‘We’re going to call you Donald Duck’: 4 takeaways from the second GOP debate
Seven Republican presidential candidates tussled in the second GOP primary debate Wednesday, each striving to establish themselves as the most attractive alternative nominee to Donald Trump, who endures as the dominant front-runner.
The two-hour event in Simi Valley, Calif., broadcast by Fox Business and shown on Univision in Spanish, dove deep into a range of difficult policy issues dividing the country from immigration to school choice, race and gender and fracking.
Trailing Trump by margins of 20 to nearly 40 points in the opening nominating states of Iowa and New Hampshire, Ron DeSantis entered the debate needing to stave off former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley and biotech investor Vivek Ramaswamy to hold on to his tenuous second place status.
But besides a brief scuffle with Haley over fracking in Florida, DeSantis did not find himself in the center of the crosshairs with either. And during a mostly steady and crisp performance, the second-term Florida governor decided to take only two brief glancing shots at the former president.
“Donald Trump is missing in action. He should be on this stage tonight,” DeSantis said at the top of the debate.
Trump, who also skipped last month’s first debate in Milwaukee, was more than 2,000 miles away, visiting autoworkers in a suburb north of Detroit, depriving each of his rivals an opportunity to make continual contrast with him on style or substance.
That left those chasing Trump to pick fights with one another, to varying degrees and effect.
Here are 4 takeaways from the second GOP debate:
SCOTT STEPS IT UP
The South Carolina senator’s lethargic debate performance last month in Milwaukee left his advisers recalculating. Scott got the message.
He delivered a feistier performance Wednesday, particularly during the opening 40 minutes, when he intervened in several rhetorical skirmishes on the stage and was the first candidate to toss a punch at a rival when he targeted Ramaswamy.
Clearly miffed at Ramaswamy’s attacks during the last debate, Scott seized on a recent news story that reported on the biotech investor’s business in China.
“Last debate he said we were all bought and paid for and I thought about that for a little while, and said you know, I can’t imagine how you can say that knowing that you were just in business with the Chinese Communist Party and the same thing that funded Hunter Biden millions of dollars,” Scott charged.
Later, Scott and Ramaswamy tangled again on the war in Ukraine, highlighting the growing GOP chasm over the obligation of America’s ongoing investment in Kyiv.
Scott also traded barbs with Haley over federal spending in Washington and a South Carolina gas tax.
“All you have to do is go watch Nikki Haley on YouTube,” Scott said.
But the initial charge with Ramaswamy over his ties with China triggered a nearly two-minute fracas in which the two argued over each other. It’s unclear what voters will take away from the exchange but that, and the back-and-forth with Haley, guarantees that Scott will be part of the post-debate clips that run on television and online — a conversation he was largely absent from after Milwaukee’s debate.
RAMASWAMY (TRIES TO) DIALS IT BACK
If Scott’s lesson was to amp up his energy level from the first debate, Ramaswamy appeared to try to dial his attacks back and seek more collegiality among his rivals during the second debate.
He didn’t always succeed — reaping what he sowed after leaving his opponents with scars from his aggressive posture in Milwaukee.
“Every time I hear you I feel a little bit dumber for what you say,” Haley told Ramaswamy during a debate over the Chinese social media app, TikTok. “We can’t trust you. We can’t have TikTok in our kids’ lives.”
Ramaswamy, who chided his opponents as “professional politicians” and “super PAC puppets” in the first debate, took the opposite approach inside the Ronald Reagan presidential library as he took arrows.
“I think we would be better served as a Republican Party if we’re not sitting here hurling personal insults and actually have a legitimate debate about policy following Reagan’s 11th commandment,” he pleaded.
This triggered rhetorical eye-rolling from his opponents, with Haley speaking over him to say, “Where were you last debate?”
But Ramaswamy, who experienced a dip in some polls over the last month due to rising negative personal ratings, conceded that while he might appear to be a “man in a hurry” he doesn’t know everything.
It was an admission that the 38-year-old political novice needed to soften his pugnacious nature.
CHRISTIE TURNS IT UP ON TRUMP
While DeSantis took a noticeable dig at Trump at the top of the debate, he left heavier attacks on the former president to Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor, who rapidly escalated his anti-Trump campaign in the second debate.
Christie hit Trump for skipping debates — “Donald Trump hides behind the walls of his golf clubs” — failing to complete his much-promised southern border wall and even labeled him with a new nickname that spurred a mix of chuckles, groans and boos from the audience.
“I want to look in a camera right now and tell you, Donald I know you’re watching, you can’t help yourself. I know you’re watching,” Christie said, finger pointing directly at the camera. “You’re not here tonight, not because of polls and not because of your indictments. You’re not here tonight because you’re afraid of being on stage and defending your record. You’re ducking these things. And let me tell you what’s going to happen. You keep doing that? No one up here’s going to call you Donald Trump anymore. We’re going to call you Donald Duck.”
Christie isn’t seen as a real threat for the nomination, but his willingness to take on Trump could impact the race if the field compresses early next year.
IGNORING TRUMP UNTIL THE END
The moderators ignored the former president and so did the candidates, for the most part.
Trump’s four indictments — totalling 91 criminal counts — was not a topic that was probed deeply.
The candidates were not specifically asked what they would do differently than the former president or how they would attempt to extend any of his policies.
As the debate neared its sunset, moderator Dana Perino tossed out a question more suitable for a TV game show: Which candidate would you vote off of the island?
When the seven Republicans declined to play the game, Perino followed up with a more serious query: What’s your mathematical path to beating Trump?
After DeSantis pitched his electability with voters, Christie and Ramaswamy provided answers that exemplified the divide in the party, with the former governor saying he’d vote Trump off the island and the wealthy investor praising Trump as a “great president.”
This story was originally published September 27, 2023 at 11:46 PM.
