Eight Republican presidential candidates faced each other

Wednesday night

in

Milwaukee up

the first primary debate

which was presented Wednesday night by Fox News in Milwaukee

.

Former president

Donald

Trump, the overwhelming

clearly

leader, was not present

and chose to release a counter-scheduled interview with Tucker Carlson instead

.

Here are some takeaways:

Trump, the ‘elephant not in the room’

Fox News’ eight nominees and moderators said little about it

former

Trump for most of the first hour. Then, in a second-hour tease, the moderators showed a video of the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta, where Trump is imprisoned.

expected set

to book

on

Thursday on charges related to

efforts are attempts

to overturn the 2020 election. They asked Trump’s rivals to raise their hands if they would support Trump if he wins the nomination, even if convicted.

Everyone except the former governor of Arkansas. Asa Hutchinson, who barely registers in most polls, raised his hand. Hutchinson was booed

away

Republicans in the room when he said Trump was “morally disqualified.”

Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, also struggling in the polls, reluctantly raised his hand but attacked Trump, as he has during his campaign.

Here’s the bottom line:

sp

omeone

‘

We need to stop normalizing this behavior,” he said

whether legal charges are justified or not

.

Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley made the electoral argument:

pointing to polls showing the vast majority of Americans do not want a rematch between Trump and President Biden. but she

Avoid direct criticism of Trump’s behavior: ‘We have to face the fact that Trump is the most hated politician in America.

We can’t win a general election that way.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Trump’s biggest challenger, wanted to move on.

“It’s not about January 6, 2021,” he said, arguing that discussing the uprising is tantamount to bowing to

the

The Democratic agenda. “They want to talk about all these other issues. We must focus on your future.’

The Republican Party is dividedA division over foreign policy

One of the biggest clashes of the evening took place over the Biden administration’s support for Ukraine as the country defends itself against the Russian invasion. The Republican Party used to be aggressive and anti-Russia. But polls show a shift, something

candidate

Vivek Ramaswamy has tried to take advantage of it

note that argument

the USSR no longer exists, and

argue that

the money would be better spent at home.

It is one of the reasons why Ramaswamy, a little-known businessman, is gaining momentum in the polls.

Haley, a former UN ambassador who has positioned herself as a traditional foreign policy conservative

former Prime Minister of Great Britain

Margaret Thatcher replied that a president needs “moral clarity” and chided Ramaswamy as an inexperienced lightweight.

DeSantis, who has gone back and forth

Ukraine the problem

tried to pick up some populist steam without taking sides.

I will not send troops to Ukraine, but to our countries

S

outer edge”

with Mexico

,

he said.

The shift in foreign policy began after much of the country benefited

former president

George W. Bush’s Two Wars in the Middle East. Trump picked up on the growing frustration. The primaries could decide where the GOP goes from here.

DeSantis needed a big night. He had none

DeSantis, once ahead of Trump in the polls, has fought to save his sagging campaign. But he did little to stand out on Wednesday, leaving the big moments to lower-ranking candidates like Haley, Ramaswamy and Christie.

DeSantis made a name for himself as a culture warrior and led the “anti-woke” revolution in his state. But the candidates didn’t spend much time on culture war topics, which have dwindled in recent months as polls show Republican voters focus more on immigration, crime and other issues.

Fox loses control

The Republican Party has enjoyed media coverage for years, peaking during the Trump administration. Fox News hosts have largely joined in the cheers, portraying the network as the sole voice of common sense in a liberal media sphere.

But Wednesday’s debate showed that

even

Fox is not immune. Trump, of course, skipped this

network showcase

debate

a network showcase,

believe hey

would like

pay no price to the voters.

His rivals took turns talking over the moderators, ignoring questions in an effort to show their strength. DeSantis, who has built his brand on attacking the media, went out of his way to derail candidates by raising their hands if they believed climate change is caused by human activity.

“One of the reasons

for

Our country’s decline is due to the corporate media’s treatment of Republicans versus Democrats,” DeSantis said, pointing to a recent spate of natural disasters.

Biden was on the beach while those people suffered,

he said of the victims of the recent wildfires in Hawaii.

‘He was asked about it. He said

,

‘No comment.’ Are you joking?”

Christie interrupted to fire at some of his opponents. Others followed suit all night.

If Trump were to falter…

Trump’s absence gave the remaining eight candidates room to define themselves. His string of indictments and the fact that he tried to overturn an election make him an extremely high-risk general election candidate.

Haley and Ramaswamy took full advantage of the opportunity and spoke strongly as they tried to gain new support. But Wednesday’s muddled clash made it clear that neither

remaining the

Candidates have so far claimed that they are the clear alternative to Trump.