Republican debate highlights and analysis: Candidates squabble in Simi Valley

2024 hopefuls argued over education, spending and border security.

The second Republican debate of the 2024 presidential primary, taking place at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, has just come to an end.

The affair was more raucous than the first debate, which took place over a month ago. Candidates interrupted one another much more regularly and several — most notably former Vice President Mike Pence and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie — have directly criticized front-runner Donald Trump, who elected not to show up tonight. The two candidates from South Carolina, former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley and Sen. Tim Scott, went after one another for their records on spending, and seemingly everyone who had the chance to take a shot at entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy did so.

Read below for highlights, excerpts and key moments.


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Fact-checking Haley’s claim that ‘Congress has only delivered a budget on time four times’

This is accurate. From our colleagues at the Pew Research Center:

“In the nearly five decades that the current system for budgeting and spending tax dollars has been in place, Congress has passed all its required appropriations measures on time only four times: fiscal 1977 (the first full fiscal year under the current system), 1989, 1995 and 1997. And even those last three times, Congress was late in passing the budget blueprint that, in theory at least, precedes the actual spending bills.”
-Analysis by Aaron Sharockman, PolitiFact


In an August poll by YouGov/The Economist, Republicans were particularly likely to be wary of the U.S. relationship with China. Forty-three percent of Republicans said China poses an immediate and serious economic threat to the U.S., while only 16 percent of Democrats and 28 percent of independents agreed. When it comes to a military threat, 33 percent of Republicans said China poses an immediate and serious threat, compared with 13 percent of Democrats and 24 percent of independents.
—Analysis by 538


Likely Republican voters are pretty split on "sending U.S. military forces to Mexico to fight drug cartels," according to our pre-debate 538/Washington Post/Ipsos poll. 44 percent support the proposed policy, compared with 46 percent who oppose.

—Analysis by Holly Fuong of 538


Interruptions early

Some early moments in this debate have involved significant cross-talk and interruptions. Burgum's main two comments so far both came via him jumping in to speak without having been asked a question, which is something a low-polling candidate on the periphery of the stage (and race) might as well do with little to lose. Unlike in the first debate, there hasn't been as much of a push by the moderators to give a short rebuttal opportunity to candidates who were mentioned by another candidate, although multiple candidates have asked for that already.

—Analysis by Geoffrey Skelley of 538


China is a key foreign policy topic – and Ramaswamy, Trump take flak

Foreign policy isn’t quite dominating this debate, but U.S. policy towards China is a prominent theme, and Ramaswamy is bearing down a lot of attacks on that.

Ramaswamy and Haley had a heated moment on the debate stage over the issue of support for Ukraine – which Haley tied to China. When Ramaswamy argued against support for Ukraine, Haley jumped in, saying that a win for Russia is a win for China, and then accused Ramaswamy of liking China.

There was also the memorable TikTok exchange between the two. Haley sniped at Ramaswamy that "every time I hear you, I feel a little bit dumber for what you say” and that he can't be trusted as he justified his choice to join TikTok after being convinced by influencer and boxer Jake Paul to join despite previously calling it "digital fentanyl." TikTok was created by Chinese company ByteDance and lawmakers have scrutinized the app over security concerns. (Ads for TikTok are also airing on Fox Business Network during commercial breaks.)

Scott also accused Ramaswamy of being ‘bought’ by China. He was likely referencing Ramaswamy's company, Roivant Sciences, announcing 5-years ago that it was partnering with China state-owned investment company CITIC Group Corp

And Pence had a similar, pointed attack: “I'm glad Vivek pulled out of his business deal in 2018 in China -- that must have been about the time you decided to start voting in presidential elections."

It’s worth noting that Haley criticized Trump too on this front, in that case for not pursuing China aggressively enough on a host of issues: “This is where President Trump went wrong.”

– ABC News’ Kendall Ross, Libby Cathey, Soorin Kim, Abby Cruz, Nicholas Kerr, and Oren Oppenheim