Ramaswamy came out hitting the other candidates, saying he's the only one who hasn't been bought and sold. When it came to his comments on Ukraine, though, Pence and Haley are hitting back. "You have no foreign policy experience and it shows," Haley said. As Jacob said, his quick rise is drawing attacks, especially on his lack of political experience.
-Analysis by Monica Potts of FiveThirtyEight

Haley tried to go after DeSantis as he was answering a question on Ukraine but it didn't generate the same back-and-forth as with Ramaswamy, and the moderators quickly moved on to another matter. Clearly Ramaswamy -- his lack of political experience and rapid rise in the polls -- has gotten under the skin of the other candidates on the stage and they're going out of their way to take him down a peg even if it means forgoing opportunities against the ostensible polling leader.
-Analysis by Jacob Rubashkin, Inside Elections

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 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

The candidates came to the debate prepared with answers about abortion – carefully considering their wording, and, in a stark departure from the first half hour, actually answering the moderators’ question on the issue.

One thing the candidates didn’t want to talk about? Climate change. The moderators asked the candidates to raise their hand if they believed human behavior was driving climate change — but that didn’t happen. Instead, DeSantis said he wanted to debate rather than answer a question like “school children.” Ramaswamy chimed in to say “the climate change agenda is a hoax,” drawing boos from the crowd, though it wasn’t clear what exactly they were booing. Christie jumped in to say that Ramaswamy sounded like both ChatGPT and Obama. Haley decided that this was the moment to quote Margaret Thatcher — “if you want something done ask a woman” — though she did answer that climate change was real, putting the onus on China. And Scott used the moment to chide the rest of the field for being “childish.”

— Analysis by Leah Askarinam of FiveThirtyEight