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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DeSantis shuts down Fox attempt at hand raising
DeSantis quickly shut down a question from Fox News' Martha MaCallum asking candidates to raise their hands if they believe human behavior is causing climate change.
"Look, we’re not schoolchildren. Let's have the debate," DeSantis said.
He then largely declined to answer the question at hand, instead criticizing President Joe Biden's response to the Maui wildfires in Hawaii. (Biden's aides have pushed back on such criticism.)
"As somebody that has handled disasters in Florida, you have to be there present and helping people who are doing this," DeSantis said.
DeSantis criticizes Biden, points to his record on natural disasters
On the climate change question, DeSantis once again steered things toward one of the strengths of his record: handling natural disasters. Eighty percent of Republicans viewed his response to Hurricane Ian in 2022 favorably, and he got a boost in the polls after the hurricane hit, perhaps contributing to his 19-point victory in the 2022 gubernatorial race.
-Analysis by Nathaniel Rakich of FiveThirtyEight
Haley tries to defuse barbs
Haley tried to defuse the flying attacks, including another round of barbs between Christie and Ramaswamy.
"This is exactly why Margaret Thatcher said if you want something said, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman," Haley said.
"If you want something said, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman," says Haley (quoting former U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher), chastising both Christie and Ramaswamy while drawing attention to the fact that she's the only woman up on stage tonight.
-Analysis by Jacob Rubashkin, Inside Elections
FiveThirtyEight takeaway: DeSantis did well, Ramaswamy a wild card
I was watching DeSantis tonight, and overall I think he did well. Despite perhaps underestimating the strength of his mic (he came across several times like he was yelling), DeSantis came across as confident and didn’t have any of the awkward moments that have gotten him bad attention on the campaign trail. In terms of substance, he turned the conversation toward issue areas that play to his strengths, like COVID-19, wokeness in education and natural disaster leadership.
That said, according to our FiveThirtyEight/Washington Post/Ipsos poll, Republicans already had pretty high expectations for DeSantis in this debate, so maybe his good performance won’t change their priors. (We’ll have to wait for the second wave of our poll to know for sure!) Really what I’m watching for after this debate is what happens to Ramaswamy. Like I wrote earlier, I think he’s the main story of this debate, but I don’t think I have a good handle on whether his performance will be received well or poorly.
-Analysis by Nathaniel Rakich of FiveThirtyEight