Haley punched back at Ramaswamy after he compared her to former Vice President Dick Cheney "in three-inch heels."

"I'd first like to say: They're five-inch heels, and I don't wear them unless you can run in them. The second thing that I will say is: I wear heels -- they're not for a fashion statement, they're for ammunition."

-ABC News' Tal Axelrod

“We had Floridians that were over there after the attack,” DeSantis said. “He left them stranded they couldn't get flights out.”

That’s at odds with official State Department reports.

Reuters reported on Oct. 16 that the State Department had offered more than 4,000 seats on government-chartered transport to U.S. citizens and their immediate family. CNN put the figure higher, at nearly 5,000 seats. But both outlets reported that many of those transports left less than half full, the government said.

-Analysis by Aaron Sharockman of PolitiFact

Christie, asked why he should lead the party rather than Trump, largely focused on the global challenges the U.S. is facing, including the Israel-Gaza war and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"Tonight, we need to decide which president is going to be the one to tackle the big issues. Who's going to make this country look once again, not just inward, but look outward at the world and say, 'America is the country, the indispensable nation, that makes this a safer world'?" Christie said. "And in a safer world, American innovation, American hard work has always been the thing that has driven our country to greater things. I'm going to be the president who will do those big things."

On Trump, Christie said at the end of his answer, "Anybody who's gonna be spending the next year and a half of their life focusing on keeping themselves out of jail and courtrooms cannot lead this party." (Trump denies wrongdoing.)

-ABC News' Alexandra Hutzler

Ramaswamy took a swipe at the media, claiming that it was "corrupt" and had played up a "hoax" about Trump's relationship with Russia, an apparent reference to the Department of Justice's investigation of the Trump campaign's ties with Russian nationals. He even tried to ask the moderators to answer for this. Ramaswamy essentially took a page out of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's 2012 debate approach. In the 2012 Republican primary, Gingrich regularly attacked the "elite media" during his debate appearances, and he ended up surging in the polls at two different points in the campaign, even managing to win the South Carolina and Georgia (his home state) primaries.

--Analysis by Geoffrey Skelley of 538

Asked what they would be urging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to do if they were president, the candidates were united on Israel's right to defend itself against the terrorist group Hamas.

DeSantis said he would tell Netanyahu to "finish the job once and for all with these butchers, Hamas."

"The only thing we should be doing is supporting them in eliminating Hamas," Haley said, while also stressing the need to bring hostages home.

Ramaswamy said he would tell Netanyahu to "smoke those terrorists on his southern border, and I'll tell him as president of the United States, I'll be smoking the terrorists on our southern border."

Scott said he would tell President Joe Biden that diplomacy is a "weak strategy."

"You cannot negotiate with evil. You have to destroy it," he said.

Christie echoed the other candidates, saying, "You must make sure that Hamas can never do this again."

-ABC News' Meredith Deliso