What to Expect From G.O.P. Candidates in First Primary Debate

[archival] “Welcome to the first debate night.” [archival] “Let’s welcome the candidates.” [Weisman] “Primary debates are anything but boring affairs. They tend to be more freewheeling and fun than those one-on-one presidential debates of the general election.” [archival] “Is this on?” [Weisman] “There will be at least seven candidates on the stage in Milwaukee. Some have enormous experience in elective office and in debates. Others have far less, and some have none. The one candidate on the stage who has no formal debate experience will be Vivek Ramaswamy, an entrepreneur and author. Mr. Ramaswamy was a debater at Harvard, and he’s honed a style through multiple appearances on cable news that one would have to say is supreme confidence.” [archival] “I think there’s only two candidates who matter in this Republican primary, that’s President Trump and myself.” [Weisman] “The next tier of candidates all have elective experience that they achieved in part through debate performances in their campaigns. But those debate performances were pretty low-key affairs, and did not have the slashing attacks that you’ll see on a presidential stage. Doug Burgum’s primary debate in 2016 was maybe the most polite debate you’ll ever see.” [archival] “And as governor, I would look forward to working with Wayne as he continues to drive forward on these important problems for the state of North Dakota.” [Weisman] “Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, also has not had national debate experience, but because he’s from one of the largest states in the country, with a huge media presence, he’s in a different category here.” [archival] “Florida is where woke goes to die.” [Weisman] “One of the more notable moments of DeSantis’s re-election campaign of 2022 came when he absolutely froze on stage.” [archival] “Yes or no, Ron? Will you serve a full four-year term if you’re re-elected governor of Florida?” [Weisman] “And he had no response. Now he did recover eventually and came back with a zinger.” [archival] “The only worn-out old donkey I’m looking to put out to pasture is Charlie Crist.” [Weisman] “But as perhaps the biggest target on the stage in Milwaukee, DeSantis can’t afford another moment like that. Mike Pence, the former vice president, has been here before, debating on a national stage before tens of millions of people, and he has shown that he is cool and collected. In 2020, a fly landed on his head and he showed no reaction whatsoever. The question is whether that style will translate on a crowded debate stage or will just get lost in the fray.” [archival] “Carly, Carly, listen, you can interrupt everybody else in the stage, but can’t interrupt me.” [Weisman] “One of the most battle-tested candidates on that stage will be Chris Christie, the former governor of New Jersey, and for him, the debate is critical. He’s a long shot for the Republican nomination, but his whole reason for getting on that debate stage is to take down the front-runner and elevate his candidacy by doing so.” [archival] “He knows exactly what he’s doing.” “There it is, the memorized 25-second speech.” [Weisman] “In the 2016 campaign, he famously flayed Senator Marco Rubio by pointing out that a talking point of Rubio’s made him sound robotic, and Rubio never recovered.” [archival] “It gets very unruly when he gets off his talking points.” “Thank you, governor.” [Weisman] “Donald Trump is unquestionably the front-runner in this campaign. The question facing the other candidates is how to use the front-runner as a tool to elevate their own candidacies.” [archival] “MAGA, ‘America First.’ This is bigger than one man.” “I believe that anyone who puts themselves over the Constitution should never be president.” “What I’m focused on is the biggest problem for the Republican Party, for defeating Joe Biden, and that’s Donald J. Trump.” [Weisman] “It is no exaggeration to say these primary debates are critical to campaigns. It is your chance to introduce yourself to a national audience, and propel your candidacy. But if you mess up, you might not recover.”