Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis came out sniping at one another in their first one-on-one match-up on CNN’s debate stage in Des Moines, Iowa, while former President Trump counterprogrammed with a Fox News town hall in the same city.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie suspended his GOP presidential campaign just hours before the dueling events, raising the stakes for Haley and DeSantis as they vie to be the top alternative to Trump ahead of next week’s Iowa caucuses.
CNN anchors Dana Bash and Jake Tapper moderated the debate at Drake University, and Fox anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum moderated Trump’s town hall, which ran the first hour of the debate.
Here’s where candidates stand in Iowa, from Decision Desk HQ/The Hill.
Read below for a recap from both events.
Haley gave a short, seven-word answer when asked what she admired about DeSantis.
“I think he’s been a good governor,” she responded.
In contrast, DeSantis said he liked Haley for speaking out on important issues at the United Nations and said she was accomplished in becoming the governor of the “wonderful state” of South Carolina.
“At the United Nations, I did think that she spoke out strongly on some key issues, and I appreciated that. I also appreciate the state of South Carolina,” DeSantis said.
“My wife is a College of Charleston graduate. Her parents lived there for many, many years. And so it is a wonderful state. There’s a lot of great people there. And I think to be able to have been governor there is a great achievement, and I really appreciate everyone I’ve gotten to meet in South Carolina,” he added.
— Lauren Sforza
Former President Trump on Wednesday predicted there would be a stock market crash if he does not win the presidential election in November.
Trump was asked at a Fox News town hall in Iowa about his previous comments in which he said he hoped any economic downturn would happen in the next 12 months because he did not want to be like former President Hoover, who took office during a stable economy but later oversaw the Great Depression.
“You’re not saying you’re hoping for a crash, just to be clear?” town hall moderator Bret Baier asked.
“No. I think this. I think the economy is horrible, except the stock market is going up, and I think the stock market is going up because I’m leading Biden in all of the polls,” Trump said.
“I think there will be a crash if I don’t win,” Trump added. “And I say that, and I do not want to be Herbert Hoover.”
— Brett Samuels
Ron DeSantis vowed to issue a mass deportation of migrants coming into the United States if he is elected president.
DeSantis said at the CNN GOP presidential debate that migrants are coming from “all over the world” and represent a “ticking time bomb” for the country.
“They all have to go back. We have to enforce the rule of law in this country,” he said.
DeSantis said President Biden has failed to keep the border secure and is not ensuring that laws be “faithfully executed.” He later defended his stance of the mass deportations after co-moderator Jake Tapper sought to clarify with him if any of the millions of people who have entered the country illegally would be allowed to stay.
— Jared Gans
Nikki Haley hit Ron DeSantis over the state of his campaign at the CNN Republican debate in Des Moines on Wednesday.
“The best way to tell about a candidate is to see how they run their campaign,” Haley said. “He has blown through 150 million dollars,” she added, referring to DeSantis. “I don’t even know how you do that.”
“He has nothing to show for it. He’s spent more money on private planes than he has on commercials trying to get Iowans to vote for him. If you can’t manage a campaign, how are you going to manage a country?” Haley said to applause.
Haley and DeSantis spent most of Wednesday’s debate hitting each other over policy and lobbing insults. In his opening remarks, DeSantis referred to Haley as a “mealy-mouthed politician.” DeSantis also painted Haley as a “corporatist” Republican, who is beholden to donors.
— Julia Manchester
DeSantis predicted that the federal appeals court will rule against former President Trump’s claims on presidential immunity in the 2020 election interference case.
“Donald Trump’s gonna lose that appeal. He’s going to end up going to trial in front of a stacked left-wing D.C. jury of all Democrats. What are the odds that he’s going to get through that? … I don’t think he gets through that,” DeSantis said.
“And so what are we going to do as Republicans in terms of who we nominate for president. If Trump is the nominee, it’s going to be about January 6, legal issues, criminal trials. Democrats in the media would love to run with that. I’m not running for my issues. I’m running for your issues,” he continued.
Trump’s lawyers argued in front of a three-judge panel earlier this week that he maintains presidential immunity from prosecution on charges related to the 2020 presidential election.
— Lauren Sforza
Haley called a Trump lawyer’s claim that an assassination of political rivals is covered by presidential immunity “ridiculous.”
“That’s ridiculous. That’s absolutely ridiculous. We need to use some common sense here,” she said, adding that you “can’t” kill a political rival and claim immunity.
Trump attorney John Sauer on Tuesday argued a president directing SEAL Team Six to kill a political opponent would be an action barred from prosecution given a former executive’s broad immunity to criminal prosecution.
His argument came during a hearing that reviewed a motion from Trump’s team to toss his election interference charges.
— Alex Gangitano
Haley during the debate said Jan. 6, 2021 — the day the U.S. Capitol was attacked as Congress worked to certify the 2020 election results — was a “terrible day,” drawing a contrast with Trump.
“Is there any meaningful difference in how you and Donald Trump view the Constitution?” CNN anchor Jake Tapper asked the former South Carolina governor during her debate with DeSantis.
“Look, you take an oath to the Constitution. And I think what you’re seeing is Donald Trump basically said that the election was stolen. He went on and on talking about the election being stolen,” Haley said.
“He said that January 6th was a beautiful day. I think January 6th was a terrible day. And we should never want to see that happen again,” Haley added.
— Julia Mueller
DeSantis labeled Haley as being “confused” on the abortion issue.
“I think she’s been confused on the issue. I think she’s trying to speak to different groups with different things. But when she says things like, ‘Pro-lifers need to stop talking about throwing women in jail,’ that’s a trope. No one I’ve ever met thinks that that’s something that’s appropriate,” DeSantis said.
Haley has pushed for a “consensus” solution on abortion and defended herself in response to DeSantis.
“I am unapologetically pro-life, not because the Republican Party tells me to be but because my husband is adopted, and I’ve got my two sweet children sitting in front of me and I had trouble having both of them,” she responded. “These fellas don’t know how to talk about abortion.”
— Lauren Sforza
Nikki Haley called out Ron DeSantis for saying that he would “never raise” the retirement age for the public to receive Social Security benefits, pointing to votes he took that would have raised the age for people to get full benefits.
“Now suddenly because he’s running for president, he’s telling you he’s not going to do it. You can’t trust him,” she said.
PolitiFact reports that DeSantis supported proposals to cut spending on Social Security and Medicare, which included provisions to raise the age when people become fully eligible.
DeSantis said at the debate that he does not support making changes to Social Security that affect current beneficiaries, as they have paid into the program their entire careers expecting to get benefits at a certain point.
— Jared Gans
President Biden’s reelection campaign hit Trump on his comments that he’s proud to have terminated Roe v. Wade in a statement that included Trump’s quote from his Fox News town hall.
The campaign sent an email with the subject line: “STATEMENT: Donald Trump on Donald Trump Overturning Roe” and this quote from Trump: “For 54 years they were trying to get Roe v. Wade terminated, and I did it. And I’m proud to have done it.”
The email linked to a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, with a video from Trump’s town hall and the caption “Trump brags about overturning Roe v. Wade.”
Biden allies have shared the post with their own commentary, including Biden’s former communications director Kate Bedingfield who said, “Trump moonlighting as a Biden camp admaker!”
“Biden campaign is going to feature this in about a billion dollars worth of ads,” Tommy Vietor, former staffer to President Obama, wrote on X.
-Alex Gangitano
DeSantis sidestepped CNN host Dana Bash’s question over his feud with Disney during Wednesday’s debate.
Bash asked how going after the entertainment giants fits “with the traditional conservative view that small, limited government is best.”
“The proper role of government, if it means anything, it’s to protect our kids, and I’ve stood for the innocence of our kids. It is wrong. It is wrong to sexualize the curriculum. It’s wrong,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis and Disney have been engaged in a feud for more than a year after the company publicly opposed the state’s so-called Don’t Say Gay law. DeSantis later stripped Disney of its special status that it had held for decades over the Reedy Creek Improvement District.
Disney then sued DeSantis and the state for allegedly harming its business operations. DeSantis again reiterated that he was standing up to Disney to protect children.
“Most people, most corporate Republicans would have caved,” he said. “I stood and I fought for the kids. We took on Disney and we defeated that and we won that fight, and our kids are better off now.”
— Lauren Sforza
DeSantis accused President Biden of leaving U.S. troops “out to dry” in the Middle East, where the region has simmered on the edge of a major regional conflict since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7.
American forces, who are based in Iraq and Syria to prevent the resurgence of the Islamic State militant group, have frequently come under attack by Iranian proxy groups in recent weeks.
The only veteran in the race, DeSantis said he understands what those in the military go through.
“I would never put our troops in harm’s way like Biden is doing in the Middle East without defending them with everything they got. If you harm a hair on the head of one of our service members, you’re going to be held to pay. He’s leaving them out to dry and I think it’s disgraceful for a commander in chief,” DeSantis said.
Haley also said Biden has responded insufficiently to the roughly 130 drone and missile attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria.
“He’s been slow, he’s been hiding in a corner and he hasn’t done anything about it,” she said.
— Ellen Mitchell
Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley quipped during the fifth GOP debate that she “hit a nerve” as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Haley interrupted each other.
“She says she’s always supported school choice, and she’s failed to deliver — she blames other people. Leadership is about getting things done. Stop making excuses,” DeSantis argued during the debate.
“If leadership’s about getting things done, how did you blow through $150 million in your campaign and you were down in the polls?” Haley retorted back, before it devolved into a crosstalk between the two.
“I think I hit a nerve,” Haley quipped.
— Caroline Vakil
Trump’s Fox News town hall ended just before 9 p.m. local time in Iowa after its scheduled hourlong broadcast. There is another hour left to go in the Haley and DeSantis’s CNN debate.
Trump qualified for the CNN debate alongside Haley and DeSantis, but opted again for his own counter programming, as he’s done for the previous four GOP primary debates.
— Julia Mueller
Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley hit Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for not “dealing with” neo-Nazi marches and antisemitism during the fifth GOP debate.
“First of all, notice Ron didn’t say anything about the fact that he did bring that most anti-Israel Republican into this state to campaign,” Haley said, referring to Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.).
“He also hasn’t told you that the only Republican Jewish state legislator left his campaign because he wasn’t dealing with the neo-Nazi marches and wasn’t dealing with antisemitism properly,” Haley added.
She was referring to state Rep. Randy Fine (R), who is the only Jewish Republican in the Florida state Capitol. Fine announced in October he was switching his support from DeSantis to former President Trump because DeSantis hadn’t tackled antisemitism adequately.
DeSantis’s campaign hit back on Fine’s assertations, with press secretary Bryan Griffin telling The Hill in a statement at the time, “This is nothing more than shameful political theater at a time when Ron DeSantis is leading the charge to support Israel. From working to move the US embassy to Jerusalem, to combatting antisemitism throughout Florida and its schools, to securing funding for security at Jewish schools and synagogues, there’s never been a more pro-Israel Governor.”
— Caroline Vakil