Haley's early early one-liners include warning against debate drinking game
Haley came prepared with some strong one-liners locked and loaded.“His campaign is exploding,” she said of DeSantis, adding that Drake University students should not play a drinking game in which they imbibe every time he lies because they’d get too drunk.
Early on, Haley attempts to launch pre-emptive strikes to DeSantis’ hits with her drumbeat that DeSantis is lying about her with each dig. She gets off a memorable line to Drake University: “Every time he lies … don’t turn this into a drinking game, because you will be overserved by the end of the night.”
Haley knocks DeSantis' heavy Iowa focus
“The fact that he’s only running in one state” line from Haley is a burn, and it has the advantage of being true. DeSantis’ campaign and super PAC have only narrowed the scope of their ambitions since DeSantis launched his bid. DeSantis has barely a footprint beyond the Hawkeye State.
Trump attacks Biden on mental fitness and foreign policy
Trump says Biden “can’t put more than two sentences together” and accuses him and the Democrats of creating far more chaos than occurred during his own presidency.
“I had no wars,” Trump said.
DeSantis brings new message to the debate stage
DeSantis’ line saying Trump is running on “his issues” and Haley is running on her “donors’ issues” has been weaved into his stump speech in recent weeks, having been mentioned for the first time in New Hampshire just before the new year. The same message is at the core of a new ad the DeSantis campaign put up on Iowa airwaves this week.
Trump calls out Christie
Trump immediately calls out Christie’s hot mic incident, saying Christie said Haley would be “creamed” in the election (it was “smoked”), adding that he agrees with him. Trump also said the hot mic was bigger news than Christie’s dropping out.
DeSantis lands the first punch by calling Haley another “mealy-mouthed politician.” His first answer also included a line from his ads: “Donald Trump is running to pursue his issues. Nikki Haley is running to pursue her donors’ issues. I’m running to pursue your issues.”
This is the debate we’ve all been waiting for. No gloves to take off.
You can tell from DeSantis’ opening that he’s in an urgent fight to finish second in Iowa — a state he once hoped to win. He uncorked a bunch of attacks on Haley in the opening minutes, not the least of which was reminding potential caucus-goers that Haley told New Hampshire voters that they had the opportunity to “correct” the Iowa results.
With so much on the line for DeSantis next Monday and the narrative behind Haley’s momentum, I’m looking for DeSantis to really try to make a mark tonight — maybe that means he gets more aggressive with Haley than he has gotten to date on the debate stage.
Chris Christie didn’t make the stage tonight — and he has since left the race — but in dropping out today and challenging his rivals to call out Trump as unfit for office, he’s trying (once again!) to force the field on this issue and set the conversational agenda tonight.
DNC will troll Trump with a mobile billboard outside his Fox News town hall
The DNC will have a mobile billboard circling the venue of Trump’s town hall with Fox News tonight, slamming him for his recent comments hoping for an economic crash this year.
The text of the billboard will read, “If Donald Trump gets his economic crash, millions of jobs would be lost, retirement savings wiped out, companies and factories shuttered.”