{"id":5143,"date":"2023-08-23T23:55:03","date_gmt":"2023-08-23T23:55:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=5143"},"modified":"2023-08-24T05:58:53","modified_gmt":"2023-08-24T05:58:53","slug":"despite-trumps-absence-plenty-of-fireworks-at-first-republican-presidential-debate-of-the-2024-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=5143","title":{"rendered":"Despite Trump\u2019s Absence, Plenty of Fireworks at First Republican Presidential Debate of the 2024 Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/wisconsindailystar.com\/news\/despite-trumps-absence-plenty-of-fireworks-at-first-republican-presidential-debate-of-the-2024-season\/mkittle\/2023\/08\/23\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin \u2014<\/strong> For those who thought a Trump-less GOP presidential primary debate was doomed to be a snooze fest, the two-hour political bar brawl disabused them of that notion.<\/p>\n

The first Republican National Committee debate Wednesday night in Milwaukee proved to be a tinder box for the slate of candidates trailing former President Donald Trump by as much as 40 percentage points or more<\/a>. And the rhetorical explosions came fast and furious at times \u2014 even as the combatants didn\u2019t invoke Trump\u2019s name for the first hour of the debate.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s where things really went boom!<\/p>\n

Fox News<\/em> moderator Bret Baier asked the eight Republicans who made the debate stage about the \u201celephant not in the room.\u201d Trump opted to skip the debate and instead joined former Fox News<\/em> host Tucker Carlson for a taped interview \u2014 that aired on X (formerly Twitter) during the live debate.<\/p>\n

The question: Would the candidates sign the Republican Party pledge to support the eventual nominee if said nominee is Trump and he is convicted in any of the four criminal indictments against him? Baier wanted a show of hands. Many raised them, some reluctantly. Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who has campaigned in large part on his loathing of Trump, wasn\u2019t among them.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere\u2019s the bottom line. Someone has got to stop moralizing this conduct. Whether you believe the criminal charges are right or wrong, the conduct is beneath the office of the president,\u201d Christie said to a mix of applause and boos. He took exception to his vocal critics in the crowd at Fiserv Forum, home of the NBA\u2019s Milwaukee Bucks.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know what? This is the great thing about this country, booing is allowed but it doesn\u2019t change the truth,\u201d he said, eliciting more boos.<\/p>\n

Ohio entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who has seen his rising poll numbers move his campaign into third place among the crowded field, defended Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Trump, I believe, was the best president of this 21st century,\u201d he said to ringing applause among the thousands in attendance.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd Chris Christie, honest to God, your claim that Donald Trump is motivated by vengeance and grievance would be a lot more credible if your entire campaign were not based on vengeance and grievance,\u201d Ramaswamy added.<\/p>\n

Trump plans to appear in Fulton County (GA) Court on Thursday to answer charges in his latest 2020 election-related indictment.<\/p>\n

Most agreed with the vast majority of Republican voters who believe the indictments against Trump are part of the greater weaponization of President Joe Biden\u2019s Department of Justice and ally Democrat prosecutors against their political enemies.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe keep seeing not only the weaponization of the DOJ against political opponents but parents who showed up at school board meetings and were called terrorists,\u201d said U.S. Senator Tim Scott, who has polled in the top 3 in first nominating state Iowa.<\/p>\n

The sparring and rhetorical fireworks started early and often, much of it between former Vice President Mike Pence and Ramaswamy and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley and Ramaswamy and Christie and Ramaswamy. In short, the candidate challenging Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for second place in the Republican presidential race, turned out to be the main target of attack on the incendiary debate stage.<\/p>\n

Pence repeatedly hit Ramaswamy on his youth and political inexperience. The Ohio political outsider turned 38 this month, just three years older than the constitutional minimum age to serve as the nation\u2019s chief executive. Ramaswamy has proudly proclaimed the fact that he is the first millennial Republican to run for president.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow is not the time for on-the-job training. We don\u2019t need to bring in a rookie,\u201d said Pence, who entered the debate trailing Ramaswamy, DeSantis and Trump in RealClearPolitics\u2019<\/em> latest average of Republican primary polls.<\/p>\n

Ramaswamy said it\u2019s time \u201csomeone from a different generation\u201d lead America. He seemed to hit back hard after most rhetorical blows, at one point calling the \u201cexperienced\u201d government officials on stage \u201cSuper PAC puppets.\u201d The Ohio businessman is making his first foray into politics, starting at the top. His GOP nomination rivals didn\u2019t care for his characterization of them as bought-and-paid-for stooges.<\/p>\n

Surprising to pundits, DeSantis took very little fire from his opponents, perhaps a reflection of his faltering poll numbers early in the 2024 campaign season. DeSantis held center stage by virtue of his lead \u2014 shrinking as it has been \u2014 in the polls, but the Florida governor was mostly left alone. He hammered home his military service and his record as governor, particularly his re-election win by 20 percentage points in November.<\/p>\n

His biggest applause line may have arrived when DeSantis blasted the lockdown policies that stripped Americans of their liberties during the pandemic. It was also a shot at Trump, again without mentioning the former president by name.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t take somebody like Fauci, and coddle him,\u201d DeSantis said. \u201cYou bring Fauci in, you sit him down, and you say \u2018Anthony, you are fired.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

DeSantis has run in large part on his record of reopening Florida earlier than other states during COVID.<\/p>\n

Haley, as she has often done on the campaign trail, laid a big portion of the massive U.S. debt in recent years at the feet of Trump and congressional Republicans who helped drive up the debt by nearly $8 trillion. Haley has failed to gain much traction in the national polls, with 3.2 percent support nationally<\/a>, in fifth place just ahead of fellow South Carolinian Tim Scott.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t care about polls. No one is telling the American people the truth, and the truth is Joe Biden didn\u2019t do that to us; Republicans did that to us, too,\u201d Haley said to applause.<\/p>\n

As the only woman on the debate stage, Haley scored some points when she took a direct shot at her male opponents.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is why Margaret Thatcher said, \u2018If you want something said ask a man, if you want something done ask a woman,\u2019\u201d she said to a mix of laughter and applause.<\/p>\n

Haley and Pence sparred over pro-life values and the realities of a post-Roe v. Wade<\/em> world in politics. Pence said a solid majority of Americans support a federal 15-week limit on abortions.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut 70 percent of the Senate does not,\u201d Haley interjected.<\/p>\n

North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum may have won a moral victory by just showing up to the debate. The night before, he ended up in a Milwaukee emergency room after injuring himself in a pick-up basketball game. He hobbled on to the stage and joked about how he took the old theatrical good luck idiom of \u201cbreak a leg\u201d too far.<\/p>\n

Burgum and former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson mainly stuck to their talking points on rural and social conservative values. Hutchinson blasted Trump for his mounting legal issues.<\/p>\n

More than any combatant, Pence stretched the debate clock to the point of breaking. Baier, on several occasions, scolded the former vice president for abusing the rule. He wasn\u2019t the only abuser of the rule. Baier and fellow moderator and Fox New<\/em>s host Martha MacCallum, at multiple points, lost control of the debate as the candidates shouted over each other and refused to answer the questions asked.<\/p>\n

While each camp declared victory Wednesday evening, Donald Trump Jr., working the spin room, said his father was the clear victor despite his absence. He said Ramaswamy did the best among the candidates on the stage. How about DeSantis, who has taken the brunt of the former president\u2019s derision?<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was like a deer in headlights,\u201d Trump Jr. told The Star News Network.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Watch the latest video at foxnews.com<\/a>
\u2013 \u2013 \u2013<\/p>\n

M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
<\/strong>Photo \u201cRNC Debate\u201d by Fox News.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The post Despite Trump\u2019s Absence, Plenty of Fireworks at First Republican Presidential Debate of the 2024 Season<\/a> appeared first on The Wisconsin Daily Star<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/wisconsindailystar.com\/news\/despite-trumps-absence-plenty-of-fireworks-at-first-republican-presidential-debate-of-the-2024-season\/mkittle\/2023\/08\/23\/ MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin \u2014 For those who thought a Trump-less…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":3495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wi-daily-star"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/77"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5143"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5144,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5143\/revisions\/5144"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}