America's Talking - GOP Contenders Debate in California as Trump Speaks in Michigan

Episode Date: October 1, 2023

During a rapid-fire two-hour debate, seven Republican presidential hopefuls exchanged canned one-liners and hurried remarks as they tried to stand out among a crowded field. Meanwhile, the elephant not in the room, former president Donald Trump, again opted out of the debate and stopped in Michigan to speak to a crowd of auto workers.  Hosted by Fox Business and Univision, the Wednesday debate for top billing in the Republican Party presidential primary is a race for second, with the Real Clear Politics polling average having Trump at 56.%, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at 14.4%, former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley at 5.8%, businessman and author Vivek Ramaswamy at 5.1%, and former vice president Mike Pence at 4.2%, former New Jersey governor Chris Christie at 2.7%, and North Dakota governor Doug Burgum, who barely made the cutoff for the debate, at just 0.9% support. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/america-in-focus/support Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Greetings and welcome to America and Focus, powered by the Center Square. I'm Dan McAulb, executive editor of the Center Square Newswire Service. Joining me again today is the Center Square's Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief Casey Harper. How are you, Casey? Doing well, Dan. How are you? I am doing well, thank you. Casey, we're recording this on Friday, September 29th earlier this week. Republican presidential hopefuls held their second debate, minus again, former president. President Donald Trump, who is far and away the frontrunner in the race at this point. Of course, former President Trump facing dozens and dozens of charges, both federal and state, after four indictments this year.

So this is really a race for second place, at least at this point, according to polling. Casey, you covered debate. What were your takeaways? Yeah, I mean, I did cover the debate. It was chaos, Dan. and I know you watched it as well. The debate was it devolved quickly in the chaos when one candidate kind of just bowled over the moderator and just got to insert basically their answer on something.

I believe it was North Dakota Governor Doug Bergam. And when he got away with that, that was like the moment when everyone else said, well, hey, I'm going to get my word into. He got to answer a question that he wasn't asked. And from then on, it was total chaos. talking over each other. Sometimes for, you know, a solid 15 seconds of just incoherent as multiple candidates talked over each other.

If anyone watched the debate, they're very familiar with what I'm talking about here. And so I think, you know, we can talk about different moments of the debate. But overall, I think when things like that happened, Republicans all kind of lose out. They all, they're all losers. Really, everyone loses the debate when it descends into that level of chaos. And as you said, they needed some kind of breakaway incredible moments to even get to tip away at the sizable lead that former president Donald Trump has, you know, real clear politics polling average where they look at, you know, different polls, has Trump at about, you know, 56, 57 percent support. Second place, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis at 14 or 15 percent support somewhere in there. And then businessman Vivek Ramoswamy and, you know, Nikki Haley, they are about five or six percent roughly tied.

So, I mean, huge gaps. Huge gaps. And unless Trump, you know, ends up in jail, I don't think that anything's going to change. Although it's increasingly looking like Trump really could end up in jail. So interesting debate. I'm curious if you felt like there was a winner or a loser. I mean, it's hard to pick, pick that out of those things. or, but did anything like that?

I saw one analysis that I thought was, I won't say spot on, but I'm sure many voters, Republican voters across the country could have thought the same thing. And that former President Trump won the debate just because of how chaotic it was, even though he, of course, was not on the stage. Casey, you and I were texting each other during the debate. And my thought was, why do the moderators just not shut off the, the mics when they start talking and shouting over each other. Obviously, viewers can't get anything out of that when you can't hear what they're saying.

And at one point, one of the moderators referenced, hey, if you keep doing this, I'm going to shut off your mic and you don't want me to do that. Why not? Do it. Yeah, I think by the end of the debate, they started to do it. The first, the beginning or first 30 minutes, first hour, they did not at all. And it was chaos. I think towards the like the second hour, they started selectively either turning, I think they're maybe turning people's mics down.

So you could still hear them, but it wasn't overwhelming the other person. So I think they finally, you know, they went to a commercial break and huddled up and changed their game plan. But you're right. That first hour was basically unwatchable. I mean, there was definitely, you know, we talk about big moments. Nikki Haley was pretty aggressive. She's a former ambassador of United Nations and a governor in her own right.

She was pretty aggressive. So she went after Vivek Ramoswami pretty hard. She blasted him for having, you know, having a TikTok account. She's really wants to position herself as tough on China. I mean, I wrote a story at the Sooners Square.com, how she called for no pay for lawmakers. And if they don't pass a budget on time, which is probably unconstitutional. But one of those kind of policy proposals that, you know, got a little bit of attention. She also had some back and forth with Senator Tim Scott, who I thought had a pretty good debate.

You know, the other thing here, setting aside some of the big moments, so I'd love to hear moments that stood out to you is, is anyone here running for vice president, Dan? Because that is, you know, it's interesting to see who is attacking Trump and who's not willing to. I mean, Chris Christie is basically making his campaign on attacking Trump. Vivek Ramoswami is making his campaign on supporting Trump. So I was curious, who do you think is positioning themselves for a vice president or were there any other big moments you want to highlight? Well, certainly I think going back to the first debate, of course, of the fact, Ramoswamy has been nothing but praising former President Trump. So of all of the candidates, he's the only one that I think of who would accept a vice presidential nomination. I could be wrong completely about that. Certainly, Christie would not. I don't see it.

DeSanis finally, the Florida governor Ron DeSantis, finally went on the attack against former President Trump in this debate. I think he needed to do that to separate himself. At one point, most polls and many considered DeSanis really the only challenger that could topple Trump, but he's kind of plummeted in the polls since that first debate. So he needed to make his presence known in this one. And I think he kind of sort of did that, but I don't think he did anywhere near enough to close the gap between his Trump. But even to Sanis, I would not see him accepting a vice presidential bid from the former president,

certainly not former vice president, Mike Pence, who already served four years as Trump's vice president. no way Trump would pick him, but no way would Pence accept it. So I guess the only one I think, maybe Tim Scott. Maybe Tim Scott's a second one. Yeah, that's what I was going to throw in. And I agree with your assessment. I would just throw in Tim Scott, I think, is positioning himself well to be a top

vice presidential pick because he has a lot of the qualities that Mike Pence had. He's known as kind of a faith, I don't know what he'd call him, but a big place for the faith community. He's outspoken about his, you know, Christian faith. He talks about a lot in his support emails and things. He's also, you know, a little bit more gentle, I would say, has that kind of gentle side that Pence had. And of course, you know, he is African American, which has its own benefits in politics when you're trying to create a diverse coalition, you know, Trump and Tim Scott together. You know, that's something that could be seen as an asset for sure for Trump. But yeah, I think most of these candidates have not positioned himself well.

But I think it's interesting that Tim Scott from, I don't think I saw him attack Trump once at this debate. And I think that could be pretty strategic. Yeah. Interesting conversation, Casey. At least our listeners can understand what we're saying because we're not talking over each other as the... Yeah, thank you for that. A bit of losing humor, Casey, if that's what you call it. Listeners can keep up with this story and more at the center square.com.

We are out of time for Casey Harper. I'm Dan McAulb. Please subscribe. And thank you for listening.