Nine Republican presidential candidates were on air tonight, in two forums.
Eight candidates took the stage in Milwaukee, looking for a moment to set themselves apart from one another but also to gain traction in the race to beat former President Trump, who declined to participate in the debate because of his commanding lead.
Trump instead set up counterprogramming: A 46-minute interview with Tucker Carlson, which dropped online on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, just before the debate began.
In the interview, the former president took swings at favorite targets like his former Attorney General Bill Barr, rival candidate Chris Christie and at Fox News.
Here’s a recap of the live updates on both the debate and Trump.
➡️ READ MORE: Five takeaways from the first GOP presidential debate
➡️ READ MORE: Winners and losers of the first GOP debate
A top adviser to the Trump campaign declared the former president won the debate “in dominating fashion” without even attending.
“Tonight, voters saw a clear contrast between President Trump engaging in a thoughtful policy discussion about what his second term will look like versus 90-second canned sound bites and platitudes from the debate stage,” Susie Wiles, a senior adviser to Trump’s 2024 campaign, said in a statement.
“What is clear after the dust settles: none of the other candidates looked ready to take on Crooked Joe Biden. Only one leader can Make America Great Again, and that’s President Donald J. Trump,” Wiles added.
— Brett Samuels
Donald Trump Jr. and fiancee Kimberly Guilfoyle are photographed outside the Spin Room with security personnel following the first Republican presidential primary debate at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee Aug. 23, 2023. (Photo by PEDRO UGARTE/AFP via Getty Images)
The Republican divide over whether federal government should restrict abortion access was on full display during the first GOP primary presidential debate of the 2024 race Wednesday.
Read the full story here.
– Joseph Choi
Vice President Mike Pence got the most speaking time of any candidate on stage Wednesday night, clocking in at 12 minutes and 37 seconds, according to a tally done by The New York Times.
Pence was followed by Vivek Ramaswamy, who spoke for just under 12 minutes, and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who spoke for 11 minutes and 22 seconds.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who was at center stage, spoke for 10 minutes and 22 seconds.
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley got the next most speaking time, followed by Sen. Tim Scott, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson. Each of those candidates spoke for less than 10 minutes.
— Brett Samuels
“Let me begin with an observation about the opening format in last night’s debate: It was terrible.
It seemed odd to base the first round of questions on a song. Sure, “Rich Men North of Richmond” is popular online at the moment, but that does not mean most of the public has even heard of it, let alone likes it. It seems more like Fox News trying to seem hip rather than taking the moment seriously.”
Read the full Op-Ed here.
– Derek Hunter, Opinion Contributor
The super PAC Planned Parenthood Votes noted some of the candidates shying away from committing to federal action to restricting abortion access, accusing those GOP hopefuls of trying to distance themselves from the issue.
“Some, like Mike Pence, are proudly boasting about their plan to ban abortion nationwide,” Planned Parenthood Votes spokesperson Shwetika Baijal said in a statement.
“Because they know banning abortion is unpopular, others are trying to hide their true agenda and downplay their goals to restrict access to abortion however they can. Despite their desperate attempts tonight, we know their records and we know the truth.”
The organization noted that the former and current Republican governors on stage — former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum — have all signed abortion bans into law in their respective states.
Ahead of the debate, Planned Parenthood launched its first ad campaign of the 2024 presidential race.
— Joseph Choi
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis promised Wednesday to send the U.S. military into Mexico to fight the cartels on “Day 1” if he becomes the next president of the United States.
At the GOP presidential candidate debate in Milwaukee, DeSantis agreed without hesitation when asked by the Fox News moderators hosting the event if he would support sending special forces into Mexico.
“The cartels are killing tens of thousands of our fellow citizens,” DeSantis said. “We have to reestablish the rule of law and we have to defend our people. The president of the United States has got to use all available powers as commander in chief to protect our country.”
— Brad Dress
Read more here.
Former President Trump slammed former Govs. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas and Chris Christie of New Jersey after the first GOP debate.
“Chris Christie was horrible tonight. He was booed at a level never seen before at such a debate. He should have walked off the stage – Nobody wanted to hear from him! DJT” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
He also took a jab at Hutchinson, misspelling his first name as he wrote “‘Aida’ was a joke tonight. He’s over!”
Trump was not in attendance at the first GOP debate, instead releasing a pre-recorded interview he did with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson at the same time that the debate started.
— Caroline Vakil
Former President Trump took aim at former Govs. Chris Christie and Asa Hutchinson in the aftermath of the debate, picking on two of his favorite targets.
“Chris Christie was horrible tonight. He was booed at a level never seen before at such a debate. He should have walked off the stage – Nobody wanted to hear from him!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
In a subsequent post, Trump said Hutchinson was “a joke tonight. He’s over!”
Trump similarly attacked Hutchinson and Christie by name during his interview with Tucker Carlson, which he sat for in lieu of attending the debate.
— Brett Samuels
Vice President Harris hammered the GOP candidates in a statement after the debate.
“No one on stage ‘won’ tonight’s debate. Instead, the American people heard how much they stand to lose from an extremist agenda,” Harris said in a statement issued by the Biden campaign.
“One by one, each extremist Republican candidate laid out a vision for an America that is less fair, less free, and less safe,” Harris added, citing proposals to make changes to Social Security and Medicare and policy positions that would “strip fundamental rights and basic freedoms from millions of people.”
“These extremists focus on unnecessary debates meant to divide our nation in hopes that the American public will not notice they have no affirmative agenda,” Harris said.
— Brett Samuels
Former President Trump lashed out Wednesday night at his former vice president, Mike Pence, over an answer Pence gave during the first GOP primary debate.
“The American people deserve to know that the president asked me, in his request that I reject or return votes unilaterally — a power that no vice president in American history had ever exercised or taken — he asked me to put him over the Constitution. And I chose the Constitution, and I always will,” Pence said during the debate, which Trump did not attend.
Trump, who did not post on social media throughout the two hour event, used his first post-debate comment to attack Pence for his answer.
“I never asked Mike Pence to put me above the Constitution. Who would say such a thing? A FAKE STORY!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
CNN analyst David Urban called Wednesday night’s GOP debate a “shit show.”
“Tonight proves you don’t need Donald Trump to be at a debate to have a shit show there,” Urban said on CNN. “It was a complete train wreck.”