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TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (NewsNation) — The fourth Republican presidential debate centered on the viability of the four candidates on stage to mount a serious threat to front-running former President Donald Trump. You can read NewsNation’s full recap here.
The candidates each took turns attacking the others’ credibility on dinner table issues and personal grounds. Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy said former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley was an identity-politicker too corrupt to trust. Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the other candidates were too afraid of offending Trump to trust in a room with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
There were moments of policy discussion, such as DeSantis calling on universities to back student loans, Christie cautioning against government getting involved in gender-affirming care (which inspired a quick rebuke from his opponents), Haley rejecting calls for bombing Iran in response to the Oct. 7 violence in Israel, Ramaswamy calling for the strong defense of Taiwan against China and the candidates agreeing quick action on the border is needed.
Below is our live blog for the debate, featuring regular updates and analysis from a team of journalists from NewsNation, our sister publication The Hill and The Dispatch.
Providing expert analysis are David M. Drucker, senior writer for The Dispatch, and Jesse Byrnes, senior editor for The Hill. They will add regular political insight and analysis throughout the debate. You’ll see additional updates from Tulsi Kamath, managing editor of digital for NewsNation, about the scene in Alabama, and regular summaries of the questions and candidate responses and additional context from NewsNation Digital Producers Tyler Wornell, Steph Whiteside and Damita Menezes.
We’ll also follow your commentary through social media about tonight’s debate. We’ll be watching the hashtag: #GOPDebate. Use it as you post about tonight’s debate, and we may incorporate your comments into our coverage.
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With the fourth Republican debate concluded, the candidates will get a brief chance to breathe during the holidays before primary season kicks off in January.
The Iowa Caucus is first up, followed by the New Hampshire primary and one question is whether all the candidates on stage will make it to both races.
“More the same, Chris Christie probably did enough to get enough donors to get to New Hampshire,” said Scott Tranter, Decision Desk HQ’s data science director.
Christie has previously vowed to stay in the race through the convention in July.
Early in the debate, sparks flew when Vivek Ramaswamy suggested that candidates, particularly Nikki Haley, have foreign policy experience, but not “foreign policy wisdom.” He said Haley couldn’t even name three provinces in eastern Ukraine and took a jab at her time serving for the United Nations, calling it a “cup-of-coffee stint.”
DeSantis also lobbed attacks at Haley, speicifically about her positions on China and record on transgender issues.
Liberty Vittert believes the tactics by the two men could have an impact on women voters.
“Personally, it was the first time that Ramaswamy and DeSantis potentially really lost a significant portion of women by calling Nikki Haley, former governor and ambassador, stupid. It was mansplaining at its finest,” Vittert said.
I thought it was a fiery debate and the candidates got a chance to actually debate and be challenged and they all took the opportunity. It was really fantastic.
It was fascinating how right off the bat the target was Nikki Haley and it took the candidates about an hour to actually name check Trump. It goes to show that they realized that one of them will potentially emerge to take on Trump.
A second thought: There’s clearly no love lost between Vivek Ramaswamy and Nikki Haley.
The fourth Republican presidential primary debate is in the books. The smaller field meant more speaking time for each candidate and more opportunity for testy exchanges — and there were plenty of them.
Mick Mulvaney, a former congressman and Trump administration official, says there was one big takeaway: Vivek Ramaswamy is not a serious candidate. “He was a child. … They were all ad hominem attacks. He doesn’t understand how the government works,” Mulvaney said in the post-debate analysis show.
What about the other candidates? In Sean Spicer’s eyes, the debate was a “push.”
“In absence of somebody having a standout night, Trump wins,” Spicer, a former Trump press secretary, said. “There was no one that stood out to the point where tomorrow morning, if there was a flash poll in Iowa or New Hampshire, you’re going to see them move one way or another.”
Analyst Morgan Ortagus and journalist Geraldo Rivera credited Nikki Haley for fending off attacks from the other candidates.
With the debate over, it’s time for the candidates’ surrogates to pump up their performances.
Nikki Haley was again the adult in the room. DeSantis tried to say he was a competent Trump. I’m not sure that’s the argument that will set him apart. Vivek Ramaswamy and Chris Christie rightly went back and forth because one has experience, and one has very little experience (or much of a voting record). But neither of them will likely land in the Oval Office from this performance, even if Chris Christie was telling the truth. Haley and DeSantis — maybe? But time and organization in early states — and at the important delegate strategy game — will determine whether they stand a chance.
DeSantis says he won’t be an establishment Republican, pointing to his record in Florida and his refusal to back down on ideals.
Haley decried defeating Democrat chaos with Republican chaos, saying she would be a president with no drama, no vendettas, no whining.
Ramaswamy used his closing statement to say the U.S. must reject the “climate change agenda,” calling climate change a hoax.
In his closing statement, Christie warned that the party standing for Trump would mean four more years of Biden. He predicted Trump would be convicted of a felony by the time of the election.
Christie said he would draw inspiration from Ronald Reagan, calling him a “slave for the truth.” He vowed to be the same kind of president who would not stand for lies.
Haley cited George Washington as her inspiration and said she would stand for protecting people and securing rights and freedoms.
DeSantis named the lesser-known Calvin Coolidge as his inspiration and vowed to restore the Constitution as the center of government.
Ramaswamy named Thomas Jefferson and prioritized defending freedom of speech.
Candidates on stage tonight are facing crushing pressure to break out of the pack and take on Trump, head-to-head. The problem for these hopefuls: a smaller field can benefit Trump too.
Haley, who Democrats have signaled could pose a serious threat to Biden in a general election, is itching for that one-on-one matchup with Trump — but at the right time.
DeSantis and Ramaswamy are both viewed as drawing some support away from the former president, essentially tamping down his numbers (though his lead is still dominant).
If either candidate were suddenly not in the race, polls suggest a chunk of their respective followers would likely shift their support toward Trump. That could widen his already huge lead.
For Haley, the large field means the crowd that’s generally supportive of the former president is splintered. That creates a potential opening for his former U.N. ambassador to garner some momentum herself in Iowa and especially in New Hampshire.
The X factor here is Christie, who has been the most outspoken critic of Trump in this race. He’s drawing 3% support in the latest NewsNation/Decision Desk HQ national poll. It’s a sliver of the overall GOP base, but enough to potentially make the difference between second or third for Haley in the some early primary contests.
Before Obamacare, every 30 seconds an American was going bankrupt because they didn’t have the health insurance they thought they had. While many Democrats wanted a single payer system, President Obama compromised with his own party to bring about a private stop-gap. It wasn’t perfect and, in too many cases, Americans were paying more than they had paid before for health insurance. But Republicans haven’t had a solution either. Americans are worse off when candidates don’t come with a health care plan. And it should be clear President Trump didn’t and doesn’t have one.
As U.S. relations with China soured over the past year, concerns grew over the potential of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan and possible U.S. involvement in Taiwan’s defense.
Generally, most Americans want to keep U.S. troops out of foreign conflicts. Fifty-six percent of Republicans believe China is the primary threat to the United States today, according to a NewsNation/Decision Desk HQ poll released Monday.
President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping met last month in San Francisco and committed to reestablishing military communications.