DeSantis, Haley spar in heated CNN debate, as Trump fields Iowa town hall: Recap

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.”

Read more here.

— 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

Nikki Haley slammed Ron DeSantis for bringing the “most anti-Israel Republican” to the state of Iowa.

“But it’s really rich that Ron is going to act like he suddenly cares for Israel when he brought the person to Iowa, that’s the most anti-Israel Republican, in the state, the person that went and voted against Israel’s right to exist in Congress, the person that voted with the Squad against antisemitism on college campuses,” she said.

“You brought that person to Iowa to go and campaign with you,” she added.

Haley was referring to Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who sided with 18 Democrats last year in voting against a resolution honoring the U.S.-Israeli relationship and expanding the Abraham Accords. DeSantis had campaigned with Massie in Iowa last month, which Haley criticized at the time.

DeSantis labeled her criticism as “cheap garbage” in response.

— Lauren Sforza

Trump would not rule out moving to leave the NATO alliance in a second term, something several former aides of his have said is a possibility.

“Depends if they treat us properly. Look, NATO has taken advantage of our country,” Trump said. “They took advantage of us on trade, and then they took advantage of us on our military protection.”

Trump has repeatedly railed against NATO, where members are expected to put a certain percentage of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) toward defense spending, arguing other members are not contributing enough.

Congress in December approved legislation that would prevent any president from withdrawing the United States from NATO without approval from the Senate or an Act of Congress. 

—Brett Samuels

Haley said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s failure to communicate with President Biden about his health status is “unforgivable.”

“My husband is deployed right now. As a military spouse, the idea that the secretary of defense would not even be contacting the president, much less in contact with his staff, is unforgivable,” she said.

Her attack on Austin came after the disclosure that the defense secretary has been hospitalized without notifying Biden or members of the Defense Department for days. Austin was in the hospital as a result of complications from surgery for prostate cancer.

—Jared Gans

Trump during his town hall responded to a new report from Democrats on the House Oversight Committee that asserts he took in at least $7.8 million from foreign entities in 20 countries while in office.

“Would you pledge to divest from your business in a second term, as other presidents have done?” host Bret Baier asked Trump during the program.

“I own hotels all of the place. I don’t get free money. Somebody rents a hotel room, etcetera,” Trump said.

“If I have a hotel and somebody comes in from China, that’s a small amount of money,” Trump said. “But I was doing services for that. People were staying in massive hotels, these beautiful hotels, because I have the best hotels.”

He argued he didn’t get $8 million “doing nothing, like Hunter,” making reference to President Biden’s son Hunter Biden.

— Julia Mueller

DeSantis called Haley’s Ukraine policy a “a carbon copy” of President Biden’s when asked whether either would continue support for Kyiv in its war against Russia.

After Haley asserted that Russian President Vladimir Putin would take the Baltic states if they are able to win in Ukraine and stood in support of the embattled country, DeSantis countered that the United States’s biggest threat is China, not Russia.

Haley rolled her eyes at the comparison. 

DeSantis later criticized Haley for having a globalist mindset, and thinking the U.S. could afford to help foreign countries.

“You can take the ambassador of the United Nations but you can’t take the United Nations,” he quipped.

— Ellen Mitchell

Trump told one audience member who described abortion as her most important issue he was “proud” to have contributed to the end of Roe v. Wade, which had guaranteed access to the procedure for decades.

“You wouldn’t be asking that question, even talking about the issue, because for 54 years they were trying to get Roe v. Wade terminated. And I did it, and I’m proud to have done it,” Trump said.

But Trump, as he has been for months, was evasive about any abortion restrictions he would support if he won back the White House.

He said he supported exceptions for cases of rape, incest and life of the mother, but otherwise stressed the need to do what was politically wise.

“You have to win elections. Otherwise you’re going to be back where you were. You have to win elections,” he said.

— Brett Samuels

Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley sparred on their respective records on state gas taxes in a one-on-one debate in Iowa on Wednesday night.

Haley, after touting her proposal to eliminate the federal gas and diesel tax, was asked by moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash how she would propose to pay for the federal road and bridge repairs the tax funds.

In response, Haley took aim at federal gas tax revenues for funding “sidewalks and green spaces” along with roads and called for the states to retain control over those revenues.

Haley also said that as governor of South Carolina, “we killed the gas tax multiple times,” while DeSantis accused her of attempting to raise state gas taxes as governor.

Former 2024 candidate Sen. Tim Scott (S.C.) launched similar attacks on Haley’s record as governor, accusing her of proposing an increase to the gas tax as governor.

The proposed increase in question was floated not by Haley herself, but by the state’s Republican Legislature, with Haley saying she would only back the hike if it was accompanied by a reduction of the state income tax five times the amount.

The Haley campaign has pointed to the support this proposal received from Grover Norquist, head of the lobbying group Americans for Tax Reform, which lobbies members of Congress to pledge never to support a tax increase.

Haley and DeSantis have repeatedly lobbed attacks at one another’s energy record in previous debates as well, with Haley particularly taking aim at DeSantis’s support in Congress for eliminating the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), which requires a certain percentage of biofuels to be blended into the national fuel supply. 

The former U.N. ambassador has repeatedly brought up the RFS, a particularly salient issue in Iowa due to its status as a major corn producer.

— Zack Budryk

Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley directed the debate crowd several times Wednesday to go a website that she claimed documented Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s “lies” during a GOP presidential debate.

“The reality is Nikki Haley is not somebody that has been willing to stand in and fight on behalf of conservatives. You know, she ran for governor saying she was going to do universal school choice, and she caved to the teachers’ union. She didn’t deliver that,” DeSantis claimed at the debate, which was hosted by CNN.

DeSantis argued that South Carolina ranked poorly on education when she was South Carolina governor, while touting his own conservative credentials.

Asked what Haley’s response was, Haley responded, “Go to DeSantislies.com, and you can find out for yourself.”

— Caroline Vakil

President Biden’s reelection campaign took an opportunity to mock Trump during his town hall after he dug into his comments that he hoped for an economic downtown.

“Two days ago, Donald Trump said he hoped the United States would enter a recession this year. Tonight, he didn’t back away from that comment – he doubled down on it,” Biden 2024 spokesperson Ammar Moussa said.

“That’s as disqualifying as it is rich from the guy who was the first president since Hoover to leave office with fewer jobs than when they came in, leaving behind an economic crisis that Joe Biden has been fixing since Day One,” Moussa said.

The subject line of the campaign email read: “Donald Trump Already is Herbert Hoover.”

Biden has brought up in numerous speeches that Trump is one of two presidents—alongside Hoover— who left office with fewer jobs than when he entered.

— Alex Gangitano

Ron DeSantis accused Nikki Haley of being more liberal than California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) during Wednesday’s Republican presidential primary debate in Iowa. 

“I debated the governor of California, Gavin Newsom,” DeSantis said near the beginning of the CNN debate in Des Moines. “I thought he lied a lot. Man, Nikki Haley gives him a run for his money, and she may even be more liberal than Gavin Newsom is.” 

DeSantis was responding to whether he believed former President Trump has the character to be president. 

“As Republicans, you need someone who is going to be in there and fight for you,” he continued. “Anytime the going gets tough, anytime people come down, she caves.” 

The exchange was just one of many barbs traded between Haley and DeSantis within the first 15 minutes of the debate.

— Julia Manchester

Trump predicted there would be a stock market crash if he does not win reelection in November, digging in on his comments days earlier in which he said he hoped any economic downturn would happen in the next 12 months.

Bret Baier pressed Trump on his recent comments, asking if he was rooting for the economy to crash.

“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

Jen Psaki, the former White House press secretary for President Biden, criticized DeSantis during the debate, sharing that his comments sound desperate.

“Among many other things…desantis throws way too many attacks into one riff. It’s like a desperate word salad,” Psaki, now a MSNBC host, posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, five minutes into the debate.

DeSantis last month used the term “word salad” to hit Haley for her explanation for the Civil War after she responded to a voter in New Hampshire.

— Alex Gangitano

Trump during his town hall sidestepped a question about who would be in the running for vice president if he secures the GOP nomination.

“Well, I can’t tell you that really. I mean, I know who it’s going to be,” Trump said.

“You can give us a hint,” Fox News host Bret Baier interjected.

“We’ll do another show sometime,” Trump said.

When asked whether he’d be open to mending fences with people he’s run against, Trump joked about Chris Christie, who announced earlier on Wednesday that he was suspending his presidential bid, quipping that “I’ve already started to like Christie better.”

— Julia Mueller

Nikki Haley jabbed former President Trump over skipping Wednesday’s debate.

“I wish Donald Trump was up here on this stage. He’s the one that I’m running against. He’s the one that I wish would be here. He needs to be defending his record,” Haley said.

She hit Trump over the national debt and his policies on China.

“Right now, he’s not defending the fact that he allowed us to have $8 trillion in debt over four years that our kids are never gonna forgive us for the fact that he didn’t deal with China when it came to stealing intellectual property,” she said.

“The fact that they gave us COVID, the fact that they’ve gone and continue to put up Chinese police stations and continued to threaten our military. He didn’t do enough to make sure that we were really standing with our friends and doing some other things,” she continued.

Trump opted for an Iowa town hall hosted by Fox News on Wednesday night instead of attending the debate.

— Lauren Sforza

Fox’s Bret Baier asked Trump if he would say political violence is unacceptable after the former president in recent days suggested it would be “bedlam” in the country if the courts ruled to keep him off the ballot.

“Of course that’s right,” Trump said.

But Trump did not address the spike in political violence during his term and the increase in heated rhetoric since he was in office, instead saying the U.S. did not engage in any new wars during his first four years.

President Biden has in recent days ripped Trump as a grave threat to democracy and accused Trump of glorifying rather than condemning political violence.

— Brett Samuels