It might have taken three primary debates for Donald Trump’s challengers to start really loathing each other—but it took four for them to fully, completely, and fanatically lose it.
On stage Wednesday night in Alabama, the four remaining non-Trump candidates in the GOP presidential primary did not just attack each other, interrupt each other, or pierce the flaws in each other’s arguments.
They insulted each other, demanded each other shut up, called each other liars, and attempted to one-up each other in endorsing extreme positions. Across two hours, different sets of the four candidates on stage paired off for duels, bloodying each other to the delight of a gleeful crowd.
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Vivek Ramaswamy reignited his bitter feud with Nikki Haley by insulting her credentials and intelligence, saying she “got a cup of coffee” at the United Nations when she was the U.S. ambassador there. For good measure, he charged that the “only person more fascist than [President Joe] Biden is Nikki Haley” and later held up a piece of paper saying “Nikki = corrupt.”
After Chris Christie intervened to defend Haley with haymakers of his own—calling Ramaswamy “the most obnoxious blowhard in America” and a “smartass”—the millennial entrepreneur worked on proving him right by making a barely veiled jab at Christie’s weight and telling him to “get the hell out” of the GOP race.
Haley and Ron DeSantis, jockeying for the role of top Trump alternative, traded their most bitter blows yet, attacking each other often and unprompted. Haley, who has taken particular glee in rubbing her ascent in DeSantis’ face, taunted him for being angry because he’s losing the primary race, and called him a liar to his face.
The most jarring moment of the debate might have come when Ramaswamy said something nice about one of his rivals. “Ron DeSantis is a good person, too,” he said.
Donald Trump wasn’t on stage, but it’s hard to imagine a debate so far that will strengthen his candidacy more than this one. Not only did his presumptive challengers go nuclear on each other, most shrank from chances to even gently criticize him, embraced opportunities to embrace his agenda, or in Ramaswamy’s case, gave primetime oxygen to the conspiratorial lies that Jan. 6 was a false-flag operation and that Trump actually won the 2020 election.
DeSantis, whose campaign has made glancing references to Trump being too old and potentially incapable to run and serve as president, did not fully embrace his own attack line when pressed on Wednesday night. Asked by moderator Megyn Kelly, and badgered by Christie, DeSantis would not say whether he believed Trump was mentally fit to serve. (“Father Time is undefeated,” the governor said—twice.)
The team of moderators—Kelly, Washington Free Beacon editor Eliana Johnson, and NewsNation anchor Elizabeth Vargas—pressed the candidates on some key questions and allowed them to fully rip into one another. But there was no pushback against the stream of conspiracy theories that Ramaswamy spewed, for instance.
It was left to Christie—who is being open about his intent to stop Trump at all costs—to act as something of a Greek chorus rendering judgment on the insane drama unfolding around him.
“It’s often very difficult to be the only person on stage who’s telling the truth,” he said early in the debate. “We’ve had these three acting as if the race is between the four of us … these three guys are all seeming to compete with Voldemort, he who should not be named.”
“The truth needs to be told: For us to go 17 minutes without discussing the guy who has all the gaudy [poll] numbers you’re talking about, is ridiculous,” Christie fumed.
In just over a month, Republican voters in Iowa and New Hampshire will actually begin making decisions in this primary. It is possible that Wednesday night’s display will be the final debate before then—or, potentially, the final debate before Trump locks up a third straight Republican presidential nomination.
The only discernible change to the primary dynamics that debates have produced—other than generating serious hatred toward Ramaswamy—has been Haley’s rise. The former U.N. ambassador and South Carolina governor has seen her stock in the polls improve after each of her relatively strong debate performances. She can argue her campaign is the strongest to challenge Trump, having slowly converted powerful donors and supporters of DeSantis or drawn others off the sidelines.
Just minutes into the debate, it was clear Haley had a target on her back. DeSantis wrapped into his opening statement an attack on the South Carolinian, and Ramaswamy heavily attacked her in his, repeatedly mentioning recent news reports that major mega-donors—including Democrats—have begun to support Haley.
Haley, who has leaned into her status as the front-runner of the junior varsity primary field, seemed to genuinely enjoy the attacks.
“I love all the attention, fellas, thank you for that,” she said to laughs; later, she quipped that DeSantis and Ramaswamy were just “jealous” that they hadn’t attracted the big donors she had.
Ramaswamy and DeSantis often teamed up to try and trip up or corner Haley on a number of issues, notably on transgender rights and medical treatment, where they sense she is not as extreme as most of the Republican base is on the subject.
Haley responded forcefully to those attacks. But some, clearly, she could afford to let slide.
After Ramaswamy held up his piece of paper saying she was corrupt, Haley was asked if she wanted to respond.
“No,” she said. “It’s not worth my time to respond to him.”
