Two Republican presidential candidates faced off on CNN tonight, mostly arguing that the opponent on stage was unfit to be their party’s presidential nominee.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley criticized one another early and often. “We don’t need another mealy mouthed politician who just tells you what she thinks you want to hear, just to try to get your vote, then to get into office and to do her donors’ bidding,” DeSantis said in the early minutes of the two hour event.
A few minutes later Haley said: “He has blown through $150 million through his campaign. He has nothing to show for it. If you can’t manage a campaign, how are you going to manage a country?”
CNN moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash asked questions on a variety of topics, including foreign policy, the U-S economy, abortion and crime. The two candidates rarely mentioned President Biden. Both were asked about former President Trump’s legal argument that he is immune from criminal prosecution for things he did during his presidency.
“Donald Trump’s going to lose that appeal. He’s going end up going to trial,” DeSantis said. “…If Trump is the nominee it’s going to be about January 6, legal issues, criminal trials.”
Haley said there were discrepancies in the 2020 election, but Trump lost. “Biden won that election and the idea that he’s gone and carried this out forever to the point that he’s going to continue to say these things to scare the American people are wrong,” Haley said.
Trump declined CNN’s invitation to debate Haley and DeSantis. He appeared on Fox News instead and said he had already chosen his running mate, but declined to share the name of his V-P pick. Trump also said during the Fox town hall that “nobody cared too much” that former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie dropped out of the race Wednesday afternoon. Christie visited Iowa in 2022, but did not campaign in the state in 2023 after launching his second bid for the White House, choosing to focus on New Hampshire’s Primary instead. Still, Des Moines Register “Iowa Polls” had shown Christie with 4-5% support here.