Aside from Chris Christie, the candidates have spent more time in debates going after each other than taking aim at Trump, reflecting the view of many Republican power players that there are diminishing returns in attacking the former president given his popularity among Republicans.
The candidates were at the University of Alabama for their last scheduled meeting before the Iowa caucuses kick off the presidential nominating season next month.
Trump, who has staged public appearances to compete for attention during the three prior Republican debates, made plans to spend the evening at a closed-door fundraiser in Florida.
Powerful Koch group endorses Haley’s 2024 bid to beat Trump
Powerful Koch group endorses Haley’s 2024 bid to beat Trump
Christie stayed mostly silent during the opening of the debate. When he got the floor, the former New Jersey governor unloaded on them for being “too timid” to mention Trump at all, saying they were acting “as if the race is between the four of us”.
“The truth needs to be told,” he said. “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 there. There is no bigger issue in this race than Donald Trump.”
Haley is gaining new interest from voters and donors but still remains well behind Trump in national and early-state polls.
DeSantis touted his own willingness to pick high-profile fights with his critics and criticised Haley in his opening comments, reflecting the rivalry between the two candidates’ camps reflected in television ads going after the other side.
“She caves every time the left comes after her, every time the media comes after her,” DeSantis said, touting his own willingness to pick high-profile fights with his critics.
They also tussled over China, long an animating issue for conservatives worried about Beijing’s influence.
“Deterring China’s ambitions is the number one national security task that I will do as president, and we will succeed,” DeSantis said.
“The 21st century needs to be an American century. We cannot let it be a Chinese century.”
Haley credited Trump for taking a hard line with Beijing on trade but said he was too passive on other fronts, including allowing China to capture American technology for its own military use and purchase American farmland.
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Could a second Trump presidency slide into dictatorship?
Interrupting Haley, DeSantis accused her of allowing Chinese investment in South Carolina when she was governor and suggested her corporate donors would never allow her to be tough on Beijing.
“First of all, he’s mad because those Wall Street donors used to support him and now they support me,” Haley retorted before accusing DeSantis of being soft on Chinese investment in Florida.
Ramaswamy, always the most eager to deliver personal barbs on the debate stage, turned a foreign policy discussion into another attack on Haley, seemingly trolling her to name provinces in Ukraine and suggesting she does not understand the country.
As he kept piling on, Christie stepped in to declare Haley “a smart, accomplished woman” and dismiss Ramaswamy as “the most obnoxious blowhard in America”.
The debate aired on NewsNation, a cable network still trying to build its audience after taking over WGN America three years ago. NewsNation’s Elizabeth Vargas moderated alongside Megyn Kelly, a former Fox News anchor who now hosts a popular podcast, and Eliana Johnson of the conservative news site Washington Free Beacon.
Haley has risen in recent polling to challenge the Florida governor’s position as the leading non-Trump contender.
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She’s leaned on her foreign policy experience since the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7. And she recently won the support of the Koch brothers ‘ powerful political operation, which will send organisers and canvassers into early primary states on her behalf.
DeSantis, meanwhile, faces new upheaval in his political operation. A pro-DeSantis super PAC that is handling much of his campaign apparatus in Iowa parted ways with several top staffers over the weekend.
Ramaswamy has been a fiery presence in the three earlier debates. He’ll be looking to resurrect the interest he saw over the summer but remains stalled in single digits in most polls.
And Christie, who barely met the requirements to participate, is the only leading contender to consistently go after Trump, needling his rivals for focusing on each other instead of the race’s front runner.
He has focused his campaign on New Hampshire, which holds its primaries eight days after the Iowa caucuses.
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse and Reuters