Republican debate in Milwaukee; candidates make pitches to voters
MILWAUKEE - The first Republican presidential debate of the 2024 campaign included heated arguments inside Milwaukee's Fiserv Forum Wednesday night, Aug. 23.
Eight candidates vying to be the GOP nominee in the race for the White House took the stage, arranged in order based on how they are polling, with the leaders in the center.
The debate kicked off with a short video featuring clips of Milwaukee and Wisconsin. It described the importance of this battleground state, where the past two presidential elections have been decided by roughly 20,000 votes.
The first topic was the economy. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis took the moment to go after President Joe Biden, saying America needs the president to go back into the basement.
A lot of jabs were directed at Vivek Ramaswamy. The 37-year-old entrepreneur faced criticism he is inexperienced.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie cut in during one of Ramaswamy’s most biting attacks. "I’ve had enough of a guy who stands up here who sounds like ChatGPT," Christie said, adding that Ramaswamy’s opening line about being a skinny guy with a hard-to-pronounce name reminded him of former President Barack Obama — not a compliment on a Republican stage. Ramaswamy responded by asking Christie for a "hug," referencing when Obama visited Christie's state following Hurricane Sandy.
Another tense moment was over whether to increase funding for Ukraine. Ramaswamy said he wouldn't support it.
"I would not, and I think that this is disastrous, that we are protecting against an invasion across somebody else's border when we should use those same military resources to prevent the invasion of our own southern border here in the United States of America," Ramaswamy said.
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley criticized him.
"Under your watch, you would make America less safe. You have no foreign policy experience and it shows," Haley told him, standing directly to his left.
The Republicans on stage did not downplay their opposition to abortion, but there was a clear divide among the candidates over whether to push for a federal abortion ban.
Haley called on her opponents to be honest with voters that a federal law that imposes an abortion ban at certain stages of pregnancy would likely never get through the narrowly divided Congress. She said the issue should be sent back to the states. She also made a personal appeal.
"We need to stop demonizing this issue," Haley said. "We aren’t going to put a woman in jail ... if she has an abortion."
On the other side: former Vice President Mike Pence and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott openly endorsed a national ban on abortions at 15 weeks. Pence said that Haley’s call to find consensus "is the opposite of leadership."
"It’s not a states-only issue. It’s a moral issue," he said.
Gov. Ron DeSantis, who signed a 6-week abortion ban into Florida law just this spring, didn’t take a position on a federal ban when asked directly. He said he was "proud" to sign his state’s abortion ban, which is one of the strictest in the nation.
Democrats already plan to make abortion a central issue in next fall’s general election.
The Florida governor was the highest polling contender on stage, but still trailing front-runner Donald Trump by 40 points, according to the Real Clear Politics average of polls.
DeSantis rarely waded into the back-and-forth fights, preferring to wait for a moment when he could give a longer statement. His critics – especially Trump – have hammered him for being awkward and wooden.
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With eight candidates on the stage, candidates looked to stand out from the crowd, which included one woman.
Haley quoted Margaret Thatcher about how women get things done while men talk, stressing the importance of educating girls and arguing that keeping transgender girls out of female sports was a woman’s issue. "I am going to fight for girls all day long because strong girls become strong women and strong women become strong leaders," Haley said.
Democrats counter
"Extreme," "divisive" and "chaotic" are just a few words Democrats used Wednesday to describe the Republican presidential debate.
The co-chair of the Biden-Harris 2024 campaign said he's glad the eight Republicans will be on a national stage, saying each are "ultra MAGA" and against what the majority of voters want.
"I don’t know if it’s going to be a debate or more like a circus," said DNC Chair Jaime Harrison. "They want to erase our history and teach our children that slaves benefited from slavery."
Hours before the Republican debate, Democrats raised red flags about the candidates taking the stage. With a backdrop of Milwaukee's skyline behind them, there was little focus on the city itself. Instead, state party leaders took a broader approach.
"In the state of Wisconsin, Democrats and Democratic-supported candidates have won 15 of the last 18 statewide elections," said Ben Wikler, chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin.
Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway warned voters what could happen to abortion rights if any of the Republican candidates receive the party's nomination.
"DeSantis signed extreme legislation in Florida that bans abortion before many women even know that they are pregnant," Rhodes-Conway said.
"We have Vivek Ramaswamy, who is so desperate to be Donald Trump 2.0 that he’s running around spreading conspiracy theories about 9/11 and threatening to change the voting age from 18 to 25," said Harrison.
Cedric Richmond, the Biden-Harris campaign's co-chair, touted the current administration's results.
"While Donald Trump had the worst jobs record since Herbert Hoover, President Biden has helped create 13.5 million jobs. The most ever created in two-and-a-half years," said Richmond.
The DNC purchased billboards throughout Milwaukee showing voters the contrast between President Biden and Republicans. Within one mile of Wednesday’s debate, the campaign’s "meme-like" billboards looked to make an impact as the race for the White House heats up:
"We are just getting started," Rhodes-Conway said.
Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson was not among Wednesday's speakers. A spokesperson said the mayor met with Harrison earlier in the week and had commitments that made it impossible for him to attend.
Associated Press contributed to this report.