2nd GOP debate highlights: 'Transgenderism' a mental health issue, will ban castration, says Ramaswamy

On the anniversary of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, President Joe Biden stood in early 2022 at the literal epicenter of the insurrection and accused Donald Trump of continuing to hold a “dagger” at democracy's throat. Biden closed out the summer that same year in the shadow of Philadelphia’s Independence Hall, decrying Trumpism as a menace to democratic institutions.

And that November, as voters were casting ballots in the midterm elections, Biden again sounded a clarion call to protect democratic institutions, warning that their underpinnings remained under threat.

Biden on Thursday will make his fourth in a series of presidential addresses about the state of democracy, a cause that is a key motivator and a touchstone for him as he tries to remain in office even in the face of low approval ratings and widespread concern from voters about his age.

The location for this speech, as was the case for the others, was deliberately chosen: It will be near Arizona State University, which houses the McCain Institute, named after the late Arizona Sen. John McCain — a friend of Biden and the 2008 Republican presidential nominee who spent his public life denouncing autocrats around the globe.

Several of Donald Trump ’s rivals stepped up their attacks against him in Wednesday’s second Republican presidential debate, urgently trying to dent the former president's commanding primary lead during an event that often seemed like an undercard without him.

Trump went to Michigan, aiming to capitalize on the autoworkers’ strike in a key state that could help decide the general election. His competitors, meanwhile, were asked by Fox Business moderators at the Ronald Reagan library in California to participate in a reality show-style game where they would write who else onstage they would “vote off the island.” They refused.

The debate’s tone seemed far removed from a campaign that’s been driven by Trump’s attacks on his rivals and democratic institutions as well as his grievances about a litany of criminal indictments and civil cases targeting him and his businesses. The moderators did not ask about the indictments or why the people onstage were better qualified than Trump, instead posing questions about issues including education, economic policy and the U.S.-Mexico border.

The candidates often attacked Trump on their own, hoping to distinguish themselves at a critical moment with less than four months before the Iowa caucuses launch the presidential nomination process. Trump has continued to dominate the field even as he faces a range of vulnerabilities, including four criminal cases that raise the prospect of decades in prison.

Republican presidential candidates blamed Donald Trump and Democrats for the deficit spending that’s driving the threat of a government shutdown, striking a rare moment of agreement in the second debate of the 2024 campaign.

“The people in Washington are shutting down the American Dream with their reckless behavior. They borrowed. They printed. They spent. And now you’re paying more for everything,” said Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is polling in second place but 42 points behind Trump.

“Donald Trump is missing in action. He should be on this stage tonight. He owes it to you to defend his record where they added $7.8 trillion to the debt that set the stage for the inflation that we have,” DeSantis said at the event in Simi Valley, California.

As his Republican rivals sparred onstage in California at their second primary debate, Donald Trump was in battleground Michigan Wednesday night working to win over blue-collar voters by lambasting President Joe Biden and his push for electric cars in the midst of an autoworkers’ strike.

“I will not allow under any circumstances the American automobile industry to die,” Trump said at Drake Enterprises, a non-unionized auto parts supplier in Clinton Township, about a half-hour outside Detroit.

The Republican front-runner's trip came a day after Biden became the first sitting president in U.S. history to walk a picket line as he joined United Auto Workers in Detroit. The dueling appearances had the feel of the opening salvo of the 2024 general election, which increasingly looks like a rematch between Trump and Biden, even though primary voting won’t begin until next year.

Seven Republican presidential hopefuls gathered at the Reagan Library in California on Wednesday for the second of the party’s primary debates. The contest's dominant front-runner — former President Donald Trump — skipped the event again.

With less than four months until the Iowa caucuses officially jumpstart the GOP nomination process, the pressure is building on Trump's rivals to show they can emerge as a genuine alternative.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis had an aggressive start, using his first answer to criticize Trump for skipping the debate and for adding to the national debt while serving as president.

“Donald Trump is missing in action. He should be here on this stage tonight. He owes it to you to defend his record,” DeSantis said.

Republican candidates vowed to crack down on crime and close the southern US border as they assailed GOP frontrunner Donald Trump for skipping the party’s presidential second debate.

“He said he was gonna build a wall across the whole border, he got 52 miles,” said former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie at the second GOP presidential debate from the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California.

Trump vowed to build a wall across the US-Mexico border but failed to accomplish that in office. At Wednesday’s debate, his rivals for the nomination seized on that failure and blamed President Joe Biden for a migration crisis that has seen crossings across the southern border surge and which polls show is a prominent concern for Republican voters.

Bloomberg

Warning about the threats she perceived are posed by China is key to Haley’s stump, and it’s on full display in the debate.

Several times, Haley has pivoted her part in the conversation by noting that some U.S. supplies of amoxicillin come from China. Several times, she has pointed to Ramaswamy’s ties to the country, from business deals to his presence on TikTok, a wholly owned subsidiary of Chinese technology firm ByteDance Ltd.

Haley also went after Trump’s China policy, saying that she feels the former president was too focused on the U.S.-China trade relationship and did too little about possible threats from the country.

For a moment, it was Haley vs. Ramaswamy, round two.

As they did in last month’s debut debate, Haley and Ramaswamy had a split-screen sparring back-and-forth in which Haley went after the political newcomer for inexperience and, she alleged, dangerous ideas, reports AP.

Asked about his recent conversation with a TikTok influencer, Ramaswamy defended his use of the platform.

“I’m the new guy here, and so I know I have to earn your trust,” Ramaswamy said. “I’m here to tell you, no, I don’t know at all. I will listen.” Interjecting by calling TikTok “dangerous,” Haley went on to address Ramaswamy directly — and personally.

“Every time I hear you, I feel a little bit dumber for what you say,” Haley said. “We can’t trust you.”

Ramaswamy responded by saying that “I think we would be better served as a Republican Party if we’re not sitting here hurling personal insults,” before the moderators moved on to another topic.

The debate is getting chaotic at times, with candidates shouting over one another and the moderators scolding them for not waiting their turns, reports AP.

At one point, moderator Dana Perino warned Burgum, who was trying to interrupt the questioning, that they would have to cut off his microphone if he didn’t stop interjecting. “I don’t want to do that,” she said, pleadingly “I don’t.”

Moderators also told candidates multiple times that the cross-talking meant they would get fewer questions.

The topic of education also led to the issue of teaching about racism in public schools. Under DeSantis, Florida approved a controversial curriculum that suggests some enslaved people learned useful skills while they were in bondage, reports AP.

Scott, the only Black candidate on stage Wednesday night, reiterated his criticism of the curriculum under DeSantis by saying, “There is not a redeeming quality in slavery.”

Candidates have devoted significant time to discussing the border but said nothing significantly new. Their policy prescriptions were largely in line with each other and with Trump, who made it a signature issue, reports AP.

Pence, ignoring a question about what he would do to protect immigrants who came to the country as young children, spoke about a Trump-era policy to make asylum-seekers wait in Mexico for U.S. court hearings and cracking down on asylum. Ramaswamy spoke about repealing a constitutional right to birthright citizenship, a position that Trump has entertained.

Candidates spoke as if the influx of asylum-seekers began under Biden’s watch, but it began years earlier. By 2017, the United States became the world’s most popular destination for asylum-seekers, a position it has held ever since, according to the U.N. refugee agency.

The debate’s more than halfway done, but there has been no mention so far of the big political issue that is threatening a government shutdown as soon as this weekend — funding for Ukraine against the Russian invasion, reports AP.

Much discussion in the candidates’ first debate on Ukraine funding.

Former President Donald Trump attacked the Biden administration’s push for electric vehicles in a bid to woo blue-collar voters in the battleground state of Michigan, saying it will lead to the “assassination” of the automobile industry and lost jobs to China.

Trump spoke while his Republican rivals were participating in the second presidential debate in California that he skipped because of his lead in national polls. It was also a gambit to peel off union support for President Joe Biden in Michigan, where members of the striking United Auto Workers are worried about job security in the transition to EVs.

“You can be loyal to American labor or you can be loyal to the environmental lunatics. But you can’t really be loyal to both, it’s one or the other,” Trump told an invitation-only crowd of a few hundred people on the shop floor of Drake Enterprises, a nonunion supplier of parts including gear shift levers and transmission components.

He’s the only GOP presidential candidate on TikTok, but Ramaswamy is talking about teens staying away from “addictive social media," reports AP.

In a question about security, Ramaswamy pivoted to a discussion of border security, talking about teens turning to social media like Snapchat to procure pharmaceuticals.

“If you’re 16 years old or under, you should not be using an addictive social media product, period,” he said.

Ramaswamy, who at 38 is the youngest candidate on stage, has referred to TikTok as “digital fentanyl” but earlier this month joined the platform, with his campaign saying he was angling to appeal to younger voters.

The seven Republicans on stage at their party's second 2024 presidential primary debate aimed on Wednesday to convince voters they could be a viable alternative to frontrunner Donald Trump, who skipped the event.

It took more than 15 minutes for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to speak, but when he did, he unloaded on former President Trump in a way he has not before.

He said Trump, who was speaking to a crowd of auto workers in Detroit on Wednesday instead of joining the debate, should have been on the stage with his primary rivals.

"Donald Trump is missing an action. He should be on the stage tonight," DeSantis said. “He owes it to you to defend his record where they added 7.8 trillion to the debt. That set the stage for the inflation that we have now.”

Ramaswamy’s argument about sealing the border with a wall to stop fentanyl from coming in ignores the fact that the vast majority of fentanyl goes through official land crossings, much of it by U.S. citizens. A wall will do nothing to stop that, reports AP.

Fentanyl seizures occurred predominantly at official land crossings, where commuters and visitors smuggle drugs on their bodies or in their vehicles. From September through August, 11.4 tons of the 12.8 tons of fentanyl seized at the border Mexico were discovered at land crossings, while the remaining 1.4 tons were in between border crossings, where people enter the country illegally.

Christie has a new name for Trump — Donald Duck.

A former ally who broke with Trump over his election denial, Christie awarded the moniker to the absent Republican front-runner for skipping the debate, reports AP.

Speaking into the camera, Christie said, “I know you’re watching” because “you can’t help yourself.” And he accused Trump of being absent because “you’re afraid of being on this stage and defending your record.”

“No one up here is going to call you Donald Trump anymore. We’re going to call you Donald Duck.”

Mike Pence is using his time onstage to remind viewers he’s a White House alumnus. Twice asked a question about working to protect immigrants from deportation if they came with their parents as young children, Pence ignored it and emphasized his resume instead, reports AP.

The former vice president recalled how during the Trump administration, he had negotiated the policy to make asylum seekers wait in Mexico for court hearings in the US.

Donald Trump's rivals were quick to lay into him during the second presidential debate on Wednesday, ripping the former president for skipping the event as they sought to blunt the momentum that has seen him build a commanding early lead in the Republican primary, reports AP.

“He should be on this stage tonight,” said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who was at center stage despite recent struggles to emerge as the field’s top Trump alternative. “He owes it to you to defend his record where they added $7.8 trillion to the debt. That set the stage for the inflation we have now.”

Seven GOP candidates squared off at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California for an event hosted by Fox Business Network. Trump was in Michigan, delivering a prime-time speech that continued through the start of the debate, attempting to capitalize on the Auto Workers Union strike and trying to appeal to rank-and-file union members in a key state that could help decide the general election.

Scott briefly shed his Mr. Nice Guy reputation to flame Ramaswamy for being “in business with the Chinese Communist Party.”

The attack line, a reference to Ramaswamy’s former career as an entrepreneur, fulfilled a promise from Scott’s campaign that the South Carolina senator would be more aggressive after being overshadowed in the first debate.

Ramaswamy responded angrily, leading to a long stretch of crosstalk that the moderators struggled to rein in.

DeSantis says the United States needs a “totally new approach to China.”

Part of what he calls for Biden is already doing. That includes strengthening US hard power in the Indo-Pacific. DeSantis does call for “decoupling” the US economy from China.

GOP presidential candidates started their second debate by mostly agreeing that the US economic future should be powered by gasoline, reports AP.

In lockstep, they all demonized the Biden administration’s support for electric vehicles. It’s a shift that is meant to limit the damages of climate change, but presidential candidates say it would hurt the US auto sector and enrich China. The unanimity reflected the challenge candidates face to stand out on policy issues.

“Joe Biden’s Green New Deal agenda is good for Beijing and bad for Detroit,” Pence said.

After taking criticism for going soft on Trump, DeSantis took a swing at him early in the debate, reports AP.

“And you know who is missing in action? Donald Trump is missing in action,” DeSantis said, blasting the former president for skipping the debate.

The criticism came shortly after a similar attack from Christie, who said Trump “hides behind the walls of his golf clubs” instead of answering questions

The debate started with questions about the United Auto Workers strike, but the Republicans kept the focus squarely on Biden.

“Joe Biden should not be on the picket line. He should be on the southern border,” said Scott, who got the first question.

Next up was Ramaswamy, who said the workers should “go picket in front of the White House in Washington, D.C.,” because “that’s really where the protest needs to be.”