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

All but one of the Republican candidates appeared to have learned from former President Donald Trump’s deepening legal woes as they appeared for the first Republican primary debate in Milwaukee.

Former Vice President and 2024 candidate Mike Pence stood firmly behind his decision to certify President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory despite mounting pressure from Mr Trump and his supporters, which included violent threats to his life.

Mr Pence was praised by the candidates next to him on the debate stage, apart from entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who came out swinging with conspiracy theories making the rounds on rightwing social media on a variety of topics.

Mr Ramaswamy instead called on Mr Pence to commit to pardoning Mr Trump.

“I’m the only candidate on the stage with the courage to move our nation forward,” Mr Ramaswamy argued.

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Shortly before the candidates took the stage for the third Republican primary debate in Miami on Wednesday, the Pentagon announced that US fighter jets struck a weapons storage facility in eastern Syria used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and affiliated groups, the latest sign of the tense security situation in the Middle East amid the Israel-Hamas war.

Once the spotlights came on, the GOP candidates called for a further ratcheting up of military operations, urging Israel to annihilate Hamas and the US military to directly attack Iran.

Responding to a question about what advice she would give to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley had two words: “Finish them.”

Josh Marcus reports.

Rob Godfrey, Nikki Haley’s former deputy chief of staff, recalled Ms Haley knocking on doors to talk to voters and meeting with small groups “at first as an unknown underdog statewide candidate” and watching her momentum grow. So this “is not a new dynamic for her,” he said.

Drawing parallels between the two campaigns, he said, “Right now it looks like there’s wind at her back.”

Gunner Ramer, the political director of the Republican Accountability Project, also discussed Ms Haley’s uptick in the polls. He said that unlike other candidates, like Mike Pence who had 100 per cent name recognition among voters, Nikki Haley “has always had room to grow.”

Her name and experience are especially favourable at a time when global turbulence is part of a daily conversation, some argued.

Tech entrepreneur and 2024 candidate Vivek Ramaswamy came out swinging at Wednesday’s debate, calling the Republican Party a “party of losers” and attacking the mainstream media.

Kicking off the third Republican debate, moderators asked the five candidates on stage how they would differentiate themselves from the current fronter, Donald Trump.

But Mr Ramaswamy took the opportunity to erupt into a rant about Republicans’ losing streak.

“We’ve become a party of losers at the end of the day,” Mr Ramaswamy said, a day after Republicans underperformed in off-year elections. “There is a cancer in the Republican establishment.”

Mr Ramaswamy then suggested that Republican National Committee (RNC) chairwoman, Ronna McDaniel, was to blame for GOP losses in elections since 2017 when she took office.

Ariana Baio has the story of the unorthodox start to the evening.

Nikki Haley has long been an advocate for traditional conservative talking points. But it seems like now in particular, as Mr Trump’s base remains firm and the rest of the party searches for an alternative to the flamboyant, frequent defendant former president, her campaign is gaining traction.

She is wary of gun restrictions; while discussing red flag laws in the first GOP debate, she said she didn’t trust that the government “won’t take [guns] away from people who rightfully deserve to have them.”

She is pro-life, but has left space for pro-choice Americans to make the best decision for themselves; she said in April, “Different people in different places are taking different paths.”

Her viewpoints are arguably softer than some of her competitors, perhaps making her more appealing to some Republican voters, conservative strategist Chip Felkel said. “She’s taken a stern stance on some things, but she’s not constantly anti-everything,” he continued, comparing her to Mr Trump’s messaging.

Rob Godfrey, Ms Haley’s former deputy chief of staff as governor who remains neutral during the primaries, attributed her recent “momentum” to the “dynamic in early primary states.” He said races in these states — like Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina — “favour some of her best assets as a candidate, which is the ability to connect one-on-one with voters.”

Mr Godfrey attributed this skill to her experience. In her first run to become a South Carolina state representative in 2004, she defeated the then-longest-serving state Representative Larry Koon. She was elected twice more, serving as a state representative from 2005 through 2010, when she decided to throw her hat in the gubernatorial election.

Well, he wasn’t there, but he had some thoughts at this nearby rally.

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?”