Republican debate highlights and analysis: Fiery faceoff on Trump, Ukraine and more

The 2024 hopefuls took the stage in Milwaukee on Wednesday night, without Trump.

By538 and ABC News
Last Updated: August 23, 2023, 10:54 PM EDT

The first Republican debate of the 2024 presidential primary was held in Milwaukee on Wednesday night.

Eight candidates qualified for a spot on the stage: North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, former Vice President Mike Pence, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott.

Missing from the event was the primary's early front-runner: former President Donald Trump, who declined to participate and instead released a pre-recorded interview with Tucker Carlson.

ABC News and FiveThirtyEight live-blogged every major moment and highlight from the debate, aired on Fox News, with FiveThirtyEight providing analysis and a closer look at the polling and data behind the politicians. PolitiFact made real-time fact checks of key statements.

Read deeper:

Here's how the news developed. All times Eastern.
Aug 23, 2023, 10:54 PM EDT

Moderators try to halt Pence interruptions

Baier and MacCallum have repeatedly sought to stop Pence from interrupting their questions or other candidates' answers -- an example of a debate in which the candidates were sometimes freewheeling in how they answered questions and handled the time limit rules the moderators had set out.

While asking Hutchinson about the border, Baier again had to again stop Pence, saying, "Vice President Pence, it really doesn't help."

-ABC News' Tal Axelrod

Aug 23, 2023, 10:38 PM EDT

I've been watching Scott tonight, and he argued for greater southern border security to push back on the drug trade. But despite being the only U.S. senator on stage, he didn't touch on the Ukraine-Russia conflict and U.S. policy in it, an interesting omission. Although he came into tonight with a very high ceiling of potential support, Scott has been somewhat anonymous tonight, with more coming from Pence, Ramaswamy and Christie.
-Analysis by Geoffrey Skelley of FiveThirtyEight

Aug 23, 2023, 10:38 PM EDT

Fact-checking Burgum’s 87,000 IRS agent stat

This is … what we call, a zombie stat. It’s Mostly False.

PHOTO: Truth-o-meter showing "mostly false."
PolitiFact

The Biden administration never proposed hiring 87,000 additional or new IRS agents.

This 87,000 figure comes from a May 2021 Treasury Department assessment of how it would use $80 billion to improve IRS operations. The report said the IRS would add 86,852 new full-time positions.

But even in the 2021 plan, not all of the hires would be auditors, or work in enforcement. The report said the money would go toward many things, including "hiring new specialized enforcement staff, modernizing antiquated information technology, and investing in meaningful taxpayer service."

Although the agency’s staff would increase, it’s key to note that over half of the IRS workforce is close to retirement. The plan was created with that exodus in mind and aims to hire thousands of people to simply maintain current levels. Today, the IRS has about 80,000 employees.

"The IRS will lose about 50,000 people over the next five or six years," said Natasha Sarin, Treasury’s counselor for tax policy and implementation. "A lot of this hiring is about replacing those people."
-Aaron Sharockman, PolitiFact

Aug 24, 2023, 12:22 AM EDT

Haley calls Putin a 'murderer' in fiery exchange over Ukraine aid

Haley, as a former ambassador, made an impassioned case for the U.S. continuing military and financial aid to Ukraine amid Russia's invasion.

"When you look at the situation, you have a pro-American country that was invaded by a thug," she said. "You want to talk about what has been given to Ukraine, less than 3.5% of our defense budget has been given to Ukraine. If you look at the percentage per GDP, 11 of the European countries have given more than the U.S."

She was interrupted by Ramaswamy, who is opposed to further assistance, and the two had a fiery back-and-forth.

Haley told the political newcomer: "You have no foreign policy experience and it shows."

On Ramaswamy's approach to Putin, Haley said: "This guy is a murderer and you are choosing a murderer."

-ABC News' Alexandra Hutzler

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