The war between Israel and Hamas, abortion, the economy… Five Republican candidates for the 2024 American presidential election clashed on Wednesday during a new tense televised debate, however reserving acidic barbs for Donald Trump, the big favorite of the primary and largely absent from the evening.
“Anyone who is going to spend the next year and a half trying to avoid prison and the courts cannot lead this party or this country,” said former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, regarding the former president , surrounded by investigations.
Following the same strategy as during the first two debates, the billionaire chose to snub this meeting because, according to him, of his very large lead among the Republicans in the opinion polls.
The debate, organized in Miami, is however an important step in the long road to the White House: the Republican candidates for the 2024 election will face each other in a series of primaries starting on January 15.
“Enough” of losing
The winner of these ballots will face the Democratic candidate, most likely Joe Biden, in the presidential election next November.
After disastrous polls published over the weekend, the president gave himself some breathing room thanks to the results of the various local elections on Tuesday, largely favorable to Democrats even in traditionally conservative states.
As in Ohio, where voters chose to include the right to abortion in the State Constitution, a new sign of the importance of the issue for next year’s presidential election.
The Republican candidates lost their tempers during the debate on this politically explosive issue. While calling herself “unashamedly pro-life”, former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, third in the polls, called for “finding consensus” by banning late-term abortions and developing contraception. “Let’s make sure that there is no law in any state that allows a woman to be imprisoned or sentenced to death for having an abortion,” she said.
Several of the candidates directly blamed their failures at the polls on Donald Trump.
“I’m tired of Republicans losing,” criticized Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, currently second in the polls.
“Tell Israel what to do”
Unlike the two previous televised meetings, the five candidates – four men and one woman – mainly focused at length on questions of foreign policy. Starting with the war between Israel and Hamas, all the Republican contenders showing unconditional support for their historic ally.
“The last thing we should do is tell Israel what to do,” said Nikki Haley.
The Republican Party had also chosen to organize this program in partnership with the very influential Jewish conservative association, the Republican Jewish Coalition.
The candidates, however, displayed their disagreements over the war in Ukraine, with Washington being the most important supplier of military aid to kyiv. Some of them called for turning off the tap to Ukraine altogether.
“Ukraine is not a paragon of democracy,” criticized entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, calling President Volodymyr Zelensky a “Nazi.” This thirty-year-old, new to politics, likes to present himself as “Trump 2.0”.
“Incompetent”
“Trump 1.0”, the former president, is crushing the race among the Republicans, hovering around 58% in voting intentions, despite his four indictments.
He relies on a base which remains very largely loyal to him and which has supported him until now in his troubles with the law.
Deliberately provocative, the septuagenarian decided to organize himself the counter-programming to the Republican debate that he is boycotting in Florida.
At the same time, he held a major campaign rally in a town neighboring Miami, just 18 kilometers from the NBC set where the show was organized. A completely deliberate snub to the five Republicans participating in the debate.
Surrounded by his sea of red caps shouting “USA!” », “USA! », the former businessman only briefly mentioned the fate of his Republican rivals, preferring to already project himself into a possible duel with President Joe Biden, an octogenarian.
“His problem is not his age,” judged the Republican. “His problem is that he is completely incompetent,” he scolded.