Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley took a brief break from criticizing one another at Wednesday night’s Republican presidential debate to pan their party’s frontrunner, Donald Trump.
The ex-president again chose to skip the debate hosted by CNN, and this time directly counterprogrammed by holding a town-hall meeting on Fox News Channel at the same hour.
“When you look at Donald Trump, I have said, I think he was the right president at the right time,” Ms. Haley said when prompted whether Mr. Trump has the character to be president.
“I agree with a lot of his policies, but his way is not my way. I don’t have vengeance. I don’t have vendettas. I don’t take things personally. For me, it’s very much about no drama, no whining and getting results,” she said.
Mr. DeSantis similarly said he “appreciated what President Trump did” but highlighted some of his failed promises.
“He said he was going to build a wall and have Mexico pay for it. He did not deliver that. He said he was going to drain the swamp. He did not deliver that,” Mr. DeSantis said.
“He said he’s going to hold Hillary [Clinton] accountable, and he let her let her off the hook. He said he was going to eliminate the debt and he added $7.8 trillion to the debt,” he added.
• Ramsey Touchberry can be reached at rtouchberry@washingtontimes.com.
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