Once again without the presence of former President Donald Trump, the big favorite for the Republican primaries, the fourth debate between the party’s candidates was marked by attacks on former US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley. “I love all the attention, guys,” she said when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis accused her of “giving in every time the left comes after her.” And when businessman Vivek Ramaswamy questioned her assets and accused her of corruption. Only former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie came to her defense, saying she was an “intelligent” woman and asking Ramaswamy not to insult her.
Going into Wednesday night’s debate, Haley already knew she would be the target to be shot. All because of his good performances in previous clashes, as he rises in the polls and gets closer to DeSantis, from whom he has stolen donors. The governor entered the race as Trump’s leading opponent but continues to fall in the polls and move further away from the former president, just 40 days before the Iowa caucuses. This will be the starting signal in the race for the White House.
According to the average poll on the website fivethirtyeight.com, the former president currently has 59.6% of voting intentions – with Trump using this advantage to refuse to debate his opponents. The governor of Florida reached 12.7% and the former ambassador to the UN 10.6%. At the start of the year, Trump had 45%, followed by DeSantis with 34.3%. Haley, on the other hand, did not get further than 2.6%. The other two candidates who took part in the debate still fall short of 5% today: Ramaswamy has 4.9% and Christie only 2.7%. The race, which featured more than a dozen candidates, also includes former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, who has just 0.5%.
Haley’s rise in the polls – which ranks alongside DeSantis in Iowa and ahead of him in New Hampshire – is due not only to her strong performance in the debates, but also to her more moderate speech than her rivals on abortion issues. The former ambassador is aware of her party’s electoral setbacks since the Supreme Court struck down constitutional protection of this right.
The fall of DeSantis also contributed to his rise, who takes extreme positions on the LGBT minority and immigration and is accused of lacking charisma. “I’m tired of hearing about these polls,” the governor said, reiterating that it will be up to voters, not polls, to decide his future.
Ramaswamy, a millionaire businessman in the field of new technologies, chose to question the fortunes of Haley, who has the backing of Wall Street donors and who worked for Boeing. And he wrote in his notebook: “Nikki = Corrupt”. The former ambassador and governor of South Carolina defended her work, saying opponents were “jealous” of donors. “They wanted them to support them,” he said, and at other times he chose not to respond to the attacks.
The absent Trump
Candidates have avoided directly attacking the former president for fear of alienating voters. The exception is Chris Christie, who nicknamed him “dictator” and compared him to “Voldemort” – the one whose name everyone is afraid to pronounce (in a reference to the villain from the Harry Potter universe). “If you’re afraid of offending Trump, what are you going to do when you sit across from President Xi? [Jinping]? The Ayatollah [Ali Khamenei]? [Vladimir] Putin?” he launched, referring to the leaders of China, Iran and Russia. “I am in the race because the truth must be told. He is not fit,” Christie said, prompting many to ask why he has not given up yet given the weak support he has. He was booed several times by the debate audience.
When pressed by debate moderators to talk about Trump, DeSantis said he would be too old for a second term — he will be 78 — but defended the former president against accusations that he would be a “dictator” if he returned to the White House. Haley attacked Trump when he talked about China, saying he wasn’t doing enough to prevent the introduction of fentanyl (a drug 50 times more powerful than heroin). “Trump was good on trade, but that’s it, with China,” he said, also criticizing his failure to stop the Chinese from buying land in the US.
Ramaswamy accused his rivals of “licking all of Donald Trump’s boots” but later said the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol was an “inside job” that did not distance itself from the former president over his tendency to spread lies and spread disinformation. With agencies
Source: DN
