The five Republicans scrapping to fashion themselves as the alternative to Donald Trump opened their debate Wednesday night blaming the former president for the party’s latest election embarrassment — then spent the next 90 minutes doing little to distinguish themselves from the GOP frontrunner.
Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, who entered the forum in Miami ascendant in the GOP’s second tier, capitalized on the debate’s foreign policy focus and effectively parried attacks from others on the stage, including deeply personal digs from entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who risks being supplanted by Haley as the first runner-up in early primaries, turned in one of his stronger performances, with an enthusiastic hometown crowd papering over moments where he again retreated to familiar and repetitive talking points.