Republican debate highlights and analysis: Candidates squabble in Simi Valley

Haley abruptly jumped in to hit Ramaswamy for his use of TikTok to appeal to voters, calling TikTok "one of the most dangerous social media apps," and saying she feels "dumber" every time she hears Ramaswamy talk. This moment, along with some others, revealed two things: First, Haley is on the more assertive side of the GOP foreign policy debate when it comes to dealing with China (a Chinese company owns TikTok), although Ramaswamy has said that he'd like to keep people under 16 from accessing social media. Second, she and the other Republicans on stage really don't like Ramaswamy. There've been a few other jabs at Ramaswamy tonight, but her line about feeling dumber was pretty telling.

— Analysis by Geoffrey Skelley of 538

PolitiFact has a feature we call the Flip-O-Meter. It measures — you guessed it — flip flops.

Ramaswamy entered the flip zone when he criticized TikTok and then created an account on the platform.

"I am very open to banning TikTok outright," he wrote on X in February. "In the meantime, we sit on our hands and do nothing as kids get addicted to it like it’s digital fentanyl."

Later, on Sept. 13, Ramaswamy announced that he was joining TikTok. "Yes, kids under age 16 shouldn’t be using it, but the fact is that many young voters are & we’re not going to change this country without winning," he wrote on X. "We can’t just talk about the importance of the GOP ‘reaching young voters’ while hiding in our own echo chambers."

Ramaswamy is not the first candidate to criticize a social media platform while simultaneously using it. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren advertised on Facebook while also saying that big tech had too much power.
-Analysis by Aaron Sharockman, PolitiFact

Didn't expect such a pro-robot stance from Christie after he attacked Ramaswamy for sounding like ChatGPT last debate.
-Jacob Rubashkin, 538 contributor

Christie suggested that the government should refrain from regulating AI. Polling shows Republicans agree: when it comes to who should be responsible for providing solutions to AI-related issues, Republicans are more likely than Democrats to turn to companies and brands than to the government. In a July survey from Ipsos, Republicans preferred companies and brands over the government to be most responsible for creating or retaining local jobs by 29 percentage points, ensuring that AI doesn’t discriminate by 8 percentage points and ensuring AI provides accurate results by 14 percentage points. On protecting creators from unfair use of their work and preventing the spread of misinformation by AI, equal numbers of Republicans said that the government and companies should be most responsible.
—Analysis by 538