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.
Latest headlines:
- South Carolina on South Carolina: Nikki Haley and Tim Scott spar several times on stage
- Brief debate answers on Ukraine reveal a rift among Republicans over the issue
- Survivor, GOP primary edition?
- Pence seems to be playing out the string
- Ramaswamy and Scott's debate over birthright citizenship devolves into chaotic exchange
Survivor, GOP primary edition?
Moderator Dana Perino asked every candidate to write down which challenger they would “vote off the island.” DeSantis refused, prompting Perino to rework her approach, asking for his mathematical approach to winning the nomination — and of course, that’s not going to work with a politician. Christie, however, interjected that he’d be just fine voting Trump off the island.
-- Analysis by Leah Askarinam of 538
DeSantis is somewhat misleading while claiming biggest victory in Florida history
DeSantis claimed that his 1.5 million-vote victory was the largest in a Florida gubernatorial election in state history. Now, his nearly-20 percentage point margin of victory was quite large in what has historically been a swing state. But it's quite misleading to use the raw vote margin since population has changed quite a bit over time! This is especially true in a state like Florida, which has grown by leaps and bounds. For instance, a candidate would've had a tougher time winning by 1.5 million votes in 1990, when the state had a population of about 13 million, than in 2022, when the state had a population of about 22 million.
— Analysis by Geoffrey Skelley of 538
Scott goes after Haley again
After mixing it up with her earlier, Scott goes out of his way to attack Haley again. He very much wants to be in her position — rising in the national polls, in second place in New Hampshire in some polls — right now.
—Analysis by Nathaniel Rakich of 538
Fact-checking Pence’s claim about passing the largest tax cuts in American history
Pence and Trump keep trying to claim they passed the largest tax cuts in American history as if one time it might be true.
It is not.
In inflation-adjusted dollars, the 2017 tax bill is the fourth-largest since 1940. And as a percentage of GDP, it ranks seventh.
-Analysis by Aaron Sharockman, PolitiFact
Final thoughts: More of the same, with little extra grandstanding
We got glimmers of candidates attempting to narrow down the GOP primary field. Haley and Scott sparred over South Carolina politics, Pence criticized DeSantis’ spending in Florida, DeSantis criticized Trump’s stance on abortion, and just about everyone tried to take Ramaswamy down a peg (though that might have been a result of their frustration with him rather than actual political strategy). But what Republicans need in order to wage a credible challenge to Trump’s frontrunner status is to shake up the field, and I don’t know if we saw that tonight. It looked like we might get a little closer to winnowing down the field when moderator Dana Perino asked everyone to write down who they should “vote off the island” — but DeSantis, making a show of being above that sort of petty question, prevented us from getting any answers.
— Analysis by Leah Askarinam of 538