Republican debate updates: Rivals brawl over China, economy, border and Trump

Ramaswamy followed Christie’s skewering of Trump by saying that while he respects Trump’s legacy, the “America first” agenda is not Trump’s alone.

He said it would take a younger generation to take that agenda “to the next level.”

As the debate wound to the end, Perino asked the candidates to vote someone “off the island,” in the style of “Survivor.”

The candidates, in disbelief, wondered if she was serious. DeSantis called it “disrespectful.”

Christie, however, said Trump is the one who needs to go.

DeSantis called out Trump for his recent comments about abortion and said Trump should be on the debate stage to explain himself.

“I reject this idea that pro-lifers are to blame for midterm defeats. I think there’s other reasons for that. The former president, you know, he’s missing in action tonight. He’s had a lot to say about that. He should be here explaining his comments to try to say that pro-life protections are somehow a terrible thing. I want him to look into the eyes and tell people who’ve been fighting this fight for a long time,” DeSantis said.

Trump recently called Florida’s six-week abortion ban a “terrible thing” and criticized the way Republicans have talked about the issue, suggesting it would hurt them in a general election.

—Sarah Fortinsky

Burgum took credit for doing what his GOP rivals have proposed, saying he has already done them in his home state of North Dakota.

“When you say nobody else has done it — the energy plans that have all been announced in the last month by these other folks on stage, we’re already doing it North Dakota,” he said.

“The border plans they are already talking about — we’ve got troops down at the border flying helicopter missions from North Dakota from San Diego to the Gulf Coast, trying to stop transnational criminal organizations from inflicting the invasion and the mass casualties in our state,” he continued.

When asked about how we would downsize the government, Burgum responded that he has already done it in North Dakota.

“We’ve done it in North Dakota. When I took office, we shrunk the state budget general fund by 27 percent in the first four months I was in office, and … all trains still running on time. Why? Because you had a business leader that was actually there inside of every government job,” he added.

—Lauren Sforza

Haley took aim at Scott’s record, claiming Scott has fallen short of accomplishing the policies in the Senate that he vows to complete as president.

“Look, I appreciate him, we’ve known each other a long time, but he’s been there 12 years and he hasn’t done any of that,” Haley said. “They’ve only given four budgets on time in 40 years and he was part of that. He increased the national debt, he voted for the spending.”

Scott interrupted Haley, firing back: “You actually asked for a gas tax increase in South Carolina.”

— Miranda Nazzaro

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley took a swing at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over his record on fracking.

“He always talks about what happens on day one,” Haley quipped. “You better watch out, because what happens on day two is when you’re in trouble.”

“Day two in Florida, you banned fracking; you banned offshore drilling. You did it on federal lands and you took green subsidies that you didn’t have to take,” Haley said to DeSantis.

—Tara Suter

Republican discontent with the Federal Reserve boiled over during Wednesday night’s debate when businessperson and presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy accused it of going “rogue.”

“We have to put the Federal Reserve back in its place. This is an agency that has gone rogue,” he said.

Republicans have blasted regulators at the agency this year for failing to stop the failures of several large banks that then got backstopped with taxpayer money through a special line of credit supported by the U.S. Treasury.

They’ve also fumed about the central bank’s handling of high inflation, saying it put too much money into the economy and started its program of quantitative tightening too late.

Ramaswamy promised to fire current Fed Chairman Jerome Powell.

“In January 2026, when I have the opportunity as the next commander in chief, we will have a new chairman of the Federal Reserve who places priority on dollar stability,” he said.

— Tobias Burns

Ramaswamy caused a slight uproar among his peers on stage when he suggested he would not support Ukraine in the war against Russia. 

“The reality is, just because [Russian President Vladimir Putin] is an evil dictator does not mean that Ukraine is good,” he said.

His comments caused a clash with Haley — as he did in the first GOP debate — who said a “win for Russia is a win for China, but I forgot, you like China.”

He said continuing to support Kyiv would drive Russia closer to China.

“China is the real enemy and we’re driving Russia further into China’s arms. We need a reasonable peace plan to end this,” he said.

Ramaswamy in the last debate made his stance that the U.S. shouldn’t continue to back Ukraine.

— Ellen Mitchell

Vivek Ramaswamy defended his recent decision to join TikTok, arguing that the Republican Party needs to reach younger generations in order to win elections.

“I have a radical idea for the Republican Party. We need to win elections,” Ramaswamy said. “And part of how we win elections is reaching the next generation of young Americans where they are.”

“So while the Democrats are running rampant reaching the next generation 3-to-1, there’s exactly one person in the Republican Party that talks a big game about reaching young people, and that’s me,” he added.

However, Nikki Haley slammed the conservative entrepreneur’s take on TikTok, emphasizing privacy and security concerns about the Chinese-owned social media platform.

“This is infuriating, because TikTok is one of the most dangerous social media apps that we could have,” she said, adding: “I honestly, every time I hear you, I feel a little bit dumber for what you say.”

— Julia Shapero

The first ad Fox Business aired after a fiery discussion amongst the candidates about TikTok and the company’s ties to the Chinese government was for TikTok.

The social media company has come under intense scrutiny in recent months over privacy concerns as it relates to national security despite its widespread popularity, particularly with young people.

— Dominick Mastrangelo

Haley, Trump’s former U.N. ambassador, criticized his China policy while responding to a question about whether she would send troops into Mexico.

She said she would conduct special operations to go after Mexican cartels producing fentanyl but would also confront China over its role in supplying fentanyl precursors.

“This is where President Trump went wrong,” she said. “He focused on trade with China. He didn’t focus on the fact that they were buying up our farmland. He didn’t focus on the fact that they were killing Americans.”

Haley took a jab at Ramaswamy, saying he cannot be trusted due to his involvement with social media platform TikTok.

Haley responded to Ramaswamy’s push to reach younger people through social media, saying, “You’re now wanting kids to go and get on the social media. That’s dangerous for all of us.

“When you are in business with the Chinese that gave Hunter Biden $5 million, we can’t trust you. We can’t trust you,” Haley said.

— Miranda Nazzaro

Moderator Dana Perino threatened to cut off Doug Burgum’s microphone if the North Dakota governor continued to interrupt proceedings. Burgum asked to return to the moderator’s question on artificial intelligence after Perino said they were going to move on.

“I am the only person on the stage that has a career in technology,” Burgum, who is at the end of the stage, argued.

“Sir, we’ll have to cut your mic, and I don’t want to do that. I don’t,” she told Burgum.

— Lauren Sforza

Former Vice President Mike Pence avoided answering a question from moderator Ilia Calderón about what he would do as president to address increasing violence against LGBTQ people.

“I’ll stand up for the safety and the civil liberties of every American from every background,” Pence said, before pivoting to the issue of school choice.

“We’re going to stand up for the rights of parents, and we’re going to pass a federal ban on transgender chemical or surgical surgery anywhere in the country,” he said. “We’ve got to protect our kids from this radical gender ideology agenda.”

—Brooke Migdon

Vivek Ramaswamy responded to a question about parental notification policies by saying being transgender is “a mental health disorder.”

“We have to acknowledge the truth of that for what it is,” he said. “It is not compassionate to affirm a kid’s confusion. That is not compassion. That is cruelty.”

Ramaswamy vowed to ban gender-affirming health care as president.

—Brooke Migdon

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) mocked Pence for calling for the repeal of the Green New Deal during the debate, despite the fact that such legislation has never been signed into law.

“Mike Pence was Vice President of the United States and still doesn’t know how a bill becomes a law, apparently,” she wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Ocasio-Cortez was replying to another post that joked about Pence’s comments, saying, “Impressive to just skip the step of passing it and going straight to repeal.”

—Sarah Fortinsky

Christie slammed President Biden over not taking on the teacher unions and suggested first lady Jill Biden was an “advocate” for them.

“This public school system is no longer run by the public. It is run by the teachers unions in this country. Randi Weingarten and her crew are absolutely strangling,” he said. “They’re taking the worst of their members and defending them rather than advocating for our kids.”

“And when you have the president of the United States sleeping with a member of the teachers union, there is no chance that you could take the stranglehold away from the teachers union,” he added. “Every day, they have an advocate inside the White House — every day, for the worst of their teachers, not for our students to be the best they can be.”

—Lauren Sforza

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis scoffed at a question from moderators about a controversy that was sparked from a line in his state’s Black history standards.

The standard said enslaved people in America’s history “developed skills” that benefited them.

The line sparked backlash from civil rights groups and Vice President Harris.

“First of all, that’s a hoax that was perpetrated by Kamala Harris, and we are not going to be doing that,” DeSantis said.

“Donald Duck” became a trending phrase on Twitter after Christie referred to Trump as the fictional character in a jab at the former president for missing the debate.

“You keep doing that, no one up here is going to call you Donald Trump anymore. We’re gonna call you Donald Duck,” Christie joked.

The joke drew attention on Twitter shortly after – but not entirely for the reasons the former New Jersey governor may have hoped.

Haley went after diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in schools while detailing her plan to help students who are struggling in reading and math after the pandemic.

“We’ve got to quit spending time on this DEI and [critical race theory] and instead focus on financial literacy, on digital literacy,” Haley said.

Haley focused on school choice and transparency in the classroom as ways to raise test scores.

—Lexi Lonas

Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis both spoke about how they would use the military in relation to stopping fentanyl from coming across the border into the U.S.

“We have to use our own military to seal the Swiss cheese of a southern border,” Ramaswamy said.

“I’m gonna use the U.S. military to go after the Mexican drug cartels,” DeSantis said. “They are killing our people.”

—Tara Suter

Moderators asked Haley about her plan for making sure Americans who get sick don’t face financial ruin. She said the key is transparency throughout the health care system and putting patients back in the “driver’s seat.”

Burgum chimed in and said ObamaCare was to blame for the inflated costs, as it forced the health care industry to operate through government-run software.

“Every time the federal government’s involved — whether it’s higher education, health care, or now the auto industry — things get more expensive and less good,” he said.

An hour into the debate, abortion has yet to get a mention.

Pence called for a quick death penalty for mass shooters, vowing to pass such action if elected president.

“And if I’m president of the United States, I’m going to go to the Congress of the United States, and we’re going to pass a federal expedited death penalty for anyone involved in a mass shooting, so that they will meet their fate in months, not years,” Pence said.

“It is unconscionable that the Parkland shooter … is actually going to spend the rest of his life behind bars in Florida. That’s not justice,” Pence continued.

“We have to mete out justice and send a message to these would-be killers that you are not going to live out your days. You’re going to meet justice in this system.”

—Miranda Nazzaro

Christie warned Trump that if he continues “ducking” out of debates, his new nickname will be “Donald Duck.”

“Donald, I know you’re watching. You can’t help yourself. I know you’re watching,” he said, looking into the camera. “OK, and you’re not here tonight. Not because of polls, and not because of your indictments. You’re not here tonight because you’re afraid of being on the stage and defending your record.”

“You’re ducking these things,” he continued. “And let me tell you what’s going to happen. You keep doing that. No one up here is going to call you Donald Trump anymore. We’re gonna call you Donald Duck.”

—Lauren Sforza

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis pledged to use the powers of the Justice Department to go after progressive prosecutors.

“When I had two progressive prosecutors that weren’t following the law in Florida, I removed them from their posts, and the people of Florida are safer as a result of it,” he said.

“As president, I will use the Justice Department to bring civil rights cases against all of those left-wing, Soros-funded prosecutors,” DeSantis added.

—Sarah Fortinsky

Presidential candidate Nikki Haley threw support behind a push gaining some legs in Congress for lawmakers to go without pay if the government sees a shutdown in the coming days.

“We have to change the budget process,” Haley said. “In 40 years, Congress has only delivered a budget on time four times. In 40 years. If they don’t keep the government open. They should not get paid. No pay, no budget.”

Congress has three days until a looming deadline to avert a shutdown, and there isn’t a bicameral deal in sight.

The Senate advanced a bill earlier this week that would keep the government funded through mid-November.

But House Republicans are already saying the bill is dead on arrival in the lower chamber, as many in the party press for steep cuts and border policy changes.

—Aris Folley

In the early going, Fox moderators Dana Perino, Stuart Varney and Univision anchor Ilia Calderón had trouble keeping the candidates on topic.

On several occasions before the debate’s first commercial break, candidates were screaming over one another, making what was being said on the stage at times undecipherable.

Vivek Ramaswamy ripped birthright citizenship, saying he “goes a step further” over his GOP rivals and is in support of ending birthright citizenship for children of illegal immigrants.

“I favor ending birthright citizenship for the kids of illegal immigrants in this country,” Ramaswamy said. “Now, the left will howl about the Constitution and the 14th Amendment. The difference between me and them is I’ve actually read the 14th amendment.”

“So nobody believes that the kid of a Mexican diplomat in this country enjoys birthright citizenship. Not a judge or legal scholar in this country will disagree with me on that,” Ramaswamy said. “Well, if the kid of a Mexican diplomat doesn’t enjoy birthright citizenship, then neither does the kid of an illegal immigrant who broke the law to come here.”

The 14th Amendment grants citizenship to all “born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” The amendment was passed in 1866, shortly after the Civil War, to ensure citizenship and equal rights for formerly enslaved people.

The 1898 Supreme Court case United States v. Wong Kim Ark upheld the idea the 14th Amendment applies to children regardless of their parents’ immigration status.  

—Miranda Nazzaro

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie knocked former President Trump for failing to build a wall across the entire southern border and joked that Mexico might have paid for the wall — as Trump repeatedly promised in 2016 — had it known Trump would only build 52 miles.

“Donald Trump failed on this as well. He said he was going to build a wall across the whole border. He built 52 miles of wall and said Mexico would pay for it,” Christie said.

“Guess what? I think if Mexico knew that he was only going to build 52 miles, they might have paid for the 52 miles.”

—Sarah Fortinsky

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis went after Trump’s absence from the debate stage.

“Donald Trump, he hides behind the walls of his golf clubs, and won’t show up here to answer questions like all the rest of us are up here to answer,” Christie said in his critique.

“Donald Trump is missing in action,” DeSantis noted. “He should be on this stage tonight. He owes it to you, to defend his record.”

—Tara Suter