Former US president Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis have dominated the Republican presidential nomination fight for much of the year. Neither dominated the debate stage on Wednesday night.
Trump, of course, decided to skip the Republican Party’s opening presidential primary debate given his overwhelming lead in the polls. DeSantis showed up, but he was overshadowed for much of the night by political newcomer Vivek Ramaswamy.
There was no shortage of aggressive performances from the others on stage either. Former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, former vice president Mike Pence and former New Jersey governor Chris Christie were aggressive when given the opportunity.
Photo: Win McNamee, Getty Images via AFP
It took more than an hour for moderators to ask about Trump’s legal battles, a discussion previewed with a video of the Atlanta jail where he would surrender on charges yesterday.
The former president scheduled counterprogramming with an interview aired on X, formerly known as Twitter, while his team suggested that the debate was essentially an audience to see who has best positioned to serve as his running mate.
At the center of the stage, and the center of the debate’s hottest exchanges, was a 38-year-old man who no one expected to be there even a few months ago — a novice candidate and technology entrepreneur named Vivek Ramaswamy.
Photo: AFP
Though he is well behind Trump, Ramaswamy has crept up in recent polls, leading to his position next to DeSantis at center stage. He quickly showed why when he showcased his ready-for-video, on-message approach — talking about how his poor parents moved to the US and gave him the chance to found billion-dollar companies.
Then Ramaswamy started to throw elbows. At one point he declared: “I’m the only person on the stage who isn’t bought and paid for.”
He slammed his rivals as “super PAC [political action committee] puppets” who were using “ready-made, pre-prepared slogans” to attack him.
He seemed to be betting that primary voters preferred something memorable said to something done. His rivals were having none of it.
“Now is not the time for on-the-job training,” Pence said. “We don’t need to bring in a rookie.”
Christie cut in during one of Ramaswamy’s most biting attacks.
“I’ve had enough of a guy who stands up here who sounds like ChatGPT,” Christie said, adding that Ramaswamy’s opening line about being a skinny guy with a hard-to-pronounce name reminded him of former president Barack Obama — not a compliment on a Republican stage.
Ramaswamy responded by asking Christie for a “hug,” referencing when Obama visited Christie’s state following Hurricane Sandy.
Haley attacked Ramaswamy’s argument that the US should not support Ukraine in its defense against Russia’s invasion.
“Under your watch, you would make America less safe. You have no foreign policy experience and it shows,” Haley told him, standing directly to his left.
It took more than an hour for the candidates to confront the elephant not in the room, and when they did, most of the participants raised their hands to say they would support Trump even if he was convicted. That is after the moderators said that Trump is facing more than 90 criminal counts in separate cases across four jurisdictions.
Ramaswamy vowed to pardon Trump if given the chance.
“Let’s just speak the truth. President Trump, I believe, was the best president of the 21st century. It’s a fact,” Ramaswamy said.
Christie, a former US attorney and frequent Trump antagonist, pushed back aggressively, despite being drowned out at times by the audience’s boos.
Even if people disagree with the criminal charges, Christie said: “The conduct is beneath the office of the president of the United States.”
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