Republican debate updates: Candidates attack one another over Gaza, border

We hope you enjoyed our coverage of the fourth Republican presidential debate.

For more information about some of the issues discussed tonight, read our coverage of how the war in Gaza is shaping US foreign policy and why Republicans are prioritising aid to Israel over funds for Ukraine.

We also have an analysis about why the relatively small network NewsNation served as the host for the fourth debate – and how voter support for Democrats is slipping.

Here are a few main takeaways from the fourth Republican primary debate, which saw four candidates collide over issues such as foreign policy, Donald Trump and immigration:

• The debate underscored deep schisms over foreign policy, with Ramaswamy slamming Christie and Haley for their more hawkish approaches.
• Ramaswamy’s rivals chastised him for his critical stance on US support for Ukraine. All four candidates, however, expressed strong support for Israel’s war in Gaza.
• Christie, a frequent Trump critic, evoked boos from the audience for his broadside against the former president. But Haley and DeSantis likewise took aim at Trump, the Republican frontrunner, calling him out for government spending and unfulfilled campaign promises.
• Transgender people were a frequent target during the debate, with Ramaswamy referring to gender-affirming care as “genital mutilation” and DeSantis describing it as “child abuse”.

With the first contest of the 2024 presidential contest only six weeks away in Iowa, stakes were high at the fourth Republican primary debate.

But did any candidate emerge on top after two hours of jabs and crosstalk?

What was clear, right out of the gate, was that Florida Governor DeSantis and entrepreneur Ramaswamy saw Haley as their chief rival on the debate stage.

They came out swinging, attacking Haley, a former UN envoy, on everything from healthcare for transgender minors to foreign policy in the Middle East.

The fourth candidate at the debate, former New Jersey Governor Christie, stood on the sidelines at first, only to enter the fray in defence of Haley. Christie has faced pressure to drop his campaign and throw his support behind her.

While insults flew between candidates, the biggest winner of the night might have been the debate hosts themselves, who largely hail from outside mainstream media.

The subscription-based channel NewsNation catapulted into the big leagues, succeeding bigger-name networks like NBC and Fox News to host the debate. And moderator Megyn Kelly returned to the national spotlight, following her split from Fox News and NBC.

• Christie hit out at Trump, suggesting that the former president will not be able to vote next November because he will be convicted of a felony.
• Ramaswamy said the “climate change agenda is a hoax”, renewing his attacks against efforts to address the crisis, despite 2023 being the hottest year on record.
• Haley took a parting shot at Trump, suggesting that he is a source of “chaos” and promising to approach politics with no drama or “whining”.
• DeSantis talked up his conservative record in Florida and portrayed himself as a fighter who would guide Republicans into winning again.

Figures from the Democratic Party took to social media to pan the fourth Republican debate, saying that the candidates squabbled between themselves rather than offering serious responses to key issues.

“I’ve been listening to this for the past hour, trying to figure out ‘what’s the purpose here?’” former Alabama Senator Doug Jones said in a social media post.

“This isn’t a debate. None of what’s happened so far qualifies as debate. It’s been an unproductive mix of bullying, arguing and absurd one-liners. Real dialogue, real policy is a distant dream.”

Meanwhile, California Governor Gavin Newsom, who locked horns with DeSantis in a separate debate last week, used social media to press the Florida governor for his response to a question about healthcare.

“‘Millions of Americans don’t have access to healthcare!’ says the guy who has the 5th largest uninsured population in the nation,” Newsom said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

All the candidates cited former presidents as sources of inspiration in answer to the question:

• Christie: Ronald Reagan
• Haley: Abraham Lincoln
• DeSantis: Calvin Coolidge
• Ramaswamy: Thomas Jefferson

The former UN envoy said she would push a new definition of anti-Semitism.

“If you don’t think that Israel has a right to exist, that is anti-Semitism. We will change the definition, so that every government, every school has to acknowledge the definition for what it is,” she said.

Palestinian rights advocates, including many progressive Jewish groups, have long warned against conflating anti-Semitism with anti-Zionism. They argue it would curb legitimate criticism of the Israeli government without helping the fight against bigotry.

The House of Representatives adopted a symbolic resolution declaring anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism earlier this week. You can read about it here.

DeSantis, the Florida governor, asserted the need for US leadership on the world stage when asked about China’s growing influence and the risks to Taiwan.

“Deterring China’s ambitions is the number one national security task that I will do as president, and we will succeed. The 21st century needs to be an American century. We cannot let it be a Chinese century,” he said.

Ramaswamy, meanwhile, blasted the US “economic dependence” for allowing China’s might to grow.

“We need to be specific about our deterrence strategy or else Xi Jinping is just encroaching by the day,” Ramaswamy said. “We’re scared. Why are we scared? Because we depend on them for our modern way of life.”

The businessman launched another blistering tirade against Haley, the former UN envoy.

Ramaswamy rejected accusations of sexism levelled against him for criticising her and Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel, blaming “identity politics” for the allegations.

“Nikki, I don’t have a woman problem. You have a corruption problem,” he said as he held a piece of paper that read “Nikki = corrupt”.

Haley was quick to dismiss the attack. “It’s not worth my time to respond to him,” she said.

Ramaswamy repeated a claim he has often made on the debate stage: “I think the north star here is transgenderism is a mental health disorder.”

This is a falsehood the medical community has denounced, as it stigmatises transgender identity.

In response to a question about the criticism against Trump, Ramaswamy said that “the deep state” is the real enemy facing the country, rather than Trump or Biden.

He then seemed to embrace a conspiracy theory that the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, was the work of clandestine forces.

“Why am I the only person on this stage at least who can say that January 6 now does look like it was an inside job?” he said to applause from the audience.

He continued to denounce “that the government lied to us for 20 years about Saudi Arabia’s involvement in 9/11. That the great replacement theory is not some grand right-wing conspiracy theory but a basic statement of the Democratic Party’s platform.”

The “great replacement theory” is indeed a conspiracy theory embraced by white nationalists, which alleges that white people are being replaced by immigrants.

The January 6 attack involved a mob of Trump supporters storming the Capitol in an effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election, based on false claims about election fraud.

The Florida governor, who burst onto the national scene with his stern defence of Trump, questioned the former president’s electability, suggesting that he may be too old to serve in the White House at 77.

DeSantis also argued that Trump did not deliver on his 2016 election promises.

“He didn’t clean up the swamp. He said he was going to drain it. He did not drain it. He said he was going to build a wall and have Mexico pay for it. We don’t have the wall,” DeSantis said.

As much as Christie has been attacking Trump, he has likewise been launching barbs at his three Republican rivals on stage, attempting to set himself apart as a voice of reason.

“This is the problem with my three colleagues,” he said. “They’re afraid to offend. If you’re afraid to offend Donald Trump, what are you going to do when you sit across from President Xi, you sit across from the Ayatollah, you sit across from Putin? You have to be willing to offend with the truth.”

Ramaswamy reprised some of Christie’s barbs, using his words against him.

“All three of them have been licking Donald Trump’s boots for years for money and endorsements,” Ramaswamy said. Christie was a former Trump ally.

It is not clear what DeSantis is referring to. Palestinians in Gaza are largely trapped in the territory, and there are no viable plans to bring them to the US.

“You had some of the Squad wanting to import 300,000 people from the Gaza Strip. I said no. We’re not taking anyone from Gaza because of the anti-Semitism and because they reject American culture,” he said.

The Squad, a group of progressive lawmakers, never suggested bringing Palestinians to the US from Gaza en masse. But some Israeli officials have called for moving Palestinians out of Gaza in what many critics have described as a plan for ethnic cleansing.

Christie used the debate stage to once again underscore the four criminal indictments Trump faces, assuming his role as the former president’s most vociferous critic.

“Do I think he was kidding when he said he was a dictator? All you have to do is look at the history,” Christie said. “That’s why failing to speak out against him, making excuses for him, pretending that somehow he is a victim, empowers him.”

Christie faced boos as he continued to bash Trump.

“He doesn’t care about the American people. It’s Donald Trump first.”

Haley said she would not impose a Muslim ban, but she would target countries that are hostile to the US.

“You look at what came across the southern border. What worries me the most are those that came from Iran, from Yemen, from Lebanon – those areas where they say, ‘death to America’. That’s where you want to be careful. It’s not about religion,” she said.

People from the Middle East rarely enter the US through the southern border.

Haley blasted Donald Trump, her former boss, for what she characterised as excessive spending during his time in office.

“I’ll veto any spending bill that doesn’t take us back to pre-COVID levels because our kids are not going to forgive us for all the spending that happened,” she said, referring to a period when Trump was in office.

“As much as everyone wants to talk about how Donald Trump had a good economy, $9 trillion in debt, he did just in four years. And we’re all paying the price of that.”

Florida Governor DeSantis echoed that criticism, though he declined to name Trump personally.

“The borrowing, printing, and spending of money was both parties in Washington, DC,” DeSantis said. “That’s just a fact. These Republicans in Washington have spent.”

He blamed China for the fentanyl crisis in the US and the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We also have to hold them accountable with every financial leverage that we have available,” he said.

“If we’re willing to stand with a spine, China will absolutely have to fold because they’re in a tougher spot than we are,” Ramaswamy added.

The Florida governor said he would treat drug cartels at the southern US border as “foreign terrorist organisations” and deal with them militarily.

“We need to build a wall across the southern border,” he added, saying that he would pay for it by taxing remittances sent by foreign workers in the US to their home countries.

Former New Jersey Governor Christie slammed his rival Ramaswamy over his positions on the war in Ukraine and his comments about Haley.

Ramaswamy had criticised Haley’s hawkish foreign policy record, prompting a strong reaction from Christie. He called the entrepreneur “the most obnoxious blowhard in America”.

“I’ve known her [Haley] for 12 years, which is longer than he’s even started to vote in a Republican primary,” Christie said to cheers from the audience.

“And while we disagree about some issues and we disagree about who should be president of the United States, what we don’t disagree on is this is a smart, accomplished woman. You should stop insulting her.”

Ramaswamy, however, struck back, accusing them both of “intellectual fraud”.

“Do everybody a favour, just walk yourself off this stage, enjoy a nice meal, and get the hell out of this race,” Ramaswamy retorted to Christie. He then hammered the interventionist approach to foreign policy long embraced by the Republican Party.

“You can put lipstick on a Dick Cheney, it is still a fascist neocon,” he said.