Rivals accuse Trump of being ‘missing in action’ at second Republican debate
Transcript
00:00 The absence of Donald Trump played a central role in the second Republican primary debate
00:05 of the 2024 election season, as seven White House hopefuls tried and mostly failed to
00:12 shake up a race in which the former president remains the clear frontrunner.
00:16 Two of Trump's rivals attempted to capitalize on his absence by criticizing him for skipping
00:22 the debate, held at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation Institute in Simi Valley, California.
00:28 And a Santis mocked Trump is missing in action, saying, "He should be on this stage tonight.
00:34 He owes it to you to defend his record."
00:36 Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor, suggested Trump was skipping the debates out
00:42 of fear of facing voters.
00:44 Addressing Trump in a straight-to-camera diatribe, Christie said, "You're not here tonight because
00:49 you're afraid of being on this stage and defending your record.
00:53 You're ducking these things."
00:54 Trump skipped the event as he skipped last month's debate, and reportedly plans to skip
01:00 the next day and instead held a rally in Michigan, where auto workers have gone on strike to
01:05 demand pay increases.
01:07 A day earlier, Joe Biden joined some of the striking workers on the picket line, providing
01:12 an odd preview of the likely match-up in the 2024 general election.
01:18 In the final question of the night, the moderators of the Fox Business and Univision debate forced
01:24 the candidates to reckon with reality.
01:26 Fox News host Dana Perino asked, "What is your mathematical path, Governor DeSantis,
01:32 in order to try to beat President Trump, who has a commanding and enduring lead in this
01:37 race?"
01:38 DeSantis replied, "Polls don't elect precedents.
01:42 Voters elect precedents.
01:43 And we're going to take the case to the people in these early [voting] states."
01:48 But those voters do not yet appear to be swayed by any of the candidates who appeared on stage
01:53 on Wednesday night.
01:55 Even as Trump faces 91 felony charges across four criminal cases, Republican primary candidates
02:02 have struggled to put a dent in the former president's significant polling lead.
02:06 One NBC News poll conducted this month showed Trump has the support of 59 percent of likely
02:12 Republican primary voters, giving the former president a 43-point edge over DeSantis.
02:19 Besides Trump and DeSantis, every Republican primary candidate remains mired in the single
02:24 digits, the poll found.
02:26 DeSantis in particular entered the second debate looking for a breakout moment to help
02:31 dispel mounting doubts over his ability to challenge Trump for the nomination.
02:36 The Florida governor has seen his polling numbers tumble in recent weeks, with one New
02:41 Hampshire survey showing him dropping to fifth place in the second voting state.
02:46 With their primary hopes dwindling, the debate participants shouted over each other in an
02:51 attempt to be heard, allowing the discussion to devolve into incomprehensible crosstalk.
02:57 In an apparent effort to get voters' attention, some debate participants offered eyebrow-raising
03:03 suggestions on the issues of gun violence, race and immigration.
03:07 The former vice president, Mike Pence, called for the passage of a federal, expedited death
03:13 penalty for anyone involved in a mass shooting so that they will meet their fate in months,
03:18 not years.
03:19 It is unclear how such a policy might prevent mass shootings, especially given that the
03:24 perpetrators of such crimes often die by suicide or are killed by law enforcement before they
03:30 are prosecuted.
03:32 In another surprising moment, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, who is black, implied that
03:38 slavery had been more bearable for black Americans than the Great Society, President Lyndon Johnson's
03:44 anti-poverty program that birthed social welfare programs like Medicare and Medicaid.
03:50 "Black families survived slavery.
03:53 We survived poll taxes and literacy tests.
03:56 We survived discrimination being woven into the laws of our country," Scott said.
04:01 What was hard to survive was Johnson's Great Society -- a broken bar where they decided
04:06 to take the black father out of the household to get a check in the mail.
04:11 A theme from the first primary debate played out again on Wednesday, as former U.N. Ambassador
04:17 Nikki Haley sparred with entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.
04:20 Criticizing Ramaswamy for joining TikTok despite the app's potential security vulnerabilities,
04:27 Haley landed the most stinging insult of the night.
04:30 "Honestly, every time I hear you, I feel a little bit dumber for what you say," Haley
04:35 told Ramaswamy.
04:37 But it remained unclear how the debate might help candidates break through in a race that
04:41 has grown static, as Trump's rivals jockey for a distant second place.
04:46 With less than four months left before the Iowa caucuses, the pressure is escalating
04:51 for candidates to quickly prove their mettle in the primary.
04:55 One Republican candidate, the Miami mayor Francis Suarez, has already dropped out of
05:00 the race, and others may soon follow suit if they cannot gain momentum in the coming
05:06 weeks.
05:07 Asa Hutchinson, the former Arkansas governor who participated in the first primary debate,
05:12 did not appear on Wednesday because he failed to meet the heightened polling requirements
05:17 set by the Republican National Committee, but he insisted he would keep fighting for
05:21 the nomination.
05:23 In a statement released on Monday, Hutchinson said he would move forward with events planned
05:28 in early voting states even after he failed to qualify for the debate.
05:32 "I entered this race because it is critically important for a leader within the Republican
05:37 Party to stand up to Donald Trump and call him out on misleading his supporters and the
05:42 American people," Hutchinson said.
05:45 "I intend to continue."