GOP Presidential Primary Debate No. 2: An Angry Rematch and the Same Notable No-Show

From the beginning of the second Republican presidential main debate of the 2024 marketing campaign, the seven candidates on stage had been boisterous and unruly.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former Vice President Mike Pence, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum spent many of the night speaking loudly over — and generally fairly angrily at — each other.

The moderators — Fox Information’ Dana Perino, Fox Enterprise’ Stuart Varney, and Univision’s Ilia Calderón — generally struggled to referee on the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library & Museum in Simi Valley, California, because the presidential hopefuls clashed on matters starting from the autoworkers’ strike to overseas coverage. At factors, well being care points crept into the dialogue.

Our PolitiFact companions fact-checked the candidates in actual time. You’ll be able to learn their full protection right here.

Candidates sparred over manufacturing and employment, inflation, and federal spending. When it got here to the federal government shutdown menace, Haley promised to vary the method, mentioning that Congress had delivered appropriations on schedule solely 4 instances in 40 years.

Requested about medical debt, which plagues tens of hundreds of thousands of Individuals, she pledged a multipronged effort to guard individuals from monetary smash once they want care. She spoke of introducing extra competitors within the well being system and placing “the affected person within the driver’s seat” whereas rising transparency.

“We’re going to need to make each a part of the trade open up and present us the place the warts are,” she mentioned. She didn’t elaborate on how that might be achieved.

Pence dodged a query about whether or not he would make good on his promise, from 2016 and the present marketing campaign, to repeal the Inexpensive Care Act — also called Obamacare — which Perino famous appeared extra well-liked now than ever.

“It’s my intention,” the previous vp mentioned, “to make the federal authorities smaller by returning to the states these assets and packages which might be rightfully theirs below the tenth Modification of the Structure.” That would come with all Obamacare and Well being and Human Providers funding, he mentioned.

Pence additionally mentioned he’s “sick and drained” of mass shootings and promised, if elected, to advance an expedited federal demise penalty “for anybody concerned in a mass taking pictures” so that they “meet their destiny in months, not years.” The previous vp criticized DeSantis over the sentence handed all the way down to a gunman who attacked Marjory Stoneman Douglas Excessive Faculty in Parkland, Florida, in 2018, calling it “unconscionable” that he’ll “spend the remainder of his life behind bars.”

On the problem of medical insurance protection, DeSantis wore his state’s excessive uninsurance price as a badge of honor.

“You are able to do properly within the state, however we’re not going to be like California and have large numbers of individuals on authorities packages with out work necessities,” he mentioned. Beneath DeSantis, Florida is considered one of simply 10 states which have declined to benefit from federal funding obtainable below Obamacare to broaden Medicaid, this system that covers low-income Individuals.

All through the night, the candidates generally invoked Reagan’s identify and reminiscence. He wasn’t the one former president not in attendance however typically talked about. Donald Trump, who enjoys a commanding lead within the polls, opted once more to avoid the talk stage.

“Donald, I do know you’re watching — you’ll be able to’t assist your self,” Christie mentioned early on. He mentioned Trump prevented the occasion as a result of he was “afraid” of “being on the stage” and defending his document.

Trump advised Fox Information Digital in an interview after the talk that he hadn’t watched it.

Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson didn’t meet the Republican Nationwide Committee’s donor and polling thresholds to take part. Former Texas Rep. Will Hurd additionally didn’t qualify.

Listed here are final evening’s health-related claims checked by PolitiFact:

Ron DeSantis: 2.6 million Floridians going with out medical insurance “is a symptom of our general financial decline.”

When moderator Varney pressed DeSantis on the comparatively excessive variety of Floridians with out medical insurance — Varney mentioned it’s 2.6 million — DeSantis blamed politicians in Washington, D.C.

However the numbers from DeSantis’ personal state well being division present no correlation between financial situations and the variety of Floridians with out medical insurance. Regardless of inhabitants progress and financial modifications, Florida had about 2.6 million uninsured residents from 2018 by way of 2021, and about 2.4 million in 2022.

In 2022, Florida’s uninsured price was 11.2%, increased than the 8% nationwide price, in response to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Vivek Ramaswamy: “Transgenderism, particularly in children, is a psychological well being dysfunction.” 

Medical consultants disagree. Being transgender and having gender dysphoria — the misery that some individuals could expertise when their intercourse assigned at delivery doesn’t align with their gender id — shouldn’t be thought-about a psychological well being dysfunction. Traditionally, the prognosis has carried the time period “dysfunction,” however consultants not view it as a pathology and are working to destigmatize the prognosis.

Earlier phrases similar to “gender id dysfunction” and “transexualism” have advanced into “gender incongruence,” a situation the World Well being Group now considers a situation associated to sexual well being — not psychological well being. The American Psychiatric Affiliation’s “Diagnostic and Statistical Guide of Psychological Problems,” or DSM-5, comprises a prognosis for “gender dysphoria,” however consultants say it stays partly to let insurance coverage firms cowl gender-affirming care and let incarcerated individuals entry care.

Mike Pence: Linn-Mar Group Faculty District in Iowa had a coverage the place “you might get a gender transition plan with out notifying your mother and father.”

This wants extra context. The Iowa college district exterior Cedar Rapids in 2022 adopted a coverage that allowed college students to request a “gender assist plan.” In accordance with Axios, this plan would define a scholar’s most popular identify and pronouns in addition to which locker rooms or lavatory the scholar would use, which is related to a social, fairly than a medical, transition.

The scholar may select whether or not the mother and father had been knowledgeable, however the plan was not associated to medical transition, which, for minors, requires the consent of parental guardians. Faculties typically don’t inform mother and father when college students sign they’re socially transitioning, The Washington Submit reported.

Tim Scott: The southwestern U.S. border below President Joe Biden is “unsafe, wide-open, and insecure, resulting in the deaths of 70,000 Individuals within the final 12 months due to fentanyl.”

Scott’s declare is deceptive. Deaths from fentanyl jumped 23% in Biden’s first yr in workplace to greater than 70,000. However they’ve been rising since 2014 and in addition rose through the Trump administration.

Though immigration encounters on the southern U.S. border have spiked below Biden’s watch, many of the fentanyl coming into the U.S. from Mexico reportedly comes by way of authorized ports of entry. The overwhelming majority of individuals sentenced for fentanyl trafficking are U.S. residents, federal knowledge exhibits.