We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
LAST UPDATE | 24 Aug 2023
FIGHTING AGAINST THE odds – and their current positions in the polls – the Republicans trying to beat Donald Trump to win the party’s nomination for the 2024 presidential race faced each other down for the first time in the inaugural debate of this primary season.
The debate, hosted by Fox News, took place in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the early hours of this morning Irish time (8pm-10pm local time) without Trump, who declined to participate.
The eight contenders who participated in the debate are:
Pointing to Trump’s wide lead in the polls ahead of the debate, CNN Chief National Correspondent John King described the other candidates’ chances as a “longer than long shot”.
He added, though, that a shake-up could still happen between now and the end of the primaries, particularly in light of Trump’s mounting legal battles.
The US’ political system is dominated by two parties – Democrats and Republicans. As each four-year presidential cycle draws to a close, the two parties nominate a candidate to represent them in the battle for the Oval Office.
The process of selecting those candidates is known as the ‘primaries’ – a months-long period of debates and campaigning that builds up to state-by-state decisions on who to back for the nomination.
The first heads to butt at the Fox News debate were Ramaswamy and Pence’s, who are polar opposites in terms of their experience – one with no political background, the other a White House veteran.
Ramaswamy sought to lean into his status as a political novice, claiming “it’s going to take an outsider” to fix, as he sees it, the problems with American society.
Pence took a jab at comments made previously by Ramaswamy that a president “can’t do everything”, emphasising the responsibilities that the role entails.
Ramaswamy, given the opportunity to respond, swerved the criticism and took the chance to raise his own policy proposals, quipping: “This isn’t that complicated, guys.” He then said he didn’t understand Pence’s point, who in turn offered, with a dash of smugness, to explain it to him.
“I was a House Conservative leader before it was cool,” Pence said. “Joe Biden has weakened the US at home and abroad. Now is not the time for on the job training.”
The moderators asked the candidates to raise their hands if they believed in human-caused climate change. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis quickly interjected, saying “we’re not schoolchildren, let’s have the debate”.
Ramaswamy jumped in next to wrongly claim: “The climate change agenda is a hoax.” He was met with a mix of cheers and boos, having previously only attracted applause for his remarks on the economy.
Chris Christie came in to respond to a suggestion by Ramaswamy that the other candidates on the stage had been “bought and paid for”. Christie said he had “had enough of a guy who sounds like ChatGPT” and called Ramaswamy the “same type of amateur” that Republicans saw Barack Obama as in the 2008 presidential race.
Amid the bickering, Nikki Haley took the opportunity to quote Margaret Thatcher, saying “this is why” the former British prime minister said that “if you want something said, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman.”
After a commercial break that gave the candidates their first pause 30 minutes into the debate, the moderators turned to abortion, which is expected to be one of the most prominent issues throughout this election.
Pence reiterated his call for a sweeping nationwide ban after 15 weeks, while other candidates, including Haley and Doug Burgum, indicated instead that the matter should be left to individual states to make decisions on, with Burgum saying that “what’s going to work in New York is never going to work in North Dakota and vice versa”.
It took an hour before the “elephant not in the room” was mentioned explicitly.
The candidates – who had to pledge that they would support the ultimate Republican nominee as a prerequisite to participating in tonight’s debate – were asked whether they would still back Trump if he was convicted of a crime.
Most of them indicated they would. Christie, however, said: “Someone’s got to stop normalising this conduct. Whether or not you believe that the criminal charges are right or wrong, the conduct is beneath the office of the President of the United States.”
Governor Asa Hutchinson stated: “I’m not going to support somebody who’s been convicted of a serious felony or is disqualified under our Constitution.”
Asked whether Pence made the correct decision in certifying the 2020 election results on 6 January 2021, Tim Scott said that he “absolutely” did.
DeSantis dodged the question, saying the election is not about “January 2021″ but “January 2025″, when the next president will be sworn in. Pushed on it, he said: “Mike did his duty. I have no beef with him.”
Haley said that it would be up to the public to determine whether Trump would be president but said that the US needs a “new generational Conservative leader”. She called Trump the “most disliked” politician in America and said that the Republican party “can’t win a general election that way”.
Turning to Ukraine, in one of the most heated discussions of the debate, the candidates were asked whether any of them would not support an increase in funding to Ukraine. Two took that line: DeSantis and Ramaswamy.
DeSantis insisted that he would “have Europe pull its weight”, while Ramaswamy said the US should “secure our own border instead of somebody else’s.”.
Taking a different stance, Christie spoke about a trip he made to Ukraine, describing the brutality carried out by the Russian army. “This is the Vladimir Putin who Donald Trump called brilliant and a genius,” Christie said.
Pence, addressing Ramaswamy, said that the US could both defend itself and the rest of the “free world”, accusing Ramaswamy of failing to understand Putin’s aims.
But Ramaswamy insisted: “Today, Ukraine is not a priority for the US… Protect this homeland.”
Haley described Ukraine as a “pro-American country invaded by a thug” and said that eleven European countries have given more to Ukraine on a pro-capita basis on the US. “A win for Russia is a win for China,” she said.
The debate returned to domestic questions on crime, drugs, and immigration, which saw the candidates try to articulate how they would come down hard on issues that Republican voters will be looking for action on.
On education, DeSantis blamed Covid-19 lockdowns for gaps in children’s knowledge and paraded his moves in Florida to eliminate “critical race theory” and so-called “gender ideology” from schools, decisions for which he has received significant criticism from human rights activists.
Ramaswamy argued that “part of the problem” with education standards is that the government “pays single women more not to have a man in the house than to have a man in the house” and that education “starts with the family”.
Both Scott and Christie criticised teachers’ unions, with Scott saying reforming education would need to “break the backs” of the unions.
The candidates were asked about the inclusion or exclusion of transgender people in sports, but they largely dodged it in their responses, circling back to education. Burgum focused on how education “differs by state”, while Haley emphasised the importance of “getting kids reading”. Elsewhere, though, several candidates made a point of mocking nontraditional understandings of gender, including Scott and Ramaswamy.
The final lightning-round of questions saw Pence asked whether presidents should have to pass a mental and physical test to hold the office.
Pence, tongue-in-cheek, said it “might be a good idea” for everyone in Washington DC to have to pass such a test, before saying: “No, the American people can make those judgements.” He added, though, that the US president should be neither too old – in a criticism of incumbent President Joe Biden – nor too young, getting in a final jab at 38-year-old Ramaswamy.
In a somewhat out-of-left field turn as the debate drew to a close, Christie was asked a question that started: “Do you believe that the recent spike in UFO encounters -”
“I get the UFO question?” Christie jumped in.
The full question ended up being whether, if he was president, would he “level with the American people” on “what the government knows” about UFOs.
“I think it’s horrible that just because I’m from New Jersey, you ask me about unidentified flying objects and martians. We’re different, but we’re not that different,” Christie said, before offering a more serious answer about the job of the president being “to level with people about everything”.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Meaningless debate between a bunch of No Hopers clogging up the field.
The Real Discussion is happening right now over on Twitter.
@Tommy Haze: You mean it’s not a bunch of lunatics shouting at each other like it is here?
@Tommy Haze: trump is home and hosed
Wrongly claim ‘climate change is a hoax’ according to the author! Only her opinion!!!
@Eugene Kelly: Well, her and ~97% of the global scientific community.
@Eugene Kelly: One’s entitlement to an opinion should be predicated on it being well-supported by evidence, logic and argument. In the author’s case, it is.
@Eugene Kelly: Here is the deal. Ramaswamy fully understands the reality of climate change. He chose words carefully, not calling climate change a hoax ,but calling the “climate agenda” a hoax.
Vaswamy is extremely smart, and his objective is to become president, so you should not expect anything he says to reflect his actual opinion. He is modelling himself on his perception of what the republican base wants, and giving soundbites that are provocation enough to stay in headlines, with just semantic ambiguity to be able to spin it back to a general voter if he becomes the nominee.
Look on the bright side. They are all at least 40 years younger than biden.biden needs an old folks home at this stage
@reg morrisey: “at this stage” – you weirdos have been saying that for years while he’s been demonstrating himself to be a lot sharper, smoother, and infinitely more competent, than you. :)
@Joe Philips: Thankfully Biden has been there to support Ukraine.
russia might well be at the borders of Poland and Romania by now, with another people condemned to russian oppression. Probably Moldova too.
And he has gone a long way to recover the US economy, and straighten out the corruption of the Trump “administration”.
Although I would have preferred another to Biden, he has done better that I expected. But his administration has been far too soft on US Republican corruption, in my opinion.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: Biden (and I agree with you that he wouldn’t be my choice either – and definitely is too old for 2024) has managed to surprise people with the amount of legislation his administration have been able to negotiate passage through Congress. Meanwhile Trump was ranked 43rd worst president by the Siena College Research Institute. This means Trump has ‘broken through’ the Civil War era bottom 3 of Pierce, Johnson and Buchanan for the first time (previously C-Span ranked him 42nd). Bide was given a ranking of 19th by the Siena College Research Institute.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: I fully agree with you there. And I don’t think there’s anyone else that would’ve done as well as he has.
I should’ve said “but” rather than “and” there, and probably shouldn’t have said “fully”
@Numinous20111: Who would be your choice?
@Joe Philips: I think Biden was a good pragmatic choice in 2020, but he should always have been a one term president. I understand it is tricky having a serving president and a new candidate at the same time (who speaks for the party’s policy platform and general attitude?, does the president catch criticism for anything the candidate does or says & vice versa?)…….probably Warren, but there isn’t a Democratic candidate who is in a really strong position either. Buttigieg would appear to be the front-runner after Biden’s era.
@Numinous20111: Buttigieg or Jeffries, I reckon. I disagree about the one-term thing, though, and I think his shortcomings/mishaps are grossly, purposely, and often ridiculously exaggerated.
That lot make all of ours look good.
@Steve O’Hara Smith.: no they don’t.
@Lorne Malvo: They do Lorne, bot Democrats and Republicans make ours look “better”, I wouldn’t say “good”. But that’s like saying “oh yeah, I rather get the flu than breaking my leg”.
@J Ven: Nonsense.
In my opinion any man that thinks its OK to interfere in a womans reproduction, is a frightened little boy
Excellent report and analysis.
Viewership for the RNC debate on Fox was 23.9m. That was very good. Apparently it was a record for an RNC debate.
On ‘X’ Trump’s chat with Tucker had 74m views.
However, I’d imagine a lot of those could be foreign viewers.
I’d have a question for the author of this piece.
Apparently the 1st question put to the debaters was in relation to the song ‘Richmen north of Richmond’.
Why was that deemed not worthy of inclusion in this piece?
@Monetpenny: If you scroll on ‘X’ and go past that video and the video plays for tenth of a second it counts as a view… Imagine the push for this “interview” on ‘X’ feeds and how many people scrolled past it in their feed… Makey up numbers to suit an agenda.
OMB gonna break X tonight
@Oh Mammy: Its Trump v Biden and God help America.
Nikki haley probably spoke the best out of a bad bunch. Although the line about chatgpt was fairly funny. Bit of an excercise in pointlessnesss all the same as it looks like the cowardly auld lad afraid to speak is a shoe in for the nomination.
Its like I line up of pedophiles trying to prove who is the lesser pedo.
@: We speak proper English in Ireland. All this talk of ‘pedo…’ highlights the red white and blue in you. Personally, I’ve always found it weird and creepy when people throw those words around. It smacks of projection.
@Lorne Malvo: ‘I’ll air my opinion on that if and when that issue is raised anywhere.’ It was raised.. and so that discussion begins. it’s not rocket science. You initiated the discussion. Stop hiding behind ‘but it isn’t in the article’ malarkey.
You’re advocating a barter system involving childcare.. but you don’t want to talk about the children who are central to this barter system. it’s a tangent apparently.. Christ.
You don’t see any problems with childminding being included in a barter system? Like none.. zip.. nada..?
Also, I’ve addressed the student side of this twice now and you’ve conveniently ignored that one.
have your say