Five lessons from the Republican debate

Nikki Haley clashed repeatedly with Ron DeSantis in the fourth Republican presidential debate Wednesday night, facing her most sustained criticism of the race as the two leading candidates wrestled for second place in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

Tensions rose as Chris Christie called Vivek Ramaswamy “annoying,” Mr. Ramaswamy held up “Nikki = Corrupt” on a notepad, and Mr. DeSantis repeatedly flogged Ms. Haley’s criminal record.

“I love all the attention, guys,” she said.

All four are confronted with the reality of Donald J. Trump’s durable lead in the polls and the dwindling time until voting begins, and it was unclear whether anything anyone said could upset the race. But the moderators, led by Megyn Kelly, did more than their predecessors to include the absent Trump in the conversation.

Ms. Haley knew there would be a target on her back. The crowd of candidates on stage had thinned out and her star had risen so high that her rivals — especially Mr. DeSantis — had to keep her from moving higher.

“Nikki Haley, she gives in every time the left comes after her,” Mr. DeSantis said in response to a question about why his campaign was struggling. Mr. Ramaswamy also took turns suggesting that she engaged in unsavory money-making when she left the Trump administration. “Now you’re a multi-millionaire,” he said. “That math is wrong. The bottom line is you are corrupt,” he said.

Mr. DeSantis also accused her of opposing a bill that would ban certain medical treatments for transgender children, which she denied, but the question could have an audience with evangelical voters in Iowa. Mr. Ramaswamy attacked her for her connection to major donors, including a contribution to her super PAC from a major Democratic donor, jabs that could hurt her with the Republican base.

At one point, Mr. Christie came to Ms. Haley’s defense after Mr. Ramaswamy mocked her for failing to name three eastern Ukrainian provinces where she would send troops despite her support for Ukraine against Russia.

“This is a smart, accomplished woman,” Mr. Christie said. “You have to stop insulting her.”

Ms. Haley seemed grateful, but did not say anything to defend herself at the time. It was emblematic of an evening in which she withdrew for a long time after three debates in which she had to stand up for herself. Her restraint was sometimes cutting. After another long Ramaswamy attack, she refused to respond at all. “It’s not worth my time,” she said.

Mr. DeSantis’ diminished status in the race was evident from Ms. Kelly’s painful opening question. She listed his early advantages, including money, and how he seemed best positioned to consolidate the anti-Trump vote. “You didn’t succeed,” she said.

“I’m tired of hearing about these polls,” he replied. And he certainly is.

But Mr. DeSantis stuck with his risk-averse strategy toward Mr. Trump. He carefully and selectively criticized the leader, who mercilessly crushed him for months.

Instead, Mr. DeSantis saved his sharpest words for slicing attacks on Ms. Haley. He referred more than once to her ties with donors. “Nikki will give in to those big donors when push comes to shove,” he said. (She had a ready answer: “He’s angry because those Wall Street donors used to support him and now they support me.”)

But as for Mr. Trump?

Mr. DeSantis took a few pokes. But more often he objected. When Ms. Haley criticized Mr. Trump for adding to the national debt, Mr. DeSantis opted for a more vague condemnation of “both parties in Washington, D.C.”

His reluctance was most evident in a conversation with Mr. Christie, who pressed him through crosstalk: “Is he fit to be president or not?” Mr. DeSantis never answered directly, returning to the safe haven of the talking point that “Father Time is undefeated.”

Father Time is also looming in these primaries. And if Mr. DeSantis is not ready to take on Mr. Trump now, it is not clear when he will be, or if he will get that chance.

Chris Christie had his strongest debate yet.

Mr. Christie delivered the kind of powerful and inspired performance his supporters have been waiting for at a now-or-never moment for his wavering candidacy.

“The truth must be told,” he said.

He attacked Mr. Trump (a “dictator” and a “bully”). He hit Mr. Ramaswamy (“the most annoying puncher in America”). He cornered Mr. DeSantis (“Ron is asked a question and he doesn’t answer”). And he mocked all three enemies on stage for dodging Trump’s name, like “Voldemort.”

But the boos that rang out more than once during his speech were another reminder that despite his obvious skills as a campaigner, he remains outside the mainstream of the modern Republican Party.

In a sign that his future may extend beyond elected office, Mr. Christie dropped a reference to an upcoming book (early 2024, he said). Yet he made a specific case against Mr Trump for being “unfit” and not in the public interest.

“He started the campaign by saying, ‘I am your retaliation,’” Mr. Christie said of Mr. Trump’s current bid. “Eight years ago he said, ‘I am your voice.’”

Megyn Kelly played hard.

When Republican debates are moderated by conservative journalists, the questions often arise from empathy or outright camaraderie. There was nothing pleasant about Wednesday evening.

This was the first time Ms. Kelly had moderated a Republican debate since 2016, when as a star on Fox News she upset Mr. Trump by confronting him with examples of his derogatory statements about women. Since then, she’s left Fox, moved to NBC, left in a bitter dispute and started her own podcast.

She came to Tuscaloosa apparently eager for a fight and spared no one.

“Don’t you have too many ties to the banks and the billionaires,” she suggested to Ms. Haley, “to win over the working-class base of the Republican Party, which primarily wants to break the system and not elect someone who is beholden to it? ”

She confronted Mr. DeSantis about his collapsing poll numbers and faltering campaign; she confronted Mr Ramaswamy with his apparent inability to decide from one debate to the next whether his opponents are corrupt or people of integrity; and she confronted Mr. Christie with the fact that most Republican voters can’t stand him.

Most importantly, she and the other moderators — Eliana Johnson of the Washington Free Beacon and Elizabeth Vargas of NewsNation — confronted all the candidates with a topic that many of them still prefer to avoid: Donald Trump.

Vivek Ramaswamy had his Alex Jones moment.

Mr Ramaswamy has stepped up his incentives at every debate – although his poll numbers appear to be slipping as he becomes more outrageous.

Echoing what Mr. Trump did in 2016, Mr. Ramaswamy, a wealthy businessman, has portrayed himself as the only “outsider” on stage, the only one who has not been corrupted by big donors and is willing to reveal the shocking “truth.” speak. He lashes out at his rivals but never has a bad word to say about Mr. Trump, often looking more like he is auditioning for a spot in Mr. Trump’s Cabinet than trying to beat him.

On Wednesday, Mr. Ramaswamy added some new material to his unusual act. Echoing Alex Jones, he stated that “Jan. 6 now looks like it was an inside job” — a reference to a far-right conspiracy theory that the attack on the Capitol was orchestrated by the federal government rather than Trump supporters.

He also said that “the climate change agenda is a hoax” and that “the great replacement theory” – the theory that liberal immigration policies are part of a plan to dilute the power of white Americans – “is not some grand right-wing conspiracy theory. , but a basic statement of the Democratic Party platform.”

He was rude and cruel. He mocked Mr. Christie’s weight and suggested that he himself would walk off the podium, “have a nice meal and drop out of this race.” Mr. Ramaswamy then portrayed Ms. Haley as a “puppet” of corporate America and the military-industrial complex.

The crowd booed often, never more so than when he attacked Ms. Haley as a “fascist.”