on Tuesday<\/a> in state races in Kentucky, Ohio and Virginia. \u201cHe said Republicans were going to get tired of winning,\u201d DeSantis said. \u201cWell, we saw last night, I\u2019m sick of Republicans losing. \u201c<\/p>\nThe GOP candidates sparred in Miami during the party\u2019s third primary season debate a night after Ohioans voted to establish a right to abortion, Virginians gave control of their legislature to Democrats, and Kentuckians handed Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear a second term in the deep-red state.<\/p>\n
DeSantis and Haley were joined by businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Trump, the clear GOP front-runner, skipped the debate \u2014 as he did the previous two \u2014 and instead headlined a political rally about a 25-minute drive away, at a small stadium in Hialeah, Fla.<\/p>\n
While the candidates disagreed on a number of issues, they appeared unified when asked about campus antisemitism, saying they would slash federal funding for institutions of higher learning that promote so-called \u201cwoke\u201d speech. Such legislation would struggle, however, in a Congress like the one in office today, and would not likely get the necessary 60 votes in the Senate.<\/p>\n
Trump surrogates spent Wednesday arguing on social media and cable television appearances that the debate was not the night\u2019s main event and that the former president\u2019s rally was far more important. Trump\u2019s camp may have had a point \u2014 after all, he led DeSantis by 42.6 percentage points in an average Wednesday of multiple polls compiled by FiveThirtyEight.<\/p>\n
Here are four takeaways from the GOP programming.<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s war<\/h3>\n
After seven years of mostly adhering to Trump\u2019s \u201cAmerica first\u201d doctrine, the candidates were hawkish on Israel\u2019s war with Hamas.<\/p>\n
\u201cFinish the job once and for all with these butchers, Hamas,\u201d DeSantis said when the candidates were asked what they would tell Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. \u201cHe cannot live with that threat right by his country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Haley echoed him, saying of Hamas: \u201cFinish them. Finish them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Haley warned of an \u201cunholy alliance\u201d among Iran, Russia and China, saying Iran is responsible, in part, for Hamas\u2019 Oct. 7 attack on Israeli civilians. Tehran long has been the Palestinian group\u2019s chief sponsor.<\/p>\n
Ramaswamy was, for once, equally hawkish in what he would tell Netanyahu. He said he would tell the prime minister to \u201csmoke \u2019em out at your southern border.\u201d But Israeli officials have told Palestinian civilians to move to the south of Gaza as it focuses its military response on the strip\u2019s north. The overwhelming majority of Israel\u2019s two southern borders are with Egypt (southeast) and Jordan (southwest).<\/p>\n
No one was more hawkish than Scott, who advocated for striking targets inside Iran. Though that would be an act of war, Scott argued that hitting Iranian proxy groups \u2014 including what he called warehouses in Syria \u2014 would not truly defeat Hamas.<\/p>\n
Ukraine aid<\/h3>\n
Ramaswamy called his fellow Republicans on the stage \u201cUkraine hawks\u201d and said they were trying to \u201cwalk back\u201d their previous calls for Washington to stick by Kyiv.<\/p>\n
Haley, who has clashed with Ramaswamy at previous debates, said American foes like Russian President Vladimir Putin would love for \u201csomeone like him to become president.\u201d<\/p>\n
DeSantis criticized President Joe Biden\u2019s request for $106 billion for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, saying the things it proposes paying for would be foolish. He also called on European countries to do more to help Ukraine. \u201cWe are not going to send your sons and daughters\u201d to fight inside Ukraine, he said of U.S. military troops.<\/p>\n
But it was Ramaswamy who delivered one of the night\u2019s memorable lines, calling Haley \u201cDick Cheney in three-inch heels.\u201d He was referring to George W. Bush\u2019s vice president, the post-9\/11 hawk who helped push the U.S. into Iraq in 2003. Haley countered that her shoes had \u201cfive-inch heels\u201d and were there as \u201cammunition.\u201d<\/p>\n
The split on additional Ukraine funding comes as lawmakers are struggling to decide whether Washington will send more aid \u2014 and how much, if so.<\/p>\n
The debate participants were in agreement that the U.S. should spend more on its own defense budget, which has increased each year under Biden.<\/p>\n
Entitlement reform<\/h3>\n
Each candidate said Washington should enact an overhaul of the federal benefits systems widely called \u201centitlement programs.\u201d But they sparred over how to do so.<\/p>\n
Haley endorsed making changes that would largely affect Social Security retirement benefits for people now in their 20s, while also proposing to \u201climit the benefits [to] the wealthy.\u201d Scott spoke directly to his \u201cmomma,\u201d saying he would protect Social Security. Unlike Haley, he expressed opposition to raising the eligibility age.<\/p>\n
DeSantis said he had a message for seniors: \u201cYou need that Social Security check. We\u2019ll make sure to get that done.\u201d He also suggested he would propose to link any overhaul to inflation, saying recipients are spending more due to higher prices but not getting more federal benefits. DeSantis also opposed raising the eligibility age.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s rant<\/h3>\n
The former president called on his party to \u201cstop wasting time\u201d with debates among other candidates during a rally in which he mostly played the hits \u2014 including ranting against the criminal and civil charges against him.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time I\u2019m indicted, I consider it a great badge of honor, because I\u2019m being indicted for you,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He also addressed federal spending, claiming in a second term he would not \u201cgive one penny to any school that has a vaccine mandate or a mask mandate.\u201d It was his administration that led the development of COVID-19 vaccines, something he sometimes brags about.<\/p>\n
Even though he skipped the debate, Trump\u2019s campaign claimed victory in a statement sent out before the event on NBC was over.<\/p>\n
\u201cPresident Trump wins\u2026again!\u201d the subject line declared. \u201cUnless you\u2019re a fan of cheap knockoffs or out-of-tune tribute bands, tonight\u2019s GOP debate was a complete waste of time and money. President Donald J. Trump leads the Republican primary by 50 points. He is crushing Crooked Joe Biden in national polling as well as five of the six biggest swing states. Voters want a return to the Country we had just three short years ago, before Biden and the radical left began to destroy it, and voters believe President Trump is the only one who can make this a reality.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite Trump\u2019s use of the \u201cCrooked\u201d moniker, no Republican-controlled congressional committee has proven wrongdoing by Biden. And no prosecutor has said, if he was not the sitting president, they would charge him.<\/p>\n
But the legal troubles of the GOP front-runner, who faces criminal indictments in several cities and was testifying at a civil trial recently over charges his business falsified the value of properties, got scant attention during the debate. Christie was the only one to bring them up during the debate\u2019s opening question, which challenged the candidates to explain to Trump supporters why they and not he should be the nominee.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll say this about Donald Trump,\u201d Christie said. \u201cAnybody who\u2019s going to be spending the next year and a half of their life focusing on keeping themselves out of jail and courtrooms cannot lead this party or this country.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
\u00a92023 CQ-Roll Call, Inc. Visit at rollcall.com<\/a>. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.<\/p>\nKeyWords:: 20a1af09-a59a-485c-a88f-dfd37113b857
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Five Republican presidential candidates used two hours of network airtime Wednesday to spar with each other over entitlement programs and military aid to Ukraine, but the missing front-runner for the party\u2019s nomination was not far from their minds. \u201cEverybody wants to talk about President Trump,\u201d former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said, noting that the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34787"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34788,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34787\/revisions\/34788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}