Wednesday’s fourth and final GOP presidential primary debate of 2023 left former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley on defense as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy repeatedly challenged the former South Carolina governor while Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor, defended her intellect while arguing she’s not ready to be president. 

Two hours of sparring ahead of January’s Iowa caucuses raised the stakes between Haley and DeSantis, who are jockeying for a second-place finish behind former President Trump, the Republican frontrunner. 

Trump skipped the event in Tuscaloosa, Ala., broadcast by NewsNation which, like The Hill, is part of Nexstar Media Group. 

Christie, who insists the former president should never return to the Oval Office, repeatedly pummeled Trump and challenged his rivals to do the same. 

“They don’t want to talk about the fact that when you go and you say the truth about somebody who is a dictator, or bully, who has taken shots at everybody,” Christie said to occasional boos from the debate audience. “I’m in this race because the truth needs to be spoken. He is unfit.” 

DeSantis had an especially strong first half of the debate, writes The Hill’s Niall Stanage. 

Asked about his low polling numbers, he parried by noting his landslide reelection in Florida last year and segueing into an immediate attack on Haley. 

Haley tried to turn back the wave of early attacks with a retort that immediately circulated on social media: “I love all the attention, fellas, thank you for that.”  

More substantively, she continued her measured critiques of Trump, contending that the huge increase in the national debt during his tenure had contributed to today’s high interest rates. 

She also made her nemesis, Ramaswamy, look small on occasions, especially when he unveiled the obvious gimmick of a piece of paper on which “Nikki = corrupt” was written. 

Asked if she wanted to respond, a disdainful Haley declined, saying, “It’s not worth my time.” 

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Amid a presidential contest in which many voters say they’re feeling ho-hum about voting for either of the expected nominees next year, Biden is still honing a political message. His pitch for another four years is a blend of salesmanship about the economy, what he asserts is effective leadership at home and abroad, and stark warnings that Trump and “extremist” Republican allies could dynamite democracy and the rule of law if given another chance. 

THE PRESIDENT’S CAMPAIGN pounced on Trump’s exchange with Fox News’s Sean Hannity Tuesday, during which Trump responded that he’d be a dictator “on day one” of another term by closing “the border” and “drilling, drilling, drilling.”     

Trump has plenty to say about Biden, asserting that he’s too old and is responsible for global inflation, migration and all manner of international mayhem. The former president plays up voters’ anxieties about the economy while asserting that America’s foes never dared to challenge the United States when he was in office. During the debate, the Trump campaign released a new ad that depicts the president as “weak.” 

Trump, who has refused to debate his GOP primary challengers, has inched ahead of Biden, according to some polls that ask voters about a hypothetical match-up between the two. Biden’s job approval in 2023 dropped from 45 percent to 37 percent, a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS finds. One major reason: economic angst. 

The New York Times guest essay by Thomas B. Edsall: “This is grim,” one Democratic pollster says. 

The former president, on the other hand, also is unpopular with a majority of Americans, according to FiveThirtyEight’s tracker. But contrary to many predictions, Trump’s legal entanglements, 91 criminal charges in four jurisdictions and looming federal and state trials have shown no signs of sinking him in his bid for the presidency.   

Biden, who in the past boasted he was the only Democrat to beat Trump, on Wednesday told reporters that perhaps “50” others in his party could win against the challenger in 2024. “But I will defeat him,” he told reporters.  

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LEADING THE DAY 

CONGRESS 

Senators in both parties are calling for Biden and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to take a more active role in negotiations over a package to fund Ukraine and Israel and secure the U.S.-Mexico border. The Hill’s Alexander Bolton reports the request comes after GOP senators voted unanimously Wednesday to block a motion to proceed on the $110 billion bill.  

Biden’s request for military aid to Ukraine and Israel, humanitarian assistance for Gaza and funding to secure the southern border now appears to be in serious jeopardy after talks over border security broke down last week. Senators voted 49-51 Wednesday, failing to reach the 60-vote threshold that would allow the proposal to come up for consideration. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) voted with every Republican against the measure. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) flipped his vote to “no” so he could bring the bill up again in the future (The Hill). 

WITH ONLY TWO WORK WEEKS LEFT before Christmas, senators acknowledge it’s looking more likely that Congress won’t pass new money for Ukraine this year, and some are calling on Biden and McConnell, who have a long history of negotiating major deals, to get more directly involved.   

“I think it would be very helpful to have the White House as part of this negotiation,” said Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.). “In the wake of this failed vote, it’s an appropriate time.”  

But senators insist the saga isn’t over quite yet. Both parties quickly moved to resuscitate negotiations, and Republicans are expected to make a new offer to Democrats, which Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said could bring his party back to the negotiating table (Politico). 

THE STATE OF BORDER TALKS has exasperated Senate Republicans, many of whom described themselves as being fed up with discussions and being intensely frustrated at the lack of progress. The Hill’s Al Weaver reports that perhaps most telling about the mood is that some of the GOP’s most mild-mannered lawmakers were the ones making waves over what they deem to be a lack of seriousness across the aisle.  

“I’ve had it,” Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), a Ukraine aid supporter and defense hawk who is known for her low-key nature, said Wednesday. “We let them have it because they deserved to have it.” 

Even if senators can overcome the current gridlock over Ukraine funding, some House Republicans are already signaling opposition to any bill that links aid to major immigration reform. Several House conservatives who have repeatedly voted against Ukraine told The Hill’s Brad Dress their vote was reliant on passing H.R.2, a stringent border security bill, or similar legislation. Total Ukraine skeptics in the House also appear open to backing Ukraine for strong border protections — but they have also signaled that immigration reforms must go first. 

A ROCKY TENURE: Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) announced on Wednesday in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece that he will retire from the House at the end of the year. The Bakersfield Republican was removed from the Speakership in a stunning — and historic — fashion roughly two months ago, ending his less-than-a-year run with the gavel. Eight Republicans joined with Democrats to depose him. 

Following the vote, speculation swirled about whether McCarthy — who rose through the ranks of GOP leadership since coming to Congress in 2007 — would run for re-election, or even finish out his current term. McCarthy announced his planned departure from the House just days before California’s deadline to file for reelection (The Hill). 

Tensions are rising within the Democratic Party around how to best condemn Hamas for sexual violence in its war with Israel, an escalating battle prompting fury from the White House to Capitol Hill. Democrats have expressed strong criticism over instances of violence and rape by Hamas toward Israeli women, but many in the party say progressives have appeared to equivocate or have not gone far enough to condemn the actions, reports The Hill’s Hanna Trudo. Rep. Lois Frankel (D-Fla.), who left the Progressive Caucus last month due to divisions within the group over the war, and Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) plan to introduce a resolution this week condemning the military group (CNN). 

▪ The Washington Post: Government investigators in the U.S. and foreign countries have used push notification data to pursue people of interest, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said in a Wednesday letter to the Justice Department, revealing for the first time how Americans can be tracked through a basic service provided by their smartphones. (You may want to reconsider your settings.) 

▪ Semafor: 💰 Former Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.), expelled Friday from the House, is now pulling in six figures making Cameo videos. People paid up to $400 to Santos for various forms of communication. 

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ZOOM IN 

MIDDLE EAST 

Israeli forces struck the southern Gaza town of Rafah twice overnight, sowing fear in one of the last places where civilians could seek refuge after Israel widened its offensive against Hamas to areas already packed with displaced people. 

United Nations officials say there are no safe places remaining in Gaza after heavy fighting in and around the southern city of Khan Younis has displaced tens of thousands of people in a territory where over 80 percent of the population has already fled their homes (The Associated Press). The Israel Defense Forces boasts of killing 5,000 Hamas fighters in Gaza since Oct. 7 as the death toll among Palestinians climbs above 15,000, according to estimates contested on each side of the war. Israeli military officials say about half of Hamas’s mid-level commanders in Gaza are dead. The Wall Street Journal reports that Yaakov Amidror, a former national security adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said the Hamas system had not collapsed. “They are still making decisions, they are still fighting.”  

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Wednesday invoked Article 99 of the U.N. charter for the first time, citing a “severe risk of collapse of the humanitarian system in Gaza,” as the war rages on between Israel and Hamas. In a letter to the current U.N. Security Council president, Guterres said he expects “public order to completely break down due to desperate conditions, rendering even limited humanitarian assistance impossible.” 

The invocation of Article 99 allows the U.N. secretary-general to bring the attention of the security council to “any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security,” per the U.N. The letter marks a rare and significant move by the U.N. chief, who has repeatedly called for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas amidst the rising death toll and destruction of Gaza, which has been controlled by Hamas since 2007 (The Hill). 

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ELSEWHERE 

TRUMP WORLD 

A BALANCING ACT: Candidate Trump and defendant Trump will collide in 2024.  

Although Trump has consistently leveraged delays as a tactic in his legal battles over the years, his attempts to stall his criminal prosecutions have higher stakes, including the possibility Trump will ultimately try to pardon himself if convicted and elected president. The Hill’s Ella Lee and Zach Schonfeld report his attorneys in court filings and hearings contend the cases impede Trump’s political flexibility and amount to “election interference.” But prosecutors and some judges have forcefully pushed back on the notion that the candidate’s aims should be a legal consideration amid criminal charges. 

Truth x 10: The 10 Wisconsin Republicans who falsely asserted Trump won the 2020 election there conceded that their actions were part of an effort to subvert the state’s election results as part of a settlement agreement made public Wednesday. The alternate electors affirmed that Biden won the 2020 election in the Badger State and that they were not Wisconsin’s “duly elected” presidential electors as they previously claimed. 

▪ The Hill: Trump says he told son Eric Trump not to testify at his New York fraud trial. 

▪ Politico: “Test case” for America: Colorado’s top court is poised to weigh Trump’s eligibility to run again. A Wednesday argument brings the question of Trump’s eligibility under the 14th Amendment one step closer to the Supreme Court. 

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THE CLOSER 

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