Highlights from the first Republican primary debate:
- Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy — who called the climate change agenda a “hoax” — took the most heat, especially from former Vice President Mike Pence, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who called him “a guy who sounds like ChatGPT.”
- Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was seen as a likely target but managed to largely remain out of the fray. He sustained little criticism from his fellow candidates.
- Here are some other key takeaways from the debate.
- Former President Donald Trump, easily the front-runner in this primary race, skipped the debate — he instead taped an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson. He was surprisingly ignored during the first 45 minutes, then was largely handled in a single question about his indictments.
- Eight candidates participated in the first Republican presidential primary debate: North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, Christie, DeSantis, Haley, Pence and Ramaswamy.
Scott, Christie, Ramaswamy: Wisconsin voters debate who won first debate
Biden campaign sends 'key messaging points' to surrogates after the debate
TJ Ducklo, the Biden campaign's senior adviser for communications, sent "key messaging points" to campaign surrogates and their teams after the debate, emphasizing that "the only winner tonight was Joe Biden."
The talking points, obtained by NBC News, repeatedly referred to the GOP candidates as "MAGA" candidates and referred to their agendas as "extreme."
"The candidates spent more time shouting over each other than attacking the President because they know their extremist agenda can't hold a candle to the President and Vice President's record of accomplishment," Ducklo wrote.
'There's a level of hatred I've never seen,' Trump says in Tucker Carlson interview
Haley: Trump will spend more time in a courtroom than campaigning
In a post-debate interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity, Haley took a shot at Trump's legal troubles, saying, "Trump is going to spend more time in a courtroom than campaigning" next year. She argued that would leave little time to focus on beating Biden.
Marjorie Taylor Greene says she was blocked from the spin room
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., said she, Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., and other Trump surrogates were blocked from the spin room, where candidates and allies get to give their postmortems of the debate performances.
“They just blocked us out. They would not allow myself, Matt Gaetz, any other surrogates to go into the spin room," Greene said.
Gaetz was in the spin room for at least part of the evening, however, and she spoke to NBC News. Trump senior adviser Jason Miller was also there.
Fox News had said that it would limit automatic credentials for the spin room to candidates who qualified for and participated in the debate but that others could gain access if they were the guests of media organizations.
"We argued with them, talked to them, we showed the correct credentials, we had spin room credentials, and they would not let us in. So this is censorship from Fox News," Greene said. "This is censorship not allowing surrogates for President Trump to go into the spin room.”
Harris calls GOP candidates 'extremists'
Harris laid into "extremist Republican" candidates in a statement reacting to the debate, saying "no one on stage 'won.'"
"One by one, each extremist Republican candidate laid out a vision for an America that is less fair, less free, and less safe," she said.
She referred to the candidates as extremists three times in her statement.
"These extremists focus on unnecessary debates meant to divide our nation in hopes that the American public will not notice they have no affirmative agenda," she said.
DeSantis stays out of the fray in the first debate
Even though he was the highest-polling candidate on the stage, DeSantis largely avoided conflict. He was attacked only twice, once by Haley and once by Ramaswamy, and he did not attack any other Republican candidate, per the NBC attack tracker.
DeSantis campaign declares 'a win' after first debate
“What you saw tonight in a lot of the chirping back and forth was a battle for third place — a distant third place,” said DeSantis' deputy campaign manager, David Polyansky.
Biden adviser points out topics not discussed by candidates
A 2024 Biden adviser listed five points to NBC News that "you didn't hear from the Republicans tonight."
The list included a "vision to bring manufacturing jobs back from overseas," a "plan to lower prescription drug costs for the middle class," mentions of gun violence and plans to address climate change and "our student debt crisis."
Trump-backed Rep. Matt Gaetz: 'This race is functionally over'
Gaetz, a major supporter of Trump's, wasn't impressed by tonight's debate, saying in the spin room: "This race is functionally over."
He also hit Haley on her foreign policy. Asked why Trump appointed her to the U.N., then, Gaetz responded, "He wasn't always great at HR."