Christie’s exit leaves DeSantis and Haley sparring for second place

In the last Republican debate before the Iowa caucuses, Gov. Ron DeSantis and former governor of South Carolina Nikki Haley traded barbs on CNN. Former President Donald Trump headlined a solo town hall on Fox.

First Look

Republican rivals Gov. Ron DeSantis and Niki Haley jockeyed on Jan. 10 to emerge as the clear alternative to frontrunner former President Donald Trump just days before voting in the presidential primary race kicks off in Iowa.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie ended his bid for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination hours before the debate, Bloomberg reported, after failing to garner support for a campaign centered on his criticism of the policies and character of frontrunner former President Donald Trump.

His departure eliminates the most vocal Trump antagonist from the race, although Ms. Haley, the former governor of South Carolina and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, has grown increasingly critical of Mr. Trump in recent months.

Here are takeaways from their first head-to-head debate:

Candidates attack each other, go easy on Trump

If there were any doubts that the current race for the Republican presidential nomination is a second-place fight between Ms. Haley and Governor DeSantis behind Mr. Trump, the debate’s opening salvos dispelled them.

Ms. Haley and Governor DeSantis immediately went on the attack, and while landing a few glancing blows on Mr. Trump, served their best lines against each other. Mr. DeSantis called Ms. Haley a “mealy-mouthed” politician beholden to wealthy donors.

Ms. Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, accused Mr. DeSantis of lying about her record and touted a new campaign website dedicated to knocking down those accusations. She cautioned viewers that Mr. DeSantis would lie often during the debate.

“Don’t turn this into a drinking game because you will be over-served by the end of the night,” Ms. Haley said.

Mr. DeSantis directed voters to his own website attacking Ms. Haley’s record.

“We don’t need a candidate who is going to look down on middle America,” Mr. DeSantis said, comparing her to former Democratic presidential candidate Secretary Hillary Clinton.

The two candidates are virtually tied in Iowa, where the first-in-the-nation nominating contest will be held on Jan. 15 in the battle to take on Democratic President Joe Biden in November.

A different DeSantis – but maybe too late

In earlier debates on more crowded stages, Mr. DeSantis often struggled to seize the spotlight and distinguish himself from the field.

A different Mr. DeSantis showed up on Jan. 10. Whether he arrived too late to make a difference remains to be seen.

Mr. DeSantis was animated and aggressive, much like he had been in his debate last fall against Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom. He came prepared to go toe-to-toe with Ms. Haley on their governing records and ready with retorts for the attack lines she threw at him.

He also fired off zingers of his own at Ms. Haley, who touts her record as a former accountant.

“We don’t need an accountant in the White House. We need a leader,” Mr. DeSantis said.

A clash over Ukraine

The candidates clashed over military aid to Ukraine, an issue where Ms. Haley’s hawkish foreign policy instincts stand in sharp contrast to Mr. DeSantis’s more isolationist positions.

Ms. Haley supports continuing U.S. financial and military aid to Ukraine, in line with the policy of Democratic President Joe Biden, while Mr. DeSantis said the country’s war with Russia needed to end so the U.S. could focus on problems at home. Ukraine “is a pro-American, freedom-loving country. We better remember that you have to be a friend in order to get a friend,” said Ms. Haley, who served as United Nations ambassador under Mr. Trump.

“This is about preventing war – it’s always been about preventing war,” Ms. Haley added, saying she did not support putting American troops on the ground but wanted to avoid a broader global conflict.

Mr. DeSantis accused Ms. Haley of supporting a costly, unending conflict.

“This is going to go on maybe hundreds of billions more into the future,” Mr. DeSantis said, suggesting that Ms. Haley cares “more about Ukraine’s border than she does about our own southern border.”

Haley criticizes the ‘fellas’ on abortion

Ms. Haley accused Mr. DeSantis and other Republican men of being insensitive on the issue of abortion, a topic that has caused problems for their party at the ballot box since the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 ended the federal right to an abortion.

“These fellas don’t know how to talk about abortion,” she said.

Ms. Haley reiterated that while she was “unapologetically pro-life,” Republicans cannot be extreme on the issue.

“Our goal should be how do we save as many babies as possible and support as many moms as possible. We’re not going to demonize this issue anymore,” Ms. Haley said.

Mr. DeSantis called her “confused” on abortion.

“I think she’s trying to speak to different groups with different things,” said Mr. DeSantis, who signed a stringent six-week abortion ban into law in his home state.

Mr. DeSantis said Republicans need to do a better job helping women who are having children.

Polls show most Americans support some access to abortion. At his rival town hall event on Fox News, Mr. Trump said efforts to crack down on abortion had to be balanced against political realities.

Mr. Trump said he thought Mr. DeSantis’ weak poll numbers were related to his abortion ban in Florida. “He’s doing very poorly. It happened to coincide with that,” Mr. Trump said on Fox News.

The elephant not in the room

While Ms. Haley and Mr. DeSantis tore each other down on CNN, Mr. Trump’s mind was clearly on the general election as he teased during the Fox News town hall that he knew who he wanted to be his vice president.

Mr. Haley and Governor DeSantis referred to Mr. Trump’s absence on the debate stage multiple times. The frontrunner’s refusal to attend any of the Republican Party debates so far has turned them into sideshows with dwindling viewers.

Mr. Trump’s decision to buck convention and boycott the debates has had no impact on his standing in national opinion polls, which show him continuing to enjoy a wide lead over both Ms. Haley and Governor DeSantis.

The Fox News town hall offered him a friendly environment in which he faced few hard-hitting questions, while over on CNN viewers watched Governor DeSantis and Ms. Haley accuse each other of lying in often acrimonious exchanges.

While both landed punches, the real winner was arguably elsewhere having a more relaxed evening.

This story was reported by Reuters.