Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis spar in Republican debate while Trump holds town hall: Full coverage

The final Republican debate before the Iowa caucuses has now come to an end. Thanks for following along — and stick with Yahoo News for more 2024 election coverage.

“He sat in the White House and he tweeted law and order but he did nothing to ensure law and order," DeSantis said of Trump's response to the civil unrest that took place during the summer of 2020.

As the testy, two-hour debate drew to a close, Tapper asked the Republican rivals to each say something they admire about the other. Haley said DeSantis "has been a good governor," while DeSantis opted to offer praise for the state of South Carolina, rather than its former governor.

Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis were asked about whether they viewed the Constitution differently than Donald Trump.

Trump "said January 6 was a beautiful day," Haley said. "I think January 6 was a terrible day and we should never want to see that happen again."

"That election, Trump lost it. Biden won the election," she said. "January 6 was a terrible day and President Trump will have to answer for it."

DeSantis agreed, saying that Trump's criminal trials are going to be an albatross around Trump's future.

"I don't think he gets through that," DeSantis said of Trump's legal woes. He side-stepped the issue of Trump's culpability by saying the juries in D.C. will be biased against Trump.

DeSantis's argument was a pragmatic, political one. He said the election should be a referendum on President Biden, and a Trump nomination would make that difficult.

During a back-and-forth over education, Nikki Haley mocked Ron DeSantis’s ability to run a campaign, saying that his inability to win over voters despite his significant campaign war chest is yet more proof that the Florida governor is in over his head.

“If leadership’s about getting things done, how did you blow through $150 million in your campaign — and you were down in the polls!” said a smiling Haley. “You are not a manager!”

DeSantis tried to defend himself by talking over Haley, who insisted she had the floor. CNN moderator Dana Bash agreed, silencing a flustered DeSantis.

“I think I hit a nerve,” Haley added gleefully.

The former U.N. ambassador then made her case that DeSantis’s campaign has been plagued by dysfunction and infighting — “a revolving door of political people in and out of his campaign” who “are going to blows with each other because they can’t all agree.”

She also made fun of his preference for private planes when campaigning. “I flew commercial, I stayed in Residence Inns. We went and saved our money. ... If he can’t handle the financial parts of a campaign, how’s he going to handle the economy when it comes to the White House?”

Haley continued, noting DeSantis’s sluggish polling, particularly outside of Iowa. “Why should we think you can manage or do anything in this country?” she asked.

At various points throughout the debate, Haley and DeSantis have stated that they think Donald Trump should be on stage with them, prompting CNN's Jake Tapper to note that the former president "did qualify for this debate and he did not accept our invitation."

Throughout the debate, Haley has repeatedly urged voters to go to DeSantisLies.com, a website registered by her campaign that seeks to fact check various accusations the Florida governor has made about the former U.N. ambassador.

Trump's Fox News town hall consisted of about one hour of mostly friendly questions from Iowa voters and few challenging follow-ups from moderators Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum.

Unlike the debate slugfest between former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Trump was showered with praise by Iowa voters who planned to caucus for him.

Trump assured them that virtually everything he had done during his first term had been a success, unlike what he described as the "bedlam" of President Biden's tenure, which he described as having been worse than any other commander in chief.

If Trump won the previous GOP debates by refusing to share the stage with his challengers, he may have won again by being allowed to offer long, sometimes rambling answers to questions from voters who mostly seemed inclined to put Trump back in the White House.

CNN moderator Jake Tapper asked DeSantis whether his "Make America Florida" campaign slogan means that he wants to implement his state's controversial education policies on a national scale.

"Depends on the policy," DeSantis replied. He said that while he does want to implement universal school choice nationwide, he claimed that he does not want a nationalized curriculum. In fact, DeSantis said, "I want to get rid of the federal Department of Education."

In an exchange with an Iowa voter who asked Trump to reassure her that he would be unapologetically anti-abortion if reelected to a second term despite his comments that the issue was a loser for Republicans, Trump gave a mixed answer.

“For 54 years they were trying to get Roe v. Wade terminated, and I did it and I’m proud to have done it,” Trump said.

But Trump then said he was for allowing exceptions to abortion bans when the life of the mother was at risk, and for cases of rape and incest.

“I just have to be there,” he said, adding, “I will say this: You have to win elections. Otherwise you’re going to be back where you were.”

The discussion turned to the Israel-Hamas war, with DeSantis criticizing Haley for supporting a two-state solution when she was the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Pressed on whether he would support removing Palestinians from Gaza once the war is over, DeSantis said he wouldn't tell Israel to do that — "I think there's a lot of issues with that" — but he indicated that he would not object to such a measure if Israel determined that it was necessary to prevent "another Holocaust." DeSantis also suggested Saudi Arabia should take in Palestinian refugees.

Haley and DeSantis had a lengthy back and forth on the war in Ukraine.

Haley argued forcefully that DeSantis, and by proxy Trump, are misleading Americans by telling them that the U.S. cannot afford to support Ukraine. Ukraine aid is 3.5% of the U.S. defense budget, Haley said.

And, she added, helping Ukraine defeat Russia is a way to avoid a broader conflict that will require greater U.S. commitments of money and troops.

"It is so wrong to say ... choose between Ukraine and Israel ... or the border," Haley said. "You do not have to choose when it comes to national security. This is about keeping America safe."

The most definitive comment from DeSantis was: "We need to find a way to end this."

In an aside to a question about whether a second White House term would be guided by an effort to seek retribution and revenge on his critics, Donald Trump pivoted to the subject of COVID-19, which he proudly called “the China virus.”

‘It came out of Wuhan, the labs,” Trump said.

When it comes to economic policy, there’s not much difference between Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley. Both have traditionally conservative views when it comes to fiscal matters: They want less government spending, lower taxes and balanced budgets.

But when asked about their respective economic positions at tonight’s debate in Iowa, the two candidates immediately took a scorched-earth approach, relentlessly attacking each other while quickly listing off their accomplishments as governors. Haley repeated her slogan that America needs “an accountant in the White House” to keep spending in check. DeSantis responded with a canned zinger: “We don’t need an accountant in the White House, we need a leader in the White House.”

That was one of the more civil exchanges in what has quickly devolved into a bare-knuckled brawl between the only GOP candidates polling in the double digits not named Trump. The two accused each other of raising taxes, fiscal mismanagement and — worst of all — being a tax-and-spend liberal in disguise.

Moderator Jake Tapper asked Nikki Haley whether any of the more than 10 million undocumented immigrants currently living in the U.S. would be allowed to stay in the country if she is elected president.

“You have to deport them,” Haley replied. “The reason you have to deport them is they’re cutting the line.”

Asked how he plans to succeed on the southern border where former President Donald Trump failed, Ron DeSantis said that if he is elected president, he will build a wall and pay for it by charging fees on remittances that migrant workers send back to their home countries.

Haley insisted that “you can’t just build a wall, you have to do more than build a wall,” arguing that “we have to defund sanctuary cities.”

The tone of each candidate is telling.

Ron DeSantis launched more one-liners and went after Nikki Haley more aggressively than in previous debates. Haley simply referred people to a campaign website to fact check DeSantis's claims, and spent more time going through a litany of things she would do as president.

Translation: DeSantis knows he needs to take Haley down a few pegs to stop her momentum. Haley knows she has momentum, and wants to project competence and seriousness.

DeSantis has begun to adapt in the second 15 minutes, transitioning into a more fact-based approach.

Asked about President Biden's portrayal of him as a threat to democracy, Trump said that was "just a political ploy."

Moderator Bret Baier then pressed Trump on his comment that the country would experience "bedlam" should key court decisions go against him.

Trump responded by saying that he believed that word described Biden. Asked about his recent remark that he would "be a dictator on day one" of a second term, Trump sought to assure voters.

"I am not going to be a dictator," he said.

There's an odd sort of vagueness around how debates unfold and are judged for who are the winners and losers.

There is a flurry of back and forth between the candidates. There are moments when one person says something funny or odd or slashing, and that becomes something people talk about as a "moment."

If one candidate has a particularly strong moment that cuts down another competitor, that can sometimes be the headline for the night. Chris Christie in 2016 so viciously kneecapped Marco Rubio at a key moment that it was a mortal blow to Rubio's campaign (and helped Trump win the nomination).

But usually viewers and pundits alike are left to sift through the avalanche of one-liners and exchanges and decide who they thought came out on top. It's usually pretty subjective. There aren't any real criteria. The number of claims back and forth are overwhelming and hard to keep up with.

So the winner is usually the person who is deemed to have won by something like a majority of pundits, observers and others. Voters' opinions are influenced to some degree by the hive mind, and this is translated into polling numbers. But with the influence of mainstream media ebbing, the consensus about a winner, such as it is, is harder to track.

The candidates wasted little time before launching personal attacks at one another, with Haley quickly going after DeSantis for what she said were the many lies he's told about her.

"Every time he lies, Drake University, don't turn this into a drinking game because you will be over served by the end of the night," Haley said.

Asked whether he was concerned about the possibility that former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s New Hampshire supporters could flock to former Gov. Nikki Haley in the state’s Republican primary now that Christie has exited the race, former President Donald Trump played it cool.

“I’m not exactly worried about it,” Trump said, adding, “I think we’ll win substantially.”

In order to qualify for tonight’s GOP debate, candidates needed to “receive at least 10% in three separate national and/or Iowa polls of Republican caucusgoers or primary voters,” according to CNN, which is hosting the event. That meant that Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump were the only candidates who made the cut — and Trump again decided he was better off skipping the debate.

As for the other candidates, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy is participating in a panel with right-wing pundits Tim Pool and Candice Owens. And former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie ended his bid for the presidency earlier today.

Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis take the stage as the CNN Republican debate begins.

Photographers capture the political scene across Des Moines, Iowa, ahead of Wednesday night's Republican debate and the caucuses next week.

The Des Moines Register reports:

Former President Donald Trump has opted to not participate in any of the Republican debates for the 2024 presidential primary. Tonight, instead of delivering a campaign speech, he will be answering questions from Fox News journalists Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum.

Though Trump granted an online interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson rather than join his fellow Republicans for a debate on Aug. 23, those questions were not exactly hard-hitting. He used that interview to repeat his election falsehoods and to praise those who rioted at the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6.

Tonight’s Republican debate will be the first to feature only two participants: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. Former President Donald Trump also qualified for the debate, but is instead holding a town hall event on Fox News.

Haley and DeSantis have been locked in a race for second-place for months. When DeSantis launched his campaign in May, many political observers assumed that he would pose the greatest threat to Trump’s candidacy. But the former Navy lawyer has failed to gain traction with Republican voters, slipping in recent weeks to third place behind Trump and Haley, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average.

DeSantis has gone all in on Monday’s Iowa caucuses, although he now says he will remain in the race regardless of the results. Haley, meanwhile, has been gaining on Trump in New Hampshire, which will hold its primary on Jan. 23 and has a history of rewarding moderates and mavericks.

Both candidates, however, lag far behind Trump in national polls. According to the latest RealClearPolitics average, Trump leads Haley and DeSantis by a whopping 50 points among Republicans.

As he was preparing to skip yet another Republican primary debate, former President Donald Trump offered his thoughts on Chris Christie’s decision to suspend his campaign for the GOP presidential nomination.

“I hear Chris Christie is dropping out of the race today — I might even get to like him again!” Trump said in a post on his social media website before referencing a comment Christie was overheard making about former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. “Anyway, he was just caught on a hot mic making a very truthful statement: ‘She’s gonna get smoked. ... You and I both know it, she’s not up to this.’”

Christie had been by far the most outspoken critic of Trump’s candidacy, regularly warning voters not to reelect him as he would “burn America to the ground” in a second term in office.

Hours before Wednesday night’s Republican debate and Donald Trump's town hall were set to begin, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie announced that he would be suspending his 2024 presidential campaign.

Christie had been a vocal critic of Donald Trump, but his sometimes harsh words about other now-former fellow Republican candidates also made headlines. Shortly after announcing the end of his campaign, Christie was caught on a live microphone saying that former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley is “gonna get smoked,” and “she's not up to this,” referring to the presidential campaign. Christie was also heard saying Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is “petrified,” though it was not clear what, exactly, he meant.

Tonight we'll be covering the CNN GOP debate as well as Donald Trump's Fox News town hall — both of which will begin at 9 p.m. Eastern. Tune in here for live updates.