It was said that a Republican debate without Donald Trump would not be a debate, but it turned out that the absence of the “elephant in the room,” the moderators recalled, left room for the eight contenders for the Conservative Party nomination to face each other without the former president. get all the attention. Among them, the 38-year-old businessman Vivek Ramaswamy started as the new emerging value for the generational change that many long for, while the former ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, the former vice president Mike Pence and the former governor of New Jersey Chris Christie scored goals at his expense.
The brilliance of these candidates, who already form the advance squad, was possible because Florida Governor Ron de Santis did not consolidate his leadership as an alternative to Trump. With 52% in the Fivethristyeight.com poll average, the former president is 35 points ahead, but he still leads Ramaswamy by 5.5, who became the target of all attacks.
The first to go for the jugular was Pence, who showed more spite than was attributed to the Christian evangelical who said he stood up to Trump on January 6, 2020 because he had sworn to the Constitution “with a prayer to the Holy Father.” Aware that many Republicans are looking for relief, Pence attacked the millennial whom he described as a “rookie” and recommended that the alternative be someone “not too old, not too young.” In other words, like him, who at 64 has been a congressman, governor of Indiana and vice president, somewhere between Trump’s 77 and Ramaswamy’s 38.
The young biotech entrepreneur with an agile verb, educated at Harvard and Yale, received the biggest applause from the audience, despite his denial of climate change, his refusal to continue fueling the war in Ukraine and his absolute loyalty to Trump. “Was she trying out to be his vice president?” wondered Washington Post columnist Gary Abernathy. In fact, Ramaswamy has tried to commit all the candidates to pardoning the former president if they reach the White House. “Why do you speak as if he had already been convicted?” Pence cut him off, promising to consider it only if “guilt with remorse” is balanced.
To become a candidate, any of them will have to defeat the tycoon who today will be booked in an Atlanta jail for conspiring to alter the result of the 2020 elections, “conduct unbecoming of a president, regardless of what you think of him.” , accused Christie, who received the biggest boos precisely for criticizing the man with whom he was associated during the 2016 campaign. Together with the governor of Arkansas, Asa Hutchinson, they were the only ones who did not commit to supporting him if he wins the candidacy of the party of reagan.
It will be precisely in the bookstore of this former president in California where they will have the next opportunity to measure themselves on September 27. Ramaswamy, who in his golden minute sold himself as an example of diversity that will allow him to lead a new revolution, tried to counter Pence’s attacks by dismissively accusing him of being stuck in that “Reagan dawn in America”, when his generation does not see the light. “We live in a dark moment,” he said in line with the apocalyptic vision of Trump, who instills fear to establish himself as the savior of the country.
ban abortion
On the other side of the stage, Trump’s former ambassador to the UN attacked him with accurate aim, who is presented as a reasonable option to be able to talk with the opposition and advance the country’s agenda. Despite being pro-life, she attacked Pence, De Santis and other anti-abortionists for not being honest with voters because there is no chance her party would win an outright majority in the Senate to veto abortion nationwide. She proposes finding common ground by vetoing it at 15 weeks of gestation “and thus protect women’s health.”
The most accurate blows came to Christie’s Ramaswamy, a trial prosecutor known for his oral skills, who accused him of being “childish” while reminding the electorate that the last time the United States bet “on a skinny guy with a weird name” turned out to be Barack Obama, an experiment that disappointed conservatives. The businessman of Indian origin, who competes with the black senator from South Carolina Tim Scott in presenting himself as the embodiment of the American dream, defends in his political decalogue that capitalism “will lift us all out of poverty”, guided by fossil fuels “required for human prosperity,” and the need to seal the border. His Achilles heel is his lack of experience, since he has not served in any government position and did not even vote in the 2008, 2012 or 2016 elections. Only in the 2020 elections for what he considered to be “the best president.” of the century”, which already accumulates 97 legal charges against which he will have to defend himself while campaigning.
Trump did not want to give them attention with his presence and preferred to record an interview with former Fox presenter Tucker Carlson, who hosts his own show on the social network that used to be Twitter. Although he said he did not have time to watch the debate, no one doubts that he did. The absence of him on the screens will add to the discomfort of having to leave his photo and fingerprints in the Georgia police files today, always with a victorious smile.
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