USA: Third debate between Republican nomination candidates

The Israel-Hamas war, abortion, the economy: five candidates for the nomination of the Republican party for the presidential election in 2024 crossed swords yesterday, Wednesday, in another debate, during which they also turned against Donald Trump, of the great favorite and absentee of the evening.

“Anyone who is going to spend the next year and a half trying to avoid jail and the courts is not fit to lead this party or this country,” said former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, referring to the former US president and his judicial adventures.

Following the same tactics as the previous two debates, the 77-year-old billionaire snubbed the telefight as, as he himself states, he is far ahead of the other candidates in the polls.

Yesterday’s debate took place in Miami, with the participation of five candidates for the Republican nomination: of four men – Ron DeSandis, Chris Christie, Vivek Ramaswamy and Tim Scott, as one woman, Nikki Haley.

“I’m sick of losing!”

After the disastrous polls for Joe Biden released over the weekend, Democrats took a breather after Tuesday’s local elections, in which the party won even in traditionally conservative states.

In Ohio, for example, voters agreed to include it in the state constitution women’s right to abortion, an indication of the importance Americans attach to the issue.

Tim Scott, Senator of South Carolina, said she would support a federal ban on abortions after the 15th week of pregnancy, though Haley pointed out that such legislation would fail to pass a divided Congress. DeSandis, Florida’s governor who has passed legislation banning abortions after the 6th week of pregnancy in his state, did not refer to federal legislation, but stressed that he supports “the culture of life.”

However, some of the candidates attributed recent Republican electoral losses to Trump.

DeSandis criticized the former president because he did not take part in the debate and estimated that he was responsible for Tuesday’s poor election results.

“He has said that Republicans will get tired of winning. Well, we saw the results yesterday (i.e. Tuesday) night. I’m tired of the Republicans losing!”, he stressed.

Haley was more veiled in her criticism of Trump. “Everybody wants to talk about President Trump. I can tell you that I think he was the right president for that time. I don’t think he’s the right president right now.”

According to recent polls, DeSandis and Haley battle for second place in voting intent.

“Let’s not tell Israel what to do”

The five candidates for the Republican nomination they also turned their fire against Biden, mainly during the debate on foreign policy and the Israel-Hamas war. All of them pledged to continue to offer unconditional support to Israel and criticized the way the American president is dealing with the crisis.

When asked what message he would send to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, DeSandis replied: “I would say to Bibi, ‘get done with the killers of Hamas, they are terrorists’.”

Haley criticized Biden for pressuring Israel to consider a humanitarian pause in its bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

“The last thing we need to do is tell Israel what to do,” he said. “The only thing we should do is support them and eliminate Hamas.”

The candidates also pledged to punish Hamas supporters in the US as well. For example, DeSandis has stated that he will expel foreign students who express support for the Palestinian Authority.

“If you are here on a student visa as a foreigner and you support Hamas, I will cancel your visa and I will send you home”, he underlined.

However, Republicans expressed their disagreements regarding the war in Ukraine, while the US is the country that provides most of the military aid to Kiev. Some of the candidates asked for this aid to be stopped.

“Ukraine is not a model of democracy”Ramaswamy commented, calling President Zelensky a “Nazi”.

“Unable”

For his part, Trump organized at the same time of the debate a pre-election rally in a city in Florida 18 km from Miami. Opinion polls show him garnering 58% of the vote, despite the charges against him in four cases.

The former president relies on the electoral base, which largely remains loyal to him.

Surrounded by a sea of ​​screaming red hats “USA!”, “USA!”, the businessman did not mention his opponents for the Republican nomination at all and preferred to attack the 80-year-old Biden.

“His problem is not his age, which is constantly being mentioned. His problem is that he is completely incompetent,” he estimated.