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:
Candidates target universities amid rising antisemitism
Scott and DeSantis threatened to deport students who voice support for Hamas as experts have said antisemitism is on the rise.
"To every student who've come to our country on a visa to a college campus, your visa is a privilege, not a right," Scott said. "To all the students on visas who are encouraging Jewish genocide, I would deport you from those campuses."
"I was the first presidential candidate to say, 'If you are here on a student visa as a foreign national, you're making common cause with Hamas, I'm canceling your visa, and I'm sending you home, no questions asked,'" DeSantis said.
Haley also went after college administrators for what she said was insufficient action to protect Jewish students.
"No person should ever feel in danger like this. And this is what I would say about our college presidents, is if the KKK were doing this, every college president would be up in arms."
Some of the demonstrations seen in the U.S. have been in support of the Palestinian people living in the Gaza and West Bank territories. U.S. officials have repeatedly said that the terror group Hamas is not representative of all Palestinians.
-ABC News' Tal Axelrod
Candidates voice support of Israel
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
Ramaswamy has a likeability problem
Ramaswamy is being very pointed out of the gate, and it’s a bit of a risky strategy -- he could be seen as more of a bully and it could increase negative perceptions of him. That has already happened to him in one debate so far this year. He came off strong in the first debate, too, and his unfavorable rating increased from 13% to 32% after it, according to a poll by 538/Washington Post/Ipsos.
-Analysis by Nathaniel Rakich of 538
Fact-checking Ramaswamy’s claim ‘Hunter Biden got a $5 million bribe from Ukraine’
This is unverified.
Trump ally Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., shared information in June she said she read in an FBI form about a bribery allegation involving Joe Biden, then vice president, his son Hunter and a Ukrainian energy executive.
The FBI filled out the form, known as an FD-1023, in June 2020 after hearing allegations from an informant. The FBI has said such forms contain unverified information. Multiple news outlets have reported that law enforcement have been unable to substantiate the allegations.
-Analysis by Aaron Sharockman of PolitiFact
Ramaswamy brings up 'sexual responsibility for men' during abortion debate
Ramaswamy, amid a abortion debate, again brought up his idea about "sexual responsibility for men."
"We talked about access to contraception, adoption. Here's the missing ingredient in this movement: sexual responsibility for men," he said. "We live in an era of reliable genetic paternity tests that are 100% reliable, so we can say men deserve more responsibility, so we can tell women, 'We're all in this together.'"
Ramaswamy has discussed this on the trail before but it's not entirely clear what he means or how it would be carried out. He's said it should be codified into law that men have greater responsibility, financially or otherwise, when they are confirmed via paternity test to be a father.
"It's not men's rights versus women's rights," Ramaswamy said on stage. "It's about human rights."
-ABC News' Alexandra Hutzler