First Republican primary debate in the books – ALL ISRAEL NEWS has the highlights

Eight top-polling Republican candidates in the 2024 presidential selection race gathered on-stage in Milwaukee for the first time on Wednesday night. They exchanged barbs in a fiery debate to distinguish themselves from the pack and emerge as the party’s top alternative to Donald Trump.

The former president and current front-runner chose not to participate in the debate. He explained to former Fox News host Tucker Carlson why he decided to “take a pass," in an interview that was aired on Twitter around the same time the debate kicked off. The interview has reached 75 million views in under an hour since posted.

"You see the polls have come out, I'm leading by 50 and 60 points," Trump said. "And some of them are at one and zero and two. And I'm saying, 'Do I sit there for an hour or two hours, whatever it's going to be and get harassed by people that shouldn't even be running for president? Should I be doing that? And a network that isn't particularly friendly, frankly.'" 

Despite Trump’s absence, his presence in the race was felt on-stage when debate hosts Martha MacCallum and Bret Baier from Fox News asked the candidates to address “the elephant not in the room.”

“If President Trump is convicted in a court of law, would you still support him as your party’s choice?” asked Baier.

The first candidate to raise his hand decisively was Vivek Ramaswamy. He was followed by the other candidates and a very hesitant Chris Christie who immediately pulled his hand down. The only candidate who did not raise his hand was former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson, who also stood out during the evening by wearing not only the American flag pin on his jacket but also the Israeli one.  

Ramaswamy said Trump was “the best president of the 21st century.” He vowed to pardon him on day one if elected and pressed Trump's former Vice President Mike Pence to declare the same. Pence, in response, only promised to give the issue “fair consideration.”

Pence received a boost from former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who thanked him for his judgment on Jan. 6, 2021.

“Mike Pence stood for the constitution and he deserves our gratitude,” said Christie. “We have to dispense with the person who said that we need to suspend the constitution.”

Nikki Haley said she would “trust the American people” on a potentially convicted Trump. She added: “We have to face the fact that Trump is the most disliked politician in America. We can’t win an election that way.”

Both Pence and Haley clashed often with Ramaswamy during the debate. The 38-year-old candidate, who is polling in the third place, drew much of the fire on-stage, notwithstanding pre-debate assumptions that DeSantis would be the major target.

One of the fiercest exchanges was on foreign policy, including towards Ukraine and Israel. Nikki Haley lashed out at Ramaswamy, who opposed providing more funds to Ukraine, saying: "You have no foreign policy experience, and it shows.”

Haley said Ukraine is a “pro-America country that was invaded by a thug" and she called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “murderer,” while invoking the killing of Russian mercenary Yevgeny Prigozhin earlier in the day.

“The problem that Vivek doesn’t understand is, he wants to hand Ukraine to Russia, he wants to let China eat Taiwan, he wants to go and stop funding Israel. You don't do that to friends,” Haley said.

“It’s not that Israel needs America, America needs Israel,” argued the former UN ambassador. 

Ramaswamy stressed that “we have to put the interests of America first.” The biotech entrepreneur recently expressed his support for reducing military aid to Israel and said that his vision for the Jewish state is to expand the Abraham Accords to the extent that additional military aid “won’t be necessary” by 2028. That is when the current aid package of $38 billion expires.

"I would not do that as an isolated policy," Ramaswamy was quoted by the Free Beacon as saying, following backlash. "I would do it as part of also making sure that we're not leaving other people we've also propped up, from Saudi Arabia to even Iran, in other ways. It has to be part of a comprehensive strategy."

On the stage, Ramaswamy hit back at Haley by suggesting that she is an establishment Republican who supports America’s role in global conflicts and endless wars.

“Nikki, I wish you well on your future career on the boards of Lockheed and Raytheon,” he said. “You have been pushing this lie all week.”

Vivek claimed that he has been to Israel in the last ten years more than most people on the stage. He hailed the fact the Israelis have a “national identity,” whereas Americans have been steeping away from their own.

“We are in the middle of a national identity crisis,” Ramaswamy said earlier in the debate. “The problem in our country right now, the reason we have the mental health epidemic is that people are so hungry for purpose and meaning at a time when family, faith, patriotism, hard work have all disappeared. What we really need is a tonal reset from the top saying that this is what it means to be an American.”

Pence who claimed he was “best prepared to do the job, strongly disagreed with Ramaswamy and called him a “rookie.”

“We don't have an identity crisis, Vivek. We are not looking for a new national identity,” he said. “The American people are the most faith-filled, freedom-loving idealistic hard-working people the world has ever known. We just need government as good as our people.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the first candidate to open the debate, said the United States is a "country is in decline" but that the "decline is not inevitable."

"It's a choice. We need to send Joe Biden back to his basement and reverse American decline," DeSantis said of the U.S. president. "And it starts with understanding we must reverse 'Bidennomics' so that middle-class families have a chance to succeed again."

"We cannot succeed as a country if you are working hard and you can't afford groceries, a car or a new home while Hunter Biden can make hundreds of thousands of dollars on lousy paintings," he continued. "That is wrong."

DeSantis paraded his record on dealing with crime in Florida and of leading his state through the COVID pandemic.

“We kept our state free and open,” DeSantis said. “As your president, I will never let the Deep State bureaucrats lock you down… You don’t take someone like Fauci and coddle him. You bring Fauci in, you sit him down and you say, ‘Anthony, you are fired.’” 

Another candidate who promised to fight government bureaucrats and the Deep State was Senator Tim Scott. He said that he would fire Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray if elected, adding: “We need lady justice to wear a blindfold."

When he addressed the topic of education in the United States, Scott attacked the teachers’ union as problem No. 1.  

“The only way we change education in this nation is to break the backs of the teachers unions: They are standing in the door house of our kids, locking them into failing schools and locking them out of the greatest future they could have,” he argued.

The candidates who participated in the first debate were: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis; entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy; former Vice President Mike Pence; former South Carolina governor and US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley; former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie; South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott; former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.

Now that the first Republican debate is in the books, candidates have more than a month to prepare for the second one, scheduled to take place at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, California on Wednesday, Sept. 27.