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The First Republican Primary Debate

Jacob Francy, '26 On August 23rd, the Republicans held their first primary debate for the 2024 Presidential Election. This was our first chance to see if anyone had the potential to take on front-runner Donald Trump. Eight candidates were chosen to participate: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Former Vice President Mike Pence, Former South Carolina Governor and U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, Former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum. Former President Trump, who is currently the front-runner, skipped the chance to debate. Instead, he filmed an interview with former Fox News host, Tucker Carlson, on Elon Musk’s social media app, X (formerly Twitter).

Highlights:


  • Nikki Haley Criticizes Trump

Even though she was the United Nations Ambassador under Former President Trump, Nikki Haley came out swinging early in the debate calling her former boss “the most disliked politician in all of America”. While she did mention she was “very proud” to work with him, she also hit Trump hard saying that he’s going to, “spend more time in a courtroom than he’s gonna spend on the campaign trail.”


  • Pence Fires at Ramaswamy: “We don’t need to bring in a rookie”

Former VP Pence attacked the 38-year-old on stage. “I’ve got news for you, Vivek. I’ve been in the hallway and the West Wing.” Ramaswamy then told Pence he wasn’t sure he understood Pence’s comment. “Let me explain it to you, Vivek,” Pence responded. “I’ll go slower this time… Now is not the time for on-the-job training,” Pence said. “We don’t need to bring in a rookie.” Ramaswamy is an entrepreneur who has never held elective office. He responded to the former VP, calling himself a “patriot who speaks the truth” while calling others a “Super PAC puppet.”


  • All Candidates have different but similar abortion viewpoints

Everyone was directly asked if they were “pro-life” or in favor of a national abortion ban. Both Governor Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley didn’t give an exact answer and deflected. DeSantis mentioned his 6-week abortion ban he signed in Florida but also didn’t answer if he would sign a similar ban as President. “I understand Wisconsin will do it differently than Texas. I understand Iowa and New Hampshire will do it differently. But I will support the cause of life as governor and as president.” Nikki Haley answered by trying to find common ground without agreeing to a national ban: “Can’t we all agree that we should ban late-term abortions? Can’t we all agree that we should encourage adoptions? Can’t we all agree that doctors and nurses who don’t believe in abortions shouldn’t have to perform them? Can’t we agree that contraception should be available? Can’t we all agree that we are not going to put a woman in jail or give her the death penalty if she gets an abortion?” Mike Pence disagreed with Haley’s answer saying, “It’s not a states-only issue. It’s a moral issue,” supporting a national ban.


  • Everyone except Christie and Hutchinson would support Trump if convicted

When asked to hold up their hand if they would support Trump as the Republican nominee, even if he was convicted in his indictments, everyone except Chris Christie, open Trump critic, and Asa Hutchinson, raised their hands. This tells us that even with disagreeing with many of his positions and campaigning against him constantly, they will still bow down to his aide for a possible cabinet or vice president spot.


  • Candidates Answer whether Pence did his job on January 6

One of the Fox News moderators asked the candidates if Mike Pence did the right thing on January 6, 2021 by counting the votes of the 2020 election and certifying the election which was disagreed with and protested by many conspiracy theorists and far-right groups that believed the election was falsified. Pence, even if he agreed the election was stolen constitutionally, was not able to do anything about it. The candidates agreed, complimenting Pence’s job. Tim Scott answered briefly first, “Absolutely.” Chris Christie, Nikki Haley, and Doug Burgum all agreed with Scott, while Ron DeSantis refused to answer, saying, “It’s not about January 6, 2021, it’s about January 20, 2025, when the President is going to take office.” Finally, later, DeSantis clarified, “Mike did his duty. I got no beef with him.”


  • Ramaswamy & DeSantis “would not support” an increase in aid to Ukraine

When asked about Ukraine, both DeSantis and Ramaswamy refused to give Ukraine any support. Ramaswamy stated, “I find it offensive that we have professional politicians who will make a pilgrimage to Kyiv, to their pope, Zelensky, without doing the same for the people in Maui or the south side of Chicago.” DeSantis agreed and said that he would only give more support if other European countries started helping Russia. Nikki Haley fired away at Ramaswamy, “You are choosing a murderer,” referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin. She kept going and told Ramaswamy, “You have no foreign policy experience and it shows.”


  • Republicans push to eliminate Department of Education

Vivek Ramaswamy continued touting his far-right platform by claiming he’d abolish the DOE. “Let’s shut down the head of the snake, the Department of Education… Take that $80 billion, put it in the hands of parents across this country.” From Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump, former Republican Presidents have used the Department of Education as a way to get voters angry towards something in order to actually have a real policy platform. They decided to pretend the DOE is meddling in Americans’ lives. The main functions of the department include managing the budget for schools funded by the government and making sure everyone is given a fair and equal opportunity to education. What’s Republicans’ beef with education?


  • Ramaswamy would “pardon” Trump

Once again, the 38-year-old engineer made headlines by riding the Trump Train. A known Trump-touter, Ramaswamy told Fox News after the debate that he would “reunite” the country by pardoning Former President Trump from all of his federal charges and indictments. DeSantis addressed it but never confirmed it. No other candidates dared to jump too far over the line of defending Trump.


  • Ramaswamy claims climate change agenda is a “hoax”

One of the biggest headlines from the night is how the Republican still includes many regressive ideas, including the conspiracy theory that climate change is a fake idea, even though every global environmental science group agrees that global warming and climate change is indeed real and keeps getting worse each year. Ramaswamy was the only candidate, ironically the youngest as well, to spout such nonsense. Nikki Haley once again went after Ramaswamy for his obviously dramatic claims.


  • Takeaways:

    • Ron DeSantis: He did well maintaining his campaign points and defending himself as the most popular man on the stage.

    • Mike Pence: He went in and out in many places. He needs to be more certain of his position on many topics and platforms. He agrees with a moderate take one moment, then goes full far-right the next.

    • Nikki Haley: She did very well introducing more moderate stances to the Republican audience while also attacking others for their inexperience.

    • Vivek Ramaswamy: He certainly made a name for himself that night. If his goal was to make the headlines with outlandish claims, then he definitely achieved it.

    • Tim Scott: He acted too basic; he won’t gain much attention from this debate. His only key moments were building off others’ claims.

    • Chris Christie: It seems like every Republican Primary Debate always has Chris Christie in there just to have a laugh, and he delivered once again, calling Ramaswamy, “a guy that sounds like ChatGPT.”

    • Asa Hutchinson: He’s a longshot and got his 10 minutes of fame… good for him.

    • Tom Burgum: He’s also a longshot, but he became slightly more popular. I’m also glad he got his 10 minutes of fame as well.

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