Debate Analysis: Christie Bombs, Vivek Stalls, Haley Attacks, DeSantis Naps, Trump Wins

It’s all in the title, what more needs to be said?

Last night at the Reagan Library, the second Republican presidential primary debate went down and it shall soon be forgotten.

The debate started slow and became more of a clown show throughout the evening. Some of the questions, as always were a complete waste of time. It’s befuddling that as long as media companies have been hosting these debates for decades now, they still can’t get them right.

Christie bombs

First, the ugly, and there was plenty of it. Perhaps none worse than when Chris Christie attempted to release a canned attack on Donald Trump that fell faster than Joe Biden getting off Air Force One.

You keep doing this and we’re going to… call you preschool names. That’s Chris Christie’s best line of attack against Donald Trump. To coin an extremely juvenile label of “Donald Duck” because, well, 50% of the thought process was already there. Had Donald Trump’s name not rhymed with a prominent cartoon character, Christie might’ve been running on empty all night.

Did Christie spend time on this remark? You know he did. Probably practiced it at home a hundred times staring into the mirror to get the facial expression and lip curl just right.

Then, the moment came, the big lead-up and the punchline hit like a wet sponge to a room of people who truly wanted to lap it up. Even in person, as you can hear from the audience non-laughter, Christie’s “Donald Duck” line was the most cringe moment of the night and basically sealed the former governor’s campaign as nothing more than a Trump-hating Pez dispenser clown show.

Vivek stalls

Vivek Ramaswamy arguably had one of the best standout performances on stage at the first debate. Last night, the reviews were not so kind, and his opponents were far more prepared to smack him around from time to time. Ramaswamy suffered when releasing his second album and never really could capture the energy he found last month. Perhaps it’s because his delivery wore thin or was less impactful the second time around, perhaps it’s because his colleagues were, well, less collegial.

The question, in the exchange below, concerned the social media platform TikTok and its ties to the Chinese government. Somehow, from that question, Nikki Haley let loose this zinger against Ramaswamy, perhaps from which his short-lived polling bounce will evaporate.

Watch to the 1-minute 50-second mark for the blast against Vivek:

Let’s type this out for impact:

Haley: “Honestly, every time I hear you I feel a little bit dumber for what you say”

Vivek’s answer was less than desirable from the onset as he refused to actually address the question. In short, he claims to win elections, you must appeal to younger voting demographics. That’s fine and good, but the question was about whether TikTok is a national security threat, something Ramaswamy never addressed.

The takeaway from Haley’s criticism was perhaps most cutting, “We can’t trust you”

For the record, Ramaswamy never answered the question as to whether he views TikTok as a national security threat other than to say when he’s president, he’ll get rid of it at that time. What?

Haley attacks

On the heels of the clip above when Haley steamrolled Ramaswamy on the question of TikTok, the former U.N. Ambassador clearly woke up during this debate and tried to take control.

She’s getting rave reviews from the donor class of the GOP establishment for her debate performance and her newfound confidence on the campaign trail. The problem for Haley is that appealing to the establishment means ditching the grassroots and that’s exactly what she’s doing. She’s trying to convince the Beltway crowd that DeSantis is done, Scott is too quiet, and she’s their only option to fight for second place against Donald Trump.

Haley also went after DeSantis leaving him with a smiling facial attack as his best response:

She spent a lot of time talking during this debate and had some good answers. She may end up consolidating some support as the anti-Trump option but her eventual exit from the race is inevitable, along with the rest of the field.

DeSantis naps

Once again, none of the notable clips floating around feature Ron DeSantis with the exception of his tepid criticism of Donald Trump for not standing on the debate stage. The sense that to be accountable to voters, a candidate must stand before a panel of moderators, and answer 60-second questions on many topics that the average voter cares nothing about is antiquated. It’s the thinking that dates back to, well, 2016 perhaps, but not now.

Maybe DeSantis, not Christie, should spend time in front of the mirror working on the proper lip curl when professing righteous indignation with his veto pen:

The moment when DeSantis remembered that his team told him to not smile like a creep pic.twitter.com/MkDXstRGix

— J-L Cauvin – Pittsburgh 10/11 (@JLCauvin) September 28, 2023

Trump wins

There was no discernable downside for Donald Trump skipping this debate. In fact, more candidates should probably take his lead because it’s not helping them. DeSantis would be better off campaigning in early states or working on his odd smiles.

Spending time with voters in Michigan reminding Americans they were better off under the Trump presidency compared to the Biden presidency served the former president well last night.

Haley is the only one benefitting from her exposure to a national audience, but it’s a small audience and not one that will win her the Republican nomination in 2024. She might win over some of DeSantis’ donors, and maybe Tim Scott’s surrogates, but she’s still fighting Trump for the trophy.

Furthermore, what happened to Tim Scott? He was a quiet non-entity on stage once again. North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum had his lines, but he’s a waste of a lectern as well. Mike Pence? Please.

The great Mollie Hemingway on X offered her letter-grade analysis of how each candidate fared on Wednesday night:

That’s a reasonable rating scale and likely how the end result will shake out.