Chris Christie

Unlike in recent election cycles, most Republican presidential hopefuls this time around didn’t flat out deny that the climate crisis is real. But on the Fox News debate stage, they made clear that they’re not interested in dwelling on the issues – or doing much about it.On Tuesday night, the eight candidates were asked to raise their hands if they believed in the reality of human-caused global heating. They all punted.The Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, immediately derailed efforts to elicit a clear yes or no response. “Let’s have this debate,” he said, before proceeding not to have it at all, instead criticising Joe Biden’s response to the fires in Maui.Vivek Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur, was notably the only candidate to full-throatedly deny climate science, making the unsubstantiated claim that “more people are dying due to bad climate change policies than they are due to actual climate change”.There’s no discernible trend of deaths linked to policies encouraging renewable energy. However, extreme heat – fueled by the climate crisis – killed about 1,500 people last year, according to Centers for Disease Control records. Researchers estimate that the true figure is closer to 10,000 people every year.Former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, on the other hand, said “climate change is real” but then pushed off all responsibility to take care of it on India and China. Both those countries have lower per-capita carbon emissions than the US. And as of the latest figures, from 2021, no country had emitted more carbon dioxide since 1850 than the US.The South Carolina senator Tim Scott didn’t offer much in terms of solutions earlier, pointing a finger at the continent of Africa, as well as India and China. Africa accounts for one-fifth of the world’s population and produces about 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the International Energy Association, while disproportionately experiencing the consequences of climate chaos. The US is responsible for about 14% of global emissions.Nobody meaningfully addressed the question posed by Alexander Diaz of the Young America’s Foundation, a conservative youth organisation: “How will you as both president of the United States and leader of the Republican party calm their fears that the Republican party doesn’t care about climate change?”In a Washington Post/University of Maryland poll, 35% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents said they think climate change is a major factor in the extreme heat that the US has experienced recently, compared with 85% of those who lean Democratic. Overall, nearly two-thirds of Americans who experienced extremely hot days said climate change was a major factor.Young Republican voters, however, seem increasingly concerned about the climate crisis. A 2022 Pew poll found that 73% of Republicans aged 18-39 thought climate change was an extremely/very or somewhat serious issue.Meanwhile, the rightwing groups have been working to boost the fossil fuel industry while undermining the energy transition. Project 2025, a $22m endeavor by the climate-denying thinktank the Heritage Foundation, has developed a presidential proposal that lays out how a Republican president could dismantle US climate policy within their first 180 days in office.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe GOP candidates who have held public office have already given voters a glimpse of how they might approach the climate crisis. Governor DeSantis has supported projects to build seawalls and improve drainage systems as Florida faces increasingly powerful hurricanes and storm surges, as well as threats from sea level rise. But he has refused to acknowledge the role of global heating on these disasters, scoffing at the “politicization of the weather” and pushing bills banning Florida cities from adopting 100% clean energy goals. He also barred the state’s pension fund from considering the climate crisis when making investment decisions.Donald Trump, who did not attend the debate, has done even more to impede climate action. As president, he rolled back nearly 100 climate regulations, according a New York Times tally.Among the candidates who do support doing anything about the climate crisis, most think that thing should be carbon capture. Haley, who as US ambassador to the United Nations helped orchestrate the US withdrawal from the Paris agreement, has presented carbon capture technologies and tree planting as a way to keep burning fossil fuels while slowing the climate crisis.The consensus among climate scientists is that while such technologies could be a tool in fighting global heating, an overreliance on them could cause the world to surpass climate tipping points. More

Eight Republicans vying for the party nomination took the debate stage on Wednesday night in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, throwing punches over Ukraine, a federal abortion ban and more, hoping to increase their chances at defeating the no-show frontrunner.Absent was Donald Trump, whose pre-taped interview with the rightwing media personality Tucker Carlson simultaneously published on Twitter, now known as X, and sought to siphon away screen time from the debate housed on Fox News, which famously ousted Carlson earlier this year.But Trump’s presence loomed over the debate, even as candidates seemed to somewhat hold back from criticizing the ex-president, as Fox debate moderator Bret Baier put it, “the elephant not in the room”.Here are eight key takeaways from the night:A memorable opening with a viral song and jabs at ‘Bidenomics’The debate kicked off with a question about a controversial conservative country song, Rich Men North of Richmond, whose lyricist complains about taxes and nods to conspiracy theories surrounding the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein.“Our country is in decline,” said Ron DeSantis, to whom Fox News hosts Martha MacCallum and Bret Baier lobbed the first question. “We need to send Joe Biden back to his basement and reverse American decline.”Tim Scott touted his record of voting down government spending bills in the Senate, as well as his work on the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, a Trump-era piece of legislation that cut taxes for corporations and wealthy individuals.But Nikki Haley placed the blame on Republicans for spending exorbitantly during the pandemic, calling out Trump for increasing the national debt by $8tn and DeSantis, Scott and Mike Pence for voting to raise the national debt.Energy independence was also a focus, with candidates broadly advocating for increasing domestic energy production.“Unlock American energy. Drill, frack, burn, embrace nuclear,” said Ramaswamy, who later claimed that “the climate change agenda is a hoax”.Trump, ‘the elephant not in the room’Although Trump was absent, hosts asked candidates to show where they stand on the ex-president.Responding to a call for a show of hands by the Fox host Bret Baier, most candidates seemed to agree they would support Trump as president, even if he is convicted. Trump has amassed 91 felony counts in four criminal cases this year.“Someone’s got to stop normalizing this conduct,” said Christie, who raised his hand briefly and begrudgingly and has been a loud critic of Trump. “Whether or not you believe the criminal charges are right or wrong. The conduct is beneath the office of the president of the United States.” His comments were met with boos from the audience.Ramaswamy, who has defended Trump across all four indictments, continued to do so. He has repeatedly said he would pardon Trump as president and repeated that on the debate stage.Haley added her derision: “Trump is the most disliked candidate in America. We can’t win an election that way.”The candidates overall said they supported Mike Pence in his decision to refuse to stop the electoral certification, though Ramaswamy ardently defended Trump through the night and DeSantis refused to answer a question about whether he agreed Mike Pence was right.The war in Ukraine was a sticking pointRamaswamy came out the strongest against increased aid to Ukraine, calling it a “disastrous” decision and a “no-win war”. And DeSantis, who walked back earlier statements calling the war a “territorial dispute”, said he thinks Europe should remove itself from the situation.Haley, who served as US ambassador to the United Nations under Trump, delivered perhaps the strongest stance yet, calling Ukraine “a pro-American country that was invaded by a thug”.Ramaswamy took a dig at Haley, wishing her “well” on her “future career on the boards of Lockheed and Raytheon”.Haley countered, saying that Ramaswamy would hand Ukraine to Russia and China and make America less safe. “You have no foreign policy experience, and it shows,” Haley shot back at Ramaswamy, who said: “Ukraine is not a priority for America.”Christie, who made a visit to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, weeks earlier, took the opportunity to blast Trump, who has said the war in Ukraine isn’t a vital interest. “This is the Vladimir Putin who Donald Trump called brilliant and a genius. If we don’t stand up against this type of autocratic killing in the world, we will be next,” said Christie.DeSantis would send troops to the southern borderDeSantis said he would use lethal force at the US southern border to counter drug cartels entering the country and treat them as “foreign terrorist organizations”. DeSantis also said he would divert funds from Ukraine to do so and vowed to send troops.“When these drug pushers are bringing fentanyl across the border, that’s going to be the last thing they do. We’re going to use force and we’re going to leave them stone cold dead,” said DeSantis.Scott echoed DeSantis’s rhetoric, saying the southern border is the “most pressing need” when it comes to national security. He also laid out spending plans to complete Trump’s border wall with $10bn, though he did not mention Trump. Hutchinson also agreed that he would use lethal force, nodding to his time as an under secretary on border security for George W Bush.Candidates split over federal abortion banEach of the eight candidates have at some point identified themselves as anti-abortion but differed over implementing a federal abortion ban.Haley, the only woman on the debate stage, called herself “unapologetically pro-life” but warned against “demonizing” the issue, hedging against a federal abortion ban. DeSantis, who signed into law a six-week ban in Florida saying he believes in a “culture of life”, refused to answer whether he would approve a national ban.Pence, an evangelical Christian who has been the most outspoken anti-abortion candidate, said he would move to implement a national ban at “when a baby is capable of feeling pain” though he did not explicitly describe that length.Tim Scott also weighed in and said he would fight for a minimum 15-week ban on abortion. Burgum, who signed into law a six-week ban in North Dakota, said he would not sign a federal abortion ban.(Mostly) quiet on the climate crisisWith the exception of Ramaswamy declaring “the climate change agenda” a “hoax”, the candidates largely avoided a question about whether Republicans care about the climate crisis, a top issue among younger voters.DeSantis dodged the question, which pointed to the Hawaii wildfires, attacking “corporate media” for treating Republicans and Democrats differently, claiming Biden was on a beach in Delaware during the disaster.Haley was the only candidate to wholly assert that the climate crisis is real but said the onus should be on China and India to “really lower their emissions”.Night of introductionsWith the frontrunner absent, the lineup on the debate stage featured a bunch of relatively unknown faces.In his first remarks, Ramaswamy didn’t answer a question about the economy but instead said he guessed the audience would want to know “Who the heck is this skinny guy with a funny last name and what the heck is he doing in the middle of this debate stage?”That earned him a later attack from Christie, who said: “The last person in one of these debates … 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’re dealing with the same type of amateur.”Ramaswamy shot back: “Come on and give me a hug! … Give me that bear hug bro”Scott, the only Black candidate on the debate stage, repeatedly brought up his back story, growing up in poverty and being raised by a single mom.And Burgum, the governor of North Dakota who arrived at the debate after a trip to the ER earlier Tuesday, mentioned at several points his “small-town” identity. 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