Repeated accusations and attacks.
On the stage of the last Republican debate before the Iowa caucuses, Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis compete alone face to face for the first time and battle it out as if the race to 2024 was a two-way race. Almost forgetting that the frontrunner for the White House is Donald Trump – he is leading in all the polls and has snubbed them for the debate by preferring a town hall on Fox – Haley and DeSantis face off for two hours with no holds barred, accusing each other in dozens of opportunities to tell lies.
The debate followed Chris Christie’s surprise announcement that he withdrew his candidacy, and while Trump on Fox told his unchallenged vision. “Joe Biden is the chaos, not me,” said the former president, guaranteeing that when he returns to the White House he will put an “end to sanctuary cities” for migrants. Trump then explained that if he were to be defeated in the 2024 elections the stock market would collapse, and admitted that he already knew who would be his deputy. “I can’t say that yet,” the former president said.
Haley and DeSantis criticized Trump remotely. The former president “lost the 2020 election, Biden won. He repeats that January 6 was a wonderful day while for me it was terrible,” Haley said, preventing “four years of chaos” if the former president should he win and reiterating that the United States needs new generation leaders.
For further information ANSA Agency Trump, when I was president the world feared me “Joe Biden is the chaos, not me”. (HANDLE)
“The next president must have moral clarity” and have a vision “over twenty years, not four or eight”, added the former governor of South Carolina. “I would like Trump to be here, because I’m running against him”, he specified, still trying to belittle his rival DeSantis, against whom he launched the website desantislies.com, to collect all the lies of the governor of Florida. Her campaign is “exploding”: “He can’t handle it, how can he run the country?” Haley pointed the finger.
DeSantis did not passively suffer the attacks: the former UN ambassador “could be more liberal than California governor Gavin Newsom”, he said, noting that in the “White House we don’t need an accountant, but a leader”. Haley is “weak” on immigration, she added, also criticizing Trump on migrants. “He promised that he would build the wall on the border with Mexico and that he would increase the expulsions of illegal migrants but he didn’t do it: he expelled fewer immigrants than Barack Obama”, he explained, highlighting the need for a wall on the border . The tone between the two officials in the White House has risen even more over Ukraine. Haley reiterated her support for him in Kiev because “if Russia wins, China wins” over Taiwan. DeSantis, however, reiterated his opposition to her, noting that Haley is more concerned about the Ukrainian borders than the American one.
The fierce 120-minute battle in front of the cameras between Haley and DeSantis is unlikely to change the outcome of the Iowa caucuses, where Trump has a double-digit lead. However, the two are competing for second place and, at least for the first primaries, they will face each other ruthlessly to try to establish themselves as the anti-Trump.
breaking latest news © Copyright ANSA