New York – Suppose he is in the race for second place governor of Florida Ron DeSantis And former ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley They stand out as the strongest contenders. However, this one of them actually managed to derail a race Donald Trump The Republican nomination, to return to the White House, remains very difficult to envision. That was the gist of last night’s debate in Miami between the five remaining candidates in the Republican primary, excluding the former president. It may be interesting to understand the mood of Republican dissent, but with a candidate leading by 30 or 40 points in most polls, something else was needed to unsettle the public and change the fate of the contest.
All against all, and no one against Trump
To tell the truth, there were some electric moments. Such as when an entrepreneur is in biotechnology Vivek Ramaswamy Haley was accused of hypocrisy, because she criticized China for spying through the social network TikTok, but then allowed her daughter to use it: “Before you give lessons to others, you should put your house in order.” The former ambassador criticized him, saying: “Leave my daughter out of your words. You are just scum!”
But the point is that by attacking each other the remaining “five dwarves”, DeSantis, Haley, Ramaswamy, Chris Christie And Tim ScottMaybe they can hope to be noticed as quarterbacks, but if they want to be champions and win, they have to attack Trump, and no one has the courage to do that seriously because everyone knows the electoral base they’ll need is right there with him.
In fact, the first question asked by NBC television executives was precisely why someone would be a better president than Trump, and the answers were not convincing. And no one dared notice that Donald had been indicted four times in criminal trials, including assaulting Congress on January 6, 2021, and on Monday he testified in the ongoing civil case in Manhattan against his company accused of fraud. “Trump should be here to explain why he deserves another term, given that he didn’t build the wall, didn’t increase the national debt by eight trillion, and didn’t stop China,” DeSantis said. However, nothing else has emerged, and if challengers who want to take his place can’t explain why, Trump’s base voters are unlikely to do so for them.
Heavy defeats
The problem must be serious, even for Republicans, because on Tuesday they again lost local elections in Ohio, Virginia, Kentucky, and other states. DeSantis and Ramaswamy admitted they were tired of losing, without pointing the finger at Trump, who is now the party’s undisputed leader and thus setting its line. But if his rivals do not have the courage to accuse him of choosing a losing direction, his followers will not. For example, regarding abortion, the main issue at the root of Tuesday’s defeat. All the candidates declared themselves pro-life, because in the primaries they needed the votes of the evangelical right, and only Haley had the courage to take a more realistic position, which could pay off in the national elections.
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Divided over Ukraine
Much of the discussion was devoted to foreign policy, where there is little disagreement about Israel. The candidates competed to see who would express the most unconditional support for Benjamin Netanyahu, who must “put an end to Hamas once and for all.” The situation is different in Ukraine, where Haley accused Trump of having lost his way. Ramaswamy echoed the former president’s position, saying he would not continue to help Kiev, and Haley then criticized him, saying: “Putin and Xi are salivating at the idea that someone like you could go to the White House.” Almost all of them then promised that they would make Iran pay directly for its support of terrorists, suggesting that they would also be willing to accept a regional war or worse that might follow.
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Unconvincing recipes
In order to combat opioid smuggling into the United States, Haley threatened to “send special forces to Mexico” and “block all trade with China until it stops producing and sending fentanyl to us.”
All of them would boost the economy by repealing environmental or other rules imposed by Biden, and some would raise the retirement age to save the Social Security system from bankruptcy. Not much, for inspiration.
The discussion was more serious and deeper in content than the first two discussions. However, it remains to be seen whether there will be a fourth, given Trump’s astronomical lead in the polls, and the futility of such comparisons in undermining him.
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