The fireworks were back as four Republican candidates vying to emerge as the party’s top alternative to Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential primary met Wednesday night for their fourth debate.
Amid the smallest debate field so far and facing mounting pressure with Iowa’s caucuses less than six weeks away, the candidates were able to showcase their policy beliefs and explore major differences. There were also a series of memorable personal shots.
What their clash in Alabama, hosted by NewsNation, made plain is that all of the candidates onstage believe they must first be seen as the GOP’s lone alternative to the former president before making a more focused case against him.
Here are some of the key takeaways from the debate:
Attacks against Haley: The clearest sign of former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s rise in the race? Her opponents made her the center of attention during much of the first hour of the debate.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis waited all of 30 seconds into his first answer before he took aim at Haley, pulling her into a dispute over which bathrooms transgender people should be able to use. And in his first response, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy continued where he left off at the third debate, targeting Haley for her time serving on the board of Boeing, a company that has a major manufacturing facility in the state she once governed.
At several points, DeSantis and Ramaswamy teamed up to pile on criticisms, zeroing in on the support she has received of late from some donors like LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, a Democratic donor who sent $250,000 to a super PAC supporting her, and the interest coming her way from the likes of BlackRock CEO Larry Fink.
Haley, who also recently received the backing of the conservative group Americans for Prosperity, said she welcomed help wherever it may come from but wouldn’t let it dictate her policies. And she said her competitors would take the money too if it was offered.
“They’re just jealous,” Haley said. “They wish that they were supporting them.”
“He who should not be named”: After watching his three rivals squabble for the debate’s first 17 minutes, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie tried to reframe the debate with a reminder: Trump is currently vastly outpacing all of them in the polls.
“I’ve got these three guys who are all seeming to compete with Voldemort — ‘He who should not be named,’” Christie said, referring to the Harry Potter series villain whose name characters avoided saying. “They don’t want to talk about it.”
Christie suggested that other candidates are avoiding taking on Trump directly because they don’t want to hobble their own chances of becoming his vice presidential nominee, or their 2028 presidential prospects.
Perhaps most telling about the state of the GOP primary race was the reaction to Christie’s comments. Questions asked of his rivals in the debate’s opening moments had elicited fierce, and sometimes personal, back-and-forth exchanges. Christie’s comments, though, were met by his rivals with silence.
Christie gets his groove back: For months, Christie has struggled to recreate the magic of the 2016 presidential primary debate season, when he skewered Florida Sen. Marco Rubio over repeating a debate one-liner. Though Christie didn’t make it far in that primary, Rubio struggled to overcome the perception that he was robotic.
In Tuscaloosa, the former New Jersey governor tried to portray his opponents as immature, annoying and not ready for the job. It may not help him win the nomination, but he isn’t making it easier for the rest of the field — particularly DeSantis and Ramaswamy — either.
Christie attempted to paint DeSantis as unwilling to answer basic questions. When DeSantis was asked if as president he would send US troops to Gaza to rescue American hostages held by Hamas, Christie jumped in.
“When you’re president of the United States, you’re not gonna have a choice whether to answer that question or not,” he said.
Later in the debate, DeSantis was asked if he thought Trump was fit for office. He responded, saying that “Father Time is undefeated.” Christie doubled down.
Keep reading the takeaways from the debate here.
