Last night's debate between 2024 Republican presidential hopefuls saw more than its fair share of sparring over the central issues dividing today's GOP, including loyalty to former President Donald Trump, who did not attend the event. Trump, who leads in many national polls by over 40 percentage points, instead released a prerecorded interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson at the same time as the interview. At the top of the debate, the eight candidates were introduced, and a short clip of President Joe Biden touting "Bidenomics" was shown. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was given first shot at the mic. “This country is in decline,” he said. “We need to send Joe Biden back to his basement and reverse this decline.” But the loudest applause of the first part of the debate came in response to entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who knocked the “professional politicians” in Washington. He said that the next president should be a political “outsider,” not someone who has contributed to what he sees as the problems in Washington. Former Vice President Mike Pence chimed in, saying “Now is not the time for on-the-job experience. We don’t need to bring in a rookie. We don’t need to bring in someone without experience.” Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie also took a turn at bashing Ramaswamy, saying “enough” of “a guy who sounds like ChatGPT” and comparing Ramaswamy’s self-introduction — as “a skinny guy with an odd last name” — to Barack Obama. Candidates were later asked whether they would still support Trump if he were convicted in a court of law and if he were to win the party’s nomination. All the candidates, except for Christie and Hutchinson, rose their hands to say they would. “Someone’s got to stop normalizing this conduct, OK?” Christie said. “Whether or not you believe that the criminal charges are right or wrong, the conduct is beneath the office of president of the United States.” Read more of what the candidates had to say about Trump. More in Politics The Republican presidential race’s next battleground: Ukraine (Deseret News) Mike Lee says elements of Provo FBI raid were ‘highly unusual,’ calls for ‘serious’ investigation (Deseret News) House Freedom Caucus has a list of demands if Congress wants to avoid a government shutdown (Deseret News) |