Seven Republican presidential candidates on Wednesday night took the stage for their second debate, this time at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.
Seven Republican presidential candidates on Wednesday night took the stage for their second debate, this time at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.
Fox News Channel host Dana Perino, Fox Business Network host Stuart Varney, and Univision anchor Ilia Calderon co-hosted the two-hour debate, which often turned highly contentious, with the candidates talking over and arguing with one another.
As with the first debate Aug. 23 in Milwaukee, former President Donald Trump was again absent, this time delivering a speech at an auto parts manufacturer northeast of Detroit.
Former two-term Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson was also missing from the second debate, but not by choice. Unlike the first debate, Hutchinson did not qualify for the second encounter, but he tweeted that despite “falling short of the [Republican National Committee’s] polling requirement” to participate, he would continue campaigning.
Candidates who did qualify for the second debate were Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former Vice President Mike Pence, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.
The following are some of the most noteworthy answers and exchanges from the debate.
Harris had accused Florida of teaching students how “enslaved people benefited from slavery,” referring to the curriculum’s description of “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”
“For descendants of slaves, this is personal,” Calderon told DeSantis. “What is your message to them?”
“First of all, that is a hoax that was perpetrated by Kamala Harris. We are not going to be doing that. Second of all, that was written by descendents of slaves. These are great black history scholars, so we need to stop playing these games,” DeSantis said, emphasizing that “Florida represents the revival of American education.”
“We’re ranked No. 1 in the nation in education by U.S. News and World Report,” he explained. “My wife and I, we have a 6-, 5-, and 3-year-old. This is personal to us. We didn’t just talk about universal school choice; we enacted universal school choice. We didn’t just talk about a parents’ bill of rights. We enacted the Parents’ Bill of Rights.”
“We eliminated critical race theory, and we now have American civics and the Constitution in our schools in a really big way, just like President Reagan asked for in his farewell address back in 1989,” he added. “Florida is showing how it’s done. We’re standing with parents, and our kids are benefiting.”
DeSantis explained why he was cautious about U.S. funding for Ukraine.
“It’s in our interest to end this war, and that is what I’ll do as president,” he said. “We are not going to have a blank check. We will not have U.S. troops, and we’re going to make the Europeans do what they need to do, but they’ve sent money to pay bureaucrats’ pensions, salaries, and small businesses halfway around the world. Meanwhile, our own country is being invaded.”
DeSantis said that we don’t even have control over our own border and that we have to defend the American people before we even worry about what’s happening in Ukraine.
“As commander in chief, I will defend this country’s sovereignty,” he said.
Scott pushed back, saying that “90% of the resources that we send over to Ukraine is guaranteed as a loan.”
But, DeSantis responded, “We aren’t going to get it back.”
“It’s not actually going to get paid by Ukraine. It’s getting paid by our NATO allies,” Scott said. “Our vital national interest is in degrading the Russian military.
