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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The discussion has turned to the U.S. relationship with China. Republicans’ opinion of China has been steadily worsening over the last six years, according to polling from YouGov/The Economist. As of their most recent survey, 91.4 percent of Republicans said China is an enemy of the United States, while just 3.7 percent said China is an ally. The last time more Republicans said that China was an ally than said it was an enemy was April 17, 2017.
-Analysis by FiveThirtyEight


Pence, Ramaswamy get into another spat, this time over Ukraine

Pence and Ramaswamy got into another spat, this time over Ukraine, with the vice president attacking his rival over Ramaswamy's calls to send military resources to the southern border, not Ukraine.

"Anybody that thinks that we can't solve the problems here in the United States and be the leader the free world has a pretty small view of the greatest nation on Earth," Pence said.

"I have a newsflash. The USSR does not exist anymore," Ramaswamy shot back, referring to the Soviet Union.

-ABC News' Tal Axelrod


Haley finally gets a question on foreign policy, a strong suit for the former U.N. Ambassador. She defends American support for Ukraine and ties it to the fight against China. But while the moderators teed her up to attack DeSantis, she instead pivots to Ramaswamy. She's pretty fiery in her back-and-forth with him, saying he has no foreign policy experience "and it shows."
-Analysis from Jacob Rubashkin, Inside Elections


Christie says US needs to stand up to 'autocratic killing'

On Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Christie referenced his recent trip to the war-torn country and said that he "wanted to see for myself what [Russian President] Vladimir Putin's army was doing to the free Ukrainian people."

"They have gouged out people's eyes, cut off their ears and shot people in the back of the head," Christie said of the brutality he saw.

"This is the Vladimir Putin who Donald Trump called 'brilliant' and a 'genius,'" he continued. "If we don't stand up against this type of autocratic killing, we will be next."

-ABC News' Meredith Deliso


DeSantis’ campaign team still upset about debate memo leak: Source

Members of DeSantis’s campaign are still upset about a debate memo that was prepared and published last week by a super PAC supporting the governor, a source close to the campaign told ABC News on Wednesday, describing those members of his team as “wildly irritated.”

Chief among the complaints is that the memo, which detailed suggested approaches and lines of attack, effectively handcuffs DeSantis by preventing the governor from using any of the advice on stage lest he invite attacks from opponents for using lines manufactured for him by other people.

The memo included research documents that show that Axiom Strategies, a consulting firm tied to the super political action committee, anticipated that the biggest hits to DeSantis would include his battle with Disney -- ABC News' parent company -- past comments on Ukraine, Florida's Black history standard, the culture wars and abortion.

The packet also included past comments made by presidential hopefuls attacking DeSantis on those specific subjects.

DeSantis himself has downplayed the memo, telling Fox News recently, “It’s not mine. I haven’t read it. It’s just -- I think it’s something that we have put off to the side.”

-ABC News’ Hannah Demissie, Will McDuffie and Olivia Osteen