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
Burgum interrupts … again
Lots of crosstalk in this debate so far, and Burgum continues to refuse to be left behind. He just talked over the moderators as they tried to move on to immigration in order to make a point about child care in North Dakota.
—Analysis by Nathaniel Rakich of 538
Inflation is down a lot
Inflation has cooled a lot compared to its highs last summer, at 3.7 percent more than last year as of August. Republican candidates are blaming government spending for inflation, but economists think the pandemic-era inflation was caused more by supply-chain problems caused by the pandemic and shifts in demand because people's needs changed.
—Analysis by Monica Potts of 538
Trump is still viewed favorably by likely Republican voters
Despite DeSantis’s strong words against Trump, likely Republican primary voters still think highly of Trump, according to our pre-debate 538/Washington Post/Ipsos poll. 68 percent view Trump favorably, compared to 30 percent who have an unfavorable view.
—Analysis by Holly Fuong of 538
Fact-checking Christie’s claim that inflation is ‘caused by government spending’
Government spending is certainly a factor when it comes to inflation. But it’s not the only factor.
The 2021 American Rescue Plan Act added about $1.9 trillion to the economy, and economists across the political spectrum say that it spurred inflation. They differ on the precise scale of its impact, with estimates ranging from two to four additional points out of the current inflation rate of about 8.5 percent.
However, none of the experts PolitiFact talked to, liberal or conservative, said Biden’s actions were responsible for all of the inflation. Past government spending, COVID’s disruptions to labor markets, energy prices and supply-chains also played significant roles. Most recently, the war in Ukraine has made a challenging situation worse.
-Analysis by Aaron Sharockman, PolitiFact
How well do likely Republican voters think candidates will perform?
In anticipation of tonight’s debate, we again partnered with The Washington Post and Ipsos to ask likely Republican primary voters what they think about tonight’s debate participants and the candidate field in general.
The 5,002 likely Republican primary voters we polled using Ipsos’s KnowledgePanel expect DeSantis and Ramaswamy to perform best, out of the seven-candidate field. According to a five-point scale that we calculated using respondents’ answers (with 1 being “terrible” and 5 being “excellent”), likely voters expected both DeSantis and Ramaswamy to perform “very good” (3.44 and 3.43 out of 5, respectively). They thought Haley would perform third-best (3.40 out of 5) and Scott fourth (3.20 out of 5). All of this is fairly in line with their pre-debate expectations in August.
When it comes to which candidates respondents are interested in, Haley saw the biggest bump since our poll before last month’s debate — 31 percent are now considering voting for Haley, up from 25 percent. Although she now has the third-most prospective support, she’s still got a long way to go compared to Trump (66 percent) and DeSantis (49 percent). About 1 in 4 likely Republican primary voters are also considering voting for Ramaswamy and Pence.
We’ll be watching to see how the candidates fare tonight, and if debate watchers’ opinions on who they’re considering voting for will change after tonight’s performances.
—Analysis by Holly Fuong of 538