’s sure to be a key issue in the 2024 general election. It’s a top priority for Democrats and will be a huge part of their campaign next year.
This CBS News/YouGov survey conducted was with a nationally representative sample of 2,061 U.S. adult residents interviewed between August 16-18, 2023, including 538 likely Republican primary voters. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, and education based on the U.S. Census American Community Survey and Current Population Survey, as well as past vote. The margin of error is ±3.0 points for the sample overall and ±5.7 points for likely Republican primary voters.
