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
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- Survivor, GOP primary edition?
- Pence seems to be playing out the string
- Ramaswamy and Scott's debate over birthright citizenship devolves into chaotic exchange
Is this a primary or general election debate?
While Ramaswamy clearly tried to differentiate himself from Scott on the question of unions, Pence glossed over his primary challengers and shifted directly to the general election, calling for repealing the Green New Deal and criticizing Biden.
— Analysis by Leah Askarinam of 538
According to a September poll by ABC News and The Washington Post, 74 percent of Republicans said they would blame Biden and the Democrats in Congress if the government were to shut down. Just 5 percent said they would blame Republicans in Congress, and 16 percent said they would blame both equally. Five percent didn’t have an opinion or wouldn’t blame either.
—Analysis by 538
Burgum interrupts to get a word in
The moderators just tried to move on, but Burgum interrupted to make sure he got a word in. He must have read my post at the beginning of the debate that he needs to get more words in edgewise!
—Analysis by Nathaniel Rakich of 538
Americans Support Unions Generally
We're hearing a lot of anti-union talk from candidates on stage tonight, but that's not a position that a majority of Americans take. As Cooper mentioned, a majority of Americans support the current UAW strikes. More than that, support for American unions are at highs not seen in decades. When Biden visited striking workers in Michigan this week, he was visiting a state that was the first since 1965 to repeal the anti-union right-to-work laws.
-- Analysis by Monica Potts of 538
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