Focus on women: noise and a main character in a TV debate

US election campaign - Focus on women: noise and a main character in a TV debate

In the race between the Republican US presidential candidates, former UN ambassador Nikki Haley is increasingly taking center stage alongside former President Donald Trump. At the fourth TV debate between the Republican presidential candidates in Tuscaloosa in the US state of Alabama, the 51-year-old clearly took center stage in view of her recent poll successes and was the target of most verbal attacks. Trump, who seems to have an unassailable lead over his internal party rivals in the polls, once again stayed away from the round - and played far less of a role there than the only woman in the race.

This time, only four candidates were on the television stage. Haley was joined by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. Several other candidates have already dropped out of the race due to their own poor prospects, such as former Vice President Mike Pence. Trump currently leads the Republican field of candidates unchallenged and is around 45 percentage points ahead of DeSantis and Haley. Ramaswamy and Christie are in the single digits.

Haley's run

DeSantis, who was still considered Trump's most promising rival at the start of the race, has seen a steep decline in the polls in recent months. Haley, on the other hand, made steady gains and recently caught up with DeSantis. Just a few days ago, she received an additional boost in the election campaign: the influential organization Americans for Prosperity, which was founded by the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, expressed its support for the former governor of South Carolina. This provides the 51-year-old with considerable organizational and financial support, which could give her a further boost.

The attack of the competitors

In TV debates, the focus is usually on the person who is currently doing best politically. DeSantis took Haley to task time and time again. Among other things, he accused her of being under the thumb of questionably wealthy donors. "Nikki will give in to the big donors when it counts," he raged. The 45-year-old also attacked Haley for past political positions and accused her, among other things, of courting Chinese investors in her state when she was governor.

Once again, however, Ramaswamy stood out with particularly crude attacks against Haley. He repeatedly accused his party colleague of being corrupt and claimed that she had amassed a fortune by ingratiating herself with corporations and millionaires. At one point, the 38-year-old clumsily held up a piece of paper. Scribbled on it in capital letters was the formula: "Nikki = corrupt". He insulted Haley as "more fascist" than the "regime" of current President Joe Biden and jibed that she wanted to send troops to Ukrainian provinces whose names she didn't even know.

Her reaction

The 51-year-old conspicuously ignored Ramaswamy's attacks this time, after losing her composure at times during the recent TV debate in the face of his accusations. During the note campaign, she did not acknowledge her rival at all and coolly replied to the question of whether she wanted to respond to the accusations: "No, it's not worth my time to respond to him."

In turn, Haley countered DeSantis' attacks. She repeatedly called him a liar and a hypocrite. "Ron keeps lying because he's losing." And with regard to the accusations about her donors, she replied: "He's angry because Wall Street donors used to support him and now they're supporting me."

Above all, however, Haley clearly enjoyed being the center of attention: "I appreciate all the attention, guys - thank you so much." When Christie started to defend Haley against Ramaswamy, she smiled broadly. Christie reprimanded Ramaswamy and told him to just "shut up" and stop the taunts against Haley. "This is a smart, capable woman who you shouldn't insult," the 61-year-old said, calling Ramaswamy a "smartass" and the "most obnoxious blowhard in America."

A bit of Trump

Christie once again came out with harsh criticism of Trump, whom he called a "dictator" and "tyrant", an "angry, bitter man" who was not fit for the presidency. He received several boos from the audience for this. Christie accused his fellow campaigners on stage of being too scared to stand up to Trump. Christie also repeatedly admonished his party colleagues, especially DeSantis, for avoiding the moderators' questions and not giving clear answers.

In terms of content, all four repeated previous messages of political harshness, for example towards China or Iran. Ramaswamy, who is not considered to have any real chance in the race and who sometimes tries his hand at rapping during campaign appearances, also stood out once again with all kinds of radical conspiracy theories.

Trump, who will be facing several court cases in addition to the election campaign in the coming year, decided not to hold a rival event to the TV debate this time. He had already failed to appear at his party colleagues' previous televised debates, arguing that he did not need to take part because of his poll ratings.

If you want to become the Republican candidate, you have to prevail in primaries in the individual states. The first vote of this kind in the state of Iowa is scheduled for January 15. The actual presidential election will take place at the beginning of November 2024.