Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis immediately went on the attack in the final Republican GOP debate before the Iowa caucuses, relentlessly accusing each other of lying and flip-flopping on issues.
Both candidates presented themselves at the CNN event on Wednesday night as successors to Donald Trump, the Republican frontrunner who held forth at a town hall on Fox News as they argued.
The intense verbal duel at Drake University in Des Moines took place hours after another rival, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, left the race.
Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, repeatedly impugned the conservative commitment of Nikki Haley, a former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador, on issues like immigration, China policy, assistance for Ukraine, and his much-publicized battle with Walt Disney Co.
“The reality is Nikki Haley is not somebody that has been willing to stand up and fight on behalf of conservatives,” he said.
Challenging DeSantis’ portrayal of her record, Haley repeatedly mentioned her new website dedicated to debunking his assertions and took offense to his campaign itself, which has gone through several shakeups.
“The best way to tell about a candidate is to see how they run their campaign. He has blown through $150 million. I don’t even know how you do that,” she said. “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?
“You’re just so desperate,” she chided when they discussed how to remedy an approaching shortfall in Social Security.
Here are other key highlights: DeSantis called assistance for Ukraine “an open ended commitment” and that “people like Nikki Haley care more about Ukraine’s border than she does about our own southern border.”
Haley said aiding Ukraine would deter Russian President Vladimir Putin from threatening US allies.
The candidates clashed over abortion, with DeSantis calling Haley “confused” and that she was “pandering to liberal voters.” Haley insisted that she’s “unapologetically pro life,” but “this is too personal of an issue to put fear or judgment.”
DeSantis continued a series of strong debate and town hall performances, a sharp improvement since his campaigning style came under criticism early in the race.
Haley came across effectively after a recent misstep when she failed to say that slavery caused the Civil War.
