College voter agrees: Scott and Senate haven't done enough
NBC News is watching the debate at New England College with eight college students who vote in New Hampshire.
Ky Urban, 21, a Republican voter who is a student at Southern New Hampshire University, believes Haley is right when she talks about how Scott and his colleagues in the Senate “had more than 12 years to address some of our issues.”
“Not once have the current senators [done] enough to deliver on proper solutions to fix the issues,” Urban said.
DeSantis again goes out of his way to take aim at Trump, this time on abortion.
“The former president, he’s missing in action tonight. He should be here explaining his comments. I want him to look into the eyes and tell people who were fighting this fight for a long time.”
DeSantis world has been hammering Trump hard on the answer he gave about abortion in his interview on "Meet the Press." He clearly has been waiting for this moment to take the issue to him on the debate stage. Trump is not there to fight back (another point the DeSantis campaign has been hammering).
One of the last issues raised tonight is abortion, and it is one issue over which Americans broadly disagree with Republicans — including some of those on the stage.
Our latest NBC News national poll found that only 28% of registered voters think Republicans are better at dealing with abortion than Democrats. A plurality — 46% — say Democrats are better.
Exit polling from the midterms contradicts DeSantis’ claims here — abortion was a leading cause of midterm losses for Republicans.
Haley said we should end normal trade relations with China until it stops the flow of fentanyl and chides Trump over policies she said failed to combat intellectual property theft, a spy base in Cuba, farmland purchases and more.
“This is where President Trump went wrong,” Haley says. “He focused on trade with China.”
Multiple moments here for Haley, Scott and DeSantis, but as we round the corner to the end of this debate, Pence still hasn’t really had one (other than a couple of lines that didn’t quite land).
Near the end of the debate and finally an abortion question.
“12 years, where have you been, Tim?” Haley asks Scott.
As Haley criticizes his time in the Senate, it’s worth remembering it was Haley who appointed Scott to the Senate in 2012 when she was governor of South Carolina.
NBC News is watching the debate at New England College with eight college students who vote in New Hampshire.
“I’m tired of these candidates talking about increasing American energy by fracking oil. Using up our oil reserves is not the answer for long-term development. We’ve started green measures, and we need to continue these energy projects before our situation becomes too desperate. Not only are these green energy measures important for addressing climate change, but they are helping preserve our depreciating resources. None of these candidates understand that we can’t rely on oil for our future,” said Hannah Peterson, 21, an independent New Hampshire voter who attends Saint Anselm College.
And the winner of the standout moment of the Haley vs. Scott fight? DeSantis, who snags the microphone to deliver a soliloquy about his record while Haley and Scott just look on.
(Thus disrupting a brawl the campaign universe has been waiting for for months.)
Haley seems to have a low opinion of Ramaswamy, but the two were on better terms recently.
She blurbed his last book, “Woke, Inc.,” which came out in 2021, saying “his combination of honesty, intellect, and foresight are exactly what we need to overcome our challenges in the years ahead,” as a New York Times book critic noted.