The first Republican presidential primary debate of the season in Milwaukee was hosted by Fox News on Wednesday night. Here are five of the biggest moments from the evening.
The debate began with clips of Oliver Anthony’s “Rich Men North of Richmond” and Martha MacCallum asking Florida Governor Ron DeSantis “Why is this song striking such a nerve in this country right now? What do you think it means?”
DeSantis pivoted away from lyrical interpretation toward broader themes:
Our country is in decline. This decline is not inevitable. It’s a choice. We need to send Joe Biden back to his basement and reverse American decline. And it starts with understanding we must reverse Bidenomics so that middle-class families have a chance to succeed again. We cannot succeed as a country if you are working hard and cannot afford groceries, a car, or a new home while Hunter Biden can make hundreds of thousands of dollars on lousy paintings. That is wrong.
Haley Comes Out Swinging on the Economy
Former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley was fiery throughout the proceedings, and she set the tone in her opening answer on the economy.
“The truth is that Biden didn’t do this to us. Our Republicans did this to us too. When they passed that $2.2 trillion Covid stimulus bill, they left us with 90 million people on Medicaid, 42 million people on food stamps,” argued Haley. “You have Ron DeSantis, you’ve got Tim Scott, you’ve got Mike Pence, they all voted to raise the debt and Donald Trump added 8 trillion to our debt and our kids are never gonna forgive us for this.”
With Trump sitting out the first forum of the GOP primary, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie trained his fire on his closest ally on stage, Vivek Ramaswamy.
After Ramaswamy asserted that he was the “only person on stage who isn’t bought and paid for,” Christie was incensed.
“I’ve had enough. I’ve had enough already tonight of a guy who sounds like ChatGPT standing up here,” he declared. “And the last person in one of these debates, Bret, who stood in the middle of the stage and said, ‘What’s a skinny guy with an odd last name doing up here?’ was Barack Obama. And I’m afraid we are dealing with the same type of amateur standing on the stage tonight.”
Baier Reprimands Live Audience
The live audience in Milwaukee was not inclined to play by the rules, and frequently interrupted the candidates to both cheer and needle them.
At one point, moderator Bret Baier felt compelled to reprimand them. After they drowned out another battle between Christie and Ramaswamy, Baier turned around to chide them.
“So, listen, the more time we spend doing this, the less time they can talk about issues you want to talk about. So, let’s just get through this section,” he explained with some irritation.
Haley Goes For Ramaswamy’s Throat On Foreign Policy
Haley’s hawkish foreign policy views were on full display Wednesday, and no one is more aware of them now than Ramaswamy.
After Ramaswamy said he would cut U.S. funding for Ukraine’s defensive war effort, Haley went for his throat.
“Ukraine is the first line of defense for us. And the problem that Vivek doesn’t understand is he wants to hand Ukraine to Russia,” argued Haley. “He wants to let China eat Taiwan. He wants to go and stop funding Israel. You don’t do that to friends. What you do instead is you have the backs of your friends.”
“You have no foreign policy experience and it shows!”
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