Chris Christie Was Right. Nobody Wants to Take on Trump
Debate roundup from SNOWY Iowa
HELLO from Iowa! There are only four days until the caucuses and another blizzard is rolling in.
Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley hit the debate stage one last time before Iowans caucus on Monday night and Chris Christie just dropped out. I’ll put my takeaways from the debate below.
I’m also back in the swag wagon (giant mini van) and plan on covering the entire GOP field between now and Monday. I spent Thursday at a Nikki Haley event in Ankeny, so I’ll put some of those photos in here.
Heads up that I will be on Fox LiveNOW at 5:30 p.m. eastern time to talk about the race. You can stream it here.
But first: Trail pics SNOW edition ❄️
Debate Takeaways: Chris Christie Was Right. Nobody Wants to Take on Trump
Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis took a pass on their final chance to draw a contrast with the former president before the Iowa caucuses
On a day when Chris Christie challenged the rest of the field to take on Donald Trump, his two main challengers said no thanks.
Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley spent two hours Wednesday night under the watchful eyes of CNN's Jake Tapper and Dana Bash emptying their opposition research books, plugging gimmicky websites, trotting out pre-packaged one-liners and arguing over policy minutiae at the final GOP debate before the Iowa caucuses.
They had a final chance to draw a contrast with the former president – who is all but guaranteed to cruise to victory next week without a major shakeup – before the first votes of the 2024 election are cast on Monday.
They tiptoed around him instead.
Trump, meanwhile, had the stage to himself at a Fox News town hall that aired during the debate. He addressed his “haters,” hinted that he’s already selected a vice president and cleared up his controversial “dictator” comments before jetting off to New York to make a closing argument at one of his four criminal trials on Thursday.
Take the bait and get tough on Trump?
Hours before the Iowa debate, Christie dropped out of the presidential race “to make sure that in no way do I enable Donald Trump to ever be president of the United States again.” He had harsh words for the remaining candidates in the race, especially Haley, who he will not consider endorsing unless she pledges not to be Trump’s vice president.
Despite Christie’s call to take Trump on directly, neither of his top opponents took anti-Trump bait. Haley dodged a question about whether Trump has the character to be the president again, calling him “the right president at the right time.” DeSantis, while continuing his recent trend of hitting Trump on abortion and failed promises, also said he “appreciated what President Trump did” and promised to fulfill the former president's campaign promises like building a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border and draining the Washington, D.C. “swamp.”
They also dodged questions about Trump’s latest courtroom argument that a president has legal immunity even if he or she assassinates a political rival. DeSantis answered by focusing on himself, saying “it's not going to be an issue with me because I'm always going to follow the Constitution” and did not denounce the former president. Haley called the idea “absolutely ridiculous” and then used her answer to attack DeSantis instead.
“Ron said we should have leaders that we can look up to. Well, then stop lying because nobody's gonna want to look up to you if you're lying,” Haley said.
Give the oppo teams a raise
From dueling websites about who was lying to prepared lines on everything from ethanol to raising the debt limit, DeSantis and Haley each came prepared to attack the other’s record in Des Moines on Wednesday night. Haley encouraged viewers at least 10 times to visit her desantislies.com. website. DeSantis slammed Haley three times as too corporate with a line about “pale pastels” and claimed she suffers from “ballistic podiatry” because of her campaign trail gaffes.
Haley hammered DeSantis over votes he took as a congressman, while DeSantis hit Haley on her record as governor over taxes on everything from groceries and gasoline. They also sparred over foreign policy, an area where they often disagree.
“You can take the ambassador out of the United Nations, but you can't take the United Nations out of the ambassador,” DeSantis said during an exchange about Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Haley keeps talking like a general election candidate on government spending, abortion
Haley is an underdog in the GOP primary, but she sounded like a general election candidate on the debate stage when she blasted excess spending by both political parties and struck a moderate tone on abortion.
The former South Carolina governor blamed Democrats and Republicans for the ballooning federal budget in Washington, promising to veto any spending bill that doesn’t bring the country back to pre-pandemic levels.
“Why is Congress the only group that refuses to balance the budget?” Haley said. “We have to acknowledge that Republicans and Democrats have both done this.”
DeSantis has improved, but it may come too late
DeSantis was confident on stage in Des Moines but it’s unlikely that a strong performance will boost his stalled campaign in the Hawkeye State. DeSantis played up his record as Florida governor and tried to paint Haley as too liberal in the GOP primary.
Still, DeSantis is in a distant second place in the Iowa caucuses and 32 percentage points behind Trump, according to a December poll of the state.
DeSantis’s performance was a far cry from DeSantis’s earlier debate appearances. He struggled to break out from the pack in the more crowded debates in August and September. During the second debate of the cycle in California, for example, it took more than 10 minutes before DeSantis answered his first question.
Vivek Ramaswamy is notably absent
Longshot candidate Vivek Ramaswamy was noticeably absent from the debate in Des Moines, and there were fewer fireworks on stage without him.
The 38-year-old businessman had grabbed headlines at past debates for “unhinged” stunts like calling on the Republican National Committee chair to quit her job on the spot, writing “NIKKI = CORRUPT” on his notepad and espousing conspiracy theories about the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and the 2020 election. He also served as a political punching bag for Haley, who went viral when she said she felt “dumber” from hearing him speak.
Although he didn’t qualify for the Iowa debate, Ramaswamy found a way to insert himself anyway. He cut a direct-to-camera TV ad telling viewers to “turn this sh– off” and aired it on Iowa TV markets during the two-hour program.
Bonus pics 📷
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