GOP candidates trade insults at testy debate: Recap

➡️ READ MORE: Five takeaways from the first GOP presidential debate

➡️ READ MORE: Winners and losers of the first GOP debate

➡️ READ MORE: Republican candidates hit Biden on inflation, immigration at debate

A top adviser to the Trump campaign declared the former president won the debate “in dominating fashion” without even attending.

“Tonight, voters saw a clear contrast between President Trump engaging in a thoughtful policy discussion about what his second term will look like versus 90-second canned sound bites and platitudes from the debate stage,” Susie Wiles, a senior adviser to Trump’s 2024 campaign, said in a statement.

“What is clear after the dust settles: none of the other candidates looked ready to take on Crooked Joe Biden. Only one leader can Make America Great Again, and that’s President Donald J. Trump,” Wiles added.

— Brett Samuels

Donald Trump Jr. and fiancee Kimberly Guilfoyle are photographed outside the Spin Room with security personnel following the first Republican presidential primary debate at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee Aug. 23, 2023. (Photo by PEDRO UGARTE/AFP via Getty Images)

The Republican divide over whether federal government should restrict abortion access was on full display during the first GOP primary presidential debate of the 2024 race Wednesday.

Read the full story here.

– Joseph Choi

Vice President Mike Pence got the most speaking time of any candidate on stage Wednesday night, clocking in at 12 minutes and 37 seconds, according to a tally done by The New York Times.

Pence was followed by Vivek Ramaswamy, who spoke for just under 12 minutes, and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who spoke for 11 minutes and 22 seconds.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who was at center stage, spoke for 10 minutes and 22 seconds.

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley got the next most speaking time, followed by Sen. Tim Scott, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson. Each of those candidates spoke for less than 10 minutes.

— Brett Samuels

“Let me begin with an observation about the opening format in last night’s debate: It was terrible. 

It seemed odd to base the first round of questions on a song. Sure, “Rich Men North of Richmond” is popular online at the moment, but that does not mean most of the public has even heard of it, let alone likes it. It seems more like Fox News trying to seem hip rather than taking the moment seriously.”

Read the full Op-Ed here.

– Derek Hunter, Opinion Contributor

The super PAC Planned Parenthood Votes noted some of the candidates shying away from committing to federal action to restricting abortion access, accusing those GOP hopefuls of trying to distance themselves from the issue.

“Some, like Mike Pence, are proudly boasting about their plan to ban abortion nationwide,” Planned Parenthood Votes spokesperson Shwetika Baijal said in a statement.

“Because they know banning abortion is unpopular, others are trying to hide their true agenda and downplay their goals to restrict access to abortion however they can. Despite their desperate attempts tonight, we know their records and we know the truth.”

The organization noted that the former and current Republican governors on stage — former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum — have all signed abortion bans into law in their respective states.

Ahead of the debate, Planned Parenthood launched its first ad campaign of the 2024 presidential race.

— Joseph Choi

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis promised Wednesday to send the U.S. military into Mexico to fight the cartels on “Day 1” if he becomes the next president of the United States.

At the GOP presidential candidate debate in Milwaukee, DeSantis agreed without hesitation when asked by the Fox News moderators hosting the event if he would support sending special forces into Mexico.

“The cartels are killing tens of thousands of our fellow citizens,” DeSantis said. “We have to reestablish the rule of law and we have to defend our people. The president of the United States has got to use all available powers as commander in chief to protect our country.”

— Brad Dress

Read more here.

Former President Trump slammed former Govs. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas and Chris Christie of New Jersey after the first GOP debate.

“Chris Christie was horrible tonight. He was booed at a level never seen before at such a debate. He should have walked off the stage – Nobody wanted to hear from him! DJT” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

He also took a jab at Hutchinson, misspelling his first name as he wrote “‘Aida’ was a joke tonight. He’s over!”

Trump was not in attendance at the first GOP debate, instead releasing a pre-recorded interview he did with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson at the same time that the debate started.

— Caroline Vakil

Former President Trump took aim at former Govs. Chris Christie and Asa Hutchinson in the aftermath of the debate, picking on two of his favorite targets.

“Chris Christie was horrible tonight. He was booed at a level never seen before at such a debate. He should have walked off the stage – Nobody wanted to hear from him!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

In a subsequent post, Trump said Hutchinson was “a joke tonight. He’s over!”

Trump similarly attacked Hutchinson and Christie by name during his interview with Tucker Carlson, which he sat for in lieu of attending the debate.

— Brett Samuels

Vice President Harris hammered the GOP candidates in a statement after the debate.

“No one on stage ‘won’ tonight’s debate. Instead, the American people heard how much they stand to lose from an extremist agenda,” Harris said in a statement issued by the Biden campaign.

“One by one, each extremist Republican candidate laid out a vision for an America that is less fair, less free, and less safe,” Harris added, citing proposals to make changes to Social Security and Medicare and policy positions that would “strip fundamental rights and basic freedoms from millions of people.”

“These extremists focus on unnecessary debates meant to divide our nation in hopes that the American public will not notice they have no affirmative agenda,” Harris said.

— Brett Samuels

Former President Trump lashed out Wednesday night at his former vice president, Mike Pence, over an answer Pence gave during the first GOP primary debate.

“The American people deserve to know that the president asked me, in his request that I reject or return votes unilaterally — a power that no vice president in American history had ever exercised or taken — he asked me to put him over the Constitution. And I chose the Constitution, and I always will,” Pence said during the debate, which Trump did not attend.

Trump, who did not post on social media throughout the two hour event, used his first post-debate comment to attack Pence for his answer.

“I never asked Mike Pence to put me above the Constitution. Who would say such a thing? A FAKE STORY!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

CNN analyst David Urban called Wednesday night’s GOP debate a “shit show.”

“Tonight proves you don’t need Donald Trump to be at a debate to have a shit show there,” Urban said on CNN. “It was a complete train wreck.”

Moderator Martha MacCallum asked the candidates about their views on former Vice President Mike Pence moving forward with certifying the results of the election on Jan. 6, 2021, and if he acted properly. Every candidate who was asked the question said Pence took the right actions. 

“Mike Pence stood for the Constitution, and he deserves not grudging credit,” said former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a vocal critic of Trump. The former president has held a large lead in polls of the GOP race but skipped Wednesday’s debate.

“He deserves our thanks as Americans for putting his oath of office and the Constitution of the United States before personal political and unfair pressure,” Christie added of Pence.

Read the full story here.

– Jared Gans

Candidates took quick jabs at transgender athletes during Wednesday’s debate but did not address the question of whether transgender women and girls should be permitted to compete on female sports teams at length.

“Biological boys don’t belong in the locker rooms of any of our girls,” said Nikki Haley, a former South Carolina governor and ambassador to the United Nations. Haley has called transgender athletes in sports the “women’s issue of our time.”

“If God made you a man, you play sports against men,” Sen. Tim Scott (S.C.) said during his closing remarks.

Vivek Ramaswamy during his closing remarks declared that “there are two genders.”

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, who signed a transgender athlete ban into law this year, pivoted quickly when asked if too much has been made of the issue, simply stating that North Dakota has made protecting women’s sports “a priority.”

Republican presidential candidates Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy clashed Wednesday night during the presidential debate in Milwaukee with Haley criticizing her GOP rival for lacking foreign policy experience and supporting Russia.

After Ramaswamy said he would not support Ukraine in the war against Russia, Haley accused him of supporting America’s foreign adversaries and abandoning its friends.

“He wants to hand Ukraine to Russia, he wants to let China eat Taiwan, he wants to go and stop funding Israel,” Haley said. “You don’t do that to friends. What you do instead is you have the backs of your friends.”

Read the full story here.

– Brad Dress

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) was surprised to receive the lone question about UFOs Wednesday night.

“I get the UFO question?” Christie said, seemingly incredulous. 

“We’ve been hearing a lot of testimony in Congress and people are taking this a lot more seriously,” moderator Martha MacCallum replied laughing, before asking: “If you were president … would you level with the American people about what the government knows about these possible encounters?” 

Christie jokingly chastised MacCallum, who is also from the Garden State. 

“I think it’s horrible that just [because] I’m from New Jersey you asked me about unidentified flying objects and Martians,” he said.  

He then offered: “The job of the president of the United States is to level with the American people about everything. The job of the president of the United States is to stand for truth.”  

— Ellen Mitchell

Nikki Haley tweaked former President Trump and other Republican candidates for their role in government spending over the years.

“What I care about the fact is that no one is telling the American people the truth. The truth is that Biden didn’t do this to us. Our Republicans did this to us too, when they passed that $2.2 trillion COVID stimulus bill,” Haley said, while pointing to a significant coronavirus stimulus package passed under the Trump administration during the pandemic.

“They need to eliminate the earmarks that the Republicans brought back in and they need to make sure they understand these are taxpayer dollars. It’s not their dollars,” she said.

“And while they’re all saying this, you have Ron DeSantis, you got Tim Scott, you’ve got Mike Pence, they all voted to raise the debt and Donald Trump added $8 trillion to our debt and our kids are never gonna forgive us for this.”

Democrats were quick to seize on the comments, with President Biden sharing a clip of the video on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, not long after along with the caption, “What she said.”

The comments come as Congress is entangled in a heated partisan battle over spending as both sides feud over where to cut government funding for fiscal 2024. 

— Aris Folley

Former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway said the candidates on the stage during the first GOP debate were fighting on the “undercard.”

Former President Trump skipped the debate, citing his large lead in most Republican primary polls.

Conway said she “wanted Trump to come to the debate” but said she understood his decision not to attend.

“It was smart in the end for him not come,” he said. “They proved his point” saying it was “not as exciting” without him.

A super PAC aligned with former President Trump took a victory lap after the debate, suggesting it was time to unite behind the GOP front-runner.

“Tonight’s second-place debate proved that it is time to unify our efforts and resources behind the only candidate who can beat Joe Biden: Donald J. Trump,” Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for MAGA Inc., said in a statement.

“Every dollar spent against Donald Trump in this primary is a dollar to help Joe Biden bankrupt our nation,” she added.

— Brett Samuels

Despite a growing topic of interest for Republicans, candidates did not spend much time on education during the debate.

Multiple candidates agreed they would shut down the Department of Education while Sen. Tim Scott (S.C.) went after teachers unions.

Education is an issue most of the candidates have similar views on such as supporting school choice and restricting topics of sexual orientation and gender identity in schools.

Former Vice President Pence took a jab at biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy over his age without naming him when the candidates were asked if presidents needed to pass mental and physical test to serve.

“No, the American people can make those judgments, but let me say I’m running for president of the United States because we don’t need a president who’s too old and we don’t need a president who’s too young. We need a president who’s been there,” Pence said during the debate.

Pence, who is 64, had traded barbs with Ramaswamy earlier in the debate. Ramaswamy is 38 years old and first Millennial running for president on the Republican side.

“I want to address Vice President Pence’s comment. I think we do need somebody of a different generation to lead this nation forward,” the 38-year-old GOP candidate said later in response to Pence’s remark.

-Caroline Vakil

Nikki Haley pleaded with the moderators to gain control of the debate after Vivek Ramaswamy and Mike Pence clashed well after their time to speak had expired.

“Y’all have to gain control of this debate. You have to gain control of this debate,” Haley said after the other two candidates began talking over one another during what was supposed to be a “lightning round.”

Bret Baier, one of the co-moderators, said they were getting things under control.

“This is a lightning round, not rolling thunder,” he quipped.

-Brett Samuels

DeSantis, Pence and Ramaswamy went after the Department of Education as the moderators noted student test scores have fallen dramatically since the pandemic.

Ramaswamy said he would “shut down the head of the snake” while DeSantis said he would “absolutely” end the department.

Pence took the same position while touting school choice as a way forward for families.

Former President Trump has yet to personally weigh in on the debate more than 90 minutes in.

The former president had not posted on Truth Social since just before the debate started, when he took aim at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for his COVID-19 policies and promoted his interview with Tucker Carlson.

His campaign has sent out emails promoting his policy positions as topics arise in the debate, and he has surrogates on site in Milwaukee.

— Brett Samuels

President Biden highlighted an exchange from the debate in which Nikki Haley chided other candidates for voting to add to the national debt.

Biden shared a clip of Haley calling out Ron DeSantis, Tim Scott and Mike Pence and saying “they all voted to raise the debt, and Donald Trump added $8 trillion to our debt, and our kids are never going to forgive us for this.”

“What she said,” Biden posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Biden frequently touts that he has managed to reduce the national debt during his administration.

— Brett Samuels

Fox News moderator Bret Baier confronted the crowd in the first GOP debate after attendants booed former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) following criticism he gave of former President Trump.

“So listen, the more time we spend doing this, the less time they can talk about issues you want to talk about,” Baier told the crowd after several rounds of booing interrupted the debate. 

Get all the details here.

Sen. Tim Scott (S.C.) said he would complete the wall on the U.S southern border, in order to “stop the flow of fentanyl and save 70,000 Americans a year.”

“That should be the priority of this government and as the next president of the United States, I will make that border wall complete,” Scott said.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis accused drug cartels of killing “tens of thousands of our fellow citizens.”

Relaying a story of a young man who died after ingesting drugs laced with fentanyl, DeSantis promised to treat the cartels as a “foreign terrorist organizations.”

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie pivoted the issue to China, noting how much of fentanyl originates from there. He blasted China for “engaging in an act of war against us, killing our citizens.”

— Joseph Choi