The Second Republican Debate was host to many disappointments from candidates who were expected to rise to stardom. But like the first debate, the candidates and moderators treated Trump like an obscure figure of no serious importance, even though he dominates the Primary by every metric.
The Second Republican Presidential Debate was different from the first one in a few ways but was fairly similar overall. The most important similarity was the absence of the increasingly elusive Republican lead: Donald Trump. Despite this, few attacks were directed at Trump with the debate resulting in infighting among the candidates. With Trump holding a behemoth 40-point lead over his closest opponent, the candidates fought for scraps while Trump merely suffered a cheesy joke from Chris Christie who called him Donald Duck.
The Sept. 27th debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library hosted the typical policy discussions you would expect from Republicans. The border, education, UAW strike and the current and former president were all topics of discussion. Though during the first debate, the candidates struggled to actually discuss policy, the moderators learned their lesson. They pushed questions more aggressively, knowing the candidates would be fussy, which did manage to get through questions quicker, but asked some questions notably different to those from the first debate.
Though the moderators were more aggressive in moving on, they also made more seemingly snarky questions, as if they were trying to conduct a gotcha interview with 7 people simultaneously. This led to the moderators fixating on irrelevant information, such as Chris Christie’s flip-flopping on his immigration policy 13 years ago, which isn’t the type of scandal deserving of a debate question.
Trump’s absence once again hung over the debate. He took some hits but generally left unscathed. Instead, Trump advanced his battle to prove Fox News needs him more than he needs them, with the event hosting the lowest TV viewership of any debate since Trump became a candidate.
Ron DeSantis started the debate by immediately criticizing Trump for being “missing in action” but never pushed further. These criticisms act more like throwing sticks and stones rather than causing any real political damage to Trump, who holds an exceptional 53% in national polls, rather comedically up one point from before the debate. During the debate, Trump was rallying with UAW workers in Michigan, seemingly in the hopes of swaying blue-collar workers. Despite his dominance in the primary, attention has shifted to another young upstart lately.
Vivek Ramaswamy rocked the stage at the first debate, despite his ludicrous policies, effectively winning this one as well, rising three points to 10% in national primary polls. But ever since his rapid rise, Ramaswamy’s campaign has begun to crack, with it being perceived as bringing too many fresh ideas. Being only 38, which would make him the youngest president in American history, Ramaswamy was expected to bring youthful energy and new policies to the stage, something which he lacked. He ended the debate on a stale performance, fading from the spotlight and on the brink of being overtaken by Nikki Hailey in polls. He did not advance his argument on why he should be president, becoming the subject of tough criticism from the other candidates, taking hits on his business in China and anti-Ukrainian sentiment.
As for DeSantis, his eroding campaign continues to decline. He made no real gains from the debate with his polling continuing to slip further and further. The DeSantis campaign appears beyond recovery after a 26-point collapse in polls since January, and will likely stay that way.
All in all, the debate ended in bickering amongst candidates who are mostly polling in single digits from behind Trump’s shadow. That being said, it did demonstrate that Fox is becoming increasingly desperate, with Fox executives kowtowing to Trump and encouraging him to attend. Moreso revealing Ramaswamy’s campaign may be short-lived as a legitimate possibility for the 2024 ticket. No one won, except Trump.
