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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Sen. Scott so far has stayed away from attacks and stuck to his stump speech
While many candidates onstage have sparred with each other -- including Haley and Ramaswamy swapping sharp words on foreign policy -- Scott has yet to engage with any of the other candidates.
Much of his remarks have almost word for word repeated elements from his campaign stump speech. When asked about China, which he has addressed in other appearances, he pivoted to speaking about the U.S. border.
-ABC News’ Gabriella Abdul-Hakim and Oren Oppenheim
DeSantis said he wouldn’t increase aid to Ukraine: "Europe needs to step up"
Asked to raise their hand if they would not increase aid to Ukraine, DeSantis did so, saying that "Europe needs to step up. They need to step up and do their job."
He argued: "I would have Europe pull their weight. ... Our support should be contingent on them doing it.
DeSantis -- who had received backlash from some other politicians for seemingly backtracking on support for Ukraine -- pivoted to say that he wasn’t going to send troops overseas but rather down to the Southern border.
-ABC News' Hannah Demissie and Will McDuffie
According to a Pew Research Center survey from August 2022, 72 percent of Republicans say that increasing security on the U.S.-Mexico border is a very important goal for immigration policy. However, Hispanic and non-Hispanic Republicans differ on this issue, with 55 percent of Hispanic Republicans saying border security is a very important goal, compared with 74 percent of non-Hispanic Republicans.
-Analysis by FiveThirtyEight
Moderators try to halt Pence interruptions
Baier and MacCallum have repeatedly sought to stop Pence from interrupting their questions or other candidates' answers -- an example of a debate in which the candidates were sometimes freewheeling in how they answered questions and handled the time limit rules the moderators had set out.
While asking Hutchinson about the border, Baier again had to again stop Pence, saying, "Vice President Pence, it really doesn't help."
-ABC News' Tal Axelrod
Nixon, Gore, Perry and more memorable moments from debates past
A hallmark of the American electoral process, debates are considered a key showcase for candidates seeking to hold the nation's top office.
Memorable moments include Ronald Reagan’s witty response to questions about his age and Kamala Harris’ challenge to Joe Biden on segregation and race, which prompted the viral line: "That little girl was me."
But not all debate highlights are positive. Richard Nixon’s sweating, Al Gore's relentless sighing and Rick Perry’s "oops" gaffe were considered costly to their campaigns.
"These are the only times we see them side by side," one expert told ABC News. "They provide opportunities for candidates to either help themselves or hurt themselves."
Read more here.
-ABC News' Alexandra Hutzler