Haley spars with Republican rivals at 3rd primary debate as Trump still looms
The night heavily focused on international affairs.
The third Republican debate of the 2024 presidential primary was held Wednesday night in Miami.
Five candidates took the stage: former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott.
Missing -- again -- was front-runner Donald Trump, who instead hosted a rally not far away, in Hialeah, Florida.
ABC News and the analysts at 538 live-blogged every major moment and highlight from the debate. PolitiFact made real-time fact checks of key statements.
Key moments:
Haley hits back at Ramaswamy on high heels
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
Fact-checking DeSantis’ claim that Biden left Americans in Israel ‘stranded”
“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, addressing global challenges, calls America the 'indispensable nation'
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 attacks 'corrupt media,' taking page from Newt Gingrich's 2012 playbook
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
Fact-checking Scott’s claim that 3 out of 4 Americans support 15-week abortion ban.
“Three out of four Americans agree with a 15-week limit,” Scott said.
Survey data varies on this question. A June 2023 poll sponsored by Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, an anti-abortion group, and conducted by the Tarrance Group, found that 77% of respondents said abortions should be prohibited at conception, after six weeks or after 15 weeks.
But this poll was sponsored by a group with a position on the issue, and both questions told respondents that fetuses can feel pain at 15 weeks -- an assertion that is not the universal consensus among medical experts.
Independent polls found a range of results on the question of an abortion ban after 15 weeks. A July 2022 survey from Harvard University’s Center for American Political Studies and the Harris Poll found that 23% of respondents said their state should ban abortion after 15 weeks, 12% said it should be banned at six weeks and 37% said it should be allowed only in cases of rape and incest. Collectively, that’s 72% who supported a ban at 15 weeks or less.
In two subsequent polls, the support for abortion at 15 weeks or less was not as strong. A September 2022 Economist/YouGov poll found that 39% of respondents supported a ban on abortions after 15 weeks, and 46% opposed it. And a June 2023 Associated Press-NORC poll found that for abortion up to 15 weeks, 51% of respondents said they would allow it, while 45% said they would ban it.
-Analysis by Aaron Sharockman of PolitiFact