With Donald Trump absent, eight Republican presidential candidates joined the debate stage last night.
Despite Trump’s absence, he was a topic at the debate for obvious reasons. At one point, moderator Brett Baier asked “If President Trump is convicted, would you still support him as your party’s choice? Please raise your hand if you would.” (You can’t help but notice in the phrasing that it’s already accepted that Trump will be the nominee - as it should be given his commanding lead in the primary).
Vivek Ramaswamy’s hand shot up first - followed by Nikki Haley, then Tim Scott, and some guy named Doug Burgum - drawing major applause from the audience. As the audience clapped for a few seconds, Ron DeSantis and Mike Pence then raised their hands, as if the audience had just given them a live poll-test telling them this was the right stance to take. Meanwhile Chris Christie wagged his finger in disapproval, as did Asa Hutchinson.
Watch below:
Matt Palumbo is the author of Fact-Checking the Fact-Checkers: How the Left Hijacked and Weaponized the Fact-Checking Industry and The Man Behind the Curtain: Inside the Secret Network of George Soros
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