Republican debate: chaos erupts as Christie defends Haley and Ramaswamy calls her ‘fascist neocon’ with lipstick – as it happened

That wraps up the fourth Republican primary debate. There was shouting, there was misinformation, and there was a lot of discussion of the one candidate not in the room – Donald Trump.

• Nikki Haley delivered a relatively muted performance, ultimately presenting herself as a calm foil to Trump’s chaos. She arguably had the most to gain – or lose – tonight, given her recent momentum in polls.

• Ron DeSantis doubled down on far-right talking points on transgender rights and immigration, and was feisty in his attacks of Haley, who has been gaining on him.

• Chris Christie was one of the feistiest debaters, coming down especially hard on Trump and DeSantis, whom he accused of parroting the former president.

• Vivek Ramaswamy was characteristically on the attack, swiping especially hard at Haley.

• The moderators posed some of the sharpest questions we’ve yet seen at a Republican debate, asking direct, pointed questions about these candidates’ viability against Trump and their past equivocating.

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In the final question, the candidates were asked which former president they draw inspiration from.

Christie said Ronald Reagan, because he was a “slave to the truth”. Haley said George Washington. DeSantis said Calvin Coolidge, someone who “knew the proper role of the president” and small government. Ramaswamy chose Thomas Jefferson, for his youth.

DeSantis promoted the election police force he created.

The force arrested 20 people. More than half of the cases have either been dismissed or have resulted in plea deals with no jail time. Several of those charged did not know they couldn’t vote and were not informed of their ineligibility.

Turns out Vivek Ramaswamy is still going to be a bully. When a question about Ramaswamy’s swipes about Nikki Haley’s faith and identity as a fellow Indian American arose, he attempted to spin a response into doubts about her authenticity and then tried to redeem sexist comments from past debates.

He then held up a sign that said “Nikki = Corrupt”. The audience audibly booed at Ramaswamy, and cheered when Haley said she wouldn’t bother to respond.

On gender-affirming care, for example, the candidates repeatedly made reference to “genital mutilation”, baselessly implying that the gender-affirming care – which is endorsed by major medical associations – was abuse.

One-upping each other, DeSantis and Haley sparred over who had been more restrictive of the rights of queer people.

“I did a bill in Florida to stop the gender mutilation of minors. It’s child abuse, and it’s wrong. She opposes that bill. She thinks it’s fine and the law shouldn’t get involved with it,” DeSantis said.

DeSantis took a rare swing at Trump. He said Trump didn’t use his executive powers to fire Dr Anthony Fauci and FBI head Christopher Wray, or to deport even more undocumented migrants. He then mentioned Trump’s age and said the American people shouldn’t vote for someone who is nearly 80.

But Christie still pounced on DeSantis, saying he was too scared to directly take on Trump.

Discussion had turned back to Trump, and his assertion that he’d restrict immigration from Muslim countries.

Haley said she opposed a “straight Muslim ban”, and said policy should focus on countries that are a threat to the US. DeSantis, meanwhile, framed the issue of Muslim people immigrating to the US as a cultural issue.

“Look what’s happened in Europe,” he said. “They imported mass numbers of people who reject their culture. Europe is committing suicide with the mass migration.”

Echoing a common, xenophobic talking point, he baselessly implied that immigrants were responsible for antisemitism in the EU.

Turning to questions of what’s ailing the economy, and what to do about it, the candidates had different theories on the former issue, but few concrete ideas on the latter.

Haley said inflation and high interest rates were making it difficult for Americans seeking homeownership. DeSantis said both parties were borrowing, printing and spending too much money, while Ramaswamy said that he wanted to reduce the central bank’s headcount by 90%.

Ramaswamy accused China of sending chemicals to Mexico for the manufacture of fentanyl.

Here’s more context on that:

Picking up a familiar line of attack, DeSantis also attacked Haley as sympathetic to China.

This is something he’s attacked her on at previous debates, capitalizing on a letter she wrote to China’s ambassador to the US in 2014, thanking him for congratulating her on her re-election.

After a short break, we are back with discussion of fentanyl and the southern border of the US.

DeSantis, who had made this a key political issue – flying asylum seekers to Democrat-led areas – said he would make it legal to shoot suspected drug traffickers at the border, whom he would classify as terrorists.

We’ve reached the shouting stage of the debate. It started with Christie trying to defend Haley against Ramaswamy – “This is a smart, accomplished woman and you should stop insulting her” – and descended into a shout-off between the two men.

Ramaswamy punched back with a reference to Bridgegate and some casual fat shaming. He then seemed to compare Nikki Haley to Dick Cheney. “You can put lipstick on a Dick Cheney – it is still a fascist neocon,” he said.

Haley and DeSantis, who have the most to gain or lose tonight, have bubbled back into the background.

Haley, meanwhile, has had to clarify her past inscrutable responses to questions about Israel and Hamas.

“You said in last month’s debate that by contrast to the Biden administration’s approach to Iran, you would ‘punch them once and punch them hard’. Were you saying that it’s time to bomb Iran?” asked Eliana Johnson.

Haley said that’s not what she meant, but that the administration has been too accommodating of Iranians by weakening sanctions to secure the return of American prisoners.

So far any discussion on Israel has been focused on the Israelis killed by Hamas in the deadly 7 October attack. The candidates have not mentioned the more than 16,000 people killed largely by Israeli strikes in Gaza, including thousands of children.

The next set of questions is about Israel.

The question comes on the same day that Senate Republicans blocked a supplemental funding bill that included financial aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, and border security provisions. The vote was held up by Republicans who wanted more stringent border policies in exchange for their support.

DeSantis accused the Biden administration of hurting Israel’s ability to defend itself. Christie said he would send troops to save hostages held by Hamas.

Kelly is out with another biting question, this time for Chris Christie:

“Your best state is New Hampshire and even there, two thirds of GOP voters say they would be angry and disappointed if you won. Respectfully, Governor, you have not stopped Mr Trump, and voters may wonder how you could possibly become the nominee of a party that does not appear to like you very much.”

Christie responded that Trump (who he referred to as “Voldemort – he who shall not be named”) was the candidate that everyone here is really competing with. “I’m in this race because the truth needs to be spoken,” he said. “He is unfit. This is a guy who just said this past week that he wants to use the Department of Justice to go after his enemies when he gets in there. And the fact of the matter is, he is unfit to be president, and there is no bigger issue in this race, Megan, than Donald Trump.”

“I love all the attention, fellas, thank you for that,” said Haley, as DeSantis and Ramaswamy piled on her about cybersecurity and her corporate donations.

Vivek Ramaswamy made a splash in the first Republican debate, but what some considered witty, antiestablishment repartee has now been deemed bullying. A low point for Ramaswamy came after he evoked Nikki Haley’s daughter’s TikTok account in the last debate. As Ramaswamy continues to drop in polls and popularity, some are waiting to see if he will change tact.