Bret Breier, moderator, said former President Donald Trump is “the elephant that’s not in the room”. And his appointment was enough to spark the first debate between Republican candidates for the 2024 presidential primary. When he referred to his behavior and to questions about whether they would support him as a candidate if indicted, most defended him, albeit harshly, criticizing former Governors Chris Christie and Asa Hutchinson and defending their performance on the day of the attack former Vice President Mike Pence to the Capitol to fuel debate in sweltering Milwaukee, which has been hit by an extreme heat wave.
By the end of an hour-long debate, there was little mention of Trump, who chose not to attend. The presenters then asked participants to raise their hands if they would support Trump if he were nominated by the party but also condemned. Everyone but Christie and Hutchinson raised their hands. Instead, they later supported then-Vice President Mike Pence’s refusal to reverse the election as requested by Trump, leading to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was slow to raise his hand and first looked at what others were doing — a moment highlighted by the Trump campaign. DeSantis was uncomfortable in that sense, even more so after describing Trump supporters as something of an “apathetic herd.” He also tried not to worry about whether Pence’s behavior was right. “We have to look forward.” Under pressure from both the former president and the moderators, DeSantis finally said, “Mike has done his duty. I have nothing against him,” to which Pence replied, “I’m relieved.”
The former New Jersey governor, a harsh critic of Trump, was much more outspoken, saying that Pence “does not deserve grudging credit, he deserves our thanks as an American.” According to Christie, “the behavior was unworthy of the office of President of the United States.” , regardless of whether the criminal charges against Trump are justified or not.
The exchange about Trump lasted about ten minutes but was the key moment of a debate marked by his absence. Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy has been the most unified in defending the former president (“the best in America in the 21st century,” as he put it), while DeSantis, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum have defended them tried to move on to another topic.
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Ron DeSantis, second in the polls, along with Vivek Ramaswamy, third in voting intentions, were responsible for opening and closing the debate at center stage. Mike Pence, Nikki Haley, Tim Scott, Chris Christie (booed), Asa Hutchinson (also booed) and Doug Burgum completed a roster that gave the false appearance of a very open primary.
Fox spared no expense and the debate was a blockbuster at the Fiserv Forum, the pavilion where Giannis Antetokoumpo’s Milwaukee Bucks play, which is decorated for the occasion and whose bleachers are packed with guests and donors. Even a drone toured the stage and provided spectacular footage. The candidates’ interventions alternated with videos projected on large screens.
Attacking Biden was part of DeSantis’ strategy, and the candidate had followed it to the letter since his first intervention. “We are a country in decline,” he said in his energetic opening speech. DeSantis is aiming for a rapprochement in the polls with former President Donald Trump, who didn’t take part in the debate but has a more than 40-point lead in voting intentions. The remaining eight participants in the debate followed the same strategy.
DeSantis also took the opportunity to rail against President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, saying he made “hundreds of thousands of dollars doing lousy paintings” while Americans “work hard and can’t afford to buy one or a new one.” to buy a car”. House.” The Florida governor has bragged about his management and mentioned his family, which many strategists see as an asset to his campaign.
All candidates have attacked Biden’s economic policies. In the first hour of the debate, the candidates had barely mentioned Trump and apart from an implied mention of DeSantis against the lockdowns, there had been no criticism of the former president. He claimed some of the country’s ills were “due to the way this federal government has dealt with Covid-19 by blocking that economy”. If he were president, he would tell Health Commissioner Anthony Fauci, “You’re fired,” he said, using the phrase that made Donald Trump famous on a TV show. “As your president, I will never allow the Deep State bureaucrats to lock you up,” he added.
Chris Christie, former New Jersey governor and major critic of Trump, defended in his first speech that Republicans need to sell their ideas better in order to come to power, an implicit nod to the former president who lost the 2020 election has and who Many blame the poor result of the 2022 legislative periods. He emphasized that he was elected “a conservative Republican in a blue state,” the Democrats’ color.
Mike Pence was asked if he was responsible for the heavy government spending during his time as Vice President and he replied that he was very proud of his mandate and had hung the medal for the appointment of three Conservative Justices to the Supreme Court. with which they abolished the right to abortion. “I think there’s no denying that I’m the most prepared, best tested and most proven conservative in this race,” he said.
Vivek Ramaswamy has revealed he’s a free market lover after trying to introduce himself: “Let me just touch on a question that’s on everyone’s mind at home tonight,” the biotech entrepreneur said. “Who the hell is this skinny guy with a weird last name?”
But it didn’t go very well. Christie has told him that he wants to be a new Barack Obama, but that the first is enough. “The last person in one of those debates stood in the center of the stage and said, ‘What’s a skinny guy with a weird last name doing up here?’ It was Barack Obama and I’m afraid we’re dealing with the same kind of fan,” Christie said.
After Pence’s intervention, the debate was livened up by an exchange between Pence and Ramaswamy, in which the former vice president scathingly said: “I can explain it to you more slowly if you want,” he said to him, calling him a “newcomer” and adding added that this is no time for “training in office”.
Ramaswamy was the only one who did not raise a hand when the candidates were asked if they would be willing to give Ukraine more money ahead of the war with Russia. “I find it insulting that we have professional politicians on the scene making a pilgrimage to their Pope Zelenskyy in Kiev without doing the same for the people of Maui or the South Side of Chicago or Kensington,” he said. “I think we need to put the interests of Americans first and secure our own border and not someone else’s,” he added.
Pence mercilessly retorted, “Anyone who thinks we can’t solve problems here in the United States and be the leader of the free world has a pretty small view of the greatest nation on the planet.”
As the debate began, controversial communicator Tucker Carlson posted on X, the network formerly known as Twitter, an interview he recorded with Donald Trump a few days ago. In doing so, he tries to move into the limelight and burst the debate. “I’m giving this interview and we’re probably going to reach more audiences with this crazy format than with the debate.”
In the interview, Trump explains why he did not take part in the Milwaukee debate. His lead in the polls is so big that he sees no point in it. And he attacks his likely rival in the 2024 presidential election: “Joe Biden is the worst president in our country’s history.”
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