Live Updates: Fourth Republican debate

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.

Ramaswamy calls for an end to lobbying by former government officials and separating business and government. DeSantis comes out against vaccine mandates and vows to “clean house” at the FDA.

DeSantis defends Florida’s decision to not expand Obamacare and says he will go after the cost of health care. Ramaswamy advocates for diverse insurance options covering preventative medicine by ending antitrust exemptions for health insurance companies.

Haley says the U.S. must get rid of foreign infiltration (including on social media), foreign lobbying and secure the southern border. DeSantis calls deterring China the No. 1 national security issue, while Ramaswamy stands by a previous statement that he would arm everyone in Taiwan to deter China.

Haley equates pro-Hamas groups to the KKK and advocates for including anti-Zionism in the definition of antisemitism. She also pushes for a TikTok ban, saying the app makes people more antisemitic and threatens to take away tax-exempt status from colleges that don’t do enough to combat antisemitism.

For three debates, Vivek Ramaswamy made it his personal mission to dissect Nikki Haley, and for three debates, Haley gave even better than she got, leaving Ramaswamy gasping for air in the race to emerge as the consensus alternative to Donald Trump.

But tonight, after enduring the most pointed attacks yet from Ramaswamy, Haley declined to engage, finally saying, when asked by the moderators if she’d like to respond: “It’s not worth my time to respond to him.”

Haley has clearly concluded that doing so would be punching down — and polls suggest she’s not wrong to think so. Now, we’ll find out if ignoring Ramaswamy tonight works as well for Haley as hitting back did in debates one, two and three.

The Justice Department has become a favorite target of Republicans amid federal investigations into Trump over his handling of classified documents and his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots.

While a July poll shows a majority of Americans believe Trump has done “something illegal” or “unethical,” Attorney General Merrick Garland is also facing a low approval rating.

Congress has been investigating the so-called “weaponization” of the federal government.

DeSantis rejects mail-in ballots and ballot harvesting, saying he will exploit the rules being followed in swing states. He also calls for cleaning out the Department of Justice to eliminate corruption.

Christie vows to stay out of criminal investigations and pick an attorney general who will follow the facts to restore faith in the justice system.

Education has increasingly become a battleground for culture wars in the past year, particularly as it relates to sexual health and transgender issues.

Both Haley and DeSantis have criticized practices of allowing transgender girls to compete in female sports, and DeSantis signed a bill barring instruction of gender identity and sexual orientation for grade school students.

Meanwhile, Christie has said decisions about a child’s education are best left to their parents, not the government.

“I trust parents.” Chris Christie said, calling out the hypocrisy of some of the Republican party policies.

Largely, we do trust parents in America. But we have checks and balances in place in case children are being abused. For some reason a lot of that falls through the cracks in these debates: One in five girls and one in 20 boys is a victim of child sexual abuse, according to the National Center for Victims of Crime.

Too many children face sexual abuse at home or by people they know. We’re talking about a very narrow issue when we talk about trans issues. However if we do want to protect children a broader conversation might be helpful.

Ramaswamy rejects identity politics based on gender, religion or race and attacks fellow Indian American Haley as inauthentic and corrupt. Haley declines to respond saying it’s not worth her time.

Christie cites parents’ rights to defend his objection to laws banning gender-affirming treatment for trans youth while still expressing an opinion that surgery for minors is dangerous. DeSantis refers to gender-affirming surgery as abuse and mutilation, defending laws banning the treatments, and Ramaswamy refers to people who are trans as having a mental health disorder. Haley defends her decision to reject a bathroom bill as governor of South Carolina.

Christie tangled with DeSantis and Ramaswamy on stage over whether Trump remains fit for office, putting the focus on the far-and-away frontrunner who has skipped all of the debates.

The former New Jersey governor accused those on stage Wednesday of being “afraid” of Trump, hammering DeSantis and Ramaswamy in particular for their approach to the former president.

“He’s made it very clear, there’s no mystery to what he wants to do,” Christie said of Trump, adding later that the former president “wants to exact retribution on anyone who has disagreed with him.”

“This is an angry, bitter man,” Christie said.

Trump has stirred pushback with comments in a town hall this week that he won’t be a “dictator” if elected to a second term, “except for Day 1.”

Aside from Vivek Ramaswamy, who is practically Trump’s blocking back in the GOP primary (obligatory football reference here on the campus of the University of Alabama), how the candidates addressed Donald Trump’s fitness for office was telling. Ron DeSantis refused to address the question directly, clearly concerned about riling up grassroots supporters of the former president, or something like that.

Chris Christie, on the other hand, charges straight through that door, addressing the former president’s multiple criminal indictments, ethical lapses, questionable behavior and controversial rhetoric.

As for Nikki Haley, the former governor and ex-ambassador was never given an opportunity to address the question and she didn’t volunteer to do so. But up until this point in the debate, when the moderators asked DeSantis to speak to Trump’s fitness, Haley was the only candidate to criticize the former president multiple times, and on multiple policy and leadership failings during his presidency.

DeSantis when facing the question of Trump’s age, uses it as an opportunity to draw distinctions between himself and former President Trump. He didn’t drain the swamp. Mexico didn’t pay for a wall. He promises to follow through with what Trump promised to do… So the distinction is he’ll get it done, it seems. We shall see… he didn’t quite have an answer to whether his proposals were legal.