From Haley’s dig at DeSantis’ spending to fights over foreign policy, the pair left no holds barred.
With just five days until the Iowa Caucuses, Republican presidential candidates Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley wrestled for second place behind Donald Trump on the debate stage last night. Here are some key moments:
Haley’s dig at DeSantis’ spending
“He has blown through $150 million… through his campaign. He has nothing to show for it,” Haley said. “He’s spent more money on private planes than he has on commercials trying to get Iowans to vote for him. If you can’t manage a campaign, how are you going to manage a country?”
DeSantis retorted that Haley was preoccupied by “political, process stuff — things that no voter cares about,” and accused her of offering “warmed-over corporatism.”
“We don’t need another mealy-mouthed politician who just tells you what she thinks you want to hear,” he said.
When it came to the economy at large, both candidates promised to pull back government spending, though neither acknowledged the potential knock-on effects of such a move. DeSantis pointed to the fact that mortgage rates are higher than they were pre-pandemic, but as CNN notes, failed to acknowledge that’s partly due to the Fed’s moves to lower inflation by upping interest rates.
Toughing it out on illegal immigration
DeSantis claimed “the number of people that will be amnestied when I’m president is zero,” while Haley stressed: “You have to deport them.” DeSantis pointed out Haley’s softer rhetoric in the past, when she’s expressed sympathy for migrants coming to the U.S. in hopes of finding a better life.
Fighting over foreign policy
Haley defended U.S. aid to Ukraine as a security issue, highlighting the broader implications if Russia should launch similar assaults on other NATO countries. “This is about keeping Americans safe,” she said, adding that it’s critical to demonstrate staunch support for “friends” like Ukraine.
DeSantis took a more inward-looking view. He said Haley’s position was a “carbon copy” of President Biden’s, and slammed continued U.S. aid as “an open-ended commitment.” “You can take the ambassador out of the United Nations, but you can’t take the United Nations out of the ambassador,” he said.
Both candidates expressed their unwavering support for Israel in its campaign against Hamas and dismissed the possibility of a two-state solution. DeSantis flagged Haley’s change of heart in that regard, pointing out that she was favorable to the idea when she was U.N. ambassador. “She was wrong when she embraced that and we’re right to say we trust Israel to make these decisions,” he said.
Haley focused her attacks on Biden, saying it was “unforgivable” that he was unaware of Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s recent hospitalization, and pushing for more action against Iran. She said the U.S. should “go and take out every bit of the production that they have that’s allowing them to do those strikes,” referring to Iran’s recent assaults on U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria.
Tiptoeing around abortion
Both candidates admitted that Republican messaging around abortion has struggled to cut through to voters. DeSantis said the party “needs to do a better job of lifting up folks who are having children,” and that there should be more resources provided for families.
“You’ve got to be pro-life for the whole life,” he said. “And you’ve got to have compassion for what is going on in this country.”
Haley attacked both Democrats and Republicans for their handling of the subject, which she said has been too impersonal.
“These fellas don’t know how to talk about abortion,” she said, indicating DeSantis. “The Democrats put fear in women about abortion, and Republicans have used judgment. This is too personal of an issue to use fear or judgment.”
“Our goal should be how do we save as many babies as possible and support as many moms as possible,” she added.
DeSantis’ constitutional confusion
Asked whether he agrees with Trump’s lawyers’ claims that presidents should be immune from prosecutions — even if they assassinate a political opponent — DeSantis hedged: “I’m not exactly sure what the outer limits are… I don’t think it’s necessarily been litigated.”
Haley however took a firm line, saying: “No, that’s absolutely ridiculous.”
DeSantis was a little more comfortable regarding Trump and the Capitol insurrection, saying the former president “sat in the White House and tweeted law and order, but he did nothing to ensure law and order” during the 2020 “riots.” He was also firm on Trump’s absence from the debate stage, saying:
“Donald Trump should be on the stage. He owes it to you, the people of Iowa, to explain this change he’s had in his positioning, to explain why he’s had a tough time saying why a man could become a woman or not, to explain why he wants to build a billion-dollar-plus big beautiful new FBI building right in the part of the swamp in Washington, DC. He needs to explain why he didn’t build the wall and why he added $7.8 trillion to the debt.”
