As we know, the presidential election is coming up in about a year. With another election year comes each party’s nominee candidate and their campaign. As President Joe Biden is running for another term, the Republicans need a nominee to face him. On Wednesday, Nov. 8, the GOP Presidential Candidate Nominee Debate was held. Five out of the nine nominee candidates were present, including former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former UN Ambassador for the U.S. Nikki Haley, CEO of Roivant Sciences Vivek Ramaswamy, and former South Carolina Senator Tim Scott. After watching this debate, my initial reaction was how uncivil the debate was and how many questions went unanswered.
Christie is the only candidate I think was able to answer fully and concisely. When asked about his stance on continuing the funding to Ukraine, Christie said we need to “stand with those who stand with democracy” and that the US had promised to protect Ukraine from Russia if Ukraine returned weapons to Russia. I think this clearly shows Christie supports continuing to fund Ukraine and gives a deeper insight into what he believes is the US’s responsibilities. If I had to choose a candidate to support, it would be Christie, even though I disagree with many of his morals and beliefs. Throughout the debate, he was civil and respectful to the rest of the candidates and gave clear answers.
Unlike Christie, the other candidates were uncivil and disrespectful. Many could not give clear answers. The candidates were first asked why they should be the nominee and not former President Donald Trump. Ramaswamy answered by first stating that the Republican Party is a party of losers and that the moderators should not have been Lester Holt, Kristen Welker, and Hugh Hewitt but instead Tucker Carlson, Joe Rogan, and Elon Musk. I believe if that had been the case, this debate would have been more chaotic than it already was. It was an incredibly absurd thing to suggest. And to open with an insult to your party is equally absurd. He continued to be pessimistic and hostile toward other candidates. He made a comment on the fact that Haley was wearing heels. It was completely uncalled for and unprofessional.
Many candidates continued to bring up our southern border and what they’ll do to protect it when the question did not remotely require it. When asked his stance on the continued funding of Ukraine, DeSantis, seemingly out of the blue, brought up sending troops to our border and that the Biden administration is processing more immigrants than before and is making the immigration problem worse. This did not answer the question and was not even related to it. While Scott has since dropped from the race, I think it is important to note that he says almost the same thing for this question. He says that the goal of funding Ukraine is to degrade Russia, and then through some amazing mental gymnastics, gets to the US needing to close the southern border. This answer not only goes off-topic but even the beginning doesn’t answer the question well. There was one question Haley did not get to answer but instead had to defend herself. She did not get to respond to the question about TikTok and the banning of it. Instead, she had to defend herself from comments made by Ramaswamy that he made two questions ago. She had to do this several times, sacrificing her time in answering questions to defend herself. No other candidate had to do this.
Overall, I felt like this debate was a hot mess. The candidates were uncivil and unprofessional. There were moments of talking over each other. This could have been a constructive debate, but instead, insults were thrown, and there were more questions than answers in the end.
