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.
Key moments:
Biden campaign wants answers on Trump's dictator comment
In a bit of counterprogramming, President Joe Biden's campaign has released a set of questions it suggests the moderators ask of his potential opponents on Wednesday. The first: “Do you support Donald Trump’s plans to be a dictator on day 1?"
The campaign’s press release is a response to former President Trump’s comment on Tuesday that, “except for Day One,” he wouldn’t be a “dictator” if he returned to the presidency. “No, no, no. Other than day one. We’re closing the border, and we’re drilling, drilling, drilling. After that, I’m not a dictator,” the Republican front-runner told Fox News’ Sean Hannity.
The campaign, seeking to make democracy a central issue in next year's race, also suggested DeSantis, Haley, Ramaswamy and Christie speak to another democratic norm: “Will you accept the results of the 2024 election unequivocally?"
-ABC News' Chris Boccia
5 things to watch for
Will a smaller stage make a difference? What will the big policy topics be? Do DeSantis and Haley target Trump ... or each other?
Those are three of five notable things to watch in the fourth debate, on Wednesday night.
Read more about them here.
-ABC News' Tal Axelrod
The big headlines since the last debate
It's been four weeks since Republican primary contenders last met on stage. A lot has happened between then and now.
Two candidates dropped out of the race: South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.
Their exits whittled down the field down to five major candidates, though Trump remains the front-runner with two candidates now vying for second place in the polls: DeSantis and Haley. All three recently received notable endorsements with voting just weeks away. The Koch-backed group Americans for Prosperity Action threw its support behind Haley over Trump while DeSantis has earned key endorsements in Iowa, including from Gov. Kim Reynolds and Trump, despite his absence, just got the backing of Alabama Sen. Katie Britt.
This is the last chance for candidates to get a boost on the national stage before next month's Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary.
-ABC News' Alexandra Hutzler
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
Nikki Haley is having a moment. Is it enough?
At the beginning of the year, DeSantis was the clear runner-up in the Republican presidential primary field: He was averaging above 30% in national polls, only about 10 points behind Trump. But DeSantis’ star has fallen the more voters have gotten to know him, it seems, and another candidate is now on the verge of overtaking him as the most viable Trump alternative: Haley.
As of Tuesday, Haley was at 11% in 538’s national polling average of the Republican primary -- just 2 points behind DeSantis for second place. And she’s doing even better in early primary states. She’s polling at 15% in Iowa, and she’s comfortably in second place in New Hampshire (19%) and South Carolina (21%).
She also recently secured the endorsement of Americans for Prosperity Action, a conservative group affiliated with Republican megadonor Charles Koch that is known for its sophisticated political operation.
Why has Haley been on the upswing? The simplest explanation is these debates. On the day of the first debate, she was averaging just 3% in national polls. But according to a 538/Washington Post/Ipsos poll conducted both before and after that debate, Republicans who watched said Haley was one of the strongest performers, and the share who said they were considering voting for her shot up by 17 points.
Republican debate watchers also rated Haley as the second-best performer in the second debate and the strongest performer in the third debate. Probably not by coincidence, her polling numbers have been steadily increasing ever since.
Of course, Haley fans shouldn’t get too giddy. She (and DeSantis) are still far behind Trump both nationally and in the early primary states. Even if Haley does overtake DeSantis and winds up being the last non-Trump Republican standing in the primary, it won’t matter if Trump is winning every state by double digits.
-Analysis by Nathaniel Rakich of 538