{"id":2010486,"date":"2023-08-24T07:38:02","date_gmt":"2023-08-24T11:38:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/republican-debate-top-three-takeaways-from-the-main-event-in-milwaukee\/"},"modified":"2023-08-24T07:41:31","modified_gmt":"2023-08-24T11:41:31","slug":"republican-debate-top-three-takeaways-from-the-main-event-in-milwaukee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/republican-debate-top-three-takeaways-from-the-main-event-in-milwaukee\/","title":{"rendered":"Key takeaways from the Republican debate in Milwaukee: \n1. Focus on economic policies and job creation.\n2. Clash between candidates on immigration and national security.\n3. Strong performances from Rubio, Cruz, and Trump."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">62<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Frepublican-debate-top-three-takeaways-from-the-main-event-in-milwaukee%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2010486&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>MILWAUKEE \u2014 Republicans Take the\u200c Stage in Hopes\u2064 of a Breakout Moment<\/h2>\n<p>Eight Republicans took the stage Wednesday night, hoping for a breakout moment in their run\u200b for the White House. Time will tell who gets a boost from their performance and who will surge \u2064in the polls, but several themes emerged \u200dthroughout the night.\u2062 Here\u200d are \u200dthe top three.<\/p>\n<h3>UP\u200c FOR\u200c DEBATE: WHERE TRUMP, DESANTIS, AND REST OF REPUBLICAN 2024 FIELD STAND \u200dON\u200d KEY\u200c ISSUES<\/h3>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Vivek, not DeSantis, has the \u2063target<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Pundits expected Gov. Ron\u2062 DeSantis (R-FL)\u200c to \u200dget most of the attention and attacks onstage due\u2062 to his long-standing status as the second-placed candidate behind Donald\u200d Trump. Instead,\u2062 it was Vivek Ramaswamy who had the target on his back.<\/p>\n<p>The 38-year-old entrepreneur\u2063 came in polling at just 7% but \u2062was\u2063 attacked like a front-runner, sparring in several one-on-one exchanges \u2063with candidates including former New Jersey Gov.\u2062 Chris Christie, former Vice President\u2062 Mike Pence, and former South\u200d Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.<\/p>\n<p>Pence,\u200b normally known for \u200chis calm demeanor, had perhaps the most notable exchanges with the young candidate.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Now is not \u2064the time for on-the-job \u200btraining,&#8221; Pence said to Ramaswamy. &#8220;We don&#8217;t need to bring in a rookie. We don&#8217;t need to bring in people with no experience.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>His <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/republican-debate-top-three-takeaways-from-the-main-event-in-milwaukee\/\" title=\"Key takeaways from the Republican debate in Milwaukee: \n1. Focus on economic policies and job creation.\n2. Clash between candidates on immigration and national security.\n3. Strong performances from Rubio, Cruz, and Trump.\">comments quickly brought\u200b loud boos<\/a> and jeers from the crowd inside Fiserv Forum, with Ramaswamy laughing at the jab.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Now that everybody&#8217;s gotten their memorized, pre-prepared slogans out of the way, \u2064we can actually have a real discussion now,&#8221; Ramaswamy said.<\/p>\n<p>Pence shot back, &#8220;Is that one of yours?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Christie attacked Ramaswamy as well, though, at one point, \u200bhe had to stop and wait for \u200cthe crowd to stop booing him \u2062before he could finish.\u200d Once the moderators quieted the audience, Christie said Ramaswamy &#8220;sounds like ChatGPT&#8221; and compared him to a young Barack Obama.<\/p>\n<p>Ramaswamy compared himself to a different politician: GOP icon\u2063 former\u200c President Ronald Reagan.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2064 do\u200d think we need someone of a different generation to move this country forward,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>His campaign boasted \u2063afterward that &#8220;there&#8217;s\u200b blood \u2062on the floor, and\u200b it wasn&#8217;t\u200b Vivek&#8217;s.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>DeSantis drew applause \u200cfor touting his anti-lockdown policies during the pandemic \u200dand for promising to secure\u2062 the border, though the\u200d general lack \u2063of attention\u200d thrown his way \u200dcould be seen as a sign the other candidates no longer \u2062view him as a threat.<\/p>\n<p>DeSantis&#8217;s campaign stressed ahead of the debate that he wasn&#8217;t necessarily looking for a \u2064breakout moment, and Ken Cuccinelli, who leads a \u200bDeSantis super PAC, said in the spin room that the Florida governor\u2063 &#8220;looked very presidential\u2063 tonight.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Haley knocked Ramaswamy&#8217;s upstart status by saying he has &#8220;no foreign policy experience,\u2064 and it \u200dshows.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>But it was Pence who might have had the strongest attack, swiping at Trump, \u2063President Joe \u2064Biden, and Ramaswamy all in the same sentence.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We don&#8217;t need\u2064 a president who&#8217;s too old,&#8221; he said. &#8220;And\u200c we don\u2019t \u200bneed a president who&#8217;s too young.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>Abortion Policy Divides the Field<\/h3>\n<p>This was the first presidential debate since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, and candidates\u200c were pressed on abortion policy.<\/p>\n<p>The question\u2062 divided the\u2063 field.<\/p>\n<p>Haley emphasized a practical approach to\u200d the controversial\u200c procedure, saying that &#8220;we need to stop demonizing the issue&#8221; to find consensus on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/candidates-divided-on-national-abortion-ban-at-gop-debate\/\" title=\"GOP candidates at the debate were split on the issue of a national abortion ban.\">banning \u2064late-term\u200b abortions<\/a>, encouraging adoption, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/idaho-attorney-general-cannot-prosecute-out-of-state-abortion-referrals-judge\/\" title=\"Idaho judge rules out-of-state abortion referrals beyond attorney general's jurisdiction.\">protecting healthcare providers<\/a> who have objections\u2064 to the procedure.<\/p>\n<p>Pence and\u200c Sen.\u2064 Tim Scott (R-SC) took more forceful stances, \u2062with both saying they support a federal \u200dminimum standard of blocking abortion after \u206215 weeks gestation.<\/p>\n<p>Others took an in-between approach. Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson \u2062predicted individual states\u2063 will tackle the topic but said the federal government\u200c can take it up \u2062as well. DeSantis said he supports a &#8220;culture\u2062 of life&#8221; but did not explicitly state that he wants \u2064to \u200bsee a national limit, \u2063while Gov.\u200d Doug Burgum (R-ND) also said it&#8217;s up to the states.<\/p>\n<p>Democrats are already attacking the GOP over the issue. Party leaders held a press conference ahead\u2064 of the \u2062debate heavy on pro-abortion rights messaging as they\u200d see the issue as a winner for their side.<\/p>\n<p>But Haley suggested that Democrats have to answer for their abortion policies as \u200bwell, specifically on whether \u2064they\u2064 support any restrictions at all \u200don the \u200bpractice.<\/p>\n<p>Front-runner Trump takes little heat from competitors<\/p>\n<p>Like\u2062 DeSantis, \u2064Trump was expected \u200dto see attacks throughout the evening as the\u200b runaway \u2063front-runner.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, the first hour of the debate passed with \u2063few \u200bmentions of\u2062 the former president. Christie and Hutchinson,\u2064 the most vocal\u200b anti-Trump candidates, were each booed during their introductions, but afterward, it \u2064was mostly Ramaswamy who \u200dfound himself taking heat.<\/p>\n<p>Moderators\u200c finally \u200dasked about Trump\u2064 directly in the debate&#8217;s second half, leading to a discussion mostly centered on Jan. 6 and whether Trump \u2064deserves a pardon if\u200b he&#8217;s\u200d convicted of a \u200bcrime.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The American people deserve to\u2064 know that the president asked me, in his request, that I reject or \u200breturn ballots unilaterally, a \u200cpower\u2062 that no vice president in American\u200b history has ever\u2062 exercised,&#8221; Pence said. &#8220;He asked me\u2064 to put him over the Constitution,\u2062 and I chose the Constitution, \u2062and I always will.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>His refusal ensured that &#8220;Kamala Harris will\u2064 have no right to \u200coverturn the election in 2024,&#8221; Pence added.<\/p>\n<p>Pence also drew \u2064heavy praise \u200bfrom Christie.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We have to dispense with a person who \u2063said that we need to\u2064 suspend the Constitution to put forward his political \u200dcareer,&#8221; he\u2062 said. &#8220;Mike\u200d Pence\u2062 said no, and \u2063he deserves credit for it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>However, the crowd&#8217;s frequent booing of\u200c Christie indicates the praise may not benefit Pence.<\/p>\n<p>Scott, DeSantis, and Haley also agreed that Pence did the right \u2064thing\u2062 by certifying the 2020 election.<\/p>\n<p>Ramaswamy \u2064pressed Pence\u200d on whether he&#8217;d pardon Trump\u200d if elected, to which Pence noted that\u2063 Trump hadn&#8217;t been convicted of any crimes yet. \u200cThe debate then moved on \u200dto \u2063other non-Trump topics.<\/p>\n<p>None\u200d of it will make much\u200b of a difference, according to Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who said in \u2062the \u2063spin room that the race is functionally over.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\">CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE \u200cWASHINGTON EXAMINER<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The best Trump zinger didn&#8217;t even come\u2062 from the stage.\u2062 Speaking outside the arena, Gov. Brian Kemp\u200c (R-GA) called Trump a \u200bdebate night loser and compared the \u200dformer president&#8217;s campaign to one of his state&#8217;s most \u2064infamous \u2064pro sports collapses.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI \u2064think the\u2064 Trump campaign is making a big\u2063 mistake\u200c by \u200cnot being here,&#8221; Kemp said on the Ruthless podcast. &#8220;I \u200dfeel like\u200b they\u2019re in the situation the \u200dFalcons \u200cwere in when it \u200dwas 28-3.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Eight Republicans vied for attention in Milwaukee, aiming to make an impact on their presidential campaign. The outcome remains uncertain, but key themes emerged during the debate. The focus: Trump&#8217;s position, the contenders&#8217; performance, and their potential surge in the polls.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2010487,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2010486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2010486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2010486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2010486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2010487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2010486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2010486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2010486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}