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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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


Likely Republican primary voters are not very interested in economic inequality

In our pre-debate 538/Washington Post/Ipsos poll, we asked likely Republican primary voters to select up to three issues that were most important in determining who they will vote for in the primaries. Economic inequality ranked 17 out of 20 issues, with only 3 percent selecting it.

—Analysis by Holly Fuong of 538


Fact-checking Tim Scott’s claim that ‘open borders’ led to the deaths of 70,000 Americans in the last 12 months

Scott’s claim is misleading. Deaths from fentanyl jumped 23 percent in Biden’s first year in office to more than 70,000, but they’ve been increasing since 2014 and also rose during Trump’s administration.

Although immigration encounters at the southern U.S. border have spiked under Biden’s watch, experts say most of the fentanyl coming into the U.S. from Mexico is coming through legal ports of entry. The vast majority of people sentenced for fentanyl trafficking are U.S. citizens, data shows.
-Analysis by Aaron Sharockman, PolitiFact


GOP candidates claim border security is a 'day one' issue, bolster the ‘remain in Mexico’ policy

Several of the Republicans on stage touted their prioritization of border security should they win the presidency.

“What I’ll do on day one is sign an executive order to send the National Guard to partner with Customs and Border Patrol to make sure that we stop the flow of fentanyl over the border,” Christie said first. He expanded his answer to include his plans to fill the “6 million vacant jobs” in the country with legal immigrants.

“This border is going to be a day one issue for me as president,” DeSantis said, also noting that he’d administer the remain in Mexico policy, which requires migrants seeking asylum to remain in Mexico until their US immigration court date.

“We're going to declare a national emergency. Yes, we'll build the wall. We’ll do remain in Mexico,” DeSantis said.

Pence spoke about his role in negotiating the remain in Mexico policy of the Trump administration.

“I negotiated the remain in Mexico policy with the Mexican government. We used economic power to bring the Mexican government to the table. We build hundreds of miles of border wall and despite what's said here today, we reduced illegal immigration and asylum abuse by 90%. And as President of the United States, I can do it again,” he said. “I'm going to be ready on day one to get Congress to step up, secure the southern border of the United States.”

Haley cosigned on the Remain in Mexico Policy.

“Let's go back to Remain in Mexico policy,” she said. “Instead of catch and release. Let's go to catch and deport.”
Ramaswamy said that he was supportive of most of his opponents’ border positions, but that he’d go a step further: he’d end birthright citizenship for the kids of illegal immigrants.

“The Republicans on the stage are on the right side of this issue, militarize the southern border, stop funding sanctuary cities and end foreign aid to Mexico and Central America to end the incentives to come across,” Ramaswamy said.

--ABC News' Isabella Murray