Five takeaways from the cacophonous second GOP debate

Seven Republican presidential candidates who have struggled in the shadow of the frontrunner, former president Donald Trump, scrapped for some sunlight on Wednesday night as they met in Simi Valley, Calif., for their second debate without Trump.

It was not clear that anybody found any in what amounted to a messy fight for second place.

Here are five takeaways from the debate at the Reagan Library.

Some aimed shots at Trump. They bounced right off.

At the first presidential debate in Milwaukee, the eight candidates onstage went out of their way to leave the former president unscathed. This time, some of those onstage decided to go after him directly.

“Donald, I know you’re watching, you can’t help yourself,” said former governor Chris Christie of New Jersey, before punnily accusing the former president of being too cowardly to show up and defend his record.

“No one onstage is going to call you Donald Trump anymore, they’re going to call you Donald Duck,” he said.

Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida, who is desperately trying to cling to his No. 2 spot in the polls, also tried his own shot at Trump.

“Donald Trump is missing in action. He should be on this stage tonight. He owes it to you to defend his record, where they added $7.8 trillion to the debt that set the stage for the inflation that we have,” DeSantis said, before circling back later to hit Trump’s record on abortion.

Former vice president Mike Pence — Trump’s onetime loyal lieutenant — knocked Trump for reportedly wanting to consolidate more power in the executive branch, instead of shrinking the federal government.

It was the first time in a long campaign season that there has been a chorus of candidates willing to take on Trump — but, with the former president’s lead at 50 points and the base of the party still devoted to him, the hits may well be coming too late.

Low-polling candidates shook things up, but no one emerged victorious.

The entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy praised his rivals and cast himself as a unifier. North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum tried to muscle his way into the conversation. And the sunny South Carolina Senator Tim Scott went on the attack.

Several of the candidates rolled out new strategies that felt sharply different from the first debate, well aware that they desperately need momentum.

But the night often felt cacophonous and chaotic, with candidates shouting over one another and moderators struggling to regain control of the floor. Former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley deftly seized opportunities to attack anyone she could.

At times, DeSantis tried to take control and present himself as the adult in the room — “Can we please focus on the issues that matter,” he begged at one point, before the debate again spilled into an argument, with Ramaswamy pointing his index finger at Tim Scott.

“This isn’t productive,” DeSantis fumed as others talked over him.

When in doubt, attack Vivek.

After Ramaswamy, 38, seized the spotlight in Milwaukee — grabbing airtime but not a sustained polling bump — his rivals seemed determined on Wednesday to try to finish him off.

“The last debate he said we were all bought and paid for,” Scott said, before pivoting to a common criticism of Ramaswamy’s business record. “I can’t imagine how you can say that knowing you were just in business with the Chinese Communist Party, and the same people that funded Hunter Biden millions of dollars was a partner of yours as well.”

Later, Pence wove a similar attack into a knock on Ramaswamy’s spare record of participating in politics before he decided to run for president.

“First let me say I’m glad Vivek pulled out of his business deal in 2018 in China,” he said. “That must have been about the time you decided to start voting in presidential elections.”

No candidate landed such a resonant punch as Haley, who hit Ramaswamy for joining the Chinese social media app TikTok even though he has pushed for children under 16 to be banned from addictive social media.

“This is infuriating, because TikTok is one of the most dangerous social media apps that we can have,” she said. “And honestly, every time I hear you, I feel a little bit dumber for what you say.”

The candidates tried to embrace Reagan — but not his immigration policies.

The moderators took the opportunity to remind the candidates onstage that Ronald Reagan himself once granted amnesty to 3 million immigrants who had entered the country illegally.

The candidates quickly seized the opportunity to demonstrate just how far right their party has moved since then.

Ramaswamy advocated for ending birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants. Scott said that the Southern border should be closed altogether, while Haley said she would stop sending aid to Central American countries until the border is secure.

“Let’s go back to remain in Mexico policy,” she said. “Instead of catch and release, let’s go to catch and deport.”

Foreign policy emerged as a rare policy fault line.

From technology to business to illegal drug importation, China was in the crosshairs.

“We need a totally new approach to China,” said DeSantis. “We’re going to have real hard power in the Indo-Pacific like Reagan to deter their ambitions. We’re going to have economic independence from China where we’re decoupling our economy. And we are going to go after the cultural power they have in this country.”

The candidates tangled extensively on the issue of sending aid to defend Ukraine from its invasion by Russia, which DeSantis has called a “territorial dispute” and Ramaswamy has opposed.

“A win for Russia is a win for China,” Haley said to Ramaswamy. “Oh, I forgot, you like China.”

Then Pence weighed in by bringing the debate back to Reagan himself.

“You can’t let Russia take Ukraine, that’s a green light for China to take Taiwan,” he said. “Peace comes through strength.”