The fireworks were back as four Republican candidates vying to emerge as the party’s top alternative to Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential primary met Wednesday night in Alabama for their fourth debate.
With the smallest number of debate participants yet, and the mounting pressure with Iowa’s caucuses less than six weeks away, all four contenders came out swinging in Tuscaloosa.
Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy called former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley “lipstick on a Dick Cheney.” Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie mocked Ramaswamy’s “smartass mouth.” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis attacked Haley in his first answer of the night, claiming she “caves every time the left comes after her.”
“I love the attention, fellas. Thank you for that,” Haley shot back.
The explosive showdown has made plain why Trump has avoided the entire GOP presidential debate circuit. With rare exceptions, the four contenders onstage Wednesday spent most of their time hammering each other — making plain their belief that they must first be seen as the main primary rival to the former president before making a more focused case against him.
Here are early takeaways from the ongoing debate:
DeSantis and Ramaswamy versus Haley
The clearest sign of Haley’s rise in the race? Her opponents made her the center of attention during much of the first hour of the debate.
DeSantis waited all of 30 seconds into his first answer before he took aim at Haley, pulling her into a dispute over which bathrooms transgender people should be able to use. And in his first response, Ramaswamy continued where he left off at the third debate, targeting Haley for her time serving on the board of Boeing, a company that has a major manufacturing facility in the state she once governed.
At several points, DeSantis and Ramaswamy teamed up to…
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