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Former UN ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis quickly sparred with each other as they faced off one-on-one at CNN‘s debate in Iowa on Wednesday night, as front runner Donald Trump once again spurned the event for his own spotlight, a Fox News town hall.
“We don’t need another mealy mouthed politician who just tells you what she thinks you want to hear,” DeSantis said.
Haley responded that her campaign had set up a website, DeSantislies.com, to point out her opponent’s falsehoods. “His campaign is exploding,” Haley said, adding that viewers should not turn DeSantis’s false attacks on her into “a drinking game because you will be overserved.”
With less than a week before the Iowa caucuses, the Haley-DeSantis debate likely is a race for the No. 2 slot, given Trump’s lead in the Hawkeye state. But their acrimony underscored the extent to which they have set their sights on each other, rather than going full throttle at the former president.
The one candidate who has gone after Trump on a consistent basis, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, dropped out of the race earlier on Wednesday, blasting Republicans for their unwillingness to call out the former Celebrity Apprentice host for being unfit for office.
That said, in the pre-show before the debate started, CNN commentator David Axelrod said that Haley, as the most likely Trump alternative, will get a boost from Christie’s exit.
Both the CNN event and the Fox News town hall were taking place in Des Moines, which has traditionally been media ground zero as presidential contests kick off. Yet Trump’s wide lead has muted the media presence somewhat, along with the lack of a contest on the Democratic side.
Two of CNN’s star anchors, Dana Bash and Jake Tapper, moderated the debate, the network’s first of this cycle, while Fox News’s Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum hosted the Trump town hall.
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