Republican presidential contenders traded nasty, sometimes personal barbs at the 2024 campaign season's first primary debate, ignoring the debate time-limit bell to shout over each other and accuse each other of dishonesty and a lack of presidential qualifications.
But if anyone prevailed at the debate, it was someone who wasn't there: former president and current front-runner Donald Trump, who had the debate audience booing candidates who criticized him and cheering those who defended him.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was the most aggressive in his blunt assessment of Trump, who is set to turn himself into authorities for processing Thursday in Georgia’s Fulton County on racketeering and other charges related to the effort to take away President Joe Biden's 2020 win in Georgia and give it to Trump.
"Someone's got to stop normalizing this conduct. Whether or not you believe the criminal charges are right or wrong, the conduct is beneath the office of the president of the United States," Christie said in a lengthy response that at one point was stopped by overwhelming boos from the live audience.
When 38-year-old tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy – who spent much of the evening needling his opponents like they were annoying parents who think they know more – jumped in to accuse Christie of running "a campaign … based on vengeance and grievance against one man," the former Garden State governor and onetime prosecutor turned his ire on Ramaswamy.
"You sit here talking about how you want to stand up for the rule of law. It can't be selective," Christie said, adding that Ramaswamy says different things about Trump in his book than he says while campaigning before a GOP electorate still very attached to the former president.
"I know a lot better than you do. You've never done it," Christie said. "We stood up for law and order. I am not going to bow to anyone when we have a president of the United States who disrespects the Constitution."
At one point, the boos and jeers became so loud Christie could not speak. "Booing is allowed, but it doesn't change the truth," he said. Moderator Bret Baier had to physically turn around in his seat and admonish the crowd to be quiet, while fellow moderator Martha McCallum tried to keep the candidates from drowning each other out.
Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson got no love either from the crowd when he said Trump was "morally disqualified" from being president again. "Obviously, I'm not going to support someone who's been convicted of a serious felony," said Hutchinson, whose extensive resume in all three branches of government has not gotten him above low single digits in primary polls.
Former Vice President Mike Pence made the issue more about his own behavior on Jan. 6, 2021, saying he did what was legally and morally right in refusing to reject the electoral slates sent to Washington to certify Biden's win.
"No one is above the law, and President Trump is entitled to the presumption of innocence every American is entitled to," Pence said. "But the American people deserve to know that ... he asked me to put him above the Constitution. I chose the Constitution and I always will."
Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley stayed above the fray in a debate that descended into a political food fight. She confidently displayed her foreign policy credentials, knocking down opponents who said the U.S. should cut off aid to Ukraine.
She noted her strong anti-abortion position but said the rest of the field needed to be “honest” with the American public and let them know a national ban was not in the works because it would never survive a Senate filibuster. And she blamed her own party as well as Democrats for running up the public debt.
Still, Trump is far and away the favorite to win the GOP nomination. A Des Moines Register/NBC poll released this week had Trump with the support of 42% of Iowa Republicans, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis a distant second, with 19% support. The remaining candidates on stage Wednesday night, including Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, Pence, Haley, Ramaswamy, Christie and Hutchinson, all had support in the single digits.
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum got just 2% in the poll and his condition at the debate – forced to stand for two hours despite having badly injured his leg while he was playing basketball Monday – seemed to underscore his wounded status.
"I think I took it too literally when they said, ‘Go to Milwaukee and break a leg,'" Burgum said in arguably his most memorable line of the night.
DeSantis, who has struggled in the polls in recent weeks, talked about his signature issues, such as eliminating discussion of certain racial and gender issues in schools but did not do anything to establish himself in his earlier role as back-up choice to Trump.
Ramaswamy has edged into second place in a couple of polls, ahead of a flagging DeSantis, and the debate dynamic reflected it. Buoyed by his emergence from unknown to candidate-of-the-hour, Ramaswamy confidently slammed his opponents for their positions, their character and even their age, saying Americans needed a new generation of leadership.
The rest of the group was having none of it.
"Let me explain it to you. I can go slower for you this time," sneered the usually decorous Pence, when Ramaswamy criticized his policies. "Now is not the time for on-the-job-training, We don't need to bring in a rookie," the former vice president added.
Ramaswamy cast himself as an outsider, saying, "The real choice we face in this primary is this: Do we want a super PAC puppet or do you want a patriot who speaks the truth?"
Ramaswamy dismissed a young voter's question about climate change, saying more people had been injured from "bad climate change policies" than climate change itself, which he called “a hoax.” He accused his opponents of unspecified corruption, saying, "I'm the only person on this stage who isn't bought and paid for."
Christie noted that Ramaswamy's comment about being the "skinny guy" with a "funny name" was almost word for word what Democratic President Barack Obama said when he was first running for president.
"I'm afraid we're dealing with the same kind of amateur,” Christie said.
Scott, who underscored his anti-abortion credentials and commitment to reducing government, urged a conversation on issues.
"Going back and forth and (being) childish is not helpful to the American people," Scott said.
Haley, exasperated by interruptions and escalating voices from much of the rest of the stage, noted, "This is exactly why [former British Prime Minister] Margaret Thatcher said, 'If you want something said, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman.’" It was one of the few comments Haley could get in, edgewise, during the raucous debate.
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