Five days before the first voters weigh in on the Republican presidential race in the Iowa caucuses, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley squared off in a one-on-one debate in Des Moines on Wednesday night.
As the candidates battled for second place in the Republican primary, they touched on a range of topics including foreign policy, immigration, government spending, and leadership.
Notably absent from the debate stage was former President Donald Trump, the current frontrunner who once again opted out of the debate and instead appeared at a simultaneous town hall on Fox News.
Read More: In Iowa, Trump Pitches Himself as Above the Fray
Trump emerged relatively unscathed during the debate, with DeSantis and Haley directing their most fervent critiques primarily at each other and labeling each other as liars, flip-floppers, and insufficient conservatives.
Both candidates still lag significantly behind Trump in Iowa, according to 538’s polling averages, though Haley has recently experienced a moderate surge in the polls.
Here are the highlights of the debate.
DeSantis likens Haley to Hillary
The debate kicked off with a fiery exchange between the two candidates, with DeSantis reiterating his accusation that Haley prioritizes the interests of her donors over the interests of the American people.
DeSantis also attempted to forge a connection between Haley and Hillary Clinton, the former Secretary of State and Democratic presidential nominee in 2016 who has long been the subject of conservative backlash.
“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, then to get an office and to do her donors’ bidding,” he said, adding that Haley wrote in her book that Hillary Clinton inspired her to first run for office.
The comparison is a line of attack that a pro-DeSantis Super PAC has been leaning into in recent weeks, though the New York Times factchecked many of the claims of similarities between Haley and Clinton as “misleading.”
“I remember Hillary denigrating people on the Republican side as deplorables,” DeSantis said on Wednesday night. “We don’t need a candidate who’s going to look down on Middle America.”
Haley says DeSantis lies—and introduces new website to show it
Haley shot back by accusing DeSantis of being jealous of her campaign’s success and repeatedly lying in desperation. “The more Ron DeSantis loses, the more he lies,” she said, redirecting attention to a website her campaign created—DeSantisLies.com—that catalogs what she claims are DeSantis’s biggest mistruths about his record and hers. (She ended up mentioning the website at least a dozen times throughout the debate.)
“He’s upset about the fact that his campaign is exploding,” Haley said of DeSantis, adding that she would call out his flip-flops and falsehoods throughout the night. “Drake University,” she warned, “don’t turn this into a drinking game because you will be overserved by the end of the night.”
Neither candidate really tries to court Christie supporters
The candidates notably refrained from making appeals to supporters of former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, the never-Trump candidate who dropped out of the presidential race earlier in the day. Typically, when a candidate exits the presidential race, surviving contenders court the departed candidate’s supporters—but the debate took an unusual turn when Haley and DeSantis both sidestepped a question about the recently departed Christie to talk instead about Trump.
The apparent omission may have left Christie supporters in a vacuum, as neither remaining candidate had a nice thing to say about the former candidate who centered his campaign on blocking Trump from becoming the Republican Party’s nominee. Christie has not endorsed another candidate yet.
Haley and DeSantis (lightly) attack Trump
Both candidates were asked to weigh in on whether Trump has the character to be President again.
“I think he was the right President at the right time,” Haley said of Trump, repeating a line she frequently uses on the campaign trail. She applauded certain aspects of his tenure but drew a sharp distinction between her leadership and his and criticized Trump’s record on China and the national debt. “His way is not my way,” she said, but it’s not personal, she insisted: “I don’t have vengeance. I don’t have vendettas.”
DeSantis offered a more critical assessment of Trump’s presidency, pointing to unfulfilled promises—from building a wall that Mexico would pay for to draining the swamp to holding Hillary Clinton accountable. “I’m running because I’m the guy that’s going to be able to engineer a comeback for this country,” DeSantis said.
Later, Haley took another swipe at Trump over his actions on Jan. 6, 2021, when he urged his supporters to go to the U.S. Capitol while Congress was certifying Joe Biden’s electoral victory. Haley called it a “terrible day” and said that Trump “will have to answer for it,” adding that Biden did indeed win the presidency. (Trump is currently facing four criminal charges for his role in the efforts to remain in power after losing the election.)
Haley and DeSantis both said they disagreed with Trump’s presidential immunity argument—a claim that he is currently trying to use in court to avoid criminal prosecution. Haley called Trump’s suggestion that he can’t be prosecuted for his conduct in office “absolutely ridiculous,” while DeSantis said that he’s “always going to follow the Constitution.”
“You can’t terminate the Constitution,” DeSantis added. “I mean, you know [Trump] does that.” He added that Trump commits “word vomit from time to time on social media.”
Both candidates try to prove they’re tougher on immigration
Haley, citing her own parents who “came here legally,” declared unflinchingly that deportation is her solution to the recent influx of undocumented immigrants in the U.S., which is now estimated at around 10 million.
“You have to deport them,” she said. “And the reason you have to deport them is they’re cutting the line. … That is actually what will get them to stop coming.”
DeSantis charged that Haley is not as tough on immigration as she claims. “She’s weak on immigration, she’s bankrolled by people who want open borders,” he said. “Do not trust Nikki Haley with illegal immigration. That’s like having a fox guard the hen house.”
DeSantis responded to the same question by promising to eliminate federal incentives while cracking down on sanctuary cities, though he notably avoided explicitly discussing deportation. DeSantis did emphasize, however, “the number of people who will be amnestied when I am President is zero.”
Haley and DeSantis highlight differences over Ukraine funding, Israel support
The candidates engaged in perhaps their sharpest disagreement of the debate over support for the U.S.’s continued funding of Ukraine’s defense against Russia.
Haley advocated for Congress to provide aid to Kyiv, emphasizing the potential escalation of the Russian threat and its implication for NATO countries. “Dictators always do what they say they’re going to do,” she said. “Russia said once they take Ukraine, Poland and the Baltics are next … and that puts America at war. This is about preventing war.”
In contrast, DeSantis raised concerns about the amount of money allocated to the conflict, demanding accountability and expressing skepticism about the lack of a clear endgame. “We need to find a way to end this,” he said, adding that the intense focus on Ukraine has been diverting attention from other pertinent issues, such as the growing challenge posed by China and domestic problems like the rise in undocumented immigration. “People like Nikki Haley care more about Ukraine’s border than she does about our own southern border, which is wrong.”
“You can take the ambassador out of the United Nations,” DeSantis said, “but you can’t take the United Nations out of the ambassador.”
Meanwhile, Haley and DeSantis both unequivocally expressed their support for Israel. DeSantis made explicit that he would not “second-guess” any actions taken by Israel. Pressed by the moderators about whether he would tell Israel not to expel Palestinians from Gaza, DeSantis maintained his unyielding support and asserted that being a good ally means backing Israel’s decisions unconditionally. He also notably referred to Palestinians as “the Palestinian Arabs,” a term used in right-wing circles to undermine the idea of Palestinians having a distinct national identity.
DeSantis pledges not to raise retirement age; Haley suggests he’s disingenuous
DeSantis made a significant pledge on Social Security, promising not to raise the retirement age “in the face of declining life expectancy.”
“I don’t see how you can raise the retirement age when our life expectancy is collapsing in this country,” he said. “That’s a huge problem in and of itself.”
Haley accused DeSantis of voting three times as a former congressman to raise the retirement age to 70 and asserted that Americans in their 20s should anticipate an increase in the retirement age if she becomes President. “We’re going to change it to reflect more of what life expectancy should be,” she said, though Haley did not specify the exact retirement age she envisioned.
DeSantis and Haley (almost) shared kind words
Although the debate featured several heated exchanges between DeSantis and Haley, the moderators attempted to end the night on a more lighthearted tone. It almost worked.
Asked what he admired in Haley, DeSantis expressed appreciation for her role as U.N. Ambassador and acknowledged her “great achievement” of being the governor of South Carolina, mentioning that his wife attended college there.
But when asked about DeSantis, Haley offered a concise response. “I think he’s been a good governor,” she said curtly, eliciting a few awkward chuckles from the audience.
Haley says she would beat Biden handily; DeSantis says he’s the only one who has beaten the Left
In closing remarks, Haley expressed confidence that she is the best candidate to beat President Joe Biden, emphasizing that she leads Biden by double digit points in some polls. “We can’t afford another nail-biter election,” she said. “Ron doesn’t beat Joe Biden.”
She added that “we can’t go through four more years of chaos” and once again took aim at the former President: “If it’s Donald Trump, there will be four more years of chaos.”
DeSantis railed at his competitors during his closing remarks, repeating a line he also used in his introduction: “Donald Trump’s running for his issues, Nikki Haley is running for her donor’s issues—I’m running for your issues.” DeSantis also reiterated his criticism of Haley’s approach as “pale pastels” and “warmed up corporatism,” doubling down on his campaign’s emphasis on what he framed as issues that resonate with voters. “I’m the only one running that has beaten the Left time and time again, from the teacher’s union to [former NIH Director Dr. Anthony] Fauci to the Democratic Party,” he said.
With reporting by Mini Racker/Des Moines.
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