MIAMI.- The fourth debate passed republican with only four participants and without the presence of former President Donald Trump, who leads the electoral favorability polls, and one thing was clear: the struggle between Ron DeSantis y Nikki Haley took on a deeper hue.
The two candidates are fighting side by side for second place in the polls, with DeSantis who has noticeably dropped in his acceptance numbers among Republicans, while Haley shows growing favorability to the point of being today the Florida governor’s strongest threat. , after Trump.
Wednesday night’s debate in Alabama began with a troubling question for DeSantis about his decline in the polls, which the Tallahassee incumbent cleverly turned into an attack on the former U.N. ambassador, who he said “gives up.” ” on the left.
The truth is The governor was on the attack from the beginning. His most intricate discussions focused on Haley, although at times he also attacked, on a smaller scale, former New Jersey governor Chris Christie and technology entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.
“I have delivered results,” DeSantis said. “That’s what we need for this country and there are other candidates here like Nikki Haley. “She gives in every time the left persecutes her, every time the media persecutes her.”
Haley did not choose silence in the face of the provocation and responded that DeSantis “continues to lie about my record.”
At another point in the meeting, Haley criticized DeSantis’ support in Florida for a new law that would have made it easier to sue news organizations that use anonymous sources in their reporting..
He noted that Florida considered legislation at DeSantis’ behest that would “prevent anonymous people from speaking to the press” and “went so far as to say bloggers would have to register with the state.”
Desantis the attack
But DeSantis did not seem willing to give up his efforts to question Haley, whom he described as a Republican who would not be willing to “stand up and fight” against liberal policies. And he went deeper with her: He accused her of reaching out to the Chinese Communist Party when she served as governor of South Carolina.
Another issue that served as a trigger for the confrontation between DeSantis and Haley was that of sex change or also called gender affirmation.
“I made a Florida bill to stop gender mutilation of minors. That is child abuse and it is wrong. She opposes that bill. “She thinks it’s okay and the law shouldn’t get involved in it,” DeSantis said.
In a recent Washington Post-Monmouth University poll, Haley led DeSantis in the key state of New Hampshire, positioning herself as Trump’s main challenger. The poll shows her with 18% over DeSantis, who obtained 7%. Trump appears with 46%.
In other states like South Carolina, Haley also appears ahead of DeSantis.
It is evident that less than a month and a half before the Iowa caucuses, DeSantis showed a more aggressive personality against Haley in the fourth Republican debate, which is perhaps the last for that party’s primaries.
