Five days before the Iowa caucuses, two Republicans vying to knock Donald Trump off his perch as the 2024 primary front-runner lit into each other at a one-on-one debate Wednesday — and had much less to say about the former president.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley spent Wednesday evening eagerly trying to clamber past each other and gain traction as the main Trump alternative as they run neck-and-neck in Iowa and nationally for a distant second place.
The CNN debate in Iowa began just a few hours after Chris Christie dropped out of the race, conceding he had no path to victory. And long-shot candidate Vivek Ramaswamy failed to make the cut for the debate. That left DeSantis and Haley on the stage as the alternatives to Trump, who has boycotted each of the GOP debates in an attempt to starve his rivals of oxygen and create an aura of inevitability.
While Trump remains far ahead of both rivals in Iowa, Haley has shown some signs of strength in New Hampshire. Here are four key takeaways from the Iowa debate.
Trump skates, again
At a crucial moment for DeSantis and Haley to cut into Trump’s lead, just days before Republican voters start the process of choosing a nominee, they spent most of their energy attacking each other and largely letting Trump skate. That was especially so for the first hour-plus of the debate, as Trump held a solo town hall on Fox News, though he got somewhat more criticism toward the end of the debate.
It was clear that DeSantis and Haley had memorized the opposition research file on each other, including the finer details, and they repeatedly sought to get under the other’s skin. From a political standpoint, the dynamic vindicated Trump’s decision to ignore the debates — once again, he faced much less meaningful criticism that might threaten to dent his lead in the primaries.
DeSantis sprinkled some digs at Trump throughout his answers, accusing him of putting “word vomit” on social media and saying, “Donald Trump deported fewer people than Barack Obama did.”
Other times, DeSantis aligned himself with Trump to criticize Haley. “I supported Trump’s policy vis-a-vis Russia and Ukraine. It was successful,” he said. “The Biden policy has not been. But Nikki Haley is basically a carbon copy of what Biden is.”
Haley’s toughest criticism of Trump came when she disagreed with him that Jan. 6, 2021, was “a beautiful day”; she called it “a terrible day.” She added: “Trump lost it. Biden won that election.”
But Haley reserved her toughest criticisms for DeSantis, not Trump.
“The best way to tell about a candidate is to see how they run their campaign. He has blown through $150 million. I don’t know how you do that. Through his campaign, he has nothing to show for it,” she said. “He spent more money on private planes than he has on commercials trying to get Iowans to vote for him. If you can’t manage your campaign, how are you going to manage the country?”
Later, DeSantis said Trump “sat in the White House and tweeted law and order, but he did nothing to ensure law and order” during the 2020 “riots.” Then he pivoted to attacking Haley.
Meanwhile, Trump’s campaign spent the debate circulating emails trashing both DeSantis and Haley on the topics that came up.
DeSantis unloads the oppo file on Haley
Seeking to blunt her recent rise, DeSantis unleashed a torrent of attacks on Haley within seconds of the debate’s beginning, saying she is only “running to pursue her donors’ issues.”
“We don’t need another mealy-mouthed politician who just tells you what she thinks you want to hear just to try to get your vote,” he said. “This is somebody that wrote in her book that Hillary Clinton inspired her to first run for office.”
“I debated the governor of California, Gavin Newsom. I thought he lied a lot. Man, Nikki Haley gives him a run for his money, and she may even be more liberal than Gavin Newsom is,” he said, adding that the next president should govern in “bold colors” and “not the pale pastel warmed-over corporatism of people like Nikki Haley.”
Later, when DeSantis accused Haley of favoring a gas tax hike in South Carolina, Haley said she did not raise the tax.
“You tried,” he interrupted. “You’re on video.”
“Gov. DeSantis, she has the floor,” CNN’s Dana Bash said.
Haley responded by encouraging viewers to go to the website DeSantisLies.com, which her campaign created, to push back against his claims about her. “Every time he lies — Drake University, don’t turn this into a drinking game, because you will be over-served by the end of the night,” Haley said, chuckling.
“He’s upset about the fact that his campaign is exploding,” she said.
Haley dodges on whether Trump has the character to be president
Amid speculation and repeated questions about whether she’s vying to become Trump’s vice presidential running mate, Haley trod cautiously when asked whether Trump has the character to serve in the White House again.
Instead, she made the case for herself.
“I think the next president needs to have moral clarity. I think you need to have moral clarity to understand that it’s taxpayer money, not your own money,” she said. “When you look at Donald Trump, I’ve said I think he was the right president at the right time. I agree with a lot of his policies, but his way is not my way, of vengeance. … For me, it’s very much about no drama, no whining and getting results and getting them done. So I don’t think that President Trump is the right president to go forward. I think it’s time for a new-generation leader that’s going to go and make America proud.”
Later, Haley defended her immigration record when asked about attacks by Trump, but she refrained from responding to him in kind, other than to say he should be onstage to defend his record.
Haley used a similar line later when asked how she plans to be tougher than Trump was on China. “Well, that’s why Trump should be here on this debate stage. He should have to defend it,” she said, without criticizing him. She took that tack again when asked whether Trump is sufficiently anti-abortion-rights. “I think that he did some pro-life things when he was president. You’d have to ask him. That’s why he should be on this debate stage.”
In her closing statement, Haley said the U.S. cannot afford “four more years of chaos” with a “world on fire” if Trump wins again.
Haley chides GOP ‘fellas’ on abortion rhetoric
Haley said she is “unapologetically pro-life” but chided DeSantis and other Republican men for their rhetoric — though not their policy positions — about abortion. Haley has said she favors abortion restrictions, but she downplayed the prospects of passing broad federal bans because of the 60-vote filibuster rule in the Senate.
“These fellas don’t know how to talk about abortion,” she said Wednesday. “I’ve said over and over again. The Democrats put fear in women on abortion. And Republicans have used judgment. This is too personal of an issue to put fear or judgment.”
Some policy debates got esoteric, with both candidates reaching back into their rival’s past jobs — Haley’s tenure as South Carolina governor and DeSantis’ tenure as a congressman.
When DeSantis sought to criticize Haley over the Social Security retirement age, Haley pointed out his past votes in Congress to raise the eligibility age. “You’re so desperate. You’re just so desperate,” she said, adding: “He’s lying because he’s losing.”
But they did agree on immigration — specifically, deporting all of the millions of people in the U.S. illegally.
“The number of people that will be amnestied when I am president is zero. We cannot do an amnesty in this country,” DeSantis said.
“You have to deport them,” Haley said.
