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Seven Republicans fought for break-out moments, powerful zingers or just about any attention-getting maneuver at the second GOP presidential debate, where the candidates duked it out for the second-place position behind the runaway front-runner, former President Donald Trump.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, now battling to hold on to his second-place position in the polls, took a swing at Mr. Trump, calling out his absence from the debate stage as the group debated how to fix the nation’s struggling economy.
“Donald Trump is missing in action. He should be on this stage tonight,” Mr. DeSantis said. “He owes it to you to defend his record, where they added $7.8 trillion to the debt that set the stage for the inflation that we have now.”
While none of the candidates who appeared on stage at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, is anywhere near closing the gap in the polls with Mr. Trump, the second-place position is in flux and they all scrambled for it Wednesday.
Candidates interrupted and talked over each other, and the debate devolved at one point into a veritable shouting match between Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina and biotech tycoon Vivek Ramaswamy. The fireworks started after Mr. Scott accused Mr. Ramaswamy of being “in business with the Chinese Communist Party, and the same people that funded Hunter Biden millions of dollars was a partner of yours as well.”
SEE ALSO: Winners and losers in the second GOP presidential debate
Defending himself, Mr. Ramaswamy said he “opened a subsidiary in China” but then “got the hell out of there.”
The squabbling went on, even as other candidates complained.
“This isn’t a productive debate,” observed Mr. DeSantis.
Mr. DeSantis is now trailing former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in New Hampshire, which holds the nation’s first Republican primary in February. Mrs. Haley is also leading Mr. DeSantis in her home state of South Carolina, which votes third in the primary season.
Mr. DeSantis held on to his center position on the debate stage, flanked by Mrs. Haley and Mr. Ramaswamy, who both had stand-out performances in the first debate.
Flat poll numbers pushed former Vice President Mike Pence to the outer edge of the stage, along with North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgham, who would not allow himself to be ignored by the moderators. He jumped in on several questions and was the only candidate able to explain how the Biden administration’s push for more electric vehicles is partly to blame for the ongoing autoworkers strike.
SEE ALSO: Candidates call for end to birthright citizenship at GOP debate
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a one-time ally of Mr. Trump who is now on a mission to defeat him, kept up his attack.
He said the former president’s continued absence from the debate stage was a sign of cowardice and would soon earn him the nickname “Donald Duck.”
The candidates were often aligned on the debate topics: illegal immigration, the China threat, crime, gun safety and health care.
Mr. Ramaswamy was the only candidate on stage who endorsed ending birthright citizenship, which he said is not backed by the 14th Amendment.
“If the kid of a Mexican diplomat doesn’t enjoy birthright citizenship, then neither does the kid of an illegal immigrant who broke the law to come here,” he said.
Mr. Pence, on gun violence, called for an expedited death penalty for school shooters.
Mr. DeSantis, who was one of the few candidates in the first debate to avoid interrupting, was more aggressive on Wednesday, jumping in on the question of securing the border against deadly fentanyl crossing over from Mexico.
“As commander in chief I’m going to use the U.S. military to go after the Mexican drug cartels,” he said. “They are killing our people.”
But the frontrunner was again missing.
None of the candidates had a coherent solution for the nation’s health care problem or whether to end Obamacare.
Mrs. Haley called for greater transparency, more competition and reforming medical malpractice.
“We have to put the patient in the driver’s seat,” she said. “They’ve been in the backseat for way too long. And once we get the patient the ability to decide their health care, deciding which plan they want, that is when we will see magic happen.”
Mr. Trump’s lead in the race, an advantage greater than 30 points over his rivals in most polls, appears untouchable at this point in the Republican primary.
The first caucus won’t happen until Jan. 15 in Iowa, but even Hawkeye State polls show Mr. Trump beating a second-place Mr. DeSantis by 40 points.
Mr. Trump has now skipped two GOP debates, citing his massive lead, and hasn’t indicated whether he’ll make an appearance at the next one, which will be held in November in Miami.
Like the first debate, when Mr. Trump scheduled a high-profile interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson that aired simultaneously on the social media platform X, the former president made alternative plans while the debate was happening. He delivered a speech to autoworkers in Michigan.
Pollsters will be surveying voters to see if Mr. Trump’s absence on Wednesday cost him support among GOP voters. His decision to skip the last debate did not dent his support, and that debate did little to boost the poll numbers of most of his GOP rivals, with the exception of Mrs. Haley.
The first debate hurt some candidates. Sen. Tim Scott, of South Carolina, saw his poll numbers drop after failing to stand out amid the other candidates on stage. Mr. Scott, clearly trying to improve his performance, was far more outspoken and used some of the time to attack Mr. Ramaswamy, whom he’s hoping to surpass in some polls.
Despite Mr. Trump’s massive lead, the field of Republican candidates is hardly shrinking. The large field has vexed anti-Trump Republicans who believe the former president could be defeated in the primary if all the GOP hopefuls coalesced around one candidate.
With the first Republican primary votes less than four months away, that window is rapidly closing.
Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson failed to meet the polling and donor thresholds set by the Republican National Committee and was excluded from the debate stage. But Mr. Hutchinson said he is not going to drop out of the presidential race.
Pro-Trump Republicans say the GOP field, perhaps hopelessly behind in the polls, should quit and get behind Mr. Trump.
The former president is leading President Biden slightly in the polls, although a Washington Post poll released this week that some deem an outlier showed him beating Mr. Biden by 10 points.
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.
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