6 takeaways from second GOP debate: Rivals call out Trump's absence, claw each other

Seven candidates desperately seeking to loosen Donald Trump's grip on the Republican presidential nomination squared off for their second debate Wednesday, clawing at one another for airtime but sparingly taking shots at the front-runner and former president who keeps ignoring them.

The two-hour debate, hosted at the Ronald Reagan Library in Southern California, seemed to do little to change the dynamics of a race dominated by Trump from the beginning.

Instead, at several moments the conversation descended into bickering and name-calling as the candidates talked over one another while Trump campaigned in Michigan.

"Honestly, every time I hear you, I feel a little bit dumber for what you say," South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said to businessman Vivek Ramaswamy in one lively exchange.

Trump was dinged for failing to show up. But fighting among the candidates on stage drowned out their occasional criticism of the former president, who has widened his primary lead since the first Republican debate in August. He is now topping his closest rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, by more than 40 percentage points, according to recent polls.

The rest of the field has stayed in single digits.

With Iowa's caucuses set for January, candidates have only three months to emerge as a top alternative to Trump and cut his massive lead.

Here are six takeaways from the debate:

'Donald Duck': Republicans call out Trump for skipping debate

Unlike the first debate, candidates called out Trump for skipping this discussion, arguing he owes it to Republican voters to defend his record.

Yet they stayed away from Trump's legal troubles, including four indictments, and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Instead, the pack criticized him primarily over a less controversial topic: the national debt he racked up in the White House.

"Donald Trump − he hides behind the walls of his golf clubs, and won't show up here to answer questions like all the rest of us are up here to answer," New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said.

"Donald, I know you're watching. You can't help yourself," Christie later added, looking directly into the camera. He said that if the former president continues to skip debates, "no one up here is going to call you Donald Trump anymore. We're gonna call you Donald Duck."

DeSantis turned a question about a potential government lockdown by first taking aim at President Joe Biden and then noting Trump's absence.

"Where's Joe Biden? He's completely missing in action from leadership." DeSantis said. "And you who else is missing in action? Donald Trump is missing in action. He should be on the stage tonight to defend his record."

DeSantis said debt accumulated under the Trump administration "set the stage for the inflation that we have now." That prompted Biden to weigh in on X, formerly Twitter: "Couldn't agree more," the president said.

A more hostile debate where zingers, jokes fell flat

Throughout the debate, Trump's rivals were more aggressive with one another than the former president, turning to zingers to grab voters’ attention and try to get some laughs.

But some of the one-liners seemed to fall flat.

“Build Back Broker,” Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., said of Biden’s domestic agenda “Build Back Better.”

Former Vice President Mike Pence said, “Joe Biden doesn’t belong on a picket line. He belongs on the unemployment line.”

But the most awkward moment came when Christie, slamming the teachers union, made a reference to first lady Jill Biden.

"When you have the president of the United States sleeping with a member of the teachers union, there is no chance that you could take the stranglehold away from the teachers union every day,” he said.

That prompted Pence to later weigh in: “My wife isn’t a member of the teachers union, but I’ve got to admit I’ve been sleeping with a teacher for 38 years. Full disclosure.”

Ukraine remains a wedge for GOP

The candidates were asked about supporting Ukraine, which has divided congressional Republicans amid the government shutdown fight. Most on stage said the U.S. should continue to provide military aid.

Ramaswamy, however, continued to defy the herd. He said Russian President Vladimir Putin is “evil,” but that doesn’t mean Ukraine is good. That is part of his larger belief that China is a bigger international threat, which is why he supports allowing Russia to seize the eastern half of Ukraine.

Christie blasted that viewpoint, with the former New Jersey governor calling out “the naïveté of some of the people on this stage.”

In one of the night's most direct attacks on Trump over policy, Christie pointed to Trump's past praise of Putin. "If we give him any of Ukraine, next will be Poland," Christie said. "He wants to put the old band back together, and only America can stop it."

The hawks on stage were Haley and Pence, who echoed how defeating Putin is vital to U.S. national security and would send a message to China to back off neighboring Taiwan.

DeSantis had also come under fire for describing Ukraine's war with Russia as a “territorial dispute,” but on Wednesday he asserted that it is “in our interest to end this war." But Ukraine cannot expect a “blank check," he said.

Scott shows some life and picks some fights

Scott was mocked as being too nice and not saying much during the first debate, and he tried to change that by tussling with his opponents more.

During a question on immigration, Scott went after Ramaswamy for his comments in the first debate that all the other contenders were “bought and paid for.”

“I can’t imagine how you can say that knowing that you were just in business with the Chinese Communist Party, and the same people who funded Hunter Biden millions of dollars was a partner of yours as well,” Scott said.

Scott later took DeSantis to task for a provision in Florida’s school curriculum that suggested slavery offered enslaved Americans some benefits, which gave the South Carolina senator a moment to declare: “America is not a racist country. … The city on the hill needs a brand-new leader.”

Near the end of the debate, Scott also went after Haley, a fellow South Carolinian, over who has the better experience, and gas taxes, saying her time as governor was inadequate.

"Bring it, Tim," she said.

Republicans sympathetic to UAW workers but blame Biden for strike

Republican candidates sympathized with striking UAW workers demanding better pay from the nation's three largest automakers, but none got behind the union's cause.

And they were no fans of Biden joining the picket line Tuesday − a historic moment for a sitting president.

Ramaswamy said autoworkers should be angry at Biden for "disastrous economic policies" that have caused consumer prices to rise.

"If I was giving advice to those workers, I would say go picket in front of the White House in Washington, D.C. That's really where the protest needs to be," he said.

Mark your calendar: USA TODAY to host town halls with six GOP presidential candidates in New Hampshire

Biden campaign zeroes in on Trump

The Biden campaign spent as much time rapidly responding to the front-runner who wasn't present than the seven Republicans on stage.

It underscored how the Biden team is already preparing for a rematch of the 2020 election.

"It looks like he is destined to be the nominee again," Biden said last week at a fundraiser in New York.

As Trump spoke at an auto supplier facility in Clinton Township, the Biden campaign on social media accused the former president of lying about Biden's push for electric vehicles and failing to rebuild the U.S. manufacturing industry like he promised.

The Biden campaign released its first attack ad hours ahead of Wednesday's debate, which took aim at Trump, not anyone else.

“This is a vice presidential debate at best,” said California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Biden surrogate sent to the debate's war room. “This is the JV team.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 6 takeaways from second GOP debate: Rivals claw each other