Takeaways from the third 2024 Republican presidential debate

By James Oliphant and Gram Slattery

MIAMI (Reuters) -Five candidates seeking to halt Donald Trump’s march toward the 2024 Republican presidential nomination gathered in Miami on Wednesday for the party’s third debate while the former president held a separate campaign rally across town.

Here are some takeaways from the debate:

LAYING BLAME

A night after a stinging series of election losses at the hands of Democrats, the candidates vented their frustrations on the debate stage.

“I’m sick of Republicans losing,” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said.

DeSantis has long contrasted his successful re-election last year in Florida with Republican setbacks in the last few elections, including Trump’s loss in 2020. Earlier in the day, his campaign argued that backing Trump cost candidates seats in races such as the one for governor of Kentucky, where Republican Daniel Cameron lost to Democrat Andy Beshear.

Republicans on Wednesday were also smarting from the success of a ballot issue in Ohio that enshrined a right to abortion in the state constitution, as well as the loss of state legislative control in Virginia.

Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy blamed Ronna McDaniel, the chair of the Republican National Committee, instead of Trump, for the party’s recent performance.

“We’ve become a party of losers,” he lamented. “We have to have accountability in our party.”

McDaniel was Trump’s hand-picked choice to lead the RNC in 2017, and the committee was a sponsor of Wednesday’s debate.

RAMASWAMY COMES OUT SWINGING

Ramaswamy attacked former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, DeSantis and even debate moderator Kristen Welker early on in the night, in an apparent bid to grab attention away from his higher-polling foes.

In an exchange regarding the conflict in Israel, Ramaswamy warned that Haley and DeSantis, the two leading candidates on the stage, could drag America into a bloody war, while also referencing speculation that DeSantis wears lifts inside his boots to appear taller.

“Do you want Dick Cheney in three-inch heels? Because you’ve got two of them on stage tonight,” he said in reference to Haley and DeSantis, while invoking the name of a bellicose Republican former vice president.

“They’re five-inch heels, and I don’t wear them unless I can run in them,” Haley later shot back. “They are not a fashion statement, they are ammunition.”

Slipping in the polls, Ramaswamy is working hard to regain the attention of voters and the media.

In addition to the swipes at his opponents, he said NBC’s Welker should not be moderating the debate at all.

HALEY AND DESANTIS GO HEAD-TO-HEAD ON CHINA

All eyes were on Haley and DeSantis, who were widely expected to go after each other in a bid to establish themselves as the top challenger to Trump in the Republican nominating contest.

After circling each other for half the debate, they finally went on the attack over the other’s dealings with China.

Both said their opponent had cozied up to Chinese industry as governors – Haley in South Carolina and DeSantis in Florida. Both, unsurprisingly, disagreed, leading to a heated exchange.

While all candidates on the stage portray themselves as tough on China, Haley has taken pains for months to establish herself as the top China hawk in the field.

The DeSantis campaign, meanwhile, has tried to attack Haley on precisely that issue, accusing her of welcoming a Chinese company into her state.

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