DeSantis said they “back the blue” in Florida. In Illinois, DeSantis took out ads on billboards offering $5,000 signing bonuses to police move to his state and serve.
DeSantis again says Florida's at a 50-year crime low. As we reported last week, that's just an unverifiable number that law enforcement officials repeatedly warned was based on incomplete data.
NBC News is watching the debate at Aase Haugen, a Christian retirement community in Decorah, Iowa, with seven caucusgoers.
Kent Shuchmann, 77, voted for Trump twice but went into tonight’s debate leaning Haley. At the first commercial break, he says the only one who’s impressed him is Ramaswamy. He likes the 38-year-old businessman’s style.
“I’m impressed the way Ramaswamy fights. He’s there for battle, and he battles well.”
DeSantis does look a lot more physically comfortable tonight compared to last time. The awkward smile, the strange volume modulation (recall the semi-shouted answer at the outset of the first debate): That’s all gone. It seems like he got some training and is a bit more at ease behind the lectern.
Chart: The candidates with the most attacks out of the gate
Scott targeted Biden and Ramaswamy in seven attacks in the first 30-some minutes of the debate. Follow along with the NBC News debate attack tracker.
Christie’s pulling a “Donald Duck” line reminds me of the 2016 campaign when a Democratic staffer dressed up in a duck costume to mock Trump for refusing to release his taxes.
In 2016, Christie’s most famous debate moment was when he roasted Marco Rubio for repeating a canned line over and over. And yet, it really feels like some of his Trump lines tonight — including his “Donald Duck” bit — were rehearsed ahead of time.
Seeing all of these candidate spouses sitting behind the moderators, it strikes me that Haley’s husband is not there because he’s serving overseas for the next year.
Vivek vs. Pence again taking center stage
Headed into the night, there was a growing expectation that DeSantis and Haley would be a major focus, and likely spar with each other.
More than 30 minutes in, though, the attacks are once again flying between Ramaswamy and Pence, who came after Ramaswamy’s past debate performance during the first GOP debate in Milwaukee.
“Last debate he said we were all bought and paid for,” Pence said.
Ramaswamy did call everyone on stage “good people” in a departure from his past combative debate performance, but responded to Pence saying “these are good people tainted by a broken system.”
Chris Christie takes another shot at Trump for not attending — and talks straight to camera to Trump. Gets some jeers for saying they will start calling Trump “Donald Duck” if he doesn’t start showing up.
The first question after the break is on crime, a topic where Republican candidates are uniquely positioned to address the issue, according to our latest NBC News poll. Forty-six percent of registered voters said that the Republican Party is better at dealing with crime than the Democratic Party. Just 20% of voters said Democrats are better at dealing with the issue.