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
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