DeSantis and other candidates spar in third GOP primary debate as Trump hosts competing rally

MIAMI – The Republican National Committee held their third 2024 presidential primary debate in Miami on Wednesday at the same time as former President Donald Trump hosted a Hialeah rally.

The candidates who qualified were Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott.

The moderators first asked DeSantis why he should be the Republican nominee rather than former President Donald Trump.

“This country is in trouble and the elites that have put us here don’t care about you, they don’t care that you’re having to grapple with higher grocery prices or higher gas prices, they don’t care that your family is less secure because of the open border that’s allowed drugs and even terrorists to come into this country,” DeSantis said.

“Now if you look where we are now, it’s a lot different than where we were in 2016,” he said. “And Donald Trump’s a lot different guy than he was in 2016.

He said Trump “owes it” to the Americans to be on the debate stage.

“He should explain why he didn’t have Mexico pay for the border wall. He should explain why he racked up so much national debt. He should explain why he didn’t drain the swamp,” he said.

At one point during the debate, Haley and DeSantis got into a spat over Florida’s environmental policies, with Haley claiming he was against fracking and labeled him as a “liberal.”

“We are absolutely going to frack,” he replied. “But I disagree with Nikki Haley. I don’t think it’s a good idea to drill in the Florida Everglades and I know most Floridians agree with me.”

Ramaswamy attacked the moderators early on in the debate, labeling them as the “corrupt media establishment.”

“We need accountability, because this media rigged the 2016 election, they rigged the 2020 election with the Hunter Biden laptop story and they’re going to rig this election if we don’t have accountability,” he said.

On the topic of Israel and Hamas, DeSantis reaffirmed his support for Israel and told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “finish the job once and for all” and the “butchers” of Hamas.

DeSantis added that he “actually did something” when he sent planes to the conflicted war zone and brought back over 700 Americans home.

“We had Floridians that were over there during the attack, [Biden] left them stranded,” he said. “They couldn’t get flights out. So I scrambled resources in Florida, I sent planes over to Israel, I brought back over 700 people to safety.”

In regards to Iran’s involvement in the backing of Hamas, DeSantis said he would “not put our troops in harm’s way.”

“Biden has them out there, they’re sitting ducks, he’s doing glancing blows, that’s just inviting more attacks from the Iranians,” he said. “I would say, ‘you harm a hair on the head of an American service member, and you are going to have hell to pay.’”

Scott said that America has to “cut off the head of the snake” in the conflict and go after Iran.

DeSantis also said he would “not stand” for pro-Hamas demonstrators holding protests and rallies on college campuses across the U.S.

“I was the first presidential candidate to say, ‘if you are here on a student visa as a foreign national, you are making common cause with Hamas, I’m canceling your visa and I’m sending you home,’” he said.

DeSantis also said that Biden is not helping the Jewish students, but is instead launching an effort to “combat so-called Islamophobia.”

“No, it’s antisemitism that’s spiraling out of control,” he said. “That is what we have to confront and as president, I can tell you this, we are not going to stand for this on college campuses any longer.”

On the issue of other foreign affairs such as Ukraine, DeSantis said it’s time to bring the war to an end and encourage the America’s European allies to start contributing an equivalent amount of resources to the conflict.

“We need to get serious about the top threat that this country faces, which is the Chinese Communist Party,” he said.

DeSantis emphasized how Florida has banned the Chinese Communist Party from buying Florida farm land and criticized Haley for writing the Chinese ambassador a “love letter.”

Haley attacked DeSantis for allowing Chinese manufacturers operate 12 miles away from a U.S. Naval base.

“Ron, you are the chair of your economic development agency, that as of last week said Florida is the ‘ideal place for Chinese businesses,’” she said.

“And I abolished that agency that she’s talking about,” he replied. “Enterprise Florida, we abolished it and of course we banned China from buying land.”

On the topic of TikTok and Chinese influence in American culture, DeSantis said he was concerned about the data that the communist government was collecting on U.S. citizens.

“I think that China is the top threat that we face, they’ve been very effective at infiltrating different parts of our society,” he said. “So my policy on China and on the Chinese Communist Party is very simple. We win, they lose.”

When asked if he would raise social security, DeSantis said that when life expectancy is declining, he “doesn’t see how you could raise it the other direction.”

“What I’d say to seniors in America: promise made, promise kept,” he said. “I understand what you’re going through, with the rising prices and you need that social security check.”

He emphasized how inflation and a poor economy greatly impacts social security recipients and their ability to finance their lives.

On the issue of abortion, DeSantis said he stood for a “culture of life,” while also recognizing that states pass different types of abortion legislation depending on the voters. He signed a six-week abortion ban this year.

“Let’s just be clear, the Democrats have taken a position. They will not identify the point at which there should be protection all the way up until birth,” he said. “That is wrong and we can not stand for that.”