The seven presidential candidates left in the campaign for the Republican 2024 presidential nomination spent their second debate bashing absent Donald Trump and scuffling over topics including immigration.
In the western state of California, the debate was another prospect for Trump’s opponents to take away at his tremendous lead among voters before the primary procedure kicks off in the state of Iowa in January.
Seven candidates partake – Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum.
Trump missed the event for a second time – rather, traveling to Michigan to attend an autoworkers’ strike, a day after Joe Biden, US President, who will run for a second Presidential term in 2024, joined the picket line.
Here are the significant points from the second debate, which took place at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.
Following months of skipping confrontations, DeSantis seemed to have decided it was time to go on the offensive against Trump, who encountered four different charges.
It was 16 minutes before the Florida Governor got to speak – but when he did, he criticized Trump as “missing in action”.
Pointing his criticism of the man whose endorsement he once assumed, DeSantis accused Trump of adding trillions of dollars to the US national debt.
DeSantis said, “He should be on this stage tonight. He owes it to you to defend his record,”, drawing clapping and some cheers from the crowds at the event.
Slightly surprisingly, Christie, who has made his campaign around attacking Trump, looked into the camera to blame Trump for being scared.
To a chorus of boos, he said, “You’re ducking these things, and let me tell you what’s going to happen. You keep doing that, no one up here is gonna call you Donald Trump any more. We’re gonna call you a Donald Duck.”
Pence, who was the vice president of the Former President from 2017-2021, delivered a gentle critique of Trump’s wish to centralize power in the federal government, pledging to provide power back to the states.
Haley said Trump had carried an inaccurate approach to China by focusing on trade, instead of broader security problems.
Reagan’s clip of calling for an “amnesty” for people in the United States illegally was played earlier of a question on immigration policy.
The candidates’ reactions revealed just how distant to the right the Republican party has moved since.
The former representative of a Democratic state, Christie distanced himself from the call of Reagan, stating it was virtually ancient history.
While emphasizing that he would send the National Guard to the US-Mexico border “on Day One,” Christie said, “We’re no longer in a position to do that any more.”
Haley moved a step ahead, calling for an end to foreign assistance to Latin America until the border was secured.
She said, “Only when we fix the immigration system, only when we make the border secure, should we ever put more money into this.”
Ramaswamy also emphasizes his bid to cancel US citizenship for children born in the nation to parents in the US illegally.
Ramaswamy said, “If the kid of a Mexican diplomat doesn’t enjoy birthright citizenship, then neither does the kid of an illegal migrant who broke the law to come here.”
Ramaswamy and political novice had a breakout moment in the first debate, placing himself as a Trump-like outsider and slamming his opponents as part of the establishment.
Ramaswamy seemed to take a more peacemaking approach this time around.
At the beginning of the debate, Ramaswamy declared, “These are good people on this stage,” quoted Reagan’s so-called “11th commandment” to never bash another Republican.
However, he still came under continuous attack from the other candidates.
Following the entrepreneur defended joining TikTok as he said he joining TikTok to connect with young voters, Haley responded, “Every time I hear you, I feel a little dumber.”
