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The US Republican party’s sharp divides were laid bare on Wednesday night, when eight candidates for president sparred on the debate stage in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, while frontrunner Donald Trump tried to steal the spotlight with an interview with ousted Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
Trump’s pre-recorded interview with Carlson was posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, minutes before the former president’s eight rivals took the stage in Milwaukee.
The former president immediately defended his decision not to attend the debate, saying his poll numbers put him far ahead of rivals.
Trump dismissed several of his challengers, describing Florida governor Ron DeSantis — his closest rival in the polls — as a “lost cause”, former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson as “weak and pathetic”, and former New Jersey governor Chris Christie as “a savage maniac . . . a lunatic”.
At the same time, the candidates on the debate stage clashed amid questions from moderators about economic policy and climate change.
DeSantis said America was in “decline”, while Christie pledged to bring “truth and accountability” back to Washington. South Carolina senator Tim Scott, former UN ambassador Nikki Haley and former vice-president Mike Pence all billed themselves as small-government conservatives who would cut government spending.
In one tense exchange, Pence clashed with 38-year-old biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, saying he was too young and inexperienced for the White House.
“Now is not the time for on the job training,” Pence said. “We don’t need to bring in a rookie. We don’t need to bring in people without experience.”
Chris Christie also took aim at Ramaswamy, who has risen in the polls in recent weeks, saying: “I’ve had enough already tonight of a guy who sounds like ChatGPT standing up here.”
The debate and Trump’s interview with Carlson came just a day before he plans to surrender to authorities in Georgia, where he faces more than a dozen criminal charges relating to his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Trump reiterated his false claims that the 2020 election had been “rigged” and mused that he could be the target of political violence.
“I’ve seen what they do. I’ve seen the lengths that they go to,” he said, referring to his political opponents.
Trump’s mounting legal problems — including 91 felony counts in four separate cases — have done nothing to hurt his position in the Republican primary race, with the latest FiveThirtyEight average of national polls showing he enjoys the support of just over half of Republican voters.
DeSantis trails Trump in a distant second place, on 14 per cent, and Ramaswamy is in third, on 9 points. Pence, Scott, Haley, Christie, Hutchinson and North Dakota’s governor Doug Burgum all trail in the single digits.
Each was trying in Wednesday’s debate to jump-start their campaigns. DeSantis was seeking to revive his flailing bid after public mis-steps and a reshuffle of his top advisers. But the Florida governor was also bracing for an onslaught of attacks from his rivals in Trump’s absence.
Ramaswamy entered the debate under heightened scrutiny after comments this week suggesting that the US government could have been involved in the 9/11 terror attacks.
“I think it is legitimate to say how many police, how many federal agents, were on the planes that hit the Twin Towers,” the biotech entrepreneur told the Atlantic magazine. “Maybe the answer is zero. It probably is zero for all I know, right?” Ramaswamy also told CNN that the US government’s 9/11 Commission had “lied”.
But Trump’s spectre loomed over the contenders in Milwaukee. Most of them, including Pence — who broke with the former president on January 6 2021 — have been reluctant to criticise Trump directly.
Members of Trump’s team on Wednesday had already begun to boast about their strategy to upstage the Republican party event.
“President Trump has already won this evening’s debate because everything is going to be about him,” campaign adviser Chris LaCivita said ahead of the debate. The former president’s team would be “tallying the number of times president Trump’s name is brought up, and his total ‘speaking time,’ even though he is not in attendance”, he added.
“When the other candidates do get a chance to speak, they will be a faint echo, or maybe even a copycat, of president Trump’s Make America Great Again agenda,” LaCivita added.
Additional reporting by Oliver Roeder
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