Takeaways from CNN’s Iowa debate with DeSantis and Haley

The two Republicans vying to become the top alternative to former President Donald Trump in the party’s 2024 presidential primary opened their one-on-one CNN debate Wednesday night in Des Moines, just five nights from the Iowa caucuses, slinging attacks — and calling each other liars.

But they largely ignored Trump, who maintains a massive lead in Iowa and national GOP primary polls, in the debate’s opening moments.

The debate – hours after another 2024 contender, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, dropped out of the race – was a demonstration of both candidates’ belief that the field needs to be further winnowed before the last non-Trump candidate standing shifts focus to the former president.

DeSantis largely leaned into his record as Florida governor, arguing that he has built a record of achieving conservative priorities there. Haley, who left the governor’s office in 2017 and then became Trump’s US ambassador to the United Nations, took a forward-looking approach.

During a clash over the United States’ role in supporting Ukraine in its war against Russia, DeSantis said Haley believes “we’re somehow globalists and we have unlimited resources.”

“You can take the ambassador out of the United Nations, but you can’t take the United Nations out of the ambassador,” he quipped.

Haley responded with a withering criticism of DeSantis’ campaign’s failure to date to live up to lofty expectations.

“He has blown through $150 million — I don’t even know you how do that — through his campaign. He has nothing to show for it,” Haley said. “He’s spent more money on private planes than he has on commercials trying to get Iowans to vote for him. If you can’t manage a campaign, how are you going to manage a country?”

Here are four takeaways from the CNN debate — the final GOP debate before the Iowa caucuses:

Trump is skating – again

As a matter of pure politics, Trump’s decision to sit out the primary debates has rarely looked more shrewd.

Though DeSantis and Haley have unfurled modest criticism of the former president, like failing to “build the wall” and not being on stage with them, neither has taken the opportunity to denounce him more pointedly or argue he is unfit for office.

Asked whether Trump has the “character to be president again,” DeSantis and Haley took turns avoiding the question.

“I agree with a lot of his policies, but his way is not my way,” Haley said. “I don’t have vengeance, I don’t have vendettas, I don’t take things personally.”

DeSantis began with a brief compliment before pivoting to “the difference between Nikki Haley and me” – in this case that meant claiming Haley was more liberal than California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Apart from those few, sometimes awkward moments, Haley and DeSantis seem much happier to avoid talking about Trump. And that, up to a point, makes sense: polls show that the GOP base still likes the former president.

Notably, the one thing DeSantis and Haley agreed on throughout the entire night is that Trump should have been on stage. Multiple times during the debate both candidates dinged the Republican front-runner for skipping the debate. Trump had met the qualification requirements for the debate but opted instead to participate in a Fox town hall.

Both candidates wanted to remind voters of Trump’s absence on the CNN debate stage. At one point, Haley said, “I wish Donald Trump was up here on this stage, he’s the one I’m running against.”

At another point, DeSantis said, “Donald Trump should be on the stage. He owes it to you, the people of Iowa, to explain this change he’s had in his positioning, to explain why he’s had a tough time saying why a man could become a woman or not, to explain why he wants to build a billion dollar-plus big beautiful new FBI building right in the part of the swamp in Washington, DC. He needs to explain why he didn’t build the wall and why he added $7.8 trillion to the debt.”

Elsewhere in Des Moines, at the town hall, Trump eagerly touted his lead in polling of the first few early primary contests. “But New Hampshire is interesting,” he said. “It’s a great place, great state, unbelievable people, but they allow independents and Democrats to vote in Republican primary. You say, what’s that all about? So it’s is a little bit false in that regard, but even with that, I think we’ll win substantially.”

The race to be the toughest on stage

DeSantis and Haley raced to appear toughest on some of the bedrock conservative priorities: ending illegal immigration, cutting taxes and reining in the federal budget.

Neither of the two Republicans said they would allow anyone who did not enter the country legally to remain in the United States.

“The number of people that will be amnestied when I’m president is zero,” DeSantis said.

“You have to deport them,” Haley followed.

Both also criticized Trump for not completing a wall at the US southern border. DeSantis doubled down on a proposal to pay for the wall by taxing remittances paid by immigrants who send money to their families back home – which he likened to directly charging Mexico.

On taxes, Haley said she would extend the Trump-era tax cuts for small businesses and eliminate the federal gas tax. DeSantis reiterated his support for a more drastic proposal to institute a flat income tax – meaning everyone pays the same percentage of their paycheck toward taxes – though he struggled to explain how that wouldn’t result in lower earners paying more.

“I would only do it if people are better off than they are now,” DeSantis said.

When it comes to managing the federal budget, both leaned on their experience as governor. Haley noted South Carolina required a balanced budget. DeSantis said the debt in Florida has gone down under his watch.

Haley, though, dinged DeSantis for voting in Congress to raise the debt limit before landing one of her better shots of the race – poking fun at his political operation for spending $150 million to mixed results and having spent heavily on private planes to travel to campaign events.

Haley’s brutal takedown of DeSantis’ campaign

Haley delivered perhaps the most withering attack DeSantis has faced as a presidential candidate midway through the debate, after the Florida governor accused Haley of ineffective leadership — and left the door open.

The moment came during a discussion of education policies, when DeSantis criticized Haley for failing to shepherd a school voucher program through a reticent South Carolina legislature.

“She blames other people. Leadership is about getting things done. Stop making excuses; make it happen,” he said.

Haley responded by recounting months of drama, leadership changes and personal clashes in DeSantis’ campaign and a pro-DeSantis super PAC.

She pointed to financial disclosures that showed DeSantis traveling on private planes and contrasted that with her own approach.

“I flew commercial. I stayed in Residence Inns. We went and saved our money. We made sure we spent it right,” she said. “If he can’t handle the financial parts of a campaign, how’s he going to handle the economy when he goes to the White House?”

Then, Haley described DeSantis’ campaign as one with no real presence outside Iowa.

“You campaigned for president in one state. You’re invisible in New Hampshire. You’re invisible in South Carolina. You’re in fifth place. You’ve (spent) $150 million and you’ve gone down in the polls in Iowa,” she said. “Why should we think you can manage, or do anything, in this country?”

If the moment was stinging for DeSantis and his supporters, it’s because there was truth to Haley’s comments. The Florida governor needs to turn a strong finish in Iowa into a springboard into the rest of the Republican primary race. Haley, on the other hand, is set to see the race shift to much more favorable territory after the Iowa caucuses: She has surged into a strong second place in New Hampshire polls, and is also in a strong position in her home state of South Carolina, with its early February primary.

DeSantis responded that Haley was focused on “political, process stuff — things that no voter cares about.”

But what the early-state contests will test is whether there is a significant segment of the Republican electorate that is looking to move past Trump. That portion of the party could cast strategic votes — backing who they view as the strongest challenger to the former president.

Two views on foreign policy

The GOP’s intraparty fight over foreign policy was on full display as Haley and DeSantis sparred over what role the US should play in Ukraine’s war with Russia. Haley continued to argue for robust aid to Ukraine as a way to prevent Russia from continuing on to Poland and other NATO countries.

DeSantis called Haley’s stance on Ukraine a “carbon copy” of Biden’s. “It’s an open ended commitment,” he said, adding that the US needs to find a way to end the war so it can focus on other national security concerns, like America’s approach to China.

Both candidates insisted that their approach to Ukraine is ultimately about preventing war, particularly one that would require US troops on the ground.

“This is about keeping Americans safe,” Haley said about aid to Ukraine.

On Israel, they fought to paint themselves as more dedicated to helping the US ally than the other. Asked if they agree with calls from some Israeli Cabinet members for the mass removal of Palestinians from Gaza, DeSantis said that while he had concerns with the policy, he wouldn’t question Israel in public or in private. He also criticized Haley for supporting a two-state solution when she was at the UN.

“She was wrong when she embraced that and we’re right to say we trust Israel to make these decisions,” he said.

Haley said that a two-state solution wasn’t possible because Palestinians didn’t want it, and said that the US needs to give Israel whatever it needs and focus on bringing back hostages held in Gaza. She then blasted DeSantis for campaigning in Iowa with Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who was the only House Republican to vote against a recent resolution condemning antisemitism after Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel.

“That’s just cheap, cheap garbage,” DeSantis said.

After being asked if the US should launch retaliatory attacks into Iran in response to strikes launched on US troops in Iraq and Syria, Haley said the US needs to “go and take out every bit of the production that they have that’s allowing them to do those strikes,” and blamed Biden for not doing more. She criticized Biden for not knowing that his secretary of defense was hospitalized.

“My husband is deployed right now,” Haley said. “As a military spouse, the idea that the secretary of defense would not even be in contact with the president, much less in contact with his staff, is unforgivable.”

DeSantis also called for a US response, pointing to his own military service and his past deployment to Iraq.

“I would never put our troops in harm’s way like Biden is doing in the Middle East without defending them with everything they got,” DeSantis said.

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