Republican debate highlights and analysis: Fiery faceoff on Trump, Ukraine and more
The 2024 hopefuls took the stage in Milwaukee on Wednesday night, without Trump.
The first Republican debate of the 2024 presidential primary was held in Milwaukee on Wednesday night.
Eight candidates qualified for a spot on the stage: North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, former Vice President Mike Pence, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott.
Missing from the event was the primary's early front-runner: former President Donald Trump, who declined to participate and instead released a pre-recorded interview with Tucker Carlson.
ABC News and FiveThirtyEight live-blogged every major moment and highlight from the debate, aired on Fox News, with FiveThirtyEight providing analysis and a closer look at the polling and data behind the politicians. PolitiFact made real-time fact checks of key statements.
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Interesting early questions by the Fox News hosts. DeSantis got to go first, understandably, and he didn't face any questions about his tenure as governor. By comparison, when the hosts turned to Christie and Scott, they faced questions about state debate in Christie's case and Scott's voting record on spending bills. Both seemed caught a little off balance by actual scrutiny of their records.
-Analysis by Geoffrey Skelley of FiveThirtyEight
Interesting early questions by the Fox News hosts. DeSantis got to go first, understandably, and he didn't face any questions about his tenure as governor. By comparison, when the hosts turned to Christie and Scott, they faced questions about state debate in Christie's case and Scott's voting record on spending bills. Both seemed caught a little off balance by actual scrutiny of their records.
Ramaswamy introduces himself
Ramaswamy taking a minute to introduce himself shows how he's still a semi-unknown quantity. But he got big applause from the crowd.
-Analysis by Monica Potts of FiveThirtyEight
Ramaswamy’s “skinny guy with a funny last name” line is a direct reference to Obama’s famous line about being a “skinny guy with a funny name” in his 2004 speech at the Democratic National Convention. Ramaswamy, of course, wouldn’t mind following Obama’s same path to the White House.
-Analysis by Nathaniel Rakich of FiveThirtyEight
Yeah, Maya, I am surprised Trump didn’t come up more. With him not on stage, I actually thought it would be easier for the candidates to swipe at him, since there was no risk of him punching directly back. But with some notable exceptions, like Christie and Hutchinson (and even then, only on a couple occasions), the candidates showed little interest in hammering away at the primary front-runner. I think that’s a questionable strategy since none of these candidates will be able to earn majority support in the primary without stealing some of it from Trump.
-Analysis by Nathaniel Rakich of FiveThirtyEight