Haley draws fire in 4th Republican debate as Christie warns absent Trump is still biggest issue

The Iowa caucuses are weeks away; the former president remains the favorite.

With voting set to start in the 2024 Republican primary in less than six weeks, four of the top candidates again took the stage for a debate -- this time on Wednesday night in Tuscaloosa, Alabama -- and the event proved to be fiery.

Hosted by NewsNation and moderated by Elizabeth Vargas, Megyn Kelly and Eliana Johnson, the debate featured Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy. The primary's front-runner, former President Donald Trump, continued to skip the event despite criticism from his rivals. He was fundraising in Florida.

ABC News and the analysts at 538 live-blogged every major moment and highlight from the debate. PolitiFact made real-time fact checks.


0

Christie predicts Trump will be a felon by presidential election

In closing remarks, Christie contended that Trump will be a felon by November 2024 given the four criminal cases against him. He has pleaded not guilty.

"I want you to all kind of picture in your mind Election Day. You'll all be heading to the polls to vote. And that is something Donald Trump will not be able to do, because he will be convicted of felonies before then and his right to vote will be taken away," Christie said.

The statement drew loud boos from the crowd -- a recurring theme for Christie's comments about Trump.

"You can boo about it all you like and continue to deny reality. But if we deny reality as a party, we're gonna have four more years of Joe Biden," Christie said.

-ABC News' Meredith Deliso


Fact-check: Haley on sentiment toward Hamas among young people

As she called for a ban on TikTok, Haley said, “We now know that 50% of adults 18-to-25 think that Hamas was warranted in what they did with Israel. That’s a problem.”

When PolitiFact checked the polls in early November, we found a Harvard-Harris survey that found 48% of American 18-to-24 year olds said they sided with Hamas after the Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel that Israeli officials say killed 1,200 people.

However, that poll was based on a subsample of 199 people with a large margin of error.

The responses to other questions were also inconsistent with that view. Respondents in the subgroup said, by 2-1 margins, that Hamas’ Oct. 7 action "was a terrorist attack"; that the attacks "were genocidal in nature"; that Israel has "a responsibility" to retaliate "against Hamas terrorists"; and that Hamas "is a terror group that rules Gaza with force and fear and is not supported by them."
Three other polls found lower rates of support for Hamas, we reported.

-Analysis by Katie Sanders of PolitiFact


Americans view Taiwan as important, but would oppose putting US troops on the ground

Recent polling found that Americans believe Taiwan is an ally and important to U.S. security. In September, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs found that 65% of Americans felt that the country's security relationship with Taiwan does more to strengthen national security than weaken it. And large majorities backed supporting Taiwan in different ways if China were to invade the self-governing island, save sending U.S. forces to the theater. Overall, 78% of Americans would want the U.S. to airlift food and medicine to Taiwan, 75% would want economic and diplomatic sanctions on China and 62% would want the U.S. to send more arms and military supplies to Taiwan. But in terms of military intervention, half said they would support using the U.S. Navy to break a blockade, while 56% opposed sending U.S. troops to Taiwan.

--Analysis by Geoffrey Skelley of 538


Ramaswamy, Christie say they’d defend Taiwan if invaded; Haley, DeSantis less clear

Ramswamy defended his position that the U.S. should arm the Taiwanese people with assault-style weapons, despite a Taiwanese zero-gun policy, and added the U.S. should “for the foreseeable future” promise to defend the self-governing island from China, which claims it as its own.

Ramaswamy drew a contrast with DeSantis, who hewed closer to the strategic ambiguity behind America’s longstanding deterrence posture. Haley, separately, said America must continue to defend Ukraine as a signal to Beijing that it can’t attack Taiwan and said the U.S. should not depend on China for national security.

Christie said he would engage militarily if Taiwan is invaded by China.

-ABC News’ Chris Boccia


How to watch

The debate, being held at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, will air on cable news network NewsNation at 8 p.m. EST.

It will also be broadcast in the Eastern and Central time zones on the company's broadcast television network, The CW.

The faceoff will be livestreamed on NewsNation's website and on Rumble as well.

The moderators will be Elizabeth Vargas, the anchor of NewsNation's "Elizabeth Vargas Reports"; Megyn Kelly, the former Fox News and NBC News anchor who now hosts "The Megyn Kelly Show" on Sirius XM; and Eliana Johnson, editor-in-chief of The Washington Free Beacon.

-ABC News' Sarah Beth Hensley