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The first debate for the 2024 Republican presidential primary featured former ambassador Nikki Haley and former Vice President Mike Pence landing jabs when they tangled with entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.
“You have no foreign-policy experience, and it shows,” Haley said to Ramaswamy, as he voiced objections to U.S. support for Ukraine after Russia’s invasion of that country.
That led GOP pollster and pundit Frank Luntz to say that Haley “may have just won” the debate, as she “destroyed” Ramaswamy in their exchange on foreign policy.
Another Republican consultant, Kellyanne Conway, also sounded impressed, saying on Fox News after the debate that Haley “is going to get a second look from some people based on some stuff she said tonight.”
But Ramaswamy delivered his own share of jabs, including one directed at Haley during their disagreement over Ukraine.
“I wish you well in your future career on the boards of Lockheed
LMT,
and Raytheon
RTX,
” he said, referring to defense companies that benefit from higher U.S. military spending.
Meanwhile, Pence argued that Ramaswamy wasn’t being tough enough with Russian President Vladimir Putin, telling his GOP rival that “if we do the giveaway that you want,” it’s “not going to be too long before he rolls across a NATO border.”
Pence and Ramaswamy led in total speaking time in the debate, according to multiple published reports citing trackers of that metric, with the former vice president talking for more than 12 minutes and Ramaswamy coming in just under 12 minutes.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was third in speaking time, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was fourth and Haley was fifth.
Related: Christie says Ramaswamy sounds like ChatGPT, Obama
Wednesday night’s debate in Milwaukee offered a chance for candidates to shoot for a breakout moment and chip away at former President Donald Trump’s big advantage in their race.
Trump, the frontrunner for the GOP nomination, skipped the debate on Fox News and staged counter-programming. He teamed up with former Fox News star Tucker Carlson to release an interview at the same time as the debate.
“I just felt it would be more appropriate not to do the debate. I don’t think it’s right to do it if you’re leading by 50, 60, one poll I’m leading by 70 points,” Trump said in that interview.
During Wednesday night’s debate, Haley also made an effort to rise above the fray after DeSantis, Ramaswamy and Christie clashed over questions on climate change.
“I think this is exactly why Margaret Thatcher said, ‘If you want something said, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman,’” Haley said, drawing applause.
Haley called for finding a consensus on abortion, but Pence criticized her.
“Consensus is the opposite of leadership,” the former vice president said to Haley.
She also criticized Trump.
“We have to face the fact that Trump is the most disliked politician in America. We can’t win a general election that way,” she said.
Trump has grabbed the spotlight throughout August thanks to his widely followed indictments in Washington, D.C., and Georgia’s Fulton County in cases tied to his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
The former president has denied wrongdoing and argued the charges are politically motivated, as he did with his spring indictments in a hush-money case and a classified-documents case.
Many Republican voters have agreed with his take on his legal troubles and rallied around Trump in the past few months, leaving him with 55.4% support in primary polls, according to a RealClearPolitics moving average of surveys as of Wednesday. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is a distant second with 14.3% support, followed by Ramaswamy at 7.2%, Pence at 4.0%, Haley at 3.2%, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina at 3.1% and Christie at 3.0%, with other candidates polling under 3%.
President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign criticized the GOP’s White House hopefuls ahead of their debate. Cedric Richmond, a co-chair for Biden’s campaign and a former Louisiana congressman, described the debate participants as “the most extreme slate of Republican primary candidates ever.”
“And the truth is, it doesn’t matter who wins the debate. They’ve chosen a losing strategy, and that strategy is to be as extreme, as MAGA and as out of touch with the American people as possible,” Richmond said during a conference call with reporters.
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