The First GOP Debate - Fox News Wants Politics to be Worldwide Wrestling.
A condensed overview of the disaster that was the first presidential debate of the 2024 election.
The first Republican presidential debate for the 2024 election started with a dramatic rendition of the national anthem sung by a woman in a giant yellow ballgown while a camera attached to a drone swept over a packed arena. The first time I voted for president was in 1992 and I cannot recall a more over-the-top opening to a presidential debate.
It was Fox News after all.
The network also chose to host this showdown at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The venue normally hosts basketball games and can hold 17,500 people. The choice was made to present this full-on gladiator style - there was no attempt to quell the crowd or suppress heckling, applause, boos or cheering.
Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum were supposed to act as moderators but did little to stop the entire endeavor from dissolving into shouting matches and incomprehensible crosstalk. The candidates weren’t really pressed to answer direct questions and the crowd’s raucous responses just heightened the circus-like atmosphere of the event.
One of my followers on Facebook said she was hoping any of the presidential candidates would just flip their lecterns in a fit of rage. Maybe someone would introduce a plastic folding chair and go full Alabama boat brawl.
Who wouldn’t want to see an actual physical fight between Chris Christie and Vivek Ramaswamy? Sure, Christie is a lot larger than his rival, but I doubt Ramaswamy could do much more than end up rolling around on the ground with the former governor of New Jersey.
I wouldn’t put it past Fox to stage an actual presidential death match debate in a boxing ring at some point. It would get ratings.
Even though he did not attend, former President Donald J. Trump loomed large over the proceedings. He would have been so proud as he done more to reduce the Republican Party to the political equivalent of a bunch of spandex clad sh*t talkers hoping to own the libs while destroying democracy.
First Question - Let’s Talk about a Bluegrass Song
The moderators asked a total of 19 questions, two were related to the former president. This is a breakdown of the most outrageous questions and answers.
Asking about the economy makes perfect sense but weaving in a mediocre viral blue-collar anthem seemed a bit forced.
“As we sit here tonight. The number one song on the Billboard chart is called ‘Rich Man North of Richmond.’ It is sung by a singer from Farmville, Virginia, named Oliver Anthony. His lyrics speak of alienation, of deep frustration with the state of government and of this country. Washington, D.C. is about 100 miles north of Richmond. (A brief clip of the song was played) So, Governor DeSantis, why is this song striking such a nerve in this country right now?" asked MacCallum.
Governor DeSantis weighed in.
“It starts with understanding We must reverse Bidenomics so that middle class families have a chance to succeed again. We cannot succeed as a country if you are working hard and you can't afford groceries, a car or a new home. While Hunter Biden can make hundreds of thousands of dollars on lousy paintings. That is wrong. We also cannot succeed when the Congress spends trillions and trillions of dollars. Those rich men North of rich men have put us in this situation,” said DeSantis.
Nine minutes into the debate and we have our first Hunter Biden reference. Before the evening was over the president’s adult son would come up twice.
Question - Who is Ramaswamy?
Two more questions that were variations on the first were asked of Chris Christie and Senator Tim Scott.
Bret Baier then abruptly pivoted and addressed Vivek Ramaswamy.
“Mr. Ramaswamy, listening to all of this, why should voters choose you over more experienced politicians on this stage? You're basically, you know, a blank slate for people. You're 38 years old. You've said that you only voted in two presidential elections before this moment, this political race,” asked Baier.
Ramaswamy responded.
“So first, let me just address a question that is on everybody's mind at home tonight. Who the heck is this skinny guy with a funny last name? And what the heck is he doing in the middle of this debate stage?” said Ramaswamy.
This is a direct callback to former President Barack Obama referring to himself as “a skinny kid with a funny name,” in his 2004 Democratic National Convention keynote address. Ramaswamy went on to talk a bit about his background and sell himself as a non-politician and outsider.
It was an odd choice for Ramaswamy to evoke Obama as the last Democratic president is not exactly popular among Republicans.
The question related to the YouTube bluegrass song morphed into general questions about the economy - Pence answered some criticism lobbed at him by Ramaswamy and the youngest candidate answered in kind.
“This isn't that complicated, guys. Unlock American energy, drill, frack, burn coal, embrace nuclear. Put people back to work by no longer paying them more to stay at home. Reform the U.S. Fed and stabilize the US dollar and go to war. The only war that I will declare as U.S. President will be the war on the federal administrative state that is the source of those toxic regulations, acting like a wet blanket on the economy,” said Ramaswamy.
There was more crosstalk between Pence and Ramaswamay and the first large wave of boos erupted from the crowd when the former Vice President referred to Ramswamy as a rookie.
Then the moderators directed the same question to DeSantis. He took the opportunity to abruptly transition to a completely different topic.
“So, here's the thing. Why are we in this mess? Part of it and a major reason is because how this federal government handed COVID-19 by locking down this economy. In Florida, we led the country out of lockdown. We kept our state free and open. And I can tell you this, as your president, I will never let the deep state bureaucrats lock you down. You don't take somebody like Fauci and coddle him. You bring Fauci and you sit him down and you say, Anthony, you are fired,” said DeSantis
At this point the debate was completely off the rails. It was obvious DeSantis had prepared that statement and just found a way to wedge it in even though the question he was asked has absolutely nothing to do with it.
DeSantis was also echoing Trump with the phrase, “You’re fired.”
Ramaswamy saw it for what it was and called the rest of the candidates, “Super PAC Puppets,” criticizing them for using prepared statements as if his nifty little insult was also a bullet in the chamber of his mind he was waiting to unleash at the right moment.
Then in a moment that echoed Senator Bernie Sanders Ramaswamy said,
“Do you want a super PAC puppet or do you want a patriot who speaks the truth? Do you want incremental reform, which is what you're hearing about? Or do you want revolution?”
Of course, I hate to give a dose of reality to the candidate with no actual experience getting legislation passed but any president would have to get the support of Congress to get much of anything passed.
Question - Climate Change
The next question was about climate change. The moderators actually shifted to a pre-taped question by a young voter.
DeSantis answered by criticizing President Biden’s response to the wildfires in Hawaii while completely dodging the question.
Then Ramaswamy interrupted.
“As Republicans, I'm the only person on the stage who isn't bought and paid for. So, I can say this The climate change agenda is able to sequence. The climate change agenda is important, and we have to declare independence for. And the reality is the anti-carbon agenda is the wet blanket on our economy. And so, the reality is more people are dying of bad climate change policies than they are of actual climate,” said Ramaswamy
Chris Christie lost it and said,
“I've had enough already tonight of a guy who sounds like Chat GPT standing up here. And the last person in one of these debates, Bret, who stood in the middle of the stage and said, what's a skinny guy with an odd last name doing up here was Barack Obama. And I'm afraid we're dealing with the same type of amateur onstage tonight,” said Christie
Haley declared that climate change was real but took the opportunity to call out China and Biden’s policies towards the country. Senator Scott pivoted to talk about his own background and his proposed trade policies with China.
Question - How will you handle Abortion?
MacCallum started the discussion by pointing out that the abortion issue had hurt Republicans across the country.
Haley mentioned that any federal ban on abortion would require a majority vote in the House and 60 Senators to override a filibuster which is especially difficult.
The answers then shifted to the candidates squabbling over a total ban on abortion or if a ban should start at 15 weeks after the start of a pregnancy.
Haley’s statements about the difficulty of passing a federal abortion ban were largely ignored.
Question - What will you do about the rise in crime?
Pence gave a fairly predictable answer. Baier strangely directed the next question to Christie about gun control.
Question - Do you support gun control?
Christie effortless pivoted back to crime but also used the opportunity to bring up the president’s troubled son.
“And when Hunter Biden fills out a fake application, a false application for a for a gun permit, and then is facing a ten-year mandatory minimum, which was mandated by legislation sponsored by his father. And then you have a Justice Department that walks away from those charges. We're telling people that the law doesn't apply to everybody in a Christie administration. He would go to jail for ten year,” said Christie
Bret directed the next question at Ramaswamy and made it directly about guns. Ramaswamy also talked about crime and mental health while not even mentioning firearms. Gov. DeSantis brought up George Soros.
“These hollowed out cities, this is a symptom of America's decline. And one of the biggest reasons is because you have George Soros funding these radical left wing district attorneys. They get into office, and they say they're not going to prosecute crimes they disagree with. The inmates start running the asylum,” said DeSantis
He then bragged about firing two freely elected district attorneys.
Before the debate went to the next commercial the moderators showed a live feed from a camera outside of the Fulton County jail. It didn’t look like much of anything as it was quite dark out and the viewers saw what looked like some type of gated checkpoint into the facility.
Question - Would you Support Trump if he is the Nominee?
As Christie predictably criticized Trump he was overcome by boos from the audience. Ramaswamy laid into Christie and the two of them battled it out while the crowd shouted over their crosstalk.
The former governor of New Jersey managed to get this out.
“It's important to say that the president said Donald Trump said it's okay to suspend the constitution. Now, the most you take is to preserve, protect and defend, not suspend. I will always stand up for our Constitution regardless of the political pressure,” said Christie.
Question - Did Pence Do the Right Thing on Jan. 6th?
Senator Tim Scott completely dodged the question. Gov. Ron DeSantis also didn’t answer but eventually begrudgingly said he supported Pence’s decision after Pence spoke about it.
Asa Hutchinson made a direct verbal stab at the former president which was met by loud boos by the audience. He was also the only person who uttered the word insurrection.
“I said that Donald Trump was morally disqualified from being president again as a result of what happened on January six. More people are understanding the importance of that, including conservative legal scholars who says he may be disqualified under the 14th Amendment from being president again, as a result of the insurrection. This is something that could disqualify him under our rules and under the Constitution,” said Hutchinson
Haley, Christie, and Burgum all supported Pence’s actions on January 6th. Ramaswamy then interjected that he would pardon Trump which caused Pence to shout that Ramaswamy was assuming Trump would be convicted.
Question - Should the U.S. Continue to Support Ukraine
DeSantis basically said European countries needed to do more, then Ramaswamy weighed in.
“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 across the invasion of our own southern border here in the United States of America,” said Ramaswamy.
I don’t know why anyone would want anti-tank weapons, cluster bombs, artillery, tanks and fighter jets at our southern border along with the Ukrainian military.
Pence evoked the Reagan Doctrine in a somewhat clumsy way which triggered Ramaswamy to declare that the Soviet Union ended in 1990. I openly screamed at my computer “You mean 1991!”
Haley weighed in with her support for Ukraine and then the debate disintegrated into a shouting match between Haley and Ramaswamy. She pivoted to Israel and what she believed was his lack of support for the country. As he spoke the crowd screamed over him to a point that his remarks were largely drowned out.
The debate then dissolved again to a bunch of crosstalk between Pence and Ramaswamy.
DeSantis interjected and returned to the topic of the Southern border.
Baier made a pivot to China.
Question - How would you Deter China?
Burgum managed to pivot back to the Southern border in his answer which Senator Tim Scott also picked up and ran with his answer which also turned into a discussion about Fentanyl.
Question - Would You Authorize Lethal Force at the Southern Border?
Hutchinson was asked the question, but the moderators decided to up the ante.
Question - Would You Support Sending U.S. Special Forces Over the Border to Take Out Fentanyl Labs and Drug Cartel Operations?
DeSantis enthusiastically responded that he would basically start a war with Mexico.
“Yes. Yes, I will do it on day one. Here's the thing. The cartels are killing tens of thousands of our fellow citizens. You want to talk about a country in decline. You have the cartels controlling a lot of part of your southern border. We have to reestablish the rule of law and we have to defend our people. The president of the United States has got to use all available powers as commander in chief to protect our country and to protect the people. So when they're coming across, yes, we're going to use lethal force. Yes, we reserve the right to operate. How many more? Tens of thousands are we going to let to die?” said DeSantis
Question - What would You Do About the Illegal Immigrants that are Already in the U.S.?
After saying he would detain millions of undocumented immigrants Christie transitioned back to Fentanyl and China.
“The Chinese are engaging in an act of war against us, killing our citizens. We better make that priority one in our conversations with China and to try to straighten that relationship out. Because if we don't, we're going to lose more and more of our citizens,” said Christie.
Question - What Would You Do About the Decline in Education?
Gov. DeSantis boasted about getting rid of critical race theory and gender ideology from Florida schools. I’m not sure how either would raise math and reading scores but no one pushed back on his statements.
Baier then pivoted to Ramaswamy by asking him if he really did intend to basically gut the federal government of several departments and agencies.
“You said that the Department of Education, the FBI, the ATF, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the IRS, the Department of Commerce, many of these not exist,” said Baier.
“That's correct,” said Ramaswamy.
“So to the education question, how would you deal with the crisis?” asked Baier.
“So, look, we have a crisis of achievement. Let's shut down the head of the snake the Department of Education. Take that $80 billion, put it in the hands of parents across this country. This is the civil rights issue of our time. Allow any parent to choose where they send their kids to school and the teachers unions at the local level to allow public schools to compete and then revive our national identity where. Every high school senior should have to pass the same civics test that, frankly, every immigrant, including my mother, had to pass in order to become a citizen of this,” said Ramaswamy.
Ramaswamy then made the bold declaration that he “did not grow up with money,” which I guess is relative since his father worked as an engineer and a patent attorney for General Electric, his mother was a psychiatrist and he attended a private Catholic high school.
He then made some outrageous comments about welfare recipients.
“Part of the problem, we also have a federal government that pays single women more, not to have a man in the House than to have a man in the house contributing to an epidemic of fatherlessness,” said Ramaswamy.
Single mothers who get assistance from the government aren’t exactly living large. His statement was incredibly tone deaf and clueless. A cut in welfare and SNAP payments isn’t going to magically restore families. Some families are headed by single fathers but Ramaswamy only pointed out “women without a man at home.”
Question - Trans athletes and Women’s Sports
Nikki Haley took the opportunity to giver her answer about reading and math proficiency in schools.
“But we've got to get these kids reading. If a child can't read by third grade, they're four times less likely to graduate high school. So, we need to make sure we bring in reading remediation all over this country. We need transparency in the classroom because parents should never have to wonder what's being said or taught to their children in the classroom,” said Haley.
The moderators then switched to a lightning round that was intended to be quick questions with short answers but the endeavor just descended into chaos. Candidates were supposed to limit their answers to 30 seconds. Absolutely no one stuck to the rules and several candidates just started screaming over each other.
Some candidates ignored the questions and just used the time to focus on whatever subject they wanted to push before the end of the debate.
Lightning round
Should there be a cognitive test for candidates who run for president?
Do you want a mental acuity test for candidates over 75?
Is there a role for a president about the decline in faith in the U.S.?
Do you support mandatory military service for all Americans?
If you were president would you level with the American public about what the governments knows about UFO’s?
Chris Christie managed to wedge in his fight against teachers’ unions when asked about UFO’s which was probably the most creative answer of the night.
Closing statements
The moderators asked the candidates how they could inspire the nation to a better day. They all gave canned statements that they’d obviously prepared ahead of time.
The debate was Fox News to its core - a bunch of screaming, lots of chaos and hyperbolic answers filled with paranoia, and doom.
Best account I've read yet -- and I've read a bunch. Thanks