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.


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The facts about the 2024 GOP hopefuls

At PolitiFact, this is our fifth presidential cycle. We’ve published more than 23,000 fact-checks since launching in 2007, all using our Truth-O-Meter, which rates claims on a scale from True to Pants on Fire false for the most ridiculous claims.

If PolitiFact is new to you, there are a couple of rules of the road. First, we don’t fact-check every claim every candidate says. We couldn’t … we’d be dead. But seriously, we focus on claims that are particularly interesting, or in the news, or obviously potentially wrong.

Our grading scale tries to measure both the literal truth and how voters might interpret a politicians’ words. So if Haley claims that DeSantis is against fracking, it can be more complicated to fact-check than you think. DeSantis, while running for governor in 2018, did promise to ban fracking and prevent oil drilling off Florida's coast.

But DeSantis said that what applies in Florida doesn’t necessarily need to apply everywhere. "And so when we're doing that, that is not saying that I think that should apply to Louisiana or Texas and all that. So, that will continue. And we want them to be able to do it, and we also want them to be able to use hydraulic fracturing," DeSantis has said.

We've fact-checked the candidates on stage in Miami 41 times this year. We’ve fact-checked DeSantis 16 times, Haley and Ramaswamy each eight times, Scott six times and Christie three times.

We'll be drawing on those previous fact-checks, as well as the thousands of other claims we've vetted, throughout the night.

-Analysis by Aaron Sharockman of PolitiFact


DeSantis returns home, but he badly trails Trump both nationally and in Florida

The candidates have gathered in Miami for the third debate and DeSantis may hope that his home state's March 19 primary will give him a boost as the GOP nomination race progresses. However, he's got a lot of work to do for that to happen.

DeSantis is in a distant second in national primary polls and also holds that position in surveys of the Iowa caucuses, which will kick things off on Jan. 15. However, even in his home state, DeSantis is badly behind Trump:

In 538's primary average, Trump currently leads DeSantis in the Sunshine State by about 32% -- 53-21%.

Now, Trump's home state is also Florida, with him home at Mar-a-Lago, although he's a longtime New Yorker. And a lot will happen before Florida votes in mid-March. But we saw in 2016 that your home state only matters so much if your campaign isn't doing well. Back then, Trump defeated Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, 46-27% in the Florida primary, which finished Rubio in that race.

-Analysis by Geoffrey Skelley of 538


Miami Mayor Francis Suarez on who he might endorse

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez -- a former 2024 Republican presidential candidate -- said on ABC News Live on Wednesday that he would consider endorsing either Haley or Trump in the presidential primary but "it remains to be seen when I'll do it."

On Haley, Suarez told ABC News Live anchor Kayna Whitworth that she's someone who "called me a rock-star mayor. She went on my podcast. I have a relationship with her."

Suarez said he also has had "very good conversations with the former president," saying Trump called him "right away" when he suspended his primary campaign in August and has been in touch since.

-ABC News' Oren Oppenheim, Kayna Whitworth and Rick Klein


Meet your debate fact-checker

Your humble fact-checker is reporting for duty. I’m Aaron Sharockman, the executive director of PolitiFact. We’re excited to help sort out fact from fiction during Wednesday's debate.

I’m not omniscient -- in case you’re wondering. PolitiFact has a team of more than 30 fact-checkers that has been scrutinizing the candidates’ remarks for months. And wouldn’t you know it, candidates tend to repeat themselves on debate night.

I’ll be popping in when we see something that warrants more context or a correction.

-Aaron Sharockman of PolitiFact


Scott to focus on 'who can win,' adviser says

Scott, who is trailing the other debate participants in the polls, hopes to make his mark among voters looking for an alternative to Trump, a campaign spokesperson said ahead of the debate.

"At the end of the day, I think what I would expect from Sen. Scott is asking -- who can win?" Matt Gorman, a senior campaign adviser, said on ABC News Live Wednesday. "Is it gonna be a moderate who's coalescing the 'Never Trumpers' like Gov. Haley, or someone who's fallen two-thirds in the polls like Gov. DeSantis, whose only thing that's consistent about his campaign is how much it's underwhelmed?"

Gorman said Scott might look to focus on contrasts among the candidates on policy issues such as abortion. The senator has said that as president he would advocate for a 15-week national ban on abortion.

-ABC News' Meredith Deliso