The pressure is mounting on Donald Trump’s rivals to show they can emerge as a genuine alternative. Here are some early takeaways from the debate.
Chris Christie, former governor of New Jersey and 2024 Republican presidential candidate, from left, Nikki Haley, former ambassador to the United Nations and 2024 Republican presidential candidate, and Ron DeSantis, governor of Florida and 2024 RepubSeven Republican presidential hopefuls gathered at the Reagan Library in California on Wednesday for the second of the party’s primary debates. The contest's dominant front-runner — former President Donald Trump — skipped the event again.
DeSantis seemed eager to jump in on a question after Trump was criticized by former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who has made hammering Trump a focus of his campaign. DeSantis began speaking at the same time as another candidate and when finally given the floor, he used his answer to hit President Joe Biden and Trump in the same swipe, accusing them of lacking leadership.
Instead of facing his rivals on the debate stage, Trump was in Michigan working to win over blue-collar voters in the midst of an autoworkers’ strike.The debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library highlighted the way the GOP has drifted from some of the former president’s core values. One of them was highlighted right away — immigration.
That’d require a constitutional amendment and has also been embraced by Trump, but it shows how far the modern GOP has drifted from Reagan.Ramaswamy seemed to take pride in antagonizing his rivals during the first debate, declaring that "everyone on this stage is corrupt" except him because he was a political outsider, a biotech entrepreneur who wrote a book entitled "Woke, Inc." and decided to run for president.
He certainly didn’t defuse the tension onstage — Ramaswamy ended up at the bottom of a political dogpile again as candidates lined up to criticize him.After delivering a somewhat underwhelming performance during the first debate, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott sought to more forcefully assert himself on Wednesday.
The participants spent the two hours largely agreeing with each other on substance, but bickering over baroque bits of policy or history. Unless prompted, they didn’t bring up the man who is absolutely dominating the field, Trump.
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