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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Hutchinson has been critical of Trump since entering the race, calling on him to drop out, especially after his indictments. He pushed back against the loyalty pledge to support the eventual nominee, and tonight did not raise his hand when asked if he would support the nominee. "Over a year ago I said Donald Trump was morally disqualified from being president," he said tonight, to boos from the audience.
-Analysis by Monica Potts of FiveThirtyEight
Fact-checking Scott’s claim that DOJ called parents 'domestic terrorists'
In talking about the weaponization of the Department of Justice, Scott trotted out a line he’s used before — that parents at school board meetings, “they’re called, under this DOJ, domestic terrorists.”
That’s False.
In 2021, Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a memo directing the FBI to address violent threats against school board members. The memo never called concerned parents "domestic terrorists," and maintained that "spirited debate" surrounding school policy is protected by the U.S. Constitution. A lawsuit against Garland also found that parents’ rights had not been violated.
-Aaron Sharockman, PolitiFact
Christie says Trump's conduct 'beneath' office
When asked if he'd support Trump as the party's nominee if the former president were convicted, Christie said he would not, saying "the conduct is beneath the office of the president of the United States."
Hutchinson also indicated he would not support Trump.
In a January survey by YouGov/The Economist, 70 percent of Republicans said they strongly or somewhat supported Congress investigating charges of weaponization of the FBI and Justice Department. Eleven percent strongly or somewhat opposed a congressional investigation, and 19 percent were unsure.
-Analysis by FiveThirtyEight
Fact-checking DeSantis’s claim that Florida eliminated CRT from schools
That’s Mostly False.
In checking previous instances when DeSantis made this same claim, PolitiFact found no evidence that critical race theory, a broad set of ideas about racism being woven into American systems, was being taught in Florida’s K-12 schools in the first place. Educators, school officials and several Florida public school districts told us that CRT has never been part of the state curriculum.
PolitiFact found a few examples of state education officials objecting to textbooks and courses they said contained CRT teaching in recent years. They show the state’s objections to prospective teaching materials, and success in preventing content it deemed to be CRT-related. But questions remain about its rationale and broad definition of the theory and other prohibited topics.
-Aaron Sharockman, PolitiFact