- The third televised debate of the Republican primary took place on Wednesday evening in Miami.
- The five Republicans present cursed violently, first against Donald Trump, then against each other.
- The former American president, widely favored in the polls, simultaneously organized a “MAGA” meeting to focus on his likely duel against Joe Biden.
A split-screen primary page. Five Republican candidates for the 2024 US presidential election went head-to-head on Wednesday in a thrilling new televised debate that featured heavy blows – some very low. 12 miles away, Donald Trump, who skips debates because of his lead in the polls, was having a field day with a risk-free MAGA meeting, the day after the local elections in which Democrats scored points, and two months before the first Republican election in Iowa.
First of all, an almost holy union against Trump
While they are between 45 and 50 points behind Donald Trump in the pre-election polls, Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, Tim Scott and Chris Christie initially bet on the absentee. “Donald Trump owes you a bill,” the Florida governor began, loosely referring to “the wall that Mexico hasn’t paid for, the debt, the swamp (Washington lobbyists) that Donald Trump hasn’t drained.” “I’m tired of the Republicans losing,” DeSantis stressed after the conservatives’ defeats in the 2022 midterm elections and in several local elections this Tuesday, which he attributed to the former president.
“Anyone who is going to spend the next year and a half trying to avoid prison and the courts cannot lead this party or this country,” said former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Even Vivek Ramaswamy, 38, who likes to call himself “Trump 2.0,” asserted that the time has come for “the new generation” to take power.
Clashes and low blows
But the union didn’t last long. Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy, who had clashed in previous debates, did it again. The young entrepreneur initially described Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a “Nazi in cargo pants.” Then Nikki Haley, ardent Ukraine supporter, of “Dick Cheney in 3-inch heels,” alluding to the former neoconservative vice president. The answer from the former American ambassador to the UN hit the mark: “It’s already 12 cm heels. It’s not about style, it’s about weapons. »
Ramaswamy criticized Haley in the previous debate for joining TikTok, which she believes is a Trojan horse from Beijing. Ramaswamy spoke ironically and asserted that his opponent’s daughter had “used the app for a long time” and had forgotten one of the non-negotiable rules: We don’t touch the children. “Get my daughter out of your voice!” » (Leave my daughter out of it), the ex-governor of South Carolina became angry and almost repeated Will Smith’s line about his wife at the Oscars. Before I end with an insult: “You’re just scum” (halfway between “You’re just scum” and “a piece of shit”).
The debate was also marked by a tense exchange between Haley and DeSantis on the issue of fracking, with the former accusing the latter of changing his position. “That’s not true,” DeSantis replied with a strained laugh.
Abortion weighs on Republicans
Since the Supreme Court ruled Roe v. Wade in June 2022, Republicans are being punished by voters, even in conservative states. On Tuesday, Ohio voted to add abortion rights to the state constitution, winning such a referendum for the sixth consecutive time.
Ron DeSantis, who was not particularly comfortable on the issue, defended his “pro-life” positions and asserted that Republicans need to “do better on these referendums.” Vivek Ramaswamy called for “more responsibility for fathers”. It was Nikki Haley who received the warmest applause from the audience and argued for a measured approach. “I’m pro-life, but I don’t condemn anyone for being pro-life (pro-abortion). The voters have the power.” Recalling that there would never be 60 out of 100 senators who would ban abortion at the federal level, she argued for a national compromise on the maximum duration, concluding: “We must stop America in this to divide the question.”
Donald Trump on the loose
Less than 20 km away, Donald Trump took no chances and hosted a political meeting almost at home, which he ended with a dance. “What are left, six or seven candidates? I think they’re in a debate tonight but nobody’s watching,” he quipped. The former president gushed about his poll results and mocked Nikki Haley, “who swore she would never run against me before changing her mind three months later.”
He reserved most of his attacks for Joe Biden, “who is not too old but too incompetent” to be president. Before he starts imitating Biden on “how he handles himself at the end of a speech.” The next televised hostilities take place on December 6th, usually always without Donald Trump.