5 Key Takeaways from the First Republican Debate

Vivek Ramaswamy was the only candidate on stage who raised his hand and said he would not support more U.S. funding to Ukraine.

“I think that this is disastrous that we are protected against an invasion across somebody else’s border when we should use those same military resources to prevent … the invasion of our own southern border here in the United States of America,” Ramaswamy said. “We are driving Russia further into China’s hands. The Russia-China alliance is the single greatest threat we face.”

Said DeSantis, “I will have Europe pull their weight. … I think our support should be contingent on them doing it.”

Pence and Haley disagreed with Ramaswamy.

“Anybody that thinks that we can’t solve the problems here in the United States and be the leader of the free world has a pretty small view of the greatest nation on Earth,” Pence said. “That is incorrect. We can do both. We’ve done both. We’ve been the leader of the free world and the arsenal of democracy for years. The Reagan Doctrine years ago made it clear – we said if you’re willing to fight the communists on your soil, we’ll give you the means to fight them there so our troops don’t have to fight them.”

Said Haley, “Less than three and a half percent of our defense budget has been given to Ukraine. If you look at the percentages per GDP, 11 of the European countries have given more than the US. … Putin has said once Russia takes Ukraine, Poland and the Baltics are next. That’s a World War. We’re trying to prevent war.”

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No candidate indicated opposition to the actions of Pence on Jan. 6, 2021, when the former vice president certified the electoral votes for Joe Biden despite pressure from Donald Trump not to do so.

Said Sen. Tim Scott, “Absolutely, he did the right thing.”

Said DeSantis, “Mike did his duty. I’ve got no beef with him.”

Said Haley, “I do think that Vice President Pence did the right thing.”

Said Chris Christie, “Mike Pence stood for the Constitution.”

Pence also defended his action.

“[When] I put my left hand on Ronald Reagan’s Bible, I raised my right hand and I took an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States,” Pence said. “And it ended with a prayer, ‘So help me God.’ It was a promise that I made to the American people. But I also made it. It made it to my heavenly Father. Every day for four years, I sought to keep that oath. … The American people deserve to know that the President asked me in his request that I reject or return votes unilaterally – power that no vice president in American history had ever exercised or taken. He asked me to put him over the Constitution. And I chose the Constitution. And I always will. I had no right to overturn the election. And Kamala Harris will have no right to overturn the election when we beat them in 2024.”

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“The decline in education is one of the major reasons why our country is in decline,” DeSantis said. “We need education in this country, not indoctrination in this country. And in Florida, we stood up for what was right. … We had schools open during COVID. And a lot of the problems that we’ve seen are because these lockdown states locked their kids out of school for a year, year and a half. That was wrong. … [In Florida,] we eliminated gender ideology from our K through 12 schools. And we have elevated the importance of American civics and teaching our kids about the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.”

Pence said Indiana “doubled the size of the largest school choice program in America” when he was governor. All families in America, he said, deserve school choice.

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Former President Donald Trump skipped the debate and indicated he may skip all future Republican debates. In hindsight, it may have been a strategically wise decision. Trump leads the field by a wide margin, and few people on stage – outside of long-shot candidates Chris Christie and Asa Hutchinson – went after him.

Haley and DeSantis said the GOP must stop arguing about the 2020 election.

“This election is not about Jan. 6 of 2021. It’s about Jan. 20 of 2025 when the next president is going to take office,” DeSantis said. “… Here’s the thing: Is this what we’re going to be focusing on going forward? The rehashing of this? The Democrats would love that.”

Said Haley, “We have to look at the fact that three-quarters of Americans don’t want a rematch between Trump and Biden. And we have to face the fact that Trump is the most disliked politician in America. We can’t win a general election that way.”

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