GOP debate updates: TV ratings plummet as Haley addresses ‘scum’ spat

Election officials are keeping a watchful eye on letters that arrive after a series of envelopes containing suspicious substances were sent to officials in Georgia, Nevada, California, Oregon and Washington this past week.

Several election offices reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and US Postal Service Inspection Service that they received envelopes containing a “white powdery substance” and a threatening note about elections.

In Pierce County, Washington the auditor’s office shared a letter accompanied by the suspicious substance that read “End elections now”, according to The Associated Press.

Another “very similar” letter sent to the elections office in King County, Washington during the August primary contained fentanyl, elections director Julie Wise said.

Ariana Baio reports.

The third Republican primary debate was an ugly slugfest reminiscent of the earliest Trump debates of 2015 — except the former president wasn’t even there.

A group of five candidates, minus their party’s frontrunner, appeared onstage Wednesday evening in Miami for what was billed as a presidential debate but in the end may have just been an exercise in futility, given the continued dominance of Donald Trump in every available poll of the GOP primary.

What transpired over two hours served as a reminder of what Mr Trump has done to this party, and raised the question of whether his shadow will loom over Republicans long after he fades from relevance.

Let’s look at the main takeaways from Wednesday’s showdown:

Eric Garcia writes:

“It just means that the Republican platform sucks, and that's not what America wants,” Sen John Fetterman (D-PA) told The Independent. Mr Fetterman, of course, largely won his Senate seat in Pennsylvania last year on the back of the Dobbs backlash, especially when his Republican opponent, celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz said that “women, doctors, local political leaders” should make decisions on abortion.

“And unfortunately, the states have to rebuild abortion in after the Supreme Court, but that's exactly what they're doing because that's what the people want,” he said.

And Republicans seem to understand that abortion motivates voters. Sen Thom Tillis (R-NC) tried to note that all three contests were low-turnout races. But he also warned that this could lead to Democrats putting more abortion referendums on state ballots come 2024.

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The 2024 Republican candidates turned on each other in Donald Trump’s absence during a spirited third GOP debate on Wednesday with former UN ambassador Nikki Haley branding Vivek Ramaswamy “scum”.

The tech entrepreneur was booed by the crowd in Miami after attacking Ms Haley’s daughter during a heated exchange over security concerns about TikTok and China – a touchy topic of previous debates.

“In the last debate, [Ms Haley] made fun of me for actually joining TikTok while her own daughter was actually using the app for a long time so you might want to take care of your family first,” Mr Ramaswamy shot at Ms Haley.

The former UN ambassador responded furiously, “Leave my daughter out of your voice.”

As the crowd booed, Ms Haley shook her head, adding: “You’re just scum.”

Ariana Baio reports.

The third Republican presidential primary debate only drew in about 7 million viewers, making it the least-watched debate of the election season this year.

The NBC News broadcast aired during primetime, between 8pm and 10pm on Wednesday, and delivered 6.8m television viewers, of which 1.3m were in the 25-54 age demographic favoured by advertisers, according to Nielsen Media Research. All told including streaming, NBC News said it attracted about 7.5 million viwers.

The viewership data does not include those who watched the event on streaming services or viewed clips on social media and video streaming sites like YouTube.

Read Graig Graziosi’s full report

Republican presidential candidates descended on Miami for a debate on Wednesday – and the third one without former president Donald Trump sharing the stage.

All of the Republican candidates continue to trail behind the twice-impeached, four-times-indicted former president. Still, some of the sharpest exchanges took place when discussing foreign policy, the Israel-Hamas war, Russia’s incursion into Ukraine and China’s rising influence. Many of the Republican presidential candidates once again attacked Vivek Ramaswamy as the millennial businessman came out swinging.

Here are the winners and losers from the third Republican debate.

Donald Trump has slammed his “Weak and ineffective” Republican rivals for the party’s presidential nomination as he again skipped the latest GOP debate.

The former president urged the party establishment to ditch his opponents and get behind his campaign to try and retake the White House in 2024.

“You have about seven or eight candidates left. I think they are at a debate tonight no one is talking about it, everyone is watching…it’s 61 per cent for your favourite president – me – 10 per cent for Ron DeSanctimonious and 7 per cent for Bird Brain (Nikki Haley),” said Mr Trump at his counter-programming debate in Hialeah, Florida, on Wednesday evening.

“Our nation is in very serious trouble and it is time for the Republican establishment to stop wasting time and resources trying to push weak and ineffective RINOs and Never Trumpers that nobody wants and nobody is going to vote for.

“I watched these guys coming in and they are not watchable. The last debate was the lowest-rated debate in the history of politics, so do you think we did the right thing by not participating?”

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Right-wing activists using local school board races to push for greater control of public education didn’t make a dent in Tuesday’s election results.

One year away from the 2024 presidential election, voters largely rejected candidates backed by groups like Moms for Liberty that have aligned with GOP campaigns to undermine public education and restrict access to books, classroom materials and honest discussions of race, racism, LGBT+ people and gender and sexuality.

Moms for Liberty founder Tiffany Justice told former Trump aide-turned-podcaster Steve Bannon this week that the organisation has helped elect 365 candidates to local school boards within the last two years.

The group added 50 on Tuesday – among more than 24,000 seats up for election this year.

Alex Woodward reports.

Democrats breathed a collective sigh of relief as last night’s election results rolled in.

In nearly every one of the states that hold their electoral contests in odd-numbered years — Virginia, Kentucky, and a handful of others — Democrats came up winners by impressive margins.