MIAMI — Five of the six leading candidates for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination traded bitter personal attacks amid salvoes on foreign policy and the economy in Wednesday night’s third primary debate.
As in the previous two games, Vivek Ramaswamy was at the center of the drama, with the 38-year-old biotech entrepreneur suggesting at one point that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, 45, was wearing heels.
Former Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, 51, later slammed Ramaswamy as “scum” after he asked his adult daughter to use Chinese-owned TikTok to defend his presence on the app.
In a stark contrast, the challengers largely argued over who would take the hardest line toward Beijing while differing on Ukraine and the right approach to anti-Israel rallies in cities and on campuses across the US.
Former President Donald Trump, 77, skipped the debate to hold a rally in nearby Hialeah while supporters of President Biden, 80, sought to counter-programme with cutouts of Biden in fliers lining nearby sidewalks.
Republican presidential candidates from left, Former NJ Gov. Chris Christie, Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and US Senator Tim Scott take part in Wednesday’s debate.REUTERS
‘Cheney in three inch heels’
Earlier in the debate, Ramaswamy took aim at DeSantis as he blasted her and Haley’s hawkish foreign policy views.
“Do you want a leader from a different generation who will put this country first? Or do you want Dick Cheney to wear three inch heels? In this case, we have two of them on stage tonight,” Ramaswamy zinged, referencing the recent controversy over DeSantis’ shoes.
Haley initially tried to laugh off Ramaswamy’s attacks, which included an attempt to equate his post-embassy career with eldest son Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings.
Former President Donald Trump skipped the debate and instead held a campaign rally in Hialeah, Florida. Reuters
“They’re five-inch heels and I don’t wear them unless you can run in them,” Haley joked.
DeSantis ignored the attack entirely.
Later, Haley became angry with Ramaswamy after he responded to her past criticism by stating that “her own daughter actually uses [TikTok] application for a long time. So you might want to take care of your family first.”
“You’re trash,” Haley said angrily after initially telling Ramaswamy to “keep my daughter’s name out of your voice.”
Vivek Ramaswamy took aim at Ron DeSantis’ foreign policy views with a jab at his “three-inch heels”.
Clash of China
When DeSantis chose to argue, he focused on Haley for allegedly doing too little to curb China’s influence in her past office, saying China is “to this generation what the Soviet Union was to the post-World War II generation.”
“[Haley] welcoming them into South Carolina, giving them land near a military base, writing love letters to the Chinese ambassador saying how great they are,” he said. “In Florida, I banned China for buying land … we banned the Confucius Institute from our university.”
That led Ramaswamy to chime in and scold DeSantis: “There’s a lobby-based exception in the bill that allows Chinese citizens to buy land within a 20-mile radius of a military base that one of your donors lobbied for,” referring to hedge fund manager Ken Griffin.
When DeSantis chose to argue, he focused on Haley for allegedly doing too little to curb Chinese influence in her previous office.Getty Images
“I think we have to call a spade a spade,” he added.
Meanwhile, Christie called for TikTok to be banned “because they are poisoning the American mind.” I’ll do it, first week.”
“This is one of the big failures of most of the Trump administration,” Christie added, a rare direct attack on the front-runner at the debate when candidates are invited to present themselves as alternatives to Trump rather than outright disparaging him.
“He’s tough on TikTok … but when it comes down to it, he doesn’t ban it.”
Vivek Ramaswamy apparently referred to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a “Nazi.” Getty Images
Zelensky a ‘Nazi’?
Ramaswamy at one point sparked gasps by appearing to refer to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is Jewish, as a “Nazi” — leading his campaign to insist he had no intention of giving that impression.
“Ukraine is not an example of democracy. This is a country that has banned 11 opposition parties, it has combined all the media into one branch of the state TV media — that is not democratic,” he said.
“It has threatened not to hold an election this year unless the US comes up with more money – that’s undemocratic. It has celebrated the Nazis in its ranks — a joker in cargo pants, a guy named Zelensky — doing it in their own ranks.”
But despite the notion that Ramaswamy called Zelensky a Nazi, his campaign told The Post he was referring to the Ukrainian SS veteran’s appearance at Zelensky’s address to the Canadian parliament earlier this year. Other Kyiv critics have noted that some pro-government militias, including the Azov Brigade, have neo-Nazi roots.
Candidates pose on stage during the third Republican presidential debate in Miami on Wednesday. Reuters
The other candidates let Ramaswamy’s inference pass, with Haley attacking him again by quipping: “Putin and [Chinese] President Xi [Jinping] drooling to think that someone like that would be president””
All the other candidates on stage spoke in support of continued US aid to Kyiv as it resists Russian President Vladimir Putin’s nearly two-year invasion, as Congress considers President Biden’s request for more than $61 billion in additional aid on top of the $113 billion already appropriated. .
Scott, however, called for a “level of accountability” that “allows the American people to understand where those resources have gone.”
Tim Scott joined DeSantis in threatening to pull foreign student visas and other federal funding for higher education institutions following anti-Israel, pro-Hamas protests on college campuses. AFP via Getty Images
Israeli war
The candidates also differed on the proper approach to anti-Israel, pro-Hamas protests on college campuses following the terrorist group’s Oct. 7 attack on the Jewish state that killed more than 1,400 people.
Ramaswamy said that Republicans should condemn anti-Israel and antisemitic speech without punishing it — while DeSantis and Scott threatened to pull foreign student visas and other federal funding for higher education institutions.
“We’re not undoing this with censorship,” Ramaswamy said. “Telling student groups to disband — mark my words, soon they’ll say if you question vaccines and their side effects you’re a bioterrorist, soon they’ll say if you show up at a school board meeting you’re a domestic terrorist.”
Scott vowed: “To all students on visas who promote the genocide of Jews: I will deport you.”
“You shouldn’t have the money to go to these places,” DeSantis added. “We will not stand for this on a college campus again.”
DeSantis hit out at Trump for not showing up for the debate, saying the former president “owes it” to voters to be on stage.AFP via Getty Images
Trump
DeSantis opened by hitting the 45th president with one of his sharpest debate attacks to date, saying: “Donald Trump is a much different man than he was in 2016. He owes it to you to be on this stage and explain why he needs to get another chance.”
“He should explain why he didn’t ask Mexico to pay for the border wall. He should explain why he accumulated so much debt. He should explain why he didn’t drain the swamp,” DeSantis said.
Christie, a former federal prosecutor, referred to the four pending criminal cases against Trump, “Anyone who is going to spend a year and a half of their life focused on keeping themselves out of jail in a courtroom cannot lead this party or this country.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
