What Did President Ronald Reagan Do Prior to Donald Trump? An Interview with the “Reconsider This” Executive Director of the Senate Judiciary Committee
Prior to Donald Trump, “it was fine for previous Republicans to think of Reagan as a hero”, explained Brands. Donald Trump is the only hero in the Trump era. Anything that Reagan does diminishes Trump.
The event opened with images of Ronald Reagan and his speeches as the debate took place at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Several questions referred to Reagan, who has taken on a near-mythical status among some in the party. The name of Sen. Scott has been invoked often on the campaign trail by candidates, as they seek to differentiate themselves from their opponent.
Want more on politics? Listen to the
Consider This
episode where
we speak to older voters about how important Biden and Trump's ages are
.
The First Nominating Contest for the Republican Presidential Presidency: The 80th President of the United States, Retired and Invisible
What are people saying? Reagan isn’t invisible and certainly won’t be on Wednesday at the library that bears his name. Some people invoke his name more than others.
“I joined the Reagan revolution and never looked back, because I heard the voice and the values and the ideals of the 40th president of the United States,” he said.
Reagan fired air traffic controllers in 1981 after they went on strike, and Sen. Tim Scott said that was an example for us. He said “You strike, you’re fired” when federal employees said they were going to strike. A simple idea that could be used again and again.
Just seven candidates took part in this debate, down from eight last month in Milwaukee, after former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson failed to qualify this time. There are less than four months to go before the first nominating contest in Iowa on Jan. 15, and those months will be crucial in determining whether anyone has a chance of taking on the front-runner, former President Donald Trump. The first debate was skipped by Trump.
It was difficult to control the debate as candidates talked and shouted, with the three commentators unable to stop it.
Doug Burgum, at the bottom of the pack in the polls and last to qualify to appear in a debate, jumped in to answer a question about child care before Dana Perino of Fox News cut him off.
The debate wrapped up with a surprising moment of decorum, when the candidates refused to answer a question posed by Perino, who asked each candidate to single out one rival: “Who should be voted off the island?”
“Every person on this stage has shown respect for Republican voters” by showing up, Christie said, adding that Trump has divided the country, and divided families.
Nikki Haley, Donald Duck, and the Second Republican Debate: Why he’s a winner, not a threat
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who’s been gaining ground, particularly in New Hampshire, and outpacing DeSantis in some key polls, showed up with gloves off.
She sparred with both DeSantis and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott over energy policy. During a heated exchange about how to regulate social media use by teens, Haley told someone, “I feel a little bit dumber every time I hear you.”
Ramaswamy responded by complaining about the fruitlessness of “personal attacks” as the discussion descended into yet another shouting match between the moderators and candidates.
In an apparent sign that Trump views Haley as a potential threat, his campaign released a statement before the debate even ended attempting to lessen her credibility, calling her weak on immigration. The statement tried to make a connection by quoting a 2012 New York Times article in which Haley said she was inspired to run for office because of Clinton’s example.
That visit seemed designed to contrast with President Biden’s decision to join autoworkers on a picket line in Detroit on Tuesday — a move that some of the Republican hopefuls criticized from the debate stage in California. Scott, for example, said, “Joe Biden should not be on the picket line; he should be on our Southern border working to close our Southern border.”
Trump’s Republican rivals have little to lose as they continue to trail him in the polls. That’s probably why some took direct aim at him, including one who attacked Trump’s decision not to participate.
Christie accused Trump of skipping the debate not because of his substantial lead in the polls, as Trump has claimed, but because of fear of answering for his record.
Christie told him to let him know what would happen. No one up here will call Donald Trump anymore if you keep doing that. We’re going to call him Donald Duck.
Source: 6 takeaways from the second GOP debate
China: What he forgot about his wife Karen, but she wasn’t: Sleeping with a teacher is not the same as union education
China loomed large throughout the debate, whether the topic was its dominance in the energy and technology sectors, its role in the flow of fentanyl into the United States, efforts to control Taiwan and friendliness between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin amid Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine.
Politicians “sleeping with teachers” is one of the weirder lines of discussion. Don’t let the wives of the teachers get in the way of a good quip, because they were their husbands.
Shortly afterwards, he joked that he’d been sleeping with a teacher for 38 years. But he did make the distinction that his wife, former Second Lady Karen Pence, is not a union educator.