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 takeaways: Christie fights, Scott struggles to break through
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the pugnacious Christie repeatedly mixed it up with other candidates tonight. He was critical of Trump, calling the front-runner's behavior "unbecoming" and making him unfit to be president. Christie has a track record of strong debates, having shown in 2016 how he can throw a verbal punch, including his famous takedown of Marco Rubio just ahead of the New Hampshire primary that year. But Christie's criticism of Trump and his high unfavorable ratings among Republicans make his performance unlikely to cause a Christie boomlet in this race.
For Scott, tonight was an opportunity to capitalize on his potential as a candidate who is well-liked by Republicans familiar with him but who is not that well-known. And he largely tried to stay above the fray on most issues, which in theory made sense if he wanted to look like a consensus-style candidate who most Republicans could like. However, that also led to him getting less airtime, as the candidates who engaged each other and freely interrupted were more likely to be on camera. This debate doesn't hurt Scott, but I'm skeptical it helped him much.
-Analysis by Geoffrey Skelley of FiveThirtyEight