Third 2024 Republican presidential debate

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley on Thursday said her GOP rival Vivek Ramaswamy “threw a petty shot,” when addressing their ongoing feud during an interview with Fox News.

At the third primary debate in Miami, Haley called Ramaswamy a “scum” after he brought up her daughter during an exchange about TikTok. Haley said she was “showing a lot of restraint” in this moment.

“Even though it was a personal shot, and it was a shot that wasn't necessary, I think the bigger point is there are big differences between me and Ramaswamy. He doesn't think we should be helping Israel. He thinks that we should let Putin have Ukraine,” Haley said. 

"We have real issues on that debate stage that differentiate us and that's what I wanted to talk about. He threw a petty shot there. It says more about him than it does about me,” she added.

Haley also responded to former President Donald Trump slamming her during his rally in Hialeah on Wednesday. Trump mocked the former South Carolina governor for previously saying she would not seek her party’s nomination if he opted to run a second time.

“Yes, I said I wouldn't run against him, but it was before we had the fall in Afghanistan, before we saw inflation go through the roof. It was before we lost the mid-terms…We cannot win the issues and fights of the 21st century if we continue to use politicians of the 20th century,” Haley said.

Haley said her strategy to surpass Trump in the polls and become the GOP frontrunner is “slow and steady.”

“It is slow and steady wins the race. We're now surging, second in Iowa, second in New Hampshire, second in South Carolina and we have one more fellow to go after and we'll do it.

Asked about Iranian proxies recently hitting US forces, Haley said it is “infuriating that our military men and women are having to deal with this.”

“The way to deal with that is you completely go and slam the infrastructure where the strikes are taking place. Eliminate their [Iran] ability to do any strikes to our men and women and let them know there will be hell to pay if they hurt an American soldier,” the former UN ambassador said.

Five Republicans vying for the GOP presidential nomination took the debate stage last night in Miami.

If you're just catching up now, here's a look at some of the key moments from the third GOP presidential debate:

• Foreign policy at the forefront: On Israel’s war with Hamas, there was little disagreement between the five candidates. In fact, their answers were often quite similar. “I’d be telling Bibi: Finish the job once and for all with these butchers,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said, referring to the Israeli prime minister by his nickname. But there were sharp divisions over whether the United States should continue to support Ukraine against Russia’s aggression. Vivek Ramaswamy left no doubt where he stood, issuing a lengthy rebuke of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky while accusing the war-torn country of harboring Nazism and anti-democratic beliefs.
• A tense Haley and Ramaswamy exchange: The tensest moments on the stage stemmed from a puzzlingly protracted series of exchanges about TikTok, the Chinese-owned social media platform that the candidates are happy to spend time dissing. Ramaswamy was the lone dissenter on that front, talking up his use of the app as a campaign tool while his rivals pledged to bury it, then effectively calling Nikki Haley a hypocrite because her daughter used it. Understandably infuriated, Haley told Ramaswamy to “leave my daughter out of your voice,” before dismissing him as “scum.”
• Christie and Scott became the fringe candidates: One could be forgiven for forgetting that Chris Christie and Tim Scott were even on the debate stage Wednesday night. The other three candidates were more interested in scoring shots at each other and seemed to view Christie and Scott as lagging too far behind in the polls to spend much time on. For the most part, Scott and Christie didn’t really get into the fray – and the other three candidates were fine with that.
• Scott appeared with his girlfriend for the first time: Scott’s girlfriend, Mindy Noce, appeared for the first time in public alongside the South Carolina senator at the conclusion of last night's third presidential debate, a campaign official confirmed to CNN. Scott told the Washington Post in September the two met through a mutual friend who attends Scott’s church. Scott, the only unmarried presidential candidate in the field, has been extremely private about his dating life, refusing to share his girlfriend’s name in that interview.

 

Less than a day after voters in multiple states rebuked GOP leaders who would restrict abortion rights, five Republicans running for president ignored the issue for the first 99 minutes of their third primary debate on Wednesday night.

Unlike their last gathering, a chaotic scramble of interruptions and cross talk, the debate Wednesday night in Miami did hammer away at points of substance. The rub? Almost all of it was focused on foreign policy.

And while those questions were surely worth debating – even if the candidates largely agreed on top lines like supporting Israel and opposing Hamas, Iran and China – the effect was ultimately disorienting: If the GOP is going to take back the White House, why ignore the political hurdles standing in its way?

Considering the candidates’ narrow interests, it made some sense. None of their views on abortion, which came out 20 minutes before closing time, are particularly popular at the moment. Taken together, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s plea for consensus on the issue and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott’s insistence on a 15-week federal ban echoed the logic set forth by Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin in the days and weeks before his state GOP colleagues came up short in a high-stakes legislative contest.

Abortion wasn’t the only divisive topic that got short shrift in Miami. Former President Donald Trump, too, was an afterthought for most of the night after receiving a few measured jabs, in absentia, early on and only at the prodding of the moderators. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis summed up the argument against Trump, saying he is a “different guy than he was in 2016” and, like Haley, suggesting Republicans not go chasing past glories.

The tensest moments on the stage stemmed from a puzzlingly protracted series of exchanges about TikTok, the Chinese-owned social media platform that the candidates are happy to spend time dissing.

Vivek Ramaswamy was the lone dissenter on that front, talking up his use of the app as a campaign tool while his rivals pledged to bury it, then effectively calling Haley a hypocrite because her daughter used it.

Understandably infuriated, Haley told Ramaswamy to “leave my daughter out of your voice,” before dismissing him as “scum.” (Ramaswamy appeared to do his best to avoid Haley after the debate when the candidates’ families joined them onstage).

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Trump’s harshest critic on cable news, hardly registered, putting another dent in his reputation as a shrewd (and occasionally crude) public speaker.

Read six takeaways from the third GOP presidential primary debate.

Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy claimed in Wednesday’s debate that Ohio "passed a constitutional amendment that now effectively codifies a right to abortion all the way up to the time of birth without parental consent” because of a “Republican culture of losing.” 

Facts First: This is false.

The passage of ballot measure Issue 1 on Tuesday establishes a person’s right to an abortion in the Ohio state constitution. The measure does not explicitly say that abortion is allowed under any circumstance, nor does it change Ohio’s parental consent and notification law.  

Rather, the new amendment to the state constitution says that any kind of ban on the procedure pre-viability (typically at 23 to 24 weeks) is prohibited under state law. By the time a person is pregnant for 24 weeks, there is a good chance the child could survive outside the womb. After viability, the state can restrict a person’s access to an abortion unless the pregnant person’s health or life is at risk because of that pregnancy. An abortion late in pregnancy is exceptionally rare. 

In Ohio, a minor will still need a parent’s permission to get an abortion, or they must get an exception from a judge. 

Out of a group of 13 Iowa voters, four said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis won Wednesday night's debate, while six others said former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley did and three said entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy was victorious.

None of the voters in the group interviewed by CNN's Gary Tuchman said neither South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott nor former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie won the debate.

"I think with foreign policy being center stage, it really plays into [Haley's] strengths and they spent a lot of time on that topic," Brett Barker, who is the mayor of Nevada, Iowa told Tuchman. "And we saw her go toe-to-toe with tyrants of the UN and you can see her doing that as president."

Another voter told Tuchman that he thinks DeSantis won because of his current position in office as governor.

"Everybody else says what they would do or what they did 10 years ago," the voter said. "DeSantis says what he's doing now and what he's going to be doing once he changes that position."

Another voter who chose Ramaswamy said they did so because "he wasn't afraid to speak his mind."

"I think everyone else was kind of in sync with each other and didn't really vary as much as he did and he just wasn't afraid to go against the grain," the voter said.

Twelve of the 13 voters said they voted for former President Donald Trump in 2016. But when asked Wednesday night how many of them would still caucus for Trump, only two said they would vote for him.

Voters mentioned the many legal clouds hanging over the former president as a reason for why they shifted their support from him.

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy doubled down Wednesday night on mentioning South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s daughter during the GOP debate in Miami.

The comment about her use of TikTok sparked a sharp rejoinder from Haley, who interjected: “Leave my daughter out of your voice." When Ramaswamy continued over an audible reaction from the crowd, Haley muttered “you’re just scum,” rolling her eyes in disgust.

The tech entrepreneur argued it wasn't “a sin” for him or Haley’s daughter to engage on the social video app TikTok, which is owned by a Chinese-based company, but said it reflects a “lack of self-awareness” in Haley given her previous criticism of Ramaswamy’s use of the app.

Ramaswamy told CNN’s Dana Bash he’s concerned about Republicans not engaging young voters on TikTok and said Republicans like Haley who want to restrict access to TikTok are “retreating” on the issue.

“It's not a sin to be on TikTok. The dirty little secret is, it's a generational divide. Most people, young people who I meet are — and the alerting moment is even if she's going to talk about TikTok sanctimoniously on stage without mentioning that her own adult family members of the next generation are on it, we're not fixing the problem by just retreating and signaling our virtue,” he said.

Ramaswamy said he didn’t feel it was wrong to bring up a member of Haley’s family during the debate, noting he wasn’t criticizing Haley’s daughter’s use of the app, but referencing her daughter to underline an argument about Haley’s leadership.

“I think the error is somebody sanctimoniously lecturing the rest of the country, about the perils of it, while actually failing to set an example of leadership a little closer to home,” he said.

Ramaswamy also defended his attack, at the start of the debate, on the Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel and his call for her to resign. He said the tactic was not meant to curry favor with any voters, but hoped his unvarnished rhetoric would communicate authenticity to voters that he hopes will translate to growing support.

Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel stood by her decision to allow NBC News to host Wednesday night's debate despite criticism from GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.

"I stand by our choice to go with a non-conservative media outlets. I think NBC did a great job," she told CNN's Dana Bash, noting that by going to a non-conservative outlet, the GOP was able to reach independent voters. She also noted conservative Salem Radio Network partnered on the event. "We are not gonna win elections if we sit in an echo chamber of Republican media."
"If you can't take a tough question, and you probably shouldn't be running for president," she added.

During the debate, Ramaswamy also blamed McDaniel for the string of losses Republicans have suffered. The RNC chair told CNN she is not going to go after Republicans and instead "always going to focus on the Democrats." She added that "Republican on Republican infighting" is not helping the party.

McDaniel addressed the election losses Republicans faced Tuesday night in Kentucky, Virginia and Ohio.

"The RNC is a federal committee, so we are House, Senate, presidential — we are not as involved in the state races," she said.

But McDaniel did say, "Many of the candidates in those races were being pummeled with advertising, lying about their stance on abortion, and they did not respond. And if you do not respond, a lie becomes the truth. Our candidates need to be conversant and able to get on TV and articulate where they stand on abortion, and talk about other things."

She added, "Define yourself before the Democrats define you."

McDaniel also said that she does not expect former President Donald Trump to participate in any of the RNC primary debates.

Speaking about President Joe Biden’s response to Hamas’ attack on Israel, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said: “We had Floridians that were over there after the attack. He [Biden] left them stranded. They couldn't get flights out. So, I scrambled resources in Florida. I sent planes over to Israel and I brought back over 700 people to safety. There could have been more hostages had we not acted.”  

Facts First: DeSantis’ statement, which appears to say Biden failed to evacuate Americans out of Israel, is both untrue and needs context.  

National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby announced on October 12 that the US government would begin arranging charter flights for Americans seeking to leave Israel on October 13. The first US government flight out of Israel landed in Athens on October 13. On October 30, State Department spokesman Matt Miller said the agency was suspending charter flights due to a lack of demand. 

Separately, DeSantis declared a state of emergency in Florida on October 12, allowing him to access a $500 million fund that does not require legislative approval, to evacuate people from Israel to Tampa. He told reporters in New Hampshire in October that he anticipated the first evacuation flight would land in Florida on October 15.  

DeSantis’ claim that “there could have been more hostages” without his evacuation flights is a hypothetical; we can’t definitively fact check whether more hostages might be taken in the future. But it’s worth noting that no hostages have been taken from Israel since Hamas’ October 7 attack. DeSantis declared a state of emergency five days later to begin chartering flights, after Israeli forces had taken back control of the country. 

Asked for an explanation of the claim, DeSantis campaign spokesperson Bryan Griffin said in an email during the debate: “Of course Hamas could've taken more hostages. Everyone Ron DeSantis brought home is 100% safe from that possibility.” 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suggested Wednesday that President Joe Biden would use funds from his proposed $105 billion national security package to bring more undocumented immigrants into the US.  

“He says he has money for border... When you look at it, what most of the money is money to process more illegal aliens into this country. How is that solving the problem?” DeSantis said during the debate. 

Facts First: DeSantis’ assertion needs context. Some of the package’s $13.6 billion for border security would be used to add more asylum officers, processing personnel and immigration judges, all of whom help determine whether migrants are eligible to remain in the US. But other funds would be used to hire additional Border Patrol agents. 

Biden’s funding request, which he laid out in October, would funnel money into a wide variety of border operations, including efforts to counter fentanyl, support for states and localities that provide shelter and services to migrants and assistance to resettle eligible arrivals.  

The package calls for $1.6 billion to hire 1,300 Border Patrol agents, but money would also be used to add 1,600 asylum officers, as well as processing personnel, according to the White House. Plus, the request asks for $1.4 billion to hire 375 immigration judge teams to adjudicate and process immigration cases more quickly.