Key events
At competing town hall, Trump attacks Haley, DeSantis
David Smith
Donald Trump began his Iowa town hall on Fox News by highlighting an incident in which Chris Christie was caught on a hot mic. “She’s going to get smoked, and you and I both know it,” the former New Jersey governor was heard saying on his campaign’s livestream. “She’s not up to this.”
It is widely assumed that Christie, who dropped out of the Republican primary race today, was referring to Nikki Haley, perceived as Trump’s principal rival in New Hampshire.
Trump said: “Chris Christie was in and he got a hot mic I heard about. I thought the bigger story wasn’t actually the fact that he dropped out – nobody cared too much about that – but he had a hot mic where he was talking to somebody about the weather and he happened to say she doesn’t have what it takes, she’ll be creamed in the election.”
The former president added: “I know her very well and I happen to believe that Chris Christie’s right. That’s one of the few things he’s been right about actually.”
Trump admitted he doesn’t known whether Christie’s departure will change the dynamic of the race and complained that independents and Democrats can vote in the Republican primary. “Even with that, I think we’ll win substantially,” he added.
We’ve barely started, but the gloves are off.
DeSantis called Haley “another mealy-mouthed politician who just tells you what she thinks you want to hear”.
Haley mentioned her new campaign website desantislies.com.
Neither was especially strong in their critiques of Trump. DeSantis mentioned debt increasing under Trump, and his failure to prosecute Hillary Clinton. Haley demurred in response to a question about Trump’s character, saying his way “is not my way”.
Haley and DeSantis take the stage
Let’s buckle up for a two-hour debate!
We’re starting with a question about why voters looking for an alternative to Trump should vote for them.
As Nikki Haley’s poll numbers inch up, Donald Trump has dredged up his nativist birther conspiracies.
This week, the former president shared on his Truth Social platform a post from Gateway Pundit, a far-right site, falsely claiming that Haley was disqualified for the presidency because her Indian immigrant parents weren’t citizens when she was born. Haley was born in South Carolina and therefore meets the “natural born citizen” requirement to become president.
Trump previously pushed the baseless and racist claim that Barack Obama was born in Kenya and therefore disqualified from the presidency. He also pushed misinformation that Ted Cruz, his 2016 rival, was intelligible because he was born in Canada to American parents.
Haley and DeSantis fight for second place
Alice Herman
If DeSantis and Haley are fighting neck and neck, it is probably for second place. Polls show Trump holding an increasingly commanding lead in Iowa in the weeks before the caucuses – despite putting fewer campaign resources into the early primary than his opponents.
If DeSantis fails to eat into Trump’s share of Iowa voters, his campaign – which has faltered repeatedly among gaffes and staffing shake-ups – could shutter before he sees another primary.
Martin Pengelly
Chris Christie suspended his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, he announced on Wednesday evening.
“It is clear to me tonight that there is not a path to win the nomination,” he said at a town hall in Windham, New Hampshire.
The former New Jersey governor, who also ran unsuccessfully for the presidency in 2016, when he lost out to Donald Trump, has been struggling in the polls for weeks and had failed to qualify for the last GOP debate before Monday’s Iowa caucuses kick off the nominating contest of the 2024 race for the White House.
He had always stood out as the Republican candidate with the most overtly critical viewpoint of the policies and character of Donald Trump.
He has yet to endorse a rival and was heard publicly on an apparent inadvertent “hot mic” before he took the stage in New Hampshire predicting that one, almost certainly Nikki Haley, will “get smoked” in the race for the nomination and that a “petrified” Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor, had called him, while a person he was talking to was heard predicting that the struggling DeSantis would not last beyond next week’s Iowa caucuses. Haley and DeSantis are the closest contenders behind the solid frontrunner, Trump.
The hot-mic comments were widely heard on a YouTube audio livestream before Christie’s event began, with the audio being cut abruptly after a few seconds.
Appearing before a subdued crowd at the town hall event a few moments later, Christie said: “This race has always been bigger than me.” And he warned the US against re-electing Donald Trump to a second term.
“If we put him back behind the desk at the Oval Office, and a choice is needed to be made about whether to put himself first or you [the public] first, how much more evidence do you need? He will put himself first,” Christie said.
Haley and DeSantis are set for fifth Republican debate
As Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis face off for a fifth Republican presidential debate on CNN, Donald Trump – by far the frontrunner for the 2024 GOP nomination – will be on Fox News for a live town hall event.
All three candidates are in Iowa today, just five days out from the caucuses, when the first voters will begin to picking their preferred nominee. Unlike the last four debates, this one isn’t coordinated by the Republican National Convention. CNN’s requirement that candidates poll at 10% in at least three surveys left only Haley, DeSantis and Trump qualifying. The former president has declined to participate in any debates this far.
Earlier today, Chris Christie – the former New Jersey governor and Trump’s biggest critic among the Republican candidates – announced he was dropping out of the race. Vivek Ramaswamy, the rightwing tech entrepreneur, remains in the running but trails far behind the competition in polls. He’s in Iowa as well, at a live taping of a podast hosted by right-wing commentator Tim Pool.
Follow along for live debate coverage.
