Seven Republican presidential candidates debate for the second time

2023-09-28 15:13:46, Kosova & Bota CNA

The Republican candidates for President faced off last night in the second televised debate. As Voice of America correspondent Carolyn Presutti from California, where the debate took place, reports, all the candidates who participated are far behind former President Trump in the polls. Mr. Trump again refused to participate in the debate, while there are less than four months left until the first intra-party elections.

The seven Republican candidates who participated in the debate took the stage at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California.

It only took a few minutes for the criticism of each other to begin, each of them determined to distinguish themselves from the others.

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China was treated as a hostile country during most of the debate.

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said she would send special operations forces to attack Mexican drug cartels and suspend normal trade relations with China until the communist state stops distributing the drug fentanyl.

Speaking about Russia's war in Ukraine, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy said that the fact that Putin is a dictator does not mean that Ukraine is good, adding that China is the real enemy.

Florida has banned Chinese nationals from buying property near military zones, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he supports a similar ban across the United States.

The leading candidate, former President Donald Trump, was absent from the debate. He chose to visit the city of Detroit, Michigan, where the union of workers in the car manufacturing industry is on strike.

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An NBC News poll shows that nearly 60% of Republican voters favor former President Trump over his rivals. By a wide margin, in second place is Governor DeSantis, with 16%.

North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum criticized President Biden's administration for the recent prisoner exchange with Iran.

“They took five prisoners; we took five prisoners. But they also got $6 billion, which they can use to further their terrorism because this is the nation that is the largest state sponsor of terrorism in the world," said Doug Burgum, Governor of North Dakota.

Former Vice President Mike Pence criticized his former boss.

"Now we see that Donald Trump is moving away from the agenda that was the foundation of our administration and that defined the Republican movement for the last 50 years, where we stood tall on the world stage. Now Donald Trump is speaking the language of withdrawal," said former Vice President Pence.

The third Republican debate is held on November 8 in Miami, Florida. The American general elections will be held in November next year./ VOA