Jacob Francy, '26
On September 28, the Republicans held their second primary debate a few weeks after the opening debate. Everyone from the first debate, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, Former Vice President Mike Pence, Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, came back (besides Former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson who has dropped in polls) to talk to the American people on the nationally televised program at Ronald Reagan’s Presidential Library in California. Once again, Former President and Poll leader Donald Trump has rejected the offer to attend the debate. His team has also stated he intends to miss the third one as well. Here are the highlights:
Trump’s Name Brought Up Again
Many candidates took their chance once again to attack the former President with his absence. Chris Christie, his biggest vocal opposition, went out against Trump right away. "[Trump] has not only divided our party, he's divided families all over this country. He needs to be taken out of this process." Christie kept going, “Donald Trump, he hides behind the walls of his golf clubs and won’t show up here to answer questions like all the rest of us are up here to answer. He put $7 trillion on the debt. He should be in this room to answer those questions for the people you talk about who are suffering.” Then, shockingly, one of the candidates who has been very reluctant to take a swing at Trump, Ron DeSantis, took a chance, criticizing Trump’s absence, “Donald Trump is missing in action,” he said. “He should be on this stage tonight.” Mike Pence, who had been speaking out about his former boss prior to the debate, kept his attacks smaller by drawing a contrast between them, “My former running mate, Donald Trump, actually has a plan to start to consolidate more power in D.C., consolidate more power in the executive branch. When I’m President of the United States, it’s my intention to make the federal government smaller by returning to the states those resources and programs that are rightfully theirs under the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution.” But of course, before the debate ended, like all the others, Chris Christie needed to give a viral quote. Continuing to critique Trump, Christie ranted, “Donald, I know you’re watching, you can’t help yourself, I know you’re watching. You’re not here tonight, not because of polls, and not because of your indictments. You're not here tonight because you're afraid of being on the stage and defending your record. You’re ducking these things. … No one up here is going to call you Donald Trump anymore, we’re going to call you Donald Duck.” And boom, we have the best soundbite from any debate ever.
DeSantis Shockingly Fights Trump Well on Abortion
DeSantis, before the debate while on the campaign trail, had been calling on Trump to give his official stance on abortion, which has turned into a scrum between the two candidates. Trump then called DeSantis’ six-week abortion ban “a terrible mistake” and refused to state his actual position on a federal ban, while on NBC’s Meet the Press. DeSantis, who has also taken criticism from anti-abortion advocates for not taking a strong enough national abortion stance, called out Democrats for what he said are extremist abortion rights positions. “We’re better off when everybody counts,” he said.
Republicans Continue to Use the Border as a “Main concern”
It is no secret that the immigration policy under the Biden administration has struggled with an upflow of undocumented immigrants entering the U.S. The Republicans have used the strong border policy stance as a way to fully agree with each other on stage. Haley and Christie proposed different ideas of increasing funding for ICE and adding more Immigration and Border Patrol officers. DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy took more extreme stances. Ramaswamy proposed to end birthright citizenship, taking away the right to American citizenship if a child is born in the US if their parents are undocumented. DeSantis included in his rebuttal the idea of sending the National Guard to the southern border. “Those Mexican drug cartels are going to be treated like the foreign terrorist organizations they are,” said the Florida Governor.
Education Debate
DeSantis was asked about the controversial new Florida education curriculum he sponsored, which included a line that stated slavery had some “benefits” for slaves. He claimed that the framing was a, “hoax perpetrated by Kamala Harris.” DeSantis then called on the abolishment of teaching critical race theory (a.k.a. empathy) and enacting universal school choice. Ramaswamy and Pence answered questions relating to transgender youth, and the responses were truly scary. Ramaswamy claimed “transgenderism” is a “mental health disorder,” while Pence promised to ban “transgender chemical or surgical surgery.” “We've got to protect our kids from this radical gender ideology agenda,” he said.
Ramaswamy Gets Beat-up Again
Tim Scott started off the fight by accusing Ramaswamy of doing business with the Chinese Communist Party. Vivek Ramaswamy immediately responded, “Nonsense.” Pence went after him next, “I’m glad Vivek got pulled out of his business deal in 2018 in China,” Pence said. “That must have been about the time he decided to start voting in presidential elections.” Nikki Haley joined in on the action, “Everytime I hear you, I feel a little bit dumber from what you say,” Haley said after Ramaswamy answered a question about his recent decision to join TikTok. “We can’t trust you.”