4 GOP candidates debate in Ala.
Four Republican presidential hopefuls — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie — are on stage for Wednesday night’s debate in Alabama. The early frontrunner for the GOP nomination, former President Donald Trump, is holding a fundraiser in Florida instead.
The narrowing field is debating less than six weeks before the Iowa caucuses, and the debate is a key moment for the young NewsNation cable network.
This fourth debate is being held in Alabama, the state that gave the GOP a roadmap to Mr. Trump. It’s the last scheduled debate before the Iowa caucuses kick off the nominating process in January.
First questions are unusually pointed
The fourth GOP primary debate began with unusually pointed questions, particularly from moderator Megyn Kelly.
You entered the race with so much momentum and are now trailing in the polls. Is it fair to say that voters are telling you not, ‘No,’ but ‘Not now?’ she asked Mr. Desantis.
“Aren’t you too tight with the banks and the billionaires to win over the GOP’s working-class base, which mostly wants to break the system, not elect someone beholden to it?” she questioned Ms. Haley.
How could you possibly be the nominee of a party that does not appear to like you very much? Ms. Kelly challenged Mr. Christie,
Ms. Kelly famously tangled with Mr. Trump during the first debate of the 2016 campaign, when she called him out for calling women he doesn’t like “fat pigs” and “disgusting animals.” The question sparked a yearslong rivalry.
Ramaswamy, DeSantis go after Haley
Mr. Ramaswamy used his first question of the debate to go directly after Ms. Haley, as he has done in previous onstage clashes.
Asked if his critiques of other candidates made his candidacy seem less serious, Mr. Ramaswamy criticized Ms. Haley for being “bankrupt” when she stepped down as United Nations ambassador and then going on to serve on the board of aerospace giant Boeing Co.
In response, Ms. Haley defended her 10-month service on Boeing’s board, noting that she left during a dispute over COVID-19 bailout funds. “I love Boeing,” Ms. Haley responded.
In the third debate, Ms. Haley called Mr. Ramaswamy “scum” after the entrepreneur was critical of her daughter’s use of TikTok.
Mr. DeSantis joined in to criticize Ms. Haley, who he said “caves any time the left comes after her, anytime the media comes after her.” Mr. DeSantis also opened with criticism of Ms. Haley for meeting with executives from investment firm BlackRock.
Ms. Haley said her opponents were “just jealous” of the attention she’s been getting from donors.
DeSantis: ‘ I’m sick of hearing about these polls’
The first debate question went to Mr. DeSantis, who was asked whether he should drop out of the race as his candidacy has failed to close in on Mr. Trump’s large polling despite his campaign and super PAC spending large amounts of money.
The Florida governor gave an impassioned and defiant answer, declaring, “I’m sick of hearing about these polls.”
Mr. DeSantis said he will win the Republican nomination and said he’s been underestimated before. He said he’s “sick” of Republicans “who are not willing to stand up and fight back against what the left is doing to this country.”
Mr. DeSantis, who has campaigned as a pugilistic candidate, claimed he’s the only Republican presidential candidate who has “beaten” teachers unions, former chief White House medical adviser Anthony Fauci and George Soros, among other targets.
Is Trump fit to be president? ‘Father time is undefeated,’ Desantis says
Mr. Desantis sidestepped questions about whether Mr. Trump is “fit” to be president but said he thinks the former president, is 77, is too old to be president.
“Father time is undefeated,” Mr. Desantis, 45, said, adding: “I think we need to have somebody younger.”
He also said a candidate needed to be able to serve two terms, which Mr. Trump would not be able to do.
Mr. Christie then repeatedly tried to get Mr. Desantis to answer whether he thought Mr. Trump was mentally fit, leading to extended cross-talk and bickering between the two.
Mr. Desantis said of Mr. Trump: “I don’t know how he would score on a test.”
The Florida governor said he did not think Mr. Trump “is as bad as Biden,” who is 81, but said, “I do think that over a four-year period, it is not a job for somebody that’s pushing 80. We need somebody that’s younger.”
Little revealed on immigration and border
The fourth Republican presidential debate, like those before it, is revealing little about a core issue to many primary voters: immigration and border security.
A nine-minute segment focused largely on the fentanyl scourge, with Ms. Haley and Mr. Ramaswamy focused more on China than Mexico as a source of the drug. Mr. Desantis defended his vow to shoot smugglers at the border, even though 90% of fentanyl seized at the border during the latest budget year was at official crossings — not between them — and nearly 3 of 4 fentanyl seizures at the border have been carried out by U.S. citizens.
There have been some wrinkles along the way, such as Mr. Ramaswamy’s call in the third debate for a border wall with Canada, but candidates were once again largely in lockstep and unwilling or unable to draw contrasts.
It is hard to out-Mr. Trump Mr. Trump on an issue that helped catapult him to the White House and would be a thrust of his second term. He has hinted at mass detentions of people in the country illegally and flirted with resurrecting a policy to separate childrenfrom their parents at the border, a bridge that his opponents have yet to cross.
Expect the issue to become more prominent ahead of the general election, where contrasts with Biden and Democrats are much sharper.