Republican debate highlights: GOP rivals clash on stage with Haley as target

The Republican debate in Tuscaloosa, Alabama frequently veered out of control as most of the attacks focused on former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley who has been rising in the polls.

Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy called her “corrupt” and a “fascist” before going on a screed about her foreign policy experience, saying experience isn’t “wisdom”.

Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie had finally had enough when Mr Ramaswamy claimed Ms Haley lacked basic understanding about the war in Ukraine.

“This is the fourth debate that you would be voted in the first 20 minutes as the most obnoxious blowhard in America. So shut up for a little while,” Mr Christie said.

The moderators made sure that the candidates got a chance to address the man widely expected to win, former President Donald Trump.

While Mr DeSantis said Mr Trump was too old, most of the criticism of the ex-president was mild, except for the diatribe coming from Mr Christie.

“If you’re too timid to take on Trump, believe me, others will see that timidity,” he said.

Key Points

• ‘No one watching learned anything and may even be dumber for having listened'

• Who won the final Republican debate?

• Christie says Trump’s right to vote will be taken away after convictions

• VIDEO: Haley attacked by Ramaswamy: ‘It’s not worth my time to respond to him’

• Chris Christie dubs Trump ‘Voldemort’ at fourth GOP presidential debate

WATCH: Chris Christie dubs Trump 'Voldemort' at fourth GOP presidential debate

10:33 , Rachel Sharp

Winner: Donald Trump

10:00 , Eric Garcia

The numbers don’t lie. Mr Trump remains the prohibitive favorite for the Republican nomination. Indeed, earlier today, Alabama’s junior Republican Sen Katie Britt endorsed Mr Trump, which comes after Sen Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) already backed Mr Trump. The support he’s received shows just how solid the former president’s grip is on the party.

Despite Ms Haley winning the money war and fawning attention from conservatives, most of the GOP electorate prefers him over anyone else on the stage. Mr DeSantis seemed to want to criticise Mr Trump without mentioning his name. He tried saying simply Mr Trump was too old while also not personally insulting him, knowing it could mean being on the receiving end of his wrath.

Republican presidential candidates still have not figured out how to criticise the former president, whom voters overwhelmingly support, while at the same time defending his policies. All of this makes Mr Trump more likely to become the nominee and face off against Mr Biden in November of 2024.

No stranger to making headlines

09:00 , Kelly Rissman

Long before the feud with Donald Trump, Megyn Kelly made plenty of headlines in her own right.

Kelly joined Fox News in 2004 and rapidly ascended the network’s ranks. “Her star was rising at Fox” and she seemed poised to become “the next O’Reilly or Hannity,” said Joe Muto, a former Fox News producer who later came out as the “Fox mole.”

After appearing on numerous programs, she hosted her own show, The Kelly File, from 2013 through 2017. She quickly became a household name — both because of her pointed reporting style and some notable controversies.

While covering the 2012 election, Kelly made headlines after essentially telling Bush’s White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove to face the facts after he challenged Barack Obama’s projected victory in Ohio. In 2013, she made waves again after claiming that both Santa Claus and Jesus were white, taking issue with a viral Slate essay that revisited the image of Santa.

Then, of course, in 2015, Kelly made headlines for her heated exchange with Mr Trump at the first GOP debate.

Loser: Vivek Ramaswamy

08:00 , Eric Garcia

The political newcomer has enjoyed getting deep under the skin of his Republican opponents. But he seemed to run his course. Aside from his normal attacks on Ms Haley, which have triggered some of his most viral moments, everyone from the moderators to the crowd to his opponents seemed exasperated by Mr Ramaswamy.

Mr Christie seemed to speak for the rest of the dais when he said “you would be voted in the first 20 minutes as the most obnoxious blowhard in America,” big talk for a man from New Jersey. But Mr Ramaswamy seemed to resort to jokes about Mr Christie’s weight, saying “Walk yourself off that stage, enjoy a nice meal, and get the hell out of this race.”

By the end of the race, Mr Ramaswamy began to blather about conspiracy theories that the January 6 riot at the US Capitol looked like it was an “inside job” and about the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Poll shows Donald Trump dominating GOP field as rivals sputter

07:00 , John Bowden

Donald Trump is in his most comfortable polling position yet.

The ex-president remains atop the GOP field in a major way, having consolidated support from six in 10 Republican voters nationally according to a NewsNation/Decision Desk HQ poll released on Monday. Though Mr Trump will not appear this Wednesday for the debate held by NewsNation alongside his GOP fellows, his decision to skip the 2023-24 debate cycle appears to not have hurt his chances in the slightest.

Indeed, the poll shows few pieces of good news for his opponents. Mr DeSantis and Ms Haley are statistically tied, at 11 and 10 per cent respectively, while the former president’s base of support appears to trust him more on the most important issues to voters this year, including the economy.

Mr DeSantis, who has seen his campaign flagging for months, remains the second choice of a much wider segment of the party than any other candidate. But even that suggests that his base is more closely aligned with Mr Trump’s, and suggests that the former president’s support could surge even higher were the Florida governor to drop out.

READ MORE

Winner: Chris Christie

06:00 , Eric Garcia

Debates have always been the former governor’s best medium. It allows the trash-talking New Jersey native to land viral moments.

He almost certainly will not win the Republican nomination for president, given his incessant criticism of Mr Trump. But he is always at his strongest when he takes down his opponents, as was the case when he neutered Sen Marco Rubio before his own 2016 campaign came to an end.

The same proved to be true on Wednesday when he attacked Mr DeSantis for not directly answering whether he would send troops to the Middle East and instead delivering a “minute-and-30-second Hosana about his knowledge of the military.” Similarly, he blasted Mr DeSantis for not answering whether Mr Trump was fit to run for president.

Similarly, Mr Christie was the only Republican who willingly criticised Mr Trump and called out the fact that the debate seemed to be living in a dream world wherein the former president is not the frontrunner. Mr Christie also told the bitter truth that he and his opponents failed to weaken Mr Trump because “folks like these three guys on the stage make it seem like his conduct is acceptable.” Mr Christie also seemed to wear down the next loser of the debate.

Ron DeSantis campaign chaos continues as super PAC ousts CEO after just nine days

05:00 , John Bowden

Just over one month before a critical test for his campaign, Ron DeSantis is watching his presidential bid become mired in personal conflicts, disagreement on strategy and the shadow of two surging opponents who appear to be slowly bleeding his campaign dry.

On Sunday, CNN reported that his allied Never Back Down PAC — the vessel for outside spending in support of his bid and more barbed attacks against his opponents — was losing its CEO after just nine days on the job. Two other senior operatives are also out, according to CNN, with one source describing the incident as “firings”, according to the network.

The end of their service to Never Back Down comes following a profile of the sputtering DeSantis presidential movement in The Washington Post, which described the Florida governor’s bid as in “extraordinary turmoil”. Senior campaign staffers were described as “gloomy” by a close ally of Mr DeSantis, the Post reported.

READ MORE

Loser: Ron DeSantis

04:30 , Eric Garcia

Mr DeSantis still seems to be smarting after he debated California Gov Gavin Newsom last week on Fox News. Right out the gate, debate moderators asked Mr DeSantis why his campaign has failed to live up the sky-high expectations many conservatives had of him.

But Mr DeSantis frequently struggled to land clean hits on any of his opponents, particularly Ms Haley, who has hoovered up many of the donors who previously bankrolled his campaign. His super PAC sent out numerous press releases throughout the night attacking the South Carolina governor.

Similarly, Mr DeSantis failed to name Mr Trump, whose frequent attacks throughout the past year significantly weakened the Florida governor. But perhaps the most lethal attack against the former GOP golden boy came from the next winner of tonight’s debate.

Winner: Nikki Haley

04:00 , Eric Garcia

As she ascended in the polls and received cash from mega-donors, including the Koch Network in the form of Americans for Prosperity and even some Democrats, the former South Carolina governor knew her opponents would be targeting her. But Ms Haley seemed to plan ahead and knew how to respond.

“I love all the attention, fellas,” she said, deflecting the attacks. When Mr DeSantis criticised her for receiving money from Wall Street donors, she said the governor was “mad because Wall Street donors used to support him and now they support me.”

At the same time, Ms Haley has yet to prove that she can take out Mr Trump, who hired her to be ambassador to the United Nations during his administration, a plum position that gave her the foreign policy bona fides. That experience enabled her to attack Mr Ramaswamy so eloquently.

Best moments from the 2023 GOP presidential debates

03:40 , Natalie Chinn

The Independent has rounded up the funniest, messiest, and most outrageous GOP debate stage moments from 2023.

There were four Republican presidential primary debates this year, with the first taking place in August. At the first debate, there were eight candidates present. At the fourth one, only four candidates were invited to join. Donald Trump did not participate in any primary debates.

The main players were consistently Nikki Haley, Chris Christie, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Ron DeSantis.

From yelling over each other about policy to poking fun at footwear, the Republican candidates showed their true colors on stage this year.

‘No one watching learned anything and may even be dumber for having listened'

03:30 , Gustaf Kilander

Rick Wilson, former GOP strategist and Lincoln Project co-founder

Who won the final Republican debate?

03:03 , Eric Garcia

A few weeks after the Iron Bowl, Republican presidential candidates descended on Tuscaloosa, Alabama, to tussle for the second-place spot in the race for the White House during a debate on Wednesday. As Florida Gov Ron Desantis and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy have declined in the polls, they began to throw attacks at former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, all but basically ignoring the frontrunner in the race – former president Donald Trump.

Despite this, Ms Haley aggressively pushed back on attacks while also continuing her feud with Mr Ramaswamy. She emerged from the debate mostly unscathed, and her campaign has racked up key endorsements and donations recently. Still, Mr Trump’s position as the clear frontrunner remains unchanged, and the debate amounts to a campaign for runner-up.

With the Iowa caucuses a month away, the clock is running out for any of these candidates to prove they can at least put up a formidable fight against Mr Trump, let alone challenge President Joe Biden.

Here are the winners and losers from the fourth, and likely final, GOP primary debate.

Christie says Trump’s right to vote will be taken away after convictions

03:01 , Gustaf Kilander

In his closing statement, Mr Christie said: “I want you all to kind of picture in your mind. So that should then you'll all be heading to the polls to vote. And that's something that Donald Trump will not be able to do. Because he will be convicted of felonies before then. And his right to vote will be taken away. “

“Here's the bottom line, you can go about it all you like and continue to deny reality. But if we deny reality as a party, we're gonna have four more years of Joe Biden ... my colleagues here raised their hands and said they would support [Trump] even if he was a convicted felon. The bigger problem with it is they were confirming the lies he's told to the American people,” he said.

“If you're too timid to take on Trump, believe me, others will get we'll see that timidity. Putin in the Ayatollah, the border crossers on the southern border, and the criminals in our streets ... We need to get back to an old American idea that every person is responsible for their own conduct, even a president,” he added. “I'll be the kind of President who has the humility that knows that you work for the people. It's not the other way around. I will earn your trust. I want to earn your vote.”

Christie on transgender healthcare

02:57 , Gustaf Kilander

On transgender healthcare, Mr Christie said: “Every parent out there who is watching tonight, you start to turn over just a little bit of this authority, the authority they’re gonna take from you next, you’re not gonna like. I’ll stand up for parents.”

VIDEO: Christie calls Trump ‘a dictator and a bully'

02:55 , Gustaf Kilander

‘We need a reckoning for what this government did during COVID'

02:51 , Gustaf Kilander

Mr DeSantis said on Wednesday night, “We need a reckoning for what this government did during COVID”.

“That includes the mRNA shots, they put it out, it was experimental, people wanted it – Then the government started trying to mandate it to say ‘you don't have a right to put food on your table if you don't take an mNRA shot’ that was under emergency use. They tried to take nurses away,” he added.

“I'm gonna go in there CDC, NIH, FDA, we're going to clean house, there's going to be a reckoning because right now nobody's been held accountable for any of the damage, and they're gonna try to do it again. When I'm president, this will never happen to our country ever again,” the governor claimed.

DeSantis argues for affordable healthcare but bashes Obamacare

02:48 , Gustaf Kilander

The moderators asked Mr DeSantis “Republicans have been burned by politicians’ promises to repeal Obamacare. Trump repeatedly promised to replace it with quote ‘something terrific’, but failed to propose anything. You're now promising something better. But Florida has more uninsured people than almost any other state. Why should Americans trust you more than any other Republicans who disappointed them on this issue?”

“I think we have millions of Americans who do not have access to affordable health care and it's not just getting some type of card and Medicaid because a lot of times they don't even get access to doctors ... the other thing is we have millions and millions of people don't have access to good doctors and good hospitals. Florida did not expand Obamacare. I think the states that did that, I think are struggling financially ... But we're gonna go after the cost. You're paying too much for everything,” Mr DeSantis said.

VIDEO: Ramaswamy spouts conspiracy theories

02:45 , Gustaf Kilander

VIDEO: Haley attacked by Ramaswamy: ‘It’s not worth my time to respond to him’

02:42 , Natalie Chinn

Ramaswamy claims second amendment deters foreign invasions

02:41 , Gustaf Kilander

Asked about a possible invasion of Taiwan by China, Mr Ramaswamy said: “I think the next US president needs to be crystal clear that at least for the foreseeable future, the US will absolutely defend Taiwan”.

“And it is with that clarity that we actually achieve deterrence. But I have a broader strategy that we need to get onside in our relationship with India, and take it to the next level. India has to be able to block the Andaman Sea, which is where China gets most of its Middle Eastern oil supplies. That's critical,” he added.

“I also do believe the Second Amendment is a critical way of preventing foreign autocrats ... it's worked in America, why wouldn't it work in Taiwan?” he asked.

Haley again pushes TikTok ban

02:38 , Gustaf Kilander

Ms Haley argued for the banning of TikTok after being asked about the conflict between Israel and Hamas and the response to it of US university leaders.

“For every 30 minutes that someone watches TikTok, every day, they become 17 per cent more anti-semitic, more pro-Hamas based on doing that. We now know that 50 per cent of adults 18 to 25 think that Hamas was warranted at what they did with Israel. That's a problem,” she added. “When campuses also don't go and protect when they have these rallies and you've got students that are scared. We need to go to these universities and say if you're not going to protect these students, if you're not going to acknowledge antisemitism, we'll take your tax-exempt status away.”

‘We have got to get foreign money out of our universities'

02:35 , Gustaf Kilander

The moderators asked about university leaders’ response to the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

“You know if this had been the KKK that was doing protests on those campuses, every one of those college presidents would have been up in arms. This is just as bad,” Ms Haley said.

“We have got to get foreign money out of our universities. We need to go to every university and so you either take foreign money or you take American money, but the days of taking both are over,” she added.

Ramaswamy pulls out notebook to slam Haley

02:32 , Gustaf Kilander

DeSantis promises to ‘exploit’ election rules

02:30 , Gustaf Kilander

Mr DeSantis said he would “exploit” election rules if elected.

“We have an agency that prosecutes people for violating election laws. The result of that is in both 2020 and 2022, we counted millions and millions of votes on election night ... it was transparent and everybody was happy and that is not happening throughout this country.”

“But let me tell you this as the nominee, I think it's important not every state's where we need it to be. There is ballot harvesting in places like Nevada, all these places. I am not going to fight with one hand tied behind my back,” he added.

“We're going to exploit whatever the rules are. I favour changing the rules to be like Florida and some of the other states that have done a good job,” he said, before going after the DoJ and the FBI.

“I remember being in Iraq working with the FBI on the ground ... I used to have such a high regard for these agencies. What they did to Donald Trump with the Russia collusion was one of the biggest abuses of power in the history of our country. These agencies need to be cleaned out. With me you'll have a new FBI director on day one, we're going to clear out the DOJ, the IRS, all these places – buckle your seatbelts, there's gonna be a new sheriff in town,” he added.

‘I don’t have a woman problem. You have a corruption problem'

02:26 , Gustaf Kilander

Mr Ramaswamy focused his ire on Ms Haley, saying that he doubted her “authenticity”.

“Nikki Haley's campaign launch video sounded like a woke Dylan Mulvaney Bud Light ad, talking about how she would kick in heels at the first debate. She said that only a woman can get this job done,” he said. “After the third debate when I criticized Rhonda McDaniel after five failed years of leadership of this party, and criticised Nikki for her corrupt foreign dealings as a military contractor, she said that I have a woman problem.”

“Nikki, I don't have a woman problem. You have a corruption problem and I think that that's what people need to know. Nikki is corrupt. ... This is the problem of using identity politics more effectively than Kamala Harris is,” he added.

Ramaswamy pushes litany of far-right baseless conspiracy theories

02:20 , Gustaf Kilander

Mr Ramaswamy said, “all three of my other colleagues on this debate stage has been licking Donald Trump's boots for years for money and endorsements”.

“Ron DeSantis you've been a great governor, but you would have never been one without actually begging Donald Trump for that endorsement to you,” he added.

“I think the real enemy is not Donald Trump. It's not even Joe Biden. It is the deep state that at least Donald Trump attempted to take on and if you want somebody who's going to speak truth to power, then vote for somebody who's going to speak the truth to you,” he said.

“Why am I the only person on the stage at least who can say that January 6 now does look like it was an inside job, that the government lied to us for 20 years about Saudi Arabia's involvement in 9/11?” he asked. “That the great replacement theory is not some grand white-wing conspiracy theory but a basic statement of the Democratic Party's platform that the 2020 election was indeed stolen by big tech, that the 2016 election, the one that Trump won, for sure, was also one that was stolen from him by the national security establishment.”

‘We need a president that can serve two terms’

02:14 , Gustaf Kilander

Mr DeSantis argued on stage that Mr Trump is too old to be president.

“The idea that we're going to put someone up there that's almost 80 and there's going to be no effects from that – We all know that that's not true,” he said.

“We have an opportunity to get the next generation of leaders and really be able to move this country, but we also need a president that can serve two terms,” he added.

‘This is an angry, bitter man'

02:12 , Gustaf Kilander

Mr Christie went after Mr Trump, saying, “There's no mystery to what he wants to do. He started off his campaign by saying I am your retribution”.

“Eight years ago, he said I am your voice. This is an angry, bitter man who now wants to be back as president because he wants to exact retribution on anyone who has disagreed with him,” he added.

“Anyone who has tried to hold him to account for his own conduct, and every one of these policies that he's talking about, are about pursuing a plan of retribution. And yet, at the first debate, my three colleagues on this stage when asked if he would be convicted of federal felonies, would they still support him – they raised their hands, looked into the camera and let everybody know that they would still support him, even if he’s convicted,” he added.

“Let me make it clear. His conduct is unacceptable. He's unfit and be careful what you're gonna get ... he's letting you know. ‘I am your retribution.’ ... He will only be his own retribution,” he said.

Chris Christie dubs Trump ‘Voldemort’ at fourth GOP presidential debate

02:06 , Natalie Chinn

Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie called Donald Trump “Voldemort” during the fourth Republican presidential debate on Wednesday 6 December.

“The fifth guy,” Christie said in reference to Trump, “who doesn’t even have the guts to show up and stand here, he’s the one, as you just put it, is way ahead in the polls.”

Christie then went on to call out the other candidates on stage for not mentioning Trump, likening their behavior to how characters in JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series regarded the villain Voldemort.

‘Europe is committing suicide with mass migration,’ DeSantis says

02:05 , Gustaf Kilander

Arguing against multi-culturalism as he went on an anti-immigration screed, Mr DeSantis said, “look what's happened in Europe. You have more antisemitism in Germany than at any time since Adolf Hitler. Why? Because they imported mass numbers of people who reject their culture”.

“Europe is committing suicide with the mass migration,” he said.

“We should not be importing people from cultures that are hostile,” he added.

Moderators ask candidates about Trump’s Muslim ban

02:03 , Gustaf Kilander

The moderators asked about Mr Trump’s intention to reinstate his Muslim ban, restricting international travel from Muslim-majority countries.

“I don't think that you have a straight-up Muslim ban as much as you look at the countries that had terrorist activity that want to hurt Americans,” Ms Haley said.

“What worries me the most are those that came from Iran, from Yemen, from Lebanon, those areas where they say ‘Death to America’. That's where you want to be careful. It's not about a religion. It's about the fact that certain countries are dangerous and are threats to us.”

‘We will shut down government agencies that should not exist’

01:58 , Gustaf Kilander

Mr Ramaswamy outlined the massive cuts he intends to make if elected.

“In my administration, by the end of year one, we will have a 75 per cent reduction in the number of federal bureaucrats, we will shut down government agencies that should not exist,” he said. “We will rescind any regulation that fails the test of West Virginia vs EPA, which is the most important Supreme Court case of our lifetime.”

That said if Congress didn't delegate that to an administrative agency, then it's unconstitutional. These are seismic changes. These are big changes that the next president can deliver without asking Congress for permission or for forgiveness,” he added. “And I want people to understand that distinction because people have been sold myths by politicians for a long time saying, ‘I'm going to work with Congress to do this or that much of what you heard on the stage from the other politicians fit that description’. They need Congress, the things that I'm promising you is what the leader of the executive branch gets to do under Article Two of the Constitution.”

Vivek Ramaswamy booed at GOP debate after calling Nikki Haley ‘fascist’

01:54 , Josh Marcus

Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy generated a round of boos at the fourth Republican primary debate on Wednesday when he accused former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley of being a “fascist” for her views on social media.

“We’re marching toward fascism under Biden,” Mr Ramaswamy said. “The only person more fascist than the Biden regime now is Nikki Haley.”

The GOP candidate’s insult was in regards to comments Ms Haley made in November to voters during a telephone town that she wanted to make sure “every person on social media is verified.”

She later walked back the proposal, telling CNBC that “life would be more civil” without anonymous accounts, but the verification rules should only apply to people from nations with hostile relationships with the US.

“I don’t mind anonymous American people having free speech,” she said. “What I don’t like is anonymous Russians and Chinese and Iranians having free speech.”

The debate stage attacks from Mr Ramaswamy weren’t limited to Ms Haley’s views on social media.

READ MORE

DeSantis slams gender studies

01:53 , Gustaf Kilander

Mr DeSantis took a shot at gender studies when speaking about student loans.

“I don't support having a truck driver having to pay a student loan for someone that got a degree in gender studies, that is wrong,” he said. “We should not have taxpayers do that. What I'm going to do though, is I'm going to get to the root cause of the problem.”

“These student loans are going to be backed by the universities because they need to have an incentive to produce gainful employment for people. They should not be indulging in ideological studies. They should be focusing on things that work, and we're going to take some of this money, and we're going to move it to actual vocational training,” he added.

Haley slams Trump on national debt

01:51 , Gustaf Kilander

Ms Haley slammed Mr Trump on the national debt, noting that he added $9tn to it.

“As much as everybody wants to talk about how Donald Trump had a good economy $9tn in debt he did just in four years, and we're all paying the price of that including those mortgage prices,” she said.

VIDEO: Christie dubs Ramaswamy 'most obnoxious blowhard in America' and defends Haley

01:49 , Natalie Chinn

Christie dubs Ramaswamy ‘most obnoxious blowhard in America’ in GOP debate

01:48 , Graeme Massie

Chris Christie branded Vivek Ramaswamy the “most obnoxious blowhard in America” as he angrily slammed his Republican rival during the party’s latest debate.

The former New Jersey governor lost his cool and attacked Mr Ramaswamy over his stance on ending Russia’s unprovoked war in Ukraine, claiming he wanted to appease Vladimir Putin.

“That’s not my deal, that’s not my deal,” Mr Ramaswamy said in response to the allegation.

“You do this every time,” countered Mr Christie as he wagged his finger towards him.

“Don’t interrupt me, I don’t interrupt you,” he continued as Mr Ramaswamy said “Go ahead send those kids to die” in reference to young American soldiers.

READ MORE

‘She will cave to the donors'

01:47 , Gustaf Kilander

After Ms Haley shared her tough-on-China policies, Mr DeSantis pushed back, saying “when she was governor of South Carolina, she was the number one ranked governor of bringing the CCP into her state” in reference to the Chinese Communist Party.

“She wrote a love letter to the Chinese ambassador saying how great a friend China is you can look at it we put on our website ... There's also a video of her as governor standing in front of a Chinese flag with a Chinese business saying that she now works for them talking about this Chinese company. So she's been very weak on China. Now here's the problem. The rhetoric is different. But ... her donors, these Wall Street liberal donors, they make money in China. They are not going to let her be tough on China and she will cave to the donor, she will not stand up for you.”

Ms Haley snapped back that Mr DeSantis was upset Wall Street wasn’t backing him instead of her.

DeSantis pushed on policy ‘amounting to extra-judicial killings’

01:43 , Gustaf Kilander

The moderators asked Mr DeSantis: “You have pledged to send the military to the southern border on day one of your administration with orders to shoot quote ‘stone cold dead’ anyone illegally entering with a backpack that you believe contains fentanyl. Critics have called this a shoot-first ask-questions-later policy that would amount to extra-judicial killing. You are a former military lawyer. Why do you think this idea of yours would be legal? “

“The drug cartels are invading our country and they are killing our citizens by the tens of thousands,” he said. “Every year, we had a situation in Florida, there was an 18-month-old baby that was crawling on the floor of an Airbnb rental. There was fentanyl residue on the carpet and the baby died. Is this acceptable in this country?”

“I know that elites in DC don't care. They don't care that fentanyl is ravaging your community. They don't care that illegal aliens are ravaging our community and overwhelming our community,” he added. “The commander in chief not only has a right, you have a responsibility to fight back against these people.”

VIDEO: Debate crowd boos as Vivek Ramaswamy accuses Nikki Haley of 'fascism'

01:40 , Natalie Chinn

Christie calls Trump ‘Voldemort'

01:39 , Gustaf Kilander

Mr Christie criticised his opponents for not discussing Donald Trump, saying, “The truth needs to be spoken. He is unfit”.

“The fact is when you go and you say the truth about somebody who is a dictator, a bully who has taken shots at everybody, whether they’ve given him great service or not over time, who dares to disagree with him, then I understand why these three are timid to say anything about it,” Mr Christie said, referring to Mr Trump as “Voldemort and “he-who-shall-not-be-named”.

‘The most obnoxious blowhard in America’

01:36 , Gustaf Kilander

Mr Christie slammed Mr Ramaswamy after he went after Ms Haley on foreign policy.

“This will be the fourth debate that you would be voted in the first 20 minutes as the most obnoxious blowhard in America,” the ex-New Jersey governor told the entrepreneur. “We're now 25 minutes into this debate and he has assaulted Nikki Haley's basic intelligence, not her positions, her basic intelligence ... she wouldn't be able to find something on a map that his three-year-old could find.”

“Nikki and I disagree on some issues, but I'll tell you this. I've known her for 12 years, which is longer than he's even started to vote in the Republican primary,” he added.

Mr Ramaswamy shot back that Mr Christie’s “foreign policy experience was closing a bridge from New Jersey to New York”.

Chris Christie dubs Trump 'Voldemort' at fourth GOP presidential debate

01:33 , Natalie Chinn

‘She has no idea what the hell the names of those provinces are’

01:32 , Gustaf Kilander

Mr Ramaswamy slammed Ms Haley and her past as UN Ambassador, saying, “foreign policy experience is not the same as foreign policy wisdom”.

“I want everybody at home to know that I was the first person to say we need a reasonable peace deal in Ukraine,” the entrepreneur said. “Now a lot of the Neo-Cons are quietly coming along to that position with the acceptance of Nikki Haley and Joe Biden who still support this what I believe is pointless war in Ukraine.”

“One thing that Joe Biden and Nikki Haley have in common is that neither of them could even state for you the three provinces in eastern Ukraine that they want to send our troops to actually fight for,” he added.

“Look at that,” he said, looking at Ms Haley. “This is what I want people to understand ... she has no idea what the hell the names of those provinces are, but she wants to send our sons and daughters and our troops and our military equipment to go fight it. So reject this myth that they've been selling you that somebody had a cup of coffee at the UN and then makes 8 million bucks after has real foreign policy experience. It takes an outsider to see this through.”

“Look at the blank expression. She doesn't know the names of the provinces that she wants to actually fight for,” he added.

Ramaswamy calls Haley a ‘fascist'

01:25 , Gustaf Kilander

“Nikki Haley was heaping praise on me when I wrote that book,” Mr Ramaswmay said about his anti-woke screed. “But now I worry I was warning about the woke industrial complex in this country ... Apparently she read it as a how to manual,” she added.

“We're marching towards fascism under Biden,” he claimed. “Jack Smith has subpoenaed every last retweet that someone has issued from Donald Trump in the year 2020. The only person more fascist than the Biden regime now is Nikki Haley who thinks the government should identify every one of those individuals with an ID that is not freedom that is fascism, and she should come nowhere near the levers of power, let alone the White House.”

‘Now you’re a multimillionaire’: Ramaswamy goes after Haley

01:22 , Gustaf Kilander

Mr Ramaswamy went after Ms Haley, saying “I want to go back though, to Nikki Haley's comment from earlier that she is somehow not responding to the will of these donors ... after you left the UN you became a military contractor”.

“Now you're a multimillionaire. That math does not add up. It adds up to the fact that you are corrupt,” he added.

‘We begin with the question of electability,’ Kelly says as she asks DeSantis if he should drop out

01:14 , Gustaf.Kilander

The first question went to Mr DeSantis, who again had to make the case for his struggling campaign.

“We begin with the question of electability,” moderator Megyn Kelly said at the beginning of the debate. “Governor DeSantis. Your campaign and its super PAC had spent the most money, had the most high net worth donors, and had a wave of momentum coming into this race after your big reelection win in Florida. You were seen by many as the candidate most likely to consolidate the non-Trump field.”

“But here we are a month out from the first real votes and you haven't managed to do it. In fact, Nikki Haley is beating you in New Hampshire and South Carolina now and closing in on you in Iowa. Not to mention Trump, who was not only dominating in the early states, but he's beating you in Florida by over 30 points. Is it fair to say as Senator Tim Scott did when he dropped out that voters are telling you ‘not no, but not now’?” she asked.

“So we have a great idea in America that the voters actually make these decisions, not pundits or pollsters,” the governor responded. “I'm sick of hearing about these polls because I remember those polls in November of 2022 – They said there was going to be a big red way if it was going to be monumental. And that crashed and burned. The one place that didn't crash and burn was in the state of Florida. They weren't predicting that I would win the way I did. And I want the greatest Republican victory in the history of the state of Florida. I'm looking forward to to Iowa and New Hampshire.”

Former GOP strategist Rick Wilson wrote on X on Wednesday: “Ron DeSantis is so weak he can’t even make @chrismziegler -- his own Florida GOP Chairman -- a man under police investigation for rape and sexual abuse -- resign. DeSantis isn’t even trying that hard. People are asking what Ziegler and his wife Bridget have on Ron and Casey.”

“I said as early as in the spring of 2021 that Ron DeSantis was the most overpriced stock in American politics,” Mr Wilson told The Independent last week. “He didn’t win in Florida by some magical gift of his own, he inherited the best Republican machine in the country – it elected him, he didn’t win – he was hustled in there on the backs of 30 years of Republican dominance in the state and an infinite amount of money.”

Calling Mr DeSantis “the opposite of political charisma”, Mr Wilson added that “the initial idea of Ron DeSantis being a great campaigner was rapidly put to the test and discovered to be a lie”.

Mr Wilson said that the governor is “without a question, the worst-performing, best-funded primary candidate I’ve seen in a long time”.

READ MORE:

A network still seeking an audience

00:55 , David Bauder

The debate is to air from 8 to 10 p.m. ET and will also be shown on the CW network, which like NewsNation is owned by the Nexstar Media Group. The CW will show it live in the eastern half of the country, and tape-delayed out West.

NewsNation took over for the old WGN America network in late 2020 and has tried to establish itself with personalities who made names for themselves elsewhere: Chris Cuomo from CNN, Dan Abrams of ABC News, Ashleigh Banfield from MSNBC and former Fox News host Leland Vittert.

Ratings suggest it’s still looking for an audience — and has a way to go. NewsNation averaged 99,000 viewers in prime time in November, compared to Fox News Channel’s 1.73 million, MSNBC’s 1.14 million, CNN’s 540,000 and Newsmax’s 207,000, the Nielsen company said.

The network bills itself as an unbiased alternative to competitors with more hardened partisan images. Abrams told the Hollywood Reporter that NewsNation’s sweet spot is the “marginalized moderate majority who don’t want hyper-partisan outlets.”

Critics, like the liberal media watchdog Media Matters, suggest NewsNation leans more right than down the middle. A Daily Beast writer who watched the network for a week this fall, Joe Berkowitz, had a similar view, writing that “left-leaning voices are heard on NewsNation rarely, briefly and cursorily — as if to tick a box.”

The network’s ranks include several Fox News alums, including Grzech and Chris Stirewalt, its politics editor. Former Fox executive Bill Shine is a consultant.

Grzech suggested that those critics haven’t watched NewsNation much. “I don’t see that. and it isn’t the experience I’ve had here at all,” she said.

The fourth GOP debate will be a key moment for the young NewsNation cable network

00:30 , David Bauder

By airing the fourth Republican presidential primary debate scheduled for Wednesday — again, minus Donald Trump — the young NewsNation television network will almost certainly reach the largest audience in its history.

Yet with two of the three debate moderators associated with conservative media and not NewsNation, including podcast star Megyn Kelly, the event threatens to be at odds with the centrist image the network is trying to cultivate.

“I think it’s an amazing opportunity and allows us to have more people fully sample the network and see who we are and what we’re doing,” said Cherie Grzech, NewsNation’s senior vice president of news and politics.

Her advice to those who have doubts about how NewsNation can pull it off: Just watch.

READ MORE

Democrat megadonor gives to Nikki Haley super PAC to help thwart Trump

00:00 , Oliver O’Connell

Just a week after JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon urged even liberal Democrats to help Nikki Haley’s campaign to give Republicans an alternative to Donald Trump, one Democrat megadonor has done just that.

Reid Hoffman, the billionaire co-founder of LinkedIn, donated $250,000 to a super PAC supporting the former UN ambassador’s 2024 campaign to be the GOP nominee in 2024.

The New York Times confirmed the donation had been made with Dmitri Mehlhorn, a political adviser to Mr Hoffman.

Mr Mehlhorn told the outlet that the pro-Haley super PAC SFA Fund Inc was specifically asked if it would take money from a Democrat who actively supports President Joe Biden, and they said yes.

SFA Fund Inc is one of the biggest actors in the 2024 Republican primary race, having spent more than $33m on advertising and other expenses.

Its biggest contributors up to mid-2023 were Jan Koum, a co-founder of WhatsApp, who gave $5m, and the venture capitalist Tim Draper, who gave $1.25m.

Previously Mr Hoffman helped fund E Jean Carroll’s lawsuit against the former president when she sued him for rape and defamation. Mr Trump was found liable for sexual abuse and defaming Ms Carroll.

He also hosted a fundraiser for Mr Biden in California earlier this year; donated to vocal Trump foe Liz Cheney in 2022; and gave $3.35m to the Republican Accountability Project during the 2022 election cycle.

READ MORE

What the Republican candidates have said on the war in Ukraine: Chris Christie

Wednesday 6 December 2023 23:30 , Gustaf Kilander

Mr Christie supports sending US military aid to Ukraine and visited the country earlier this year.

Like Ms Haley, Mr Christie believes it is in the US’s best interest to support Ukraine.

“None of us like the idea that there’s a war going on and that we’re supporting it, but the alternative is for the Chinese to take over, the Russians, the Iranians and the North Koreans,” the former New Jersey governor said on CNN.

He noted that “some kind of compromise” with Russia may be required at some point and that the US should be part of the negotiations at a time when “Ukraine can protect the land that’s been taken by Russia in this latest incursion”.

He argued that Mr Trump “set the groundwork” for the invasion and echoed 2016 comments by former Secretary of State and then-Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, calling him “Putin’s puppet”.

He compared Mr DeSantis to British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, who unsuccessfully attempted to appease Adolf Hitler ahead of the Second World War.

Who qualified for the fourth GOP debate?

Wednesday 6 December 2023 23:00 , Gustaf Kilander

Four candidates have so far qualified for the fourth Republican primary debate, set to be hosted by NewsNation on 6 December.

Former Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former UN Ambassador and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, former New Jersey governor Chris Christie and biotech entrepreneur and anti-woke author Vivek Ramaswamy have all qualified for the Wednesday night showdown at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.

The debate will be moderated by former Fox News host Megyn Kelly, now of SiriusXM, NewsNation’s Elizabeth Vargas, and Eliana Johnson, the editor of the Washington Free Beacon.

The debate will be broadcast on NewsNation, a subscription-based network, and it will be streamed online on Rumble, the video-hosting site mainly used by right-wing voters. The first three debates were hosted by Fox News, Fox Business, and NBC News.

READ MORE

Megyn Kelly’s rise was tied to Trump. Can she shine at a debate without him?

Wednesday 6 December 2023 22:30 , Kelly Rissman

Megyn Kelly made headlines in 2015 when she confronted Donald Trump at a presidential debate. Now as the fourth GOP primary debate approaches, she could have another starpower moment as moderator — but it will have to be without the former president.

Kelly, a lawyer-turned-journalist, was moderating her first presidential debate when Mr Trump, a real-estate-mogul-turned-politician, was competing in his first GOP primary debate. In this potent interaction, their paths changed forever.

The exchange made her into something of a cultural icon and boosted her career, at least temporarily, while it set the tone for his soon-to-be successful campaign.

She is a lawyer, he’s in legal trouble. He was accused of sexual misconduct, while she was allegedly the victim of someone else’s. At almost every intersection, they are coming from opposite ends of the spectrum, but have each, separately, carved out a niche rightwing audience.

And when they come together, no one can turn away.

READ MORE

What the Republican candidates have said on the war in Ukraine: Vivek Ramaswamy

Wednesday 6 December 2023 22:00 , Gustaf Kilander and Ariana Baio

Mr Ramaswamy opposes the US intervening in Ukraine, has suggested Ukraine should concede territory to Russia and made mocking remarks about President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Of the candidates, Mr Ramaswamy has displayed the most anti-Ukraine rhetoric calling the country anti-democratic.

In August, the tech entrepreneur suggested that the US is aiding Ukraine because of Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings – a reference to unsubstantiated allegations made by congressional Republicans.

He suggested Russia and Ukraine should make an agreement to end the war – one in which Ukraine would make major concessions to Mr Putin by handing over the eastern Donbas regions and blocking Ukraine from joining Nato.

“I don’t think it is preferable for Russia to be able to invade a sovereign country that is its neighbour, but I think the job of the US president is to look after American interests,” Mr Ramaswamy told ABC News.

During the third GOP debate in November, Mr Ramaswamy referred to Mr Zelensky as a “comedian in cargo pants” and mocked the Ukrainian president for allegedly celebrating a Nazi.

The reference was to an incident in September where Mr Zelensky applauded for a Ukrainian-Canadian veteran who was later found to have served in a Nazi-aligned military unit during World War II. Mr Zelensky, who is Jewish, lost family members during the Holocaust.

What the Republican candidates have said on the war in Ukraine: Nikki Haley

Wednesday 6 December 2023 21:30 , Gustaf Kilander

The former UN ambassador believes it is in the US’s best interest to support Ukraine.

“A win for Ukraine is a win for all of us because tyrants tell us exactly what they’re going to do,” she said on CNN.

Ms Haley has said that a Ukrainian victory would send a broader message to warn China about attacking Taiwan, that it would push Iran to not build nuclear weapons, and urge North Korea to move away from ballistic missile testing.

She has been critical of Mr Biden’s “slow and weak” reaction to helping Ukraine.

What the GOP debate candidates have said about the Israel-Hamas conflict

Wednesday 6 December 2023 21:00 , Ariana Baio

The onset of the Israel-Hamas conflict was a major theme of the third Republican primary debate on 8 November, with candidates declaring their support for Israel in varying degrees.

Since the war began in early October, there have been disagreements regarding how the US should back Israel as an ally while also trying to protect the innocent Palestinians caught in the crossfire.

Candidates were under more pressure this time around because they were given more time to answer thoughtfully thanks to the dwindling number of participants who met the Republican National Committee’s (RNC) stricter criteria.

Just five candidates, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott and ex-New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, qualified for the third debate.

Former president Donald Trump, who technically qualified, refused to join his opponents on stage. Though, Mr Trump has still voiced his opinion on the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Here’s what the GOP candidates have said about the war.

What the Republican candidates have said on the war in Ukraine: Ron DeSantis

Wednesday 6 December 2023 20:30 , Gustaf Kilander

The Florida governor does not believe the US should be involved in Ukraine but walked back his comments calling the war a “territorial dispute”.

In March, Mr DeSantis called the war “a territorial dispute between Ukraine and Russia” and said it should not be one of the US’s national interests to get involved.

He faced backlash for diminishing the severity of the war and later clarified that he was only referring to the fighting in Donbas and Crimea when he called it a dispute.

Since then, Mr DeSantis has steered away from making too many comments on the war.

In April, he said he supported a ceasefire, saying it’s “in everybody’s interest”.

He told the Japanese English-language weekly Nikkei Asia that “You don’t want to end up in like a [Battle of] Verdun situation, where you just have mass casualties, mass expense and end up with a stalemate”.

During debates, he’s made it clear he would not support sending US troops to Ukraine.

What the Republican candidates have said on the war in Ukraine

Wednesday 6 December 2023 20:00 , Gustaf Kilander

As President Joe Biden likes to remind anyone who will listen, “This is not your grandfather’s Republican Party”.

That has never been more evident than when examining the way the 2024 Republican presidential candidates approach the topic of Ukraine.

Support for Ukraine is dividing the GOP field. Several candidates believe the US should continue to support the war effort – a stance that adheres to more traditional Republican foreign policy beliefs.

For years, leaders in the GOP like George W Bush sounded alarms about Russia and supported Nato membership for Ukraine.

But in more recent years, notably under former president Donald Trump, modern conservatives have embraced isolationism.

A number of other Republican candidates, including Mr Trump – the current frontrunner, have expressed support for this.

This is a rundown of what the GOP presidential candidates have said about Ukraine.

VIDEO: What’s at Stake for Candidates in Tonight’s GOP Debate

Wednesday 6 December 2023 19:30 , Gustaf Kilander

‘By attacking Ron DeSantis, Haley is helping Trump and hurting herself’

Wednesday 6 December 2023 19:00 , Gustaf Kilander

Former Obama advisor Dan Pfeiffer, now of Crooked Media, wrote on X on Wednesday: “Tonight, @RonDeSantis and @NikkiHaley will get on a debate stage and pretend like they are running for the 2024 GOP nomination. But everything about their strategy suggests they stopped running against Trump and are fighting to lead the post-Trump GOP.”

“By attacking @RonDeSantis, Haley is helping Trump and hurting herself. DeSantis is the second choice of most Trump supporters. To win, Haley needs DeSantis to split the MAGA base with Trump. She’s doing the opposite,” he added.

‘DeSantis is so weak he can’t even make his own chairman resign,’ ex-GOP strategist says

Wednesday 6 December 2023 18:30 , Gustaf Kilander

Former GOP strategist Rick Wilson wrote on X on Wednesday: “Ron DeSantis is so weak he can’t even make @chrismziegler -- his own Florida GOP Chairman -- a man under police investigation for rape and sexual abuse -- resign. DeSantis isn’t even trying that hard. People are asking what Ziegler and his wife Bridget have on Ron and Casey.”

“I said as early as in the spring of 2021 that Ron DeSantis was the most overpriced stock in American politics,” Mr Wilson told The Independent last week. “He didn’t win in Florida by some magical gift of his own, he inherited the best Republican machine in the country – it elected him, he didn’t win – he was hustled in there on the backs of 30 years of Republican dominance in the state and an infinite amount of money.”

Calling Mr DeSantis “the opposite of political charisma”, Mr Wilson added that “the initial idea of Ron DeSantis being a great campaigner was rapidly put to the test and discovered to be a lie”.

Mr Wilson said that the governor is “without a question, the worst-performing, best-funded primary candidate I’ve seen in a long time”.

READ MORE:

Was Ron DeSantis lacklustre campaign doomed from the start?

On gender affirming care, Haley says ‘government should stay out of it'

Wednesday 6 December 2023 18:00 , Gustaf Kilander

Where the Republican candidates stand on Donald Trump

Wednesday 6 December 2023 17:46 , Gustaf Kilander

The field of Republican candidates has winnowed significantly since the beginning of the campaign, going from eight hopefuls appearing on the stage during the first primary debate to just four in the fourth showdown.

The frontrunner by a wide margin is former President Donald Trump, who has declined to appear at any of the debates so far, but his reticence to argue his case hasn’t had any impact on his strong primary poll numbers.

The four top remaining challengers have all used different tactics to take on Mr Trump.

Biotech entrepreneur and anti-woke author Vivek Ramaswamy has been mimicking him while at times struggling to explain why he’s running against a man he has called “the best president of the 21st century”.

Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has been creative in finding different ways to call Mr Trump a wildly incompetent and dangerous criminal.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has argued that he would be a more competent, and most importantly, younger, version of the ex-president who would be able to run again in 2028.

Former South Carolina Governor and UN Ambassador Nikki Haley initially instituted the “pro-having it and pro-eating it” cake policy of disgraced former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson when it came to Mr Trump, attempting to remain on the fence and not annoy either Republicans supportive or critical of the former president. More recently, she has become slightly more outspoken in her criticism.

Here’s a rundown of what each of them have said about Mr Trump.

Ramaswamy pushes anti-Semitic conspiracy theory ahead of fourth debate

Wednesday 6 December 2023 17:30 , Gustaf Kilander

Vivek Ramaswamy wrote on X ahead of the fourth Republican debate that “The Great Replacement Theory isn’t a grand ‘right-wing conspiracy theory,’ it’s just basic immigration policy for the modern Democrat Party.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center calls this a “racist conspiracy narrative falsely asserts there is an active, ongoing and covert effort to replace white populations in current white-majority countries”.

“The ‘great replacement’ theory is inherently white supremacist,” Jason Wilson and Aaron Flanagan write. “It depends on stoking fears that a non-white population, which the theory’s proponents characterize as ‘inferior,’ will displace a white majority. It is also antisemitic. Some proponents of the ‘great replacement’ do not explicitly attribute the plot to Jews. Instead, they blame powerful Jewish individuals such as financier and philanthropist George Soros or use coded antisemitic language to identify shadowy ‘elites’ or ‘globalists.’”

Debate moderators say they’ll attempt to get candidates to attack Trump

Wednesday 6 December 2023 17:00 , Gustaf Kilander

The moderators for tonight’s GOP debate have said they intend to try to get the candidates to go after former President Donald Trump.

Elizabeth Vargas of NewsNation told Politico, “I think in one of the first debates they took an hour for anybody to even say his name, which is ridiculous. He’s the person they all have to beat. You’re not running against Joe Biden right now, candidates, you’re running against Donald Trump”.

“Because otherwise, up there just criticizing Joe Biden, you’re basically all surrogates for Donald Trump,” she said, adding that the moderators will “ask a lot of questions” about Mr Trump.

“His pronouncements of late about mass deportations or removing Obamacare — there are a lot of things that he has said that are ripe for dissection and discussion and debate,” Ms Vargas told the outlet.

Nikki Haley’s approach to abortion is rooted in her earliest days in South Carolina politics

Wednesday 6 December 2023 16:30 , Meg Kinnard

As a state representative running a longshot campaign for South Carolina governor, Nikki Haley would often explain her opposition to abortion with a story about her family.

“I’m strongly pro-life, very pro-life, and not because my party tells me to be, but my husband was adopted, and so every day I know the blessings of having him there,” she said in 2010.

She won that race and was reelected as governor before serving as former President Donald Trump‘s United Nations ambassador. She’s now competing against Trump as the only woman seeking the Republican presidential nomination. And in a primary race animated by questions over the future of abortion access in the U.S., Haley is reviving the personal anecdote she would give in South Carolina — almost verbatim.

“I am unapologetically pro-life, not because the Republican Party tells me, but because my husband was adopted, and I live with that blessing every day,” she told a New Hampshire audience in May.

Haley is gaining attention in the GOP race with her calls for “consensus” around abortion, an unusual tone in a campaign where Republican White House hopefuls often prefer to highlight their eagerness to fight President Joe Biden and other Democrats. Her supporters say she has staked out a consistent approach from her earliest days in politics, challenging fellow Republicans to be pragmatic in their pursuit of a deeply conservative agenda.

READ MORE

Highly principled libertarian or ruthlessly ambitious kook: Vivek Ramaswamy’s 10 principles to become Trump’s successor

Wednesday 6 December 2023 16:00 , Gustaf Kilander

More than a decade and a half after Vivek Ramaswamy was described as an intense “debater-extraordinaire” in The Harvard Crimson in December 2006, he took centre stage at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee as one of the top two candidates.

Depending on who you ask, the biotech entrepreneur came out of the 23 August showdown as either the winner or the candidate who took the most punches from his more senior colleagues.

For part of his undergraduate career, Mr Ramaswamy headed the Harvard Political Union, a role in which he was referred to as simply “The Chairman”. In a moment of foresight, Mr Ramaswamy told The Crimson that “I consider myself a contrarian. I like to argue.”

“Harvard teaches you to be a better questioner… you can be heard even if you aren’t in the mainstream,” he told the school paper.

During the debate on 23 August, former Vice President Mike Pence attacked his age and inexperience, and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, clearly frustrated at his lack of foreign policy knowledge, ranted at him about his policy of cutting aid to Ukraine and handing over large swathes of land to Russia.

READ MORE

A timeline of Donald Trump’s rivalry with Ron DeSantis

Wednesday 6 December 2023 15:30 , Joe Sommerlad, Ariana Baio

A shaky start to Florida governor Ron DeSantis’ campaign has continued to disappoint even though he was predicted to be ex-president Donald Trump’s primary challenger for the Republican nomination.

Mr DeSantis has seemingly failed to rise to the occasion of challenging Mr Trump after months of an increasingly tense back-and-forth.

But there was a time when the two got along swimmingly.

During his own tenure in the White House in 2018, Mr Trump loudly cheered Mr DeSantis’s bid for the governor’s mansion, throwing his weight behind the former congressman and appearing at rallies to stump for him.

But as Mr DeSantis rose through the ranks and was soon perceived as a potential 2024 candidate, Mr Trump changed his tune.

The ex-president has yelled a steady stream of insults and barbed nicknames, most of which Mr DeSantis wisely allowed to pass without public comment, though in more recent months he’s returned a comeback.

Here is a timeline of their disintegrating relationship.

The Republican candidates have learned from Trump’s legal woes and are condemning Jan 6 – aside from Vivek Ramaswamy

Wednesday 6 December 2023 15:00 , Gustaf Kilander

All but one of the Republican candidates appeared to have learned from former President Donald Trump’s deepening legal woes as they appeared for the first Republican primary debate in Milwaukee.

Former Vice President and 2024 candidate Mike Pence stood firmly behind his decision to certify President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory despite mounting pressure from Mr Trump and his supporters, which included violent threats to his life.

Mr Pence was praised by the candidates next to him on the debate stage, apart from entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who came out swinging with conspiracy theories making the rounds on rightwing social media on a variety of topics.

Mr Ramaswamy instead called on Mr Pence to commit to pardoning Mr Trump.

“I’m the only candidate on the stage with the courage to move our nation forward,” Mr Ramaswamy argued.

READ MORE

What the Republican candidates have said on the war in Ukraine

Wednesday 6 December 2023 14:30 , Gustaf Kilander and Ariana Baio

As President Joe Biden likes to remind anyone who will listen, “This is not your grandfather’s Republican Party”.

That has never been more evident than when examining the way the 2024 Republican presidential candidates approach the topic of Ukraine.

Support for Ukraine is dividing the GOP field. Several candidates believe the US should continue to support the war effort – a stance that adheres to more traditional Republican foreign policy beliefs.

For years, leaders in the GOP like George W Bush sounded alarms about Russia and supported Nato membership for Ukraine.

But in more recent years, notably under former president Donald Trump, modern conservatives have embraced isolationism.

A number of other Republican candidates, including Mr Trump – the current frontrunner, have expressed support for this.

This is a rundown of what the GOP presidential candidates have said about Ukraine.

Poll shows Donald Trump dominating GOP field as rivals sputter

Wednesday 6 December 2023 14:00 , John Bowden

Ahead of the fourth GOP debate in Alabama, Donald Trump is in his most comfortable polling position yet.

The ex-president remains atop the GOP field in a major way, having consolidated support from six in 10 Republican voters nationally according to a NewsNation/Decision Desk HQ poll released on Monday. Though Mr Trump will not appear this Wednesday for the debate held by NewsNation alongside his GOP fellows, his decision to skip the 2023-24 debate cycle appears to not have hurt his chances in the slightest.

Indeed, the poll shows few pieces of good news for his opponents. Mr DeSantis and Ms Haley are statistically tied, at 11 and 10 per cent respectively, while the former president’s base of support appears to trust him more on the most important issues to voters this year, including the economy.

Mr DeSantis, who has seen his campaign flagging for months, remains the second choice of a much wider segment of the party than any other candidate. But even that suggests that his base is more closely aligned with Mr Trump’s, and suggests that the former president’s support could surge even higher were the Florida governor to drop out.

READ MORE

Republican 2024 candidates are walking the abortion line. One question is throwing them off balance

Wednesday 6 December 2023 13:30 , Ariana Baio

The 2024 Republican candidates for president have an abortion problem.

At every campaign stop, town hall, debate and interview the elephant in the room manages to creep its way into the dialogue – how should a potential president approach the legality of abortion at the federal level, if at all?

For decades, the ideal GOP candidate would state their pro-life stance and disagree with the landmark Supreme Court case Roe v Wade to earn a gold star and potential endorsements.

But since the fall of Roe last year, the issue of abortion has become increasingly complicated and voters have made it clear they’re looking for a candidate who can take a nuanced approach to the subject.

Across the board, polling shows that most Americans believe abortion should be legal in most or all cases in the first trimester, regardless of party lines. Simultaneously, the same majority of voters also believe abortions should be illegal in the third trimester.

Yet, when candidates are confronted with the issue, many display an obvious struggle to remain loyal to the Republican party’s long-held belief while extending a compromising hand to the rest of the country.

READ MORE

A network still seeking an audience

Wednesday 6 December 2023 13:00 , David Bauder

The debate is to air from 8 to 10 p.m. ET and will also be shown on the CW network, which like NewsNation is owned by the Nexstar Media Group. The CW will show it live in the eastern half of the country, and tape-delayed out West.

NewsNation took over for the old WGN America network in late 2020 and has tried to establish itself with personalities who made names for themselves elsewhere: Chris Cuomo from CNN, Dan Abrams of ABC News, Ashleigh Banfield from MSNBC and former Fox News host Leland Vittert.

Ratings suggest it’s still looking for an audience — and has a way to go. NewsNation averaged 99,000 viewers in prime time in November, compared to Fox News Channel’s 1.73 million, MSNBC’s 1.14 million, CNN’s 540,000 and Newsmax’s 207,000, the Nielsen company said.

The network bills itself as an unbiased alternative to competitors with more hardened partisan images. Abrams told the Hollywood Reporter that NewsNation’s sweet spot is the “marginalized moderate majority who don’t want hyper-partisan outlets.”

Critics, like the liberal media watchdog Media Matters, suggest NewsNation leans more right than down the middle. A Daily Beast writer who watched the network for a week this fall, Joe Berkowitz, had a similar view, writing that “left-leaning voices are heard on NewsNation rarely, briefly and cursorily — as if to tick a box.”

The network’s ranks include several Fox News alums, including Grzech and Chris Stirewalt, its politics editor. Former Fox executive Bill Shine is a consultant.

Grzech suggested that those critics haven’t watched NewsNation much. “I don’t see that. and it isn’t the experience I’ve had here at all,” she said.