Desantis, Haley miss chance to go after Trump in final debate before polls

In Iowa’s final debate, Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis assail each other while Trump remains unscathed

In the final debate before the nominating process begins, Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis tried to get Republicans to support them in their bids to be the 2024 presidential candidates. However, they fumbled multiple opportunities to argue against front-runner Donald Trump.

The head-to-head showdown in Iowa’s capital Des Moines came five days before the state’s pivotal opening vote in the primary season, considered crucial for winnowing the field and giving those left standing a springboard for the rest of the race.

Despite the numerous legal challenges he is facing, Trump maintains a commanding lead.

However, he has chosen not to participate in the televised debates, believing he has no benefit from taking prime-time blows from opponents with lower poll numbers.

The most outspoken opponent of Trump in the race, Chris Christie, withdrew from the race hours beforehand, so Desantis and Haley were expected to take a more direct shot at the former president than in prior debates.

But it quickly became clear that they were competing to be the absent former president’s closest runner-up in Iowa rather than looking to eat into his lead as they ducked repeat opportunities to criticize him.

However, as they fumbled repeated opportunities to criticize the absent former president, it soon became apparent that they were competing to be the closest runner-up in Iowa, not trying to cut into his lead.

DeSantis, Florida’s governor and a hardline conservative, set the tone early on by calling Haley a “mealy-mouthed politician who just tells you what she thinks you want to hear.”

“Donald Trump is running to pursue his issues. Nikki Haley is running to pursue her donors’ issues. I’m running to pursue your issues and your family’s issues and to turn this country around,” he said, dusting off a favorite campaign line.

Haley, a former South Carolina governor, hit out at DeSantis’s runaway campaign spending and repeatedly directed viewers to a website dedicated to enumerating all of her opponent’s “lies.”

“Every time he lies… don’t turn this into a drinking game because you will be over-served by the end of the night,” she said.

The majority of the discussion was devoted to the two of them exchanging sharp jabs against each other’s records and state policies while reciting prepared opposition research in alternate monologues.

DeSantis wants to catch up to Haley, and a successful performance in Iowa will pave the way for him to become the nominee.

On the other hand, in her ideal battleground of New Hampshire, Haley hopes to surpass predictions in the Midwestern state and ride into a one-on-one encounter with Trump.

But much of the campaign has been overshadowed by the legal woes facing Trump, who has sought to use the precincts of courthouses across the country to dominate TV coverage and rally support.

The tycoon’s character came up early on but Haley stuck to the script, repeating a rote campaign remark that he was “the right president at the right time” but that “his way is not my way.”

She briefly denounced Trump for his false accusations that the 2020 election was rigged and for supporting the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, but she remained silent when asked if she believed he had a different interpretation of the Constitution than she did.

DeSantis was tougher on Trump and hit out at what he characterized as the front-runner’s poor record on curbing public disorder, broken promises on border security and failure to attack Washington corruption.

But he quickly pivoted back each time to standard campaign lines attacking Haley. The Iraq veteran, who has promised to have drug smugglers shot dead at the southern border, focused on Haley’s record on controlling immigration, taxation, education and being soft on abortion.

Haley accused the more isolationist DeSantis of flip-flopping on aid to war-torn Ukraine, called him out repeatedly over his “demeaning” tone, and attacked him over a feud with Disney that cost Florida 2,000 jobs.

Trump, who often arranges “counterprogramming” to draw attention away from the debates, was taking part in a Fox News town hall event elsewhere in Des Moines, his first live appearance on the network in two years.

He said DeSantis would be “working in a pizza shop or perhaps a law firm” without Trump’s help with his career.

He sought to assuage fears he would abandon the rule of law if he is returned to the White House, assuring viewers he was “not going to be a dictator.”

“I’m going to manage like we did,” he said, adding: “We were so successful, that the country was coming together.”