GOP primary candidates take the stage

Before throwing to a commercial, Fox showed footage of the outside of the jail in Fulton County, Georgia, where Trump said he will surrender tomorrow on criminal charges related to his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state.

Questions on Trump, the absentee frontrunner, are coming up.

— Kevin Breuninger

Former Governor of South Carolina Nikki Haley pushed back against Vivek Ramaswamy after he claimed climate change was a “hoax.”

“We do care about clean air and clean water, and we do want that to be taken care of,” Haley said, adding that climate change is real.

“We need to start telling China and India that they have to lower their emissions,” Haley said.

— Amanda Macias

Asked if he would sign a national six-week ban on abortion, DeSantis didn’t directly answer but said he would “support the cause of life.”

“I’m going to stand on the side of life,” DeSantis said, noting states may decide to do it differently. “I will support the cause of life as governor and as president.”

DeSantis signed a six-week abortion ban in Florida earlier this year.

— Emma Kinery

Haley pointed to her personal struggle with having children as she defended her “unapologetically pro-life” views on abortion.

But “we need to stop demonizing this issue,” she said.

She called for finding common ground where it might exist, suggesting that policies like a late-term abortion ban have broad appeal.

“Let’s treat this like the — like a respectful issue that it is and humanize the situation and stop demonizing the situation,” she said.

— Kevin Breuninger

Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy took a shot at all of the Republicans on the debate stage, saying every candidate was “bought and paid for” by donors and special interests.

“I’m the only person on this stage who isn’t bought and paid for,” Ramaswamy said after the group was asked whether climate change was real.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie responded to Ramaswamy in that exchange.

“I’ve had enough already tonight of a guy who sounds like ChatGPT,” Christie said to Ramaswamy. He then compared Ramaswamy to former President Barack Obama.

— Brian Schwartz

North Dakota Republican Gov. Doug Burgum addressed his injury on the basketball court leading up to the debate in Milwaukee.

“I think I took it a bit too literally when they said ‘go to Milwaukee and break a leg,'” Burgum told the crowd watching the debate.

Burgum picked up a leg injury while playing basketball with his staff that sent him to an emergency room before the debate.

— Brian Schwartz

Carlson asked Trump twice whether he believes notorious sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein actually killed himself.

Trump demurred twice. “I don’t know. He was a fixture in Palm Beach,” he said the first time.

When asked again, Trump said of Epstein, “Oh sure, it’s possible. I mean, I don’t really believe – I think he probably committed suicide.”

Carlson then asked if Trump is “worried they’re going to try to kill you.”

The former Fox host did not specify who “they” were, but asked: “Why wouldn’t they try to kill you – honestly?”

Trump replied, “They’re savage animals. They’re people that are sick – really sick.”

— Kevin Breuninger

Former Vice President Mike Pence just tussled with Vivek Ramaswamy over the question of experience.

“Now it’s not the time for on-the-job training,” he quipped at the 38-year-old entrepreneur and political neophyte. “We don’t need to bring in a rookie. We don’t need to bring in people with no experience.”

— Christina Wilkie

DeSantis blasted the Trump administration, which included Pence, for “locking down the economy” during Covid and letting top pandemic doctor Anthony Fauci be the point man for the nation’s response.

“As your president, I will never let the deep state bureaucrats lock you down. You don’t take somebody like Fauci and coddle him!” DeSantis said. “You bring Fauci in, you sit him down, and you say ‘Anthony, you are fired.”

— Dan Mangan

Chris Christie touted his records as a two-term governor of New Jersey, saying “I was elected as a conservative Republican in a blue state with 61% of the vote.”

Despite being faced with a Democratic-controlled legislature, “We cut taxes in New Jersey, we cut debt.”

Christie called for cutting spending in Washington, saying “we cannot sit by any longer and allow this kind of spending.”

“It’s robbing our country,” he said.

But Bret Baier pushed Christie, noting that when he was governor New Jersey had the second-worst credit rating of any state in the nation.

“That’s what happens when you inherit a blue state,” Christie answered.

But by the time of Christie’s last year in office, New Jersey had seen nearly a dozen credit downgrades, the most of any governor in U.S. history.

— Dan Mangan

Haley threw some of the first intra-Republican punches of the night, name-checking Trump, DeSantis, Pence and Scott as she decried reckless government spending.

“No one is telling the American people the truth,” Haley said. “Biden didn’t do this to us, our Republicans did this to us, too, when they passed that $2.2 trillion Covid stimulus bill.”

She called for cutting spending and borrowing and eliminating earmarks to address the issue.

“You have Ron DeSantis, you’ve got Tim Scott, you’ve got Mike Pence, they all voted to raise the debt, and Donald Trump added $8 trillion to our debt and our kids are never going to forgive us for this,” Haley said.

You tell me who are the big spenders? I think it’s time for an accountant in the White House,” she said.

— Kevin Breuninger

Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C, came out swinging against President Joe Biden and his administration and what he sees as excessive government spending.

Scott told the crowd in Milwaukee that under Biden “we’ve seen inflation explode” and noted how mortgage rates are up to around 7%.

When pushed by the Fox News hosts that Scott supported spending increases during former President Donald Trump’s administration, Scott insisted that was due to the federal emergency from the Covid-19 pandemic.

— Brian Schwartz

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was the only candidate on the stage to receive boos from the audience in the opening minutes of the debate.

Within the GOP field, Christie stands out as the toughest critic of the frontrunner, former President Donald Trump.

Trump skipped the debate, but he nonetheless cast a long shadow across the stage in Milwaukee.

— Christina Wilkie

Vivek Ramaswamy opened up with the question he said was on everyone’s mind: Who is he and “what the heck is he doing in the middle of this debate stage?”

Ramaswamy introduced himself as an outsider best positioned to lead the Republican Party.

“I do think it’s going to take an outsider. Because for a long time we’ve had professional politicians in the Republican Party who have been running from something, now is our moment to run to something.”

— Emma Kinery

Ron DeSantis said ‘Bidenomics’ isn’t working and it is time for President Joe Biden to go “back to his basement.”

“Our country is in decline. This decline is not inevitable, it’s a choice,” DeSantis said. “We need to send Joe Biden back to his basement and reverse this decline.”

— Emma Kinery

Trump said he skipped the first presidential debate because he did not want to be “harassed” by candidates who are significantly behind him in the polls.

“I’m saying, do I sit there for an hour or two hours, whatever it’s going to be, and get harassed by people that shouldn’t even be running for president? Should I be doing that?” Trump told Tucker Carlson in a pre-taped interview that went up on X, formerly Twitter, just before the debate began.

Trump also took a shot at Fox News, the network hosting the debate, accusing it of being not “friendly to me.”

“I don’t think it’s right to do it,” Trump told Carlson.

I’m gonna have all these people screaming at me, shouting questions at me, all of which I love answering but it doesn’t make sense to do it,” Trump said. “So, I’ve taken a pass.”

Trump previously signaled on social media that he could skip the Republican National Committee’s other scheduled debates.

— Kevin Breuninger

Nikki Haley is the former governor of South Carolina who served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in the Trump administration. Haley resigned in response to Jan. 6 but has continued to be supportive of Trump. She has focused much of her campaign on her foreign policy chops, expressing support for Ukraine and Taiwan.

Haley, 51, became the first person of color to be elected governor in South Carolina when she took office in 2010. She is a graduate of Clemson University.

— Emma Kinery

President Joe Biden said he planned to watch at least some of the Republican debate while vacationing at Lake Tahoe.

“I’m going to try to see — get as much as I can, yes,” Biden told reporters.

Asked if he had any expectations for the event, Biden said “I have none.”

— Emma Kinery

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is widely seen as the most formidable challenger to frontrunner Donald Trump. DeSantis has consistently placed second in national polls of the sprawling GOP primary field. But his campaign has come under mounting pressure as Trump appears to be widening his lead over the governor and has already launched multiple “resets.” The 44-year-old former congressman is a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School and a veteran having served in the Navy’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps.

DeSantis’s right-wing policies have made him popular in his home state, but some worry stunts like sending migrants to democratic-run cities and his lawsuit against Disney may make him too polarizing for the general election.

— Emma Kinery

The Republican candidates are divided over America’s future role in Ukraine as the war marches into its 600th day.

Some candidates in the Republican field have come to the stout defense of Ukraine, NATO allies and American democracy. Others have called for policies that would pull U.S. involvement and support away from the European continent in order to deal with China’s global rise, North Korean ambition and Iranian aggression.

Nearly all of the candidates have leveled criticism over Ukraine at President Joe Biden.

Read the full story of where the candidates stand on the war in Ukraine.

— Amanda Macias

Vivek Ramaswamy, 38, is an entrepreneur and biotech founder with no prior military or political experience. He studied biology at Harvard University before attending Yale Law School. In 2014, he founded Roivant Science and resigned as CEO in 2021.

Ramaswamy recently suggested “the truth” about the September 11 attacks is still unknown. He initially claimed that he had been misquoted in an article by The Atlantic, however, the publication later released an audio clip of his interview showing that he was quoted accurately.

He has previously said that he opposes U.S. aid to Ukraine by arguing that the conflict on the European continent does not affect American interests. He says the Russia-China axis is by far the top threat to U.S. national security and should therefore pull more focus.

Ramaswamy has also detailed a peace settlement between Kyiv and Moscow that would include Ukraine conceding nearly all of its Donbas region to Russia in exchange for guarantees that Ukraine will not join the NATO alliance.

He recently pitched closing all American military installations located in Eastern Europe in order to appease the Kremlin. Ramaswamy says the U.S. in return should ask Russia to lessen its relationship with China.

— Amanda Macias

Around noon ET on Wednesday, hours before the first Republican debate was set to begin, the Trump campaign declared victory in the spar he isn’t participating in.

“President Trump has already won this evening’s debate because everything is going to be about him,” Trump campaign senior advisor Chris LaCivita said in a statement. “Only President Trump has the policy ideas, the fortitude, and the polling to go head-to-head with Crooked Joe Biden in the general election.”

LaCivita said the number of times Trump’s name was mentioned during the debate would be counted as his speaking time.

“When the other candidates do get a chance to speak, they will be a faint echo, or maybe even a copycat, of President Trump’s Make America Great Again agenda.”

LaCivita closed by saying the event “really shouldn’t even be called a debate” but was more of an audition to be part of Trump’s team.

— Emma Kinery

Candidates needed to meet the threshold set by the Republican National Committee in order to qualify for the debate.

Those benchmarks include at least 40,000 individual campaign donations and meeting the polling qualifications, either 1% in three different national polls, or 1% in two national polls and 1% in another poll from an early state like Iowa.

In order to participate candidates also needed to sign a pledge of support to whomever gets the party’s nomination. Donald Trump, who is the frontrunner in the race, has refused to sign the pledge.

In an interview with Newsmax, Trump was adamant he would not sign the pledge, saying “Why would I sign it? I can name three or four people that I wouldn’t support for president. So right there, there’s a problem.”

— Emma Kinery

The debate will start at 9 p.m. ET Wednesday in Wisconsin, a battleground state, at Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum.

Fox News is hosting the first GOP presidential debate in the leadup to the primaries, with network hosts Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum at the moderating table. The debate will be available across all platforms operated by the Fox News network, including Fox Business Network, Fox News Digital, Fox’s website, the Fox Nation streaming service as well as Fox News Audio.

— Amanda Macias