GOP hopefuls make the case against Trump

Chris Christie said that Donald Trump’s criminal cases make him unable to lead either the Republican Party or the United States.

“I’ll say this about Donald Trump,” Christie said. “Anybody who’s going to be spending the next year-and-a-half of their life focusing on keeping themselves out of jail and courtrooms cannot lead this party or this country.”

Trump faces the prospect of going on trial in four separate criminal cases in 2024, two of them in federal courts.

— Dan Mangan

Nikki Haley said former President Donald Trump is not the right person to be next commander in chief.

“I don’t think he’s the right president now,” Haley said. “I think that he put us $8 trillion in debt, and our kids are never going to forgive us for that.”

“I think the fact that he used to be right on Ukraine and foreign issues now he’s getting weak in the knees and trying to be friendly again, I think that we’ve got to go back to the fact that we can’t live in the past,” Haley added.

— Brian Schwartz

Ron DeSantis attacked Donald Trump in his first answer of the night, accusing the former president and GOP leader of failing to achieve what he promised in his first White House term.

“Donald Trump’s a lot different guy than he was in 2016,” DeSantis said when asked why he should be selected as the GOP nominee instead of Trump.

“He owes it to you to be on this stage and explain why he should get another chance. He should explain why he didn’t have Mexico pay for the border wall. He should explain why he racked up so much debt. He should explain why he didn’t drain the swamp,” the Florida governor said.

“I’m sick of Republicans losing in Florida,” he added.

— Kevin Breuninger

Vivek Ramaswamy lashed out at Ron DeSantis before the debate, calling the Florida governor’s recent targeting of the Students for Justice in Palestine group “a First Amendment violation.”

DeSantis last month ordered state universities to disband chapters of the group, saying “You don’t have a First Amendment right to provide material support to terrorists.”

Ramaswamy, speaking on the comedian Dave Smith’s podcast, said, “This is post-9-11 stuff here. This is Dick Cheney, Patriot Act stuff here in this country.”

“These kids weren’t providing munitions and money to Hamas,” Ramaswamy said. “They were tweeting in favor of Palestinians. And to call that material support and then to ban them, that’s a First Amendment violation.”

“I like deeply believe in the free speech thing, because it’s the thing that defines the country.”

— Dan Mangan

While the Republican contenders prepare to vie for the GOP presidential nomination, the current occupant of the Oval Office directed an air strike in Syria.

President Joe Biden authorized a bombing on the facility used by Iranian-backed militias after several incidents of attacks on U.S. forces. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin made the announcement Wednesday evening.

The attack comes as the United States seeks to avoid the war in Gaza ballooning into a larger regional conflict.

— Emma Kinery

Former United States ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley has a rare chance at Wednesday’s debate to reel in undecided wealthy donors who have so far sat on the sidelines of the 2024 presidential election.

Haley is surging in the polls, and has pulled even with fellow primary contender Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in a new Iowa poll. The survey showed former President Donald Trump leading them both among likely Republican Iowa caucus participants.

Still, for Haley there are a number of wealthy financiers, including Thomas Peterffy, the founder of stock brokerage firm Interactive Brokers, who have yet to decide the candidate they want to support.

“Anyone I will support will have to undertake, whatever their personal belief, to protect individual rights to self determination and that should include abortion,” Peterffy said in an email to CNBC when asked who he’s watching at the debate in Miami.

— Brian Schwartz

The debate will feature a smaller field of candidates than the eight at the first GOP debate in August, after a number of contenders dropped out of the race altogether, and others did not make the cut for Wednesday’s showdown.

Former Vice President Mike Pence suspended his campaign on Oct. 28.

Earlier in the summer, businessman Perry Johnson, talk radio host Larry Elder, ex-Rhode Island mayor Steve Laffey, former Rep. Will Hurd of Texas, and Miami Mayor Francis Suarez all dropped out or suspended their campaigns.

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, who remains a candidate, failed to make the cut for Wednesday’s debate, after qualifying for the prior two. Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson also failed to meet the benchmarks, which were set by the Republican National Committee.

– Dan Mangan

Trump will once again be counter-programming the primary debate, as he tries to snuff out his remaining Republican opponents without giving them a chance to challenge him directly.

An hour before the third debate is set to begin in Miami, Trump is scheduled to deliver remarks at a campaign rally in nearby Hialeah.

It’s a similar playbook to the one he has followed for the prior two GOP debates.

Instead of attending the first debate in late August, Trump sat for a pre-taped an interview with former Fox News opinion host Tucker Carlson that aired just before the GOP candidates took the stage.

When seven candidates met for the second debate a month later, Trump hosted an event in Detroit aimed at courting union workers — a group with whom President Joe Biden has long expressed solidarity. Trump’s speech, which came during a historic auto strike, was held at a nonunion factory.

Whether or not his latest speech makes waves, Trump’s absence alone could damage his rivals, as fewer potential voters may tune in without the attention-magnet ex-president on stage.

— Kevin Breuninger

Abortion will likely be a hot topic in the third debate, after Republicans once again took a beating at the ballot box in key state elections Tuesday that were widely seen as a test of whether abortion rights could mobilize voters.

The races varied, but the Republican losses were the same in all. The Kentucky governor’s race, where Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear was reelected, an Ohio ballot initiative that enshrined abortion rights in the state’s constitution, and Virginia’s legislature, where Democrats won both control of both chambers.

For Trump’s GOP rivals, the results offered a chance to present themselves as more electable alternatives to Trump.

“Outside of a few states, Republicans have consistently underperformed over the past few election cycles,” Ron DeSantis wrote on X on Wednesday morning.

Nikki Haley’s reaction was even more blunt. “Trump is a loser. DeSantis is a loser. Haley is a winner,” her team wrote in a campaign email Wednesday.

The results offer yet more proof that voters have been galvanized in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022.

— Kevin Breuninger

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley could move to attack each other early in the debate, as they battle it out for second place in polls that show both of them still well below Donald Trump’s support.

Haley’s campaign sent out a memo Wednesday highlighting her polling ahead of DeSantis in New Hampshire and South Carolina, and pulling even with him in Iowa. The memo also listed some of what it called DeSantis’ “many lies.”

Later Wednesday, a new Marquette Law School poll of Wisconsin voters showed Trump trailing President Joe Biden by just two percentage points, but both DeSantis and Haley beating Biden if they were the Republican nominees respectively. Haley held a nine-point lead over Biden among Wisconsin voters, while DeSantis had just a two-point edge.

– Dan Mangan

Donald Trump said Wednesday he would consider one of the five candidates at the debate as a running mate — along with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson — if he wins the GOP presidential nomination next year.

“Look, some of them I like a lot,” Trump said of the other candidates during an interview on the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton radio show.

“I respect a number of them and some I have no respect.”

“I like Tucker a lot,” Trump later said. “I guess I would I think I’d say I would [consider him as a running mate] because he’s got great common sense.”

– Dan Mangan

Former President Donald Trump, who is the clear front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination, is skipping the debate — but won’t be far away from the Miami event.

Trump is set to speak at a rally in Hialeah, Florida, at the Ted Hendrick Stadium starting at 7 p.m. ET.

Trump supporter Jill Vandusen, who was waiting to attend the rally, told Local 10 News that his decision to hold the event near the debate location is “strategic.”

“They can’t compete with him,” Vandusen said.

– Dan Mangan

Former President Donald Trump justified skipping the first two Republican debates by arguing that he saw no point in sharing the stage with candidates who trail him by wide margins.

Hours out from the third debate, that situation hasn’t changed.

Average national polls of the primary race show that Trump’s lead has only grown in recent months, in large part by cutting into the support for his top rival, DeSantis.

The Florida governor now faces an imminent threat from Haley to surpass him as the top non-Trump alternative.

Trump, meanwhile, has hosted fewer rallies than in his prior campaigns, and much of his recent coverage in the media has been focused on his legal troubles. But none of that appears to have damaged his standing in the polls — including in surveys of states that will be pivotal for the primary and the general election.

Recent polls from The New York Times and Siena College found Trump leading President Joe Biden in five major battleground states, triggering some anxiety among the current president’s supporters that was only partly assuaged by strong Democratic showings in state elections Tuesday night.

Trump’s team, meanwhile, has already declared that the primary is effectively over.

“Tomorrow’s debate will be a dumping ground for every single loser candidate to foolishly fight for distant second place,” Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said in a campaign email Tuesday.

‎— Kevin Breuninger‏

Polls and experts say the Republican primarily field is increasingly looking like a two-person contest between former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, to see who will challenge former President Donald Trump for the nomination.

After a lackluster spring, Haley has quickly risen to second place in polls of voters in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, the first three states to hold primaries early next year.

The former South Carolina governor has surged 10 points in Iowa to tie DeSantis for second place, according to the latest NBC News/Des Moines Register poll. Iowa will hold the first GOP caucuses on Jan. 15. Haley has surpassed DeSantis in New Hampshire and South Carolina, according to recent polls.

Now she threatens to displace DeSantis as the GOP’s preferred alternative to Trump.

Even so, Trump still holds a seemingly insurmountable lead over his rivals. The former president is skipping Wednesday’s debate.

— Spencer Kimball

Just five Republican candidates qualified and will participate in the Miami debate hosted by NBC News.

They are former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, the businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, and Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina.

Donald Trump, the former president, as the front-runner in the GOP nomination race more than qualified for the debate. But for the third time this election cycle he has declined to debate his opponents.

To qualify for the debate, the quintet that is participating had to have at least 70,000 unique donors garnered at least 4% in two national polls or one national and one early-state poll that met Republican National Committee requirements.

– Dan Mangan

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ debate performance in Miami could be a boost to his fundraising, already on the upswing since he was endorsed by Iowa GOP Gov. Kim Reynolds.

DeSantis, who raised over $15 million in the third quarter, could see an uptick in fundraising if he does well in the debate. The contest in Miami comes just days after Reynolds endorsed him over former President Donald Trump and other Republican primary contenders.

The latest debate for DeSantis comes at a time when a few of the Republican Party’s wealthiest donors are opting not to help him, at least for now.

DeSantis has already seen previous big money supporters, such as Citadel CEO Ken Griffin and businessman Robert Bigelow, have each distanced themselves from the Florida’s governor’s bid for president. Griffin, a previous DeSantis donor, recently told CNBC that he’s remaining on the sidelines for now of the 2024 presidential election.

Bigelow, who gave over $20 million to a pro-DeSantis super PAC, recently said in an interview with the Financial Times that he may end up backing Trump.

– Brian Schwartz

Viewers can watch the debate starting at 8 p.m. ET on NBC TV channel. It will also be streamed live and for free on NBC News NOW, which is available on NBCNews.com, Peaock and other streaming services.

The showdown, hosted by NBC News, is being held in Miami at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County.

The Salem Radio Network and the Republican Jewish Coalition are also partners in the event.

– Dan Mangan