Seven Republican presidential contenders will face off a second time Wednesday in a debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library & Museum in Simi Valley, Calif.
Former President Donald Trump, the 2024 GOP front-runner, is not participating. On stage will be North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum; former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie; Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis; former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley; former Vice President Mike Pence; businessman Vivek Ramaswamy; and Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina. Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who was in the first debate, did not meet the second debate’s criteria.
The event starts at 6 p.m. Arizona and California time on Fox Business, Univision and streaming on Rumble.
Follow our live updates throughout the day and during the debate.
How to watch Trump instead of the debate
Former President Donald Trump has again decided he doesn’t need to debate his Republican primary rivals, and instead will deliver a prime-time speech in Detroit at 5 p.m. Arizona time, which it appears will be viewable online via C-SPAN and other outlets online.
President Joe Biden visited union workers in Michigan on Tuesday and became the first sitting president in history to walk a picket line when he joined the United Auto Workers. The union is pushing for higher wages and other concessions from top manufacturing companies.
The union has issued a statement rebuking Trump for his planned visit, but he’s doing it anyhow, and will speak at Drake Enterprises, a non-unionized auto parts supplier in Clinton Township.
UAW President Shawn Fain appeared on CNN this week and called it a “pathetic irony” that Trump would appear a the nonunion factory to appeal to union voters, and said Trump’s record has been decidedly anti-union.
According to the Associated Press, the company makes automotive and heavy-duty truck components, including gear shift levers for big trucks that could become obsolete if the industry incorporates electric vehicles. Trump’s audience will include several hundred current and former UAW members, as well as members of plumbers and pipefitters unions, according to the AP.
The FOX 2 Detroit television station also plans to carry the live broadcast of Trump online at https://www.c-span.org/video/?530700-1/fmr-pres-trump-holds-rally-detroit
— Ryan Randazzo
Where do the GOP candidates stand on climate change?
About 20 minutes into the first Republican debate in Milwaukee, moderators posed a question from a member of Young America’s Foundation — a conservative environmental organization — asking how candidates would address young people’s fears that the Republican Party does not care about climate change.
Four candidates spoke on the issue. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis criticized President Joe Biden’s response to the Maui wildfire in August. Nikki Haley, former governor of South Carolina, acknowledged that climate change exists but believes the United States should take action once fellow polluters China and India curb their emissions, too. South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott said bringing jobs back to America from China will improve the economy and benefit the environment.
Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy took the strongest stance and denied climate change exists.
“The climate change agenda is a hoax and we have to declare independence from it,” Ramaswamy said. “The anti-carbon agenda is the wet blanket of our economy. The reality is, more people are dying of bad climate change policies than they are of actual climate change.”
– Hayleigh Evans
Meet Wednesday’s GOP debate moderators
The second Republican presidential debate on Wednesday has three moderators. They are Dana Perino and Stuart Varney of Fox News and Ilia Calderón of Univision.
Perino, who was one of former President George W. Bush’s White House press secretaries, said that without former President Donald Trump, the GOP front-runner on stage, the other candidates are competing to be the best alternative to him.
“This debate is where the rubber meets the road,” Perino told the Ventura County Star, which is part of the USA TODAY network. “One of them has to show they can be the main rival to Trump.”
Each candidate gets 60 seconds to answer a moderator’s question. If a candidate criticizes an opponent, the other candidate gets 30 seconds to respond, which is when Varney expects some personality clashes and raised voices.
“We have a very loud buzzer,” Varney told the Star. “It’s up to us to retain control. The audience does not want a free-for-all.”
The debate starts at 6 p.m. Arizona and California time.
— Ventura County (Calif.) Star
Who will be Trump’s ‘main rival?’Fox moderators discuss GOP debate at Reagan Library
Chris Christie signals he will again target Trump
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is a former ally of former President Donald Trump who has reemerged as one of Trump’s fiercest Republican critics.
On Twitter Wednesday, Christie signaled that he again will try to take it to Trump on stage at the second GOP presidential debate in Simi Valley, Calif.
He was responded to a writer for SBNation.com who had posted on the social-media platform X a photo of Christie in the stands at Sunday’s Arizona Cardinals vs. Dallas Cowboys game in Glendale.
“Ooooh who on the Cowboys is Chris Christie dating?!” James Dator tweeted.
Christie reposted Dator’s tweet with the comment: “I was just a guy in the bleachers on Sunday… but after tonight, Trump will know we are never ever getting back together.”
— Dan Nowicki
Who hasn’t made the debate stage yet this year?
Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson failed to meet the criteria for participating in Wednesday night’s Republican presidential debate in California. He did take part in the first GOP debate.
Some candidates failed to qualify for either debate. They are pastor Ryan Binkley; libertarian radio personality Larry Elder; former U.S. Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas; and businessman Perry Johnson
Their failure to make the debate stages raises serious questions about the continued viability of their candidacies.
Hurd acknowledged that Wednesday in a written statement. He said he was running for the White House to confront “generational-defining challenges” such as artificial intelligence; the border crisis; and what he called “our new Cold War with China.”
Hurd warned that if Republicans nominate former Trump or someone else who imitates Trump’s “divisive, crass behavior,” they will lose in 2024.
“My team and I are constantly evaluating whether we have the resources to chart a path to victory. I’m headed to New Hampshire to spread my message to the Granite State ahead of the First In the Nation primary. Educating voters on how to solve these existential issues is important, and hopefully other candidates will follow my lead.”
— Dan Nowicki
5th GOP presidential debate for the Reagan Library
The GOP debate on Wednesday night will be the fifth hosted at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library & Museum in California.
Past Republican White House hopefuls clashed there in 2007, 2008, 2011 and 2015.
The museum opened on Nov. 4, 1991. Five living U.S. presidents for the first time were in attendance together at the same place and time. Then-President George H.W. Bush, who was Reagan’s vice president, joined Reagan and former Presidents Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon.
— Ventura County (Calif.) Star