Haley Surges, DeSantis Holds His Own and Flailing Vivek Seems to Annoy Everyone: Takeaways From the Third GOP Debate

MIAMI — The third Republican undercard debate may have shown that there are only two viable candidates vying for a distant second place to Donald Trump: Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis.

Chris Christie got in his one liners as usual. Sen. Tim Scott struggled to get his talking points straight. And Vivek Ramaswamy insulted multiple women – including the moderator, the head of the Republican National Committee, Haley and Haley’s daughter  – as he reached for sound bites and tried to channel Millennial outrage.

But Haley and DeSantis actually had some substantive back and forth in a surprisingly wonky debate, battling over China policy, Ukraine funding and border issues. They showed some daylight in the Republican field on abortion, and weren’t afraid to attack Trump. 

Trump wasn’t in the room at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, but he was on everyone’s minds as the debate kicked off with the first question centered on why Republican voters should back each candidate and not Donald Trump.

Meanwhile, at his nearby Hialeah rally Trump said “nobody’s talking about” the debate tonight and called on the Republican establishment to stop wasting time and resources trying to push “weak and ineffective RINOs and Never Trumpers nobody wants and nobody’s gonna vote for.”

Here are The Messenger’s top five takeaways from the Republican debate:

Donald Trump in Their Heads — and the Gloves Come Off

Everyone knows Trump is the clear frontrunner in the Republican primary — the latest major Iowa poll showed him up 27 points on Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley. So while it wasn’t a surprise to see the first question center on Trump, some of the answers from the contenders showed that they know they are running out of time to erode the former president’s base.

Noting that Trump is a much “different guy” than he was in 2016, DeSantis said that he will have to explain why he didn’t have Mexico pay for the border wall and why he was unable to “drain the swamp” of federal bureaucracy. 

Trump said Americans “would get tired of winning,” DeSantis recalled, responding with “I’m sick of Republicans losing,” as he nodded to Republican election losses from 2020 to 2022 to Tuesday night, which were largely centered on the party’s unappealing stance on abortion. 

Haley, who again stood out on the debate stage, ticked off that the U.S. is $34 trillion in debt, half of American families can’t afford diapers, and one in six people can’t afford utility bills. Trump was the right president at the right time, she said, but he’s not the right president now. “We can’t live in the past,” she said.

Haley Schools Everyone on Foreign Policy — Especially Ramaswamy

A former U.N. ambassador under Trump, Haley has staked out the classic Reagan-Bush foreign policy identity. She strongly supports Israel and Ukraine, identifies China and Russia as clear enemies, and expounded more articulately than any other candidate on Naval expansion and Venezuelan migration.

Whether this works with GOP voters in primaries is still a big question in the Trump era, but Haley seems to want to channel a different era of hawkish, interventionist foreign policy. She said she was the only candidate on stage who has negotiated sanctions against North Korea, dealing with China and Russia during her U.N. tenure.

Wednesday night represented the third debate in a row where Haley tried to rise above the fray as men on the stage — especially Ramaswamy — threw insults at each other. Haley was especially aghast at Ramaswamy’s comments calling Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy, who is Jewish, a “Nazi” while promising to pull U.S. support from Ukraine.

"I am telling you, Putin and President Xi were celebrating at the thought that someone like that [Ramaswamy] could become president," Haley said to Ramaswamy on Wednesday.

But even as she shines on foreign policy for a particular demographic of Republican voters, the tough question for Haley is whether the pro-tariff, isolationist, anti-Ukraine sentiment in the Trump base connects with her more traditional approach to the U.S. role in the world.

Israel: Candidates Square Off to Be More Pro-Israel Than The Rest

With the Israel-Hamas war that has left 1,400 dead in Israel along with more than 10,000 Palestinians killed, and the fate of 200 Israeli hostages uncertain, the candidates jockeyed to be more pro-Israel than each other — and denounce Hamas in tougher and tougher terms.

“I would tell Bibi, ‘Finish the job once and for all with these butchers, Hamas,’” DeSantis said, when asked what advice he would give Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. DeSantis said he was sick of hearing the media blame Israel for the ongoing war and, as he did repeatedly, connected the issue at hand to his job as Florida’s governor. Noting that he helped bring back 700 people to Florida from Israel, DeSantis said, “We acted and we saved lives.”

Haley responded by saying her advice on eliminating Hamas would be “Finish them. finish them,” adding that the U.S. should support Israel “whatever they need, whenever they need it.” She concluded by stressing, “It’s not that Israel needs America — America needs Israel,” as a partner in the Middle East.

Tim Scott said Israel has the right to “wipe Hamas off the map” and that Biden is employing a “diplomacy only” approach, one he called a weak strategy.

Ramaswamy alone staked out an isolationist policy. He said his simple advice to Netanyahu would be “smoke those terrorists” on his southern border, while he as president would be “smoking the terrorists on our southern border.” 

The debate on Israel stood out for debate partner, the Republican Jewish Coalition, asking two questions on if the candidates would support use of military force in Iran and anti-semitism on college campuses. 

On a follow up question about Jewish students being accosted on college campuses, DeSantis responded by saying in Florida he eliminated a college group that was making “common cause” with Hamas, asserting that Biden should have the Department of Justice on college campuses watching for civil rights violations. He also chided Biden for talking about islamophobia when he believes he should be talking about anti-semitism. 

Chris Christie was the only candidate who spoke about treating Muslims fairly during his time as governor in New Jersey after the Sept. 11 attacks and said leadership means working with both sides. 

Tucker Carlson, Joe Rogan, and Elon Musk, oh my

Ramaswamy began the debate as if shot out of a cannon, but many of his answers bordered on sexism as he attacked several prominent women. 

One of his themes for the debate was that Republicans have been the party of losers, which led Ramaswamy to blame Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel for party losses every year since she took over in 2018. After offering his time for her to come on stage to resign, he then oddly attacked moderator Kristen Welker, invoking Russia and Hillary Clinton calling on her to answer for her reporting. 

He concluded his barbs by saying the moderators should be replaced with the holy trio of the extremely online, saying that Tucker Carlon, Joe Rogan, and Elon Musk should be the moderators. “Do you think Democrats would hire Greg Gutfeld to moderate?” he said of a Fox News host. 

Later Ramaswamy echoed Putin, effectively calling Ukraine’s president Zelenskyy a Nazi. 

But in charging that “neocons” sent thousands of our sons and daughters to die in Iraq and Afghanistan, Ramaswamy continued his attacks on women during the debate, calling Haley a defense contractor that made millions and equating her to a “Dick Cheney in three inch heels — we have  two of them on stage tonight,” he said, taking a shot at DeSantis and the stories of his secret high heels in his boots. 

Haley shot back at consistent attacks by Ramaswamy during a discussion over whether Tik Tok should be banned by the United States. He chided her for criticism that he has a tik tok account by bringing up Haley’s daughter and her tik tok account, counseling Haley that she should deal with her family first. 

An angry Haley shot back with “leave my daughter out of your voice,” but under her breath said “You’re just scum.”

Abortion:  Haley Leads With Compassion on the Issue — While the Men Offer Standard GOP Talking Points

Republicans attempted to tackle the polarizing issue of abortion after the issue helped power Democrats to notable victories in Tuesday’s off-year elections – the latest in a string of wins on abortion since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. The candidates at the debate broadly acknowledged that the party hasn’t been able to message effectively on the issue. DeSantis admitting that Republicans have been caught flat-footed by state referenda on the issue, including a measure Ohio voters endorsed Tuesday to protect abortion access.

The Florida governor, who has pushed for some of the strictest limits on abortion in his own state, seemed to back off endorsing a national limit on abortion in favor of state-by-state decision.

But it was Haley, the only woman on the stage, who tried to offer a way forward for the party that leads with compassion, noting that she does not judge anyone for being pro-choice and doesn’t want anyone to judge her for being pro-life. Haley made the point that Republicans can not pass national legislation on abortion without the presidency, the House, and 60 votes in the Senate. 

She said consensus should include banning late term abortions, making contraception accessible, and ensuring no woman is jailed for an abortion. “Let’s stop the judgment,” she said. “We don’t need to divide the nation on this issue anymore.”

The rest of the candidates offered more of the same rhetoric that has not worked for Republicans over the last year, with Scott calling for a 15 week national ban on abortion and challenging Haley and DeSantis to join him in deeming it “unethical and immoral” to allow for abortions until the day of birth

“Let’s see what we can agree on,” Haley responded. “But don’t make the American people think we’re going to push something on them when we don’t have the votes.”