By Daniel Payne
On Wednesday night, Republican presidential hopefuls faced off for the second time on the debate stage, arguing over the economy, immigration and other key issues in the close presidential race.
The six applicants — former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, former Vice President Mike Pence, former U. N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott — gave the print at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. California.
For more than two hours, politicians traded blows and touted their effects as they struggled to distinguish themselves in what is still a number one dominance of the Republican Party.
Absent again was former President Donald Trump, who skipped the two Republican debates so far, saying his prestige as a front-runner provides him with little motivation to appear on the level of his rivals. National polls put DeSantis far behind.
Unlike the first contentious debate, Wednesday’s discussion at times seemed to veer off on multiple topics as moderators at Fox News and Univision struggled to keep the conversation going.
Questions about abortion were conspicuously absent from the speech, even though DeSantis climaxed at the end of the debate in favor of pro-life politics, telling the California crowd, “We’re better when everyone counts. “
Most of the evening was faithful to political issues. When asked about the existing economic crisis in the U. S. , they were asked about the economic crisis in the U. S. In the U. S. , adding to peak inflation that continues to drive up costs for customers, presidential candidates have continually blamed those ills on the Biden administration.
“In fact, I think the root of [these crises] is the failure of the bidenomic system,” Pence said, criticizing White House subsidies for green energy technologies and projects.
Burgum echoed those allegations. We subsidize car brands and automobiles. . . and especially electric vehicles,” he said. Electric vehicles, he argued, rely too heavily on batteries produced through Chinese lines, giving the Chinese Communist Party too much economic strength over the United States.
Applicants were asked about President Joe Biden’s appearance Tuesday in line with striking autoworkers. Biden is the first sitting U. S. president who appears to be in the strike line.
Briefly addressing the immigration crisis at the U. S. border, Scott said, “Joe Biden won’t be on the picket line, he’ll be on our southern border. “
Meanwhile, Ramaswamy suggested the strikers “protest in front of the White House” because of what he says is the Biden administration’s exacerbation of the country’s economic woes.
Applicants have been squeezed through the ongoing border crisis, which has seen a record number of illegal immigrants entering the U. S. in years.
“Our legislation is being violated every day at the southern border,” Christie said, promising to send the National Guard to help secure border states.
Ramaswamy has stated his preference for removing the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment to the U. S. Constitution, which grants citizenship to young people born in the U. S. even if their parents entered the country illegally.
“I’m in favor of ending the birthright of the children of illegal immigrants in this country,” he said. Claiming to have “effectively read the 14th Amendment,” Ravaswamay said that “the son of an illegal immigrant who broke the law in the future here” would not be considered an American.
“If he comes here illegally,” Scott also argued, “not [under U. S. jurisdiction]. “
The moderators focused on the candidates’ reaction to crime in many U. S. cities.
“We can’t succeed as a country if other people can’t even live safely in places like Los Angeles or San Francisco,” DeSantis said. He said he and his wife knew three other people in California who had recently been assaulted on the streets. He called the U. S. police. In Florida, we’re blue,” he said.
Haley introduced herself similar to the police. ” Take care of those who care for you. We want to start dealing with law enforcement,” he said. Citing insufficiently strict penal policies, he argued: “We want to start prosecuting in accordance with the law. “
Applicants seemed to have a hard time staying on topic, much to the chagrin of the debate moderators.
When asked if the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare) would remain a federal health policy, Pence touched on the factor of mass shootings, prompting moderator Dana Perino to jokingly ask, “Does that mean Obamacare is here to stay?
Pence then pledged to return “all Obamacare funding” to U. S. states.
Meanwhile, DeSantis attributed high fitness care prices to the overall economic outlook. “Everything has become more expensive. We want to address the underlying problem,” he said.
Haley is committed to radically changing the U. S. physical care system. He has been a U. S. president who has promised to “break” the existing paradigm of physical care and “make everything transparent. “He also advised addressing the existing tort law that governs medical processes.
Reflecting on his earlier complaint about electric vehicles, Burgum said, “We say, ‘Why do we have the most expensive healthcare in the world?’That’s because the federal government cared the same way it did with electric vehicles.
“Every time the federal government gets involved . . . Things are becoming less and less competitive,” he said.
When it comes to education, Christie asked about differences in grades in New Jersey between white and minority students. “You have to succeed with all students,” he said, saying charter schools and school selection policies in New Jersey have helped close the gap. “This can be done when other people have the choice,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ramaswamy was asked if parents have a right to know how their children “identify” at school, an obvious reference to other young people who identify as transgender. “Parents have a right to know,” he said, calling transgender people a “mental fitness disorder. “