White House hopefuls avoid Trump bashing

White House hopefuls avoid Trump bashing | Daily Tribune

Republican presidential aspirants Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis went after each other and avoided criticizing front-runner Donald Trump to cut his lead during the party’s final debate before the start of primary voting in Iowa, United States on Wednesday.

With Trump’s most vocal critic, Chris Christie, dropping out of the primary race hours earlier, Haley and DeSantis were expected to go after the ex-president more directly than in previous 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 during the Des Moines debate.

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’ 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 pair spent much of the debate on alternating monologues rehearsing prepared opposition research, aggressively trading barbs on their records and policies running their states.

Haley briefly criticized Trump over his bogus claims that the 2020 election was stolen and for defending the 2021 assault on the United States Capitol, but obfuscated when asked if she thought he viewed the Constitution differently from her.

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 his opponent’s record on controlling immigration, taxation, education and for 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.

Meanwhile, Trump took 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 that he will abandon the rule of law if he is returned to the White House, assuring viewers he was “not going to be a dictator.”