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 Pence’s claim that Trump administration reduced ‘illegal immigration and asylum abuse by 90 percent’

This is False.

Pence has used this 90 percent drop statistic many times, but has never explained where it comes from.

When the COVID-19 pandemic started, immigration drastically dropped worldwide as governments enacted policies limiting people’s movement. In the U.S., Trump instituted Title 42, a public health policy that authorized the Border Patrol to immediately return most immigrants back to Mexico. The increased use of this policy decreased the use of other programs, including "Remain in Mexico."

U.S. Customs and Border Protection during the pandemic also adopted a new way of reporting migrant encounters. Before the pandemic, it only reported enforcement actions under immigration law; its data during the pandemic includes actions taken under both immigration law and the public health policy. Therefore, 2020 data isn’t entirely comparable to pre-pandemic numbers.

Accounting for challenges in data comparisons, our review found an increase of 300 percent in illegal immigration from Trump’s first full month in office, February 2017, to his last full month, December 2020.

One way to get close to Pence’s alleged 90 percent decrease in illegal immigration is by comparing data from May 2019, the month during the administration that had the highest apprehensions, to April 2020, the month with the lowest enforcement actions in calendar year 2020.

But that’s a severely cherry-picked time period.
-Analysis by Aaron Sharockman, PolitiFact


For reference, Nathaniel, after last month's debate, 44 percent of Republican debate watchers felt that the moderators did an excellent or very good job. 39 percent said the moderators did about average, and 14 percent said they did poor or terrible.

—Analysis by Holly Fuong of 538


DeSantis, Christie blame both Biden and Trump for increased spending in Washington, say he should be on the debate stage

When debate moderators asked the 2024 GOP candidates about the impending government shutdown, some – including Trump’s closest opponent DeSantis – pivoted to blame the former president and current President Biden for the logjam.

Both men also called out Trump for his absence on stage, noting that he should be answering for himself as the shutdown looms.

"People in Washington are shutting down the American dream with their reckless behavior,” DeSantis said.

“And you know who else is missing an action? Donald Trump is missing an action. He should be on this stage tonight. He owes it to you to defend his record where they added 7.8 trillion to the debt that set the stage for the inflation that we have.”

Chris Christie – one of Trump’s staunchest critics – also admonished the former president.

“If the government shuts down, should voters blame populace Republicans? Very simply everybody who's in Washington, D.C.,” said Christie.

“And let's be honest about this with the voters. You know, during the Trump administration, they added $7 trillion — $7 trillion in national debt. And now the Biden administration has put another 5 trillion on and counting.”

“Donald Trump– he hides behind the walls of his golf clubs, and won't show up here to answer questions like all the rest of us are up here. He puts 7 trillion on the debt. He should be in this room to answer those questions for the people you talk about who are suffering,” Christie said.

–ABC News’ Isabella Murray


Scott goes after Ramaswamy

Scott, one of many candidates jockeying with Ramaswamy for third place nationally, pointedly asks Ramaswamy about his business dealings in China. This follows the first debate when both Pence and Christie attacked Ramaswamy too. It doesn’t seem like the other candidates like him very much …

—Analysis from Nathaniel Rakich of 538


Fact-checking DeSantis’s claim that Florida proposal to teach that enslaved people benefited from slavery was a ‘hoax that was perpetrated by Kamala Harris’

DeSantis is dodging the facts.

The Florida Board of Education set new social studies standards for middle schoolers July 19.

In a section about the duties and trades performed by enslaved people, the state adopted a clarification that said "instruction includes how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit."

Experts on Black history said that such language is factually misleading and offensive.

Marvin Dunn, a psychology professor emeritus at Florida International University, has authored several books on the history of African Americans.

"Most enslaved people had no special skills at all that benefited them following their enslavement," Dunn said. "For almost all their skill was picking cotton. An enslaved man who was made to be a blacksmith might have been a king had he not been captured and taken from his country. Is he supposed to be grateful? Enslavement prevented people from becoming who and what they might have been and that was slavery's greatest injury to humankind."

Bruce Levine, an emeritus professor of history at the University of Illinois and author of "Half Slave & Half Free: The Roots of Civil War," was one of several scholars of the period who told PolitiFact that they rejected the value of spotlighting "skills" learned while enslaved.

"Very simply, can you imagine saying this about ‘skills’ developed in Nazi forced-labor camps?"
-Analysis by Aaron Sharockman, PolitiFact