“That’s the white elephant in the room,” This was conveyed by Bret Breier, one of the two event moderators, this Wednesday. first debate among Republican candidatessa primaries for the 2024 United States presidential election, referring to Donald Trump’s absence.

And the former president, who dominates the race for the nomination according to opinion polls, decided not to participate in the event taking place at the Fiserv Forum pavilion in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

We tell you who shone, who went unnoticed, and for whom it wasn’t the best night of their career.

First time Vivek Ramaswamy, who He has never run for public office before. and he didn’t even vote in a presidential election between 2004 and 2020, he simply dominated the first debate of the Republican primary.

With his wide smile and quick tongue, he sometimes seemed like the only candidate on stage having fun.

No one expected that he would be one of the leading contenders to be named the Republican presidential nominee. Moreover, they won’t put him right next to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is the center of attention because, in the absence of Donald Trump, he is the person who has the most voting intentions in the election.

But she persisted, fending off attacks from former Vice President Mike Pence about her youth and lack of experience and clashing with Trump’s former UN ambassador and former South Carolina governor, Nikki Haley, over her call to halt US military aid to Ukraine.

also out to defend Trump when, as expected, another candidate, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, harshly criticized the former president and called for “stop normalizing anomalous behavior in the US presidency.”

Ramaswamy said that with his intervention, Christie was auditioning for the left-wing news channel MSNBC, while Haley, with her stance on continuing to support Ukraine militarily, was seeking a position on the defense contractor’s board.

“I was the only person on stage who hadn’t been paid or wasn’t sold out.”he snapped when the debate turned to climate change, drawing the ire of his rivals.

Time and again Ramaswamy presented himself as an outsider among a group of career politicians. “I’m not a politician, I’m a businessman,” he said at the start and throughout the debate he emphasized that he belongs to another generation.

For this reason, they have already nicknamed him “Trump a thousand years”.

Many of his stances – which call for Ukraine to cede territory to Russia, use military force to secure its southern border and ban American companies from doing business with China – are outside the political mainstream, even within the same Republican Party.

But as Trump demonstrated in 2016, even the most outlandish and impractical proposals are often effective at attracting attention.

He may not have enough political clout to challenge Trump for the nomination, and he may not want to, but his participation in Wednesday’s debate made it clear that he will be a presidential candidate. a factor to consider in the coming months of racing.

Mike Pence, a veteran politician who He has been a member of the DPR, governor and vice presidentthere is still some rope left.

Loathed by Trump’s followers and under the disbelieving gaze of the former president’s critics, his presidential campaign has faltered somewhat.

But his experience on stage worked to his advantage Wednesday night.

He switched to attack mode early on, on his first opportunity to comment, pointing out Ramaswamy’s lack of experience and saying: ““This is not the time for someone who is an apprentice.”.

He made a passionate, faith-based call to limit abortion nationwide.

That argument may not hold water ahead of next year’s election.

But it may help him capitalize on votes from evangelical Republicans who could tip the balance in states like Iowa and South Carolina, which have a big influence in deciding who will be the party’s nominee.

In the second part of the debate, when the candidates discussed Trump and the accusations against him, it was Pence who called the shots.

“When the President asked me to place it above the Constitution, I put the Constitution first, and I always will.“, said.

Some of his rivals praised him for the decision, acknowledging that he did the right thing by refusing to overturn the 2020 election results at Trump’s behest.

His campaign continues to face fundamental challenges, but at least Wednesday night showed why many conservative Republicans once considered him to be president.

The former US ambassador to the UN tends to surprise those who underestimate him.

He never lost a race for office, even when facing a more established Republican candidate for governor of South Carolina.

This Wednesday night stands out the first to criticize not only Trump, but the Republican Party as a whole.

“Republicans did this to you too,” he said when talking about the size of the US budget deficit. “They have to stop spending, stop borrowing.”

As the debate turned to Trump, Haley called the former president “the most underappreciated politician in the United States” and warned that Republicans would suffer for it in the next election.

He also showed fighting spirit.

He had a heated exchange with Ramaswamy when he stated that, if he became president, he would no longer support Ukraine militarily.

And he clashed with Pence when the topic at hand was abortion, arguing that the former vice president’s call for a nationwide abortion ban was unrealistic and politically damaging.

Even if he doesn’t win the Republican nomination this time, his debate performance could well position the 51-year-old to run for president in the future, especially in election years that aren’t dominated by former presidential candidates.

Tim Scott and Chris Christie

Former governor of New Jersey, Chris Christiedoes exactly what many people expect.

He criticized Trump, made insinuations at Ramaswamy and was generally aggressive.

For these two interventions he was booed, just as he had been when he was introduced.

His most clever phrase is probably “we’re fed up with new politicians who sound like ChatGPT”which he released in connection with Ramaswamy.

However, this did not help him win over the audience who followed the debate live.

About Tim Scott, the only black senator in the Republican Party, his good demeanor kept him going in between the hottest moments from the debate.

This won’t help him win over voters, but it could boost his credibility if he wants to be Trump’s preferred vice presidential candidate.

At the start of the year, it looked like the Republican presidential nomination would be a contest between two men: Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump.

Since then, Florida governor has lost in the polls and its rivals have closed the gap.

And if they haven’t achieved it yet, they probably will after the debate.

It wasn’t a bad performance from DeSantis. He had his moments, especially when he spoke about his history of military service and when he called for more aggressive government policies to address the opioid crisis.

However, He was left out at all the important moments. from the debate.

Ramaswamy outplayed him on several occasions.

Other candidates, such as Pence and Haley, elbowed him on issues such as abortion or US military aid to Ukraine.

It didn’t even seem solid when the discussion turned to the topic of the legal process against Trump.

He didn’t have the performance he needed. The man thinks the future of the Republican Party is not a major contender in the debate.

Asa Hutchinson and Doug Burgum

Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson is the final candidate to qualify for the debate in Milwaukee.

Meanwhile, North Dakota Gov. Doug Bergum attempted to enter the debate with a trick: offering enough people $20 gift cards if they donated $1 to his campaign.

Both candidates They really need to prove that they deserve to be there, onstage.

But Hutchinson’s criticism of Trump pales in comparison to Christie’s more aggressive criticism.

And Burgum’s small-state conservatism never stood out.

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