In the last TV debate for the time being, the remaining four Republicans with ambitions for the presidency exchanged blows again. As always, Trump wasn’t there – at least physically.
One thing you certainly can’t blame the four remaining: a lack of bravery. In view of Donald Trump’s almost unattainable lead, it takes something to continue to have hope for the presidential candidacy.
Chris Christie, the former governor of New Jersey and the harshest Trump critic in the group, explains the ex-president’s popularity this way: “Do you know why Trump is leading in the polls? Because these three here on stage act as if his behavior is acceptable!”
Significantly more criticism of Trump
In fact, Christie is the only challenger who will not support Trump even if he secures the candidacy. “They don’t dare say anything because they have future goals, now or in four years!” In other words: want to become vice president under Trump or inherit him in four years.
But because no one wanted to be accused of opportunism, there was significantly more criticism of Trump last night than in the previous debates. “You can’t fight democratic chaos with republican chaos,” argued Nikki Haley, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Unlike Trump, she gets by without drama, without desire for revenge and without nostalgia, says Haley.
DeSantis: Both parties responsible for inflation
Here the exchange of blows also reflected the dispute over the direction within the Republican Party: Christie and Haley as representatives of traditional conservatives, the other two more Trumpists.
Above all, Ron DeSantis, Florida’s governor. Both parties in Washington were full of money, including the Republicans. They are both responsible for inflation, which could become the decisive issue in the election.
“Donald Trump’s boots licked”
Like Trump, DeSantis also styles himself as the leader of a movement that has declared war on the bureaucratic “swamp” of the political establishment. But once again the very rich entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy had the strongest outsider appeal – who once again offered the crudest conspiracy theories last night.
The three others had “licked Donald Trump’s boots for years” and begged for money and support – especially DeSantis, says Ramaswamy.
And so the absent person was once again omnipresent. The competition was more about taking up Trump’s legacy and less about preventing his return. But the patriarch doesn’t want to pass on the leadership yet; his heirs suspect that they will have to be patient.
Sebastian Hesse, ARD Washington, tagesschau, December 7th, 2023 8:48 a.m