While I cannot vote in the Republican primary thanks to my party affiliation, I always find the time to watch the debates. Perhaps it’s my penance for being a political science major. The first of the 2024 debates was held last Wednesday, and I can say without any exaggeration, it was the worst I have seen. 

While this time around the field is not as crowded with 14 candidates versus a record 17 in 2016, it is unmatched in its ridiculousness. 

Fox News and Rumble hosted the evening. Fox, despite having a long history of hosting presidential primary debates, seems to have given up on the idea of moderated debate and instead decided to run a circus act. 

The moderators barely moderated, candidates routinely ignored time limits and questions rarely received an actual answer.

The frontrunner for the primary, who did not attend the debate, was arrested the next day in Fulton County, Ga. According to FiveThirtyEight, as of Aug. 25, Trump was leading the polls at 52.4%. The eight candidates on stage last week added together made up 40.4%. Only DeSantis is in the double digits with 14.7%.

When asked if they would support Trump as a nominee even if he were convicted, Burgum, Scott, Haley and Ramaswamy immediately raised their hands. 

After a few moments spent looking around the room, so did DeSantis and Pence. Only Christie and Hutchinson dismissed the idea of standing behind a man convicted in a failed coup attempt. 

When co-host Martha MacCallum asked candidates to raise their hands if they believed climate change was impacted by human behavior, only Asa Hutchinson began to raise his hand before Ron DeSantis chided the moderator for treating the candidates like schoolchildren for asking a question during a debate. 

When prompted with a question on crime in his state, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis partially blamed the rise on George Soros, a common antisemitic dog whistle. DeSantis also answered affirmatively if he would send American special forces into Mexico to take out cartels, saying, “Yes, and I will do it on day one.”

Meanwhile, Vivek Ramaswamy, a pharmaceutical investor known for making millions off a failed Alzheimer’s drug he pushed for, was perhaps the highlight of the circus. 

“The climate change agenda is a hoax,” Ramaswamy yelled over the other candidates. “The anti-carbon agenda is the wet blanket on our economy.”

“Our kids are never going to forgive us for this,” Haley said, not about climate change, but about national debt earlier. Instead, Haley pivoted the climate change topic toward stoking a new cold war with China.

Ramaswamy came off as a high school debate team member who thinks Ayn Rand was too liberal. Chris Christie pointed out he ripped off Obama’s 2004 quip about being a skinny kid with a funny name. 

Ramaswamy simultaneously wants to abolish the Department of Education and raise the voting age to 25. During the debate, he floated the idea of requiring voters to pass a civics test given to immigrants before being allowed to vote. Ironically, he seemed to think the U.S. Constitution --1787 --is what won us the American Revolution -- 1775-1783-- and that the USSR fell in 1990. It fell in 1991.

Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson boasted about reducing the number of state employees by 14%, claiming that is the sort of thing needed in Washington. 

In other words, he bragged about killing tens of thousands of jobs in one of the poorest states in the country. He pledged to reduce the federal workforce by 10%, a policy that would mean eliminating around 180,000 jobs. 

The only woman on the stage, Nikki Haley,  former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations under Trump, quoted Margaret Thatcher and said,“If you want something said, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman.” 

I couldn’t help being reminded of the Eric Andre Show clip about Margaret Thatcher’s ‘Girl Power.’

Haley also pounced on an asinine take from Ramaswamy on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “You have no experience with foreign policy,” she said, “and it shows.” 

The crowd cheered. I wonder how much of it was for Haley’s takedown, and how many were cheering in support of Ramaswamy’s inexperience.

At the end of the night, I was keenly aware of why I’m not a member of the Republican Party: I value sanity. Daily Beast Washington Bureau Chief Matt Fuller summed up the debate when he said,“We are the losers for having watched that.” I cannot agree more. 

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