Five takeaways from the DeSantis-Haley debate in Iowa

DES MOINES, Iowa — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley spoke here with less than a week until Iowa caucus participants choose their candidates in the Republican primary. took the stage for a debate.

The tone of the debate quickly turned negative, with Haley and DeSantis viciously attacking each other from the start. DeSantis tried to portray Haley as a “corporatist” Republican beholden to donors, but Haley accused DeSantis of lying and repeatedly embedded attack websites against DeSantis. is.

But while Ms. Haley and Ms. DeSantis were on the CNN debate stage at Drake University, their archrival, former President Trump, was participating in a Fox News town hall. Less than a week after the state's Republican caucuses, Trump has a 35-point lead over DeSantis and Haley in Iowa, according to Hill/Decision Desk averages. It's unclear whether this forum will ultimately have a major impact on next week's caucuses.

Here are five takeaways from the discussion:

Candidates become passive

DeSantis and Haley launched fierce attacks on each other within minutes of the debate.

In her opening remarks, DeSantis called Haley a “foul-mouthed politician.” Haley jokingly warned Drake University students not to turn the debate into a drinking game every time DeSantis lied. Because, he says, “you're going to be overserved.” Haley also launched an attack on DeSantis' campaign, accusing the governor of mishandling the operation.

Both candidates also grilled each other on the issue. DeSantis said Haley is “confused” on the abortion issue and claimed that “she's trying to talk to different groups about different things.” Meanwhile, Haley criticized DeSantis for saying he would “never raise” the retirement age for people receiving Social Security.

But Haley and DeSantis didn't hold back from attacking each other. Both candidates also took aim at President Biden and his administration. Mr. DeSantis accused Mr. Biden of leaving U.S. troops “out to dry” in the Middle East, and Ms. Haley said, “Forgive Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin for failing to communicate with Mr. Biden about his health. No,” he criticized.

Still, with President Trump participating in solo town halls in the coming days, the sight of Ms. Haley and Ms. DeSantis engaged in a heated battle on the debate stage is a sign that Mr. Trump's Republican challengers will be competing ahead of the first presidential primary. There is a possibility that they cannibalize each other.

DeSantis has one of his strongest performances

DeSantis delivered her strongest performance yet on the debate stage, targeting Haley both for her record and on issues such as education and abortion.

Asked if Haley was “pro-life enough,” DeSantis said, “I think she's confused on this issue.” “I think she's trying to say different things to different groups, but saying things like 'pro-lifers should stop talking about putting women in prison' is figurative. No one I've ever met thinks that's the right thing to do.”

Haley said federal restrictions on abortion are impractical given that the Senate does not have the 60 votes needed to pass an anti-abortion bill and the Senate would need to reach a “consensus” on the issue. He claimed that there was no.

“There is a consensus on the fact that we should encourage more high-quality adoptions, a consensus on the fact that contraception should be available, a consensus on the fact that contraceptives should be available, and a consensus on the fact that we should encourage more high-quality adoptions; The consensus is that women shouldn't be put in prison or given the death penalty. Get an abortion,” Haley said in July.

Meanwhile, DeSantis said he supports 15 weeks of restrictions at the national level. DeSantis also claimed that Haley was “bowing” under pressure and was not conservative enough.

“I think the difference between Nikki Haley and me is that I heard a lot of things, I mean, we discussed California Governor Gavin Newsom. I thought he lied a lot. Nikki Haley “Haley…gives him a run for his money, and she might be more liberal than Gavin Newsom,” he said. “We're in a situation like this here in Florida, and as Republicans we need someone to be there and fight for us. And Nikki Haley, every time things get tough, every time people get down, we need someone to be there and fight for us. , she gives in.”

He also drew applause from the audience when he argued, “We don't need an accountant in the White House. We need a leader in the White House,'' in contrast to Haley.

Haley takes up defense.

On Wednesday, Haley clearly managed to get under DeSantis' skin despite being placed on the defensive end. She repeatedly pointed to the website desantislies.com, which she claimed set her own record straight on the issue.

When DeSantis criticized his efforts to raise gas taxes as governor of South Carolina, Haley countered: “First of all, bless his heart. Desantislies.com. We have never raised taxes.”

“You can say we've wasted the gas tax many times over. But what we said is, if you want to raise the gas tax, you have to cut the income tax by five times that amount. They didn't want to do it. We've wasted taxpayer money every step of the way,” she said after the two sides had a brief argument.

Haley said in 2015 that lowering the state income tax should be combined with increasing the gas tax. The gas tax increase never materialized during Haley's tenure as governor. According to the Associated Press.

DeSantis also attacked Haley over her support for Ukraine.

“I supported President Trump's policy toward Russia and Ukraine, and it was successful. You know, Biden's policy is not,” he said. “But Nikki Haley is basically a carbon copy of Biden. It's an open-ended commitment. They want another $108 billion. They won't tell us when they hit their goal. And This will probably continue for hundreds of billions of years into the future.”

But Haley targeted DeSantis for his faltering campaign and high cash burn rate, and offered some of her own rebuttals.

“The best way to learn about candidates is to see how they run their campaigns,” Haley said.

“He spent $150 million,” she added. “I don't even know how you do that.”

Trump escapes unscathed (again)

The former Republican front-runner has skipped the fifth consecutive debate in the 2024 campaign, ceding the stage to two candidates vying to face him. But there were also questions from the moderators, and Trump's name came up more often that night, at least more than in any other debate.

Co-hosts Jake Tapper and Dana Bash call on Haley and DeSantis to “terminate” constitutional rules over false claims that Trump lost money due to 2020 voter fraud He asked several questions related to Trump, including referring to his comments. presidential election. They also asked why they thought they were a better choice than Trump as the Republican nominee.

Haley, as she has in the past, repeatedly attacked the “chaos” surrounding Trump and called for a “new generation of leaders.” She also criticized Trump's defense team's argument that full executive privilege should be granted to protect him from criminal charges, and called on him to take the floor at the debate because “he's the one I'm running against.” .

Mr. DeSantis attacked Mr. Trump for not following through on his 2016 campaign promises, including making Mexico pay for the construction of a border wall on the U.S. southern border and draining swamps. He also accused President Trump of only pursuing “his own problems” rather than his country's.

But in the final debate before the first vote in the race, both candidates overall spent more time attacking each other than the front-runner. They repeatedly took swipes at each other, accusing the other of lying about themselves and each other's records.

DeSantis and Haley appear to be continuing to build on attacks on Trump that they launched last week at a CNN-hosted town hall in Iowa, although neither stopped short of a full-scale attack on Trump.

The needle is difficult to move

Viewer ratings for Wednesday's debate were not immediately released, so it's unclear how many people actually watched it in Iowa and across the country. Fox News' town halls, which compete with Mr. Trump's, may have also taken viewers away from CNN's debates.

It's also unclear how many Iowans are determined ahead of Monday's caucuses, but polls suggest Trump has an advantage over DeSantis and Haley. . And it seems doubtful that CNN's discussion will be enough to change the caucus' ultimate trajectory.

Trump is the clear frontrunner in state and national polls. Iowa has been known for its last-minute surprises, but never before has a former president or incumbent had such a large lead in the Iowa caucuses. According to The Hill/Decision Desk average, Trump leads with 53.8%, followed by Haley with 18.3% and DeSantis with 17.4%.

If Haley and DeSantis fail to close behind the former president and she manages to win more than 50% of the vote in Iowa, both will gain enough momentum to perform decently in the new state. It can be difficult to do so. hampshire