The Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and other foreign policy issues dominated Wednesday\u2019s fiery third debate of Republican presidential hopefuls in Miami. Candidates pledged wholehearted support for Israel\u2019s military response following last month\u2019s Hamas attacks, and clashed over Ukraine, China and immigration.<\/p>\n
The debate, minus Donald Trump<\/a><\/span>, the runaway favorite for the party\u2019s 2024 nomination who was hosting his own private rally elsewhere in the area, was a more bitter affair than its predecessors in Wisconsin and California. Lively verbal sparring sometimes regressed into insults, with Nikki Haley<\/a><\/span> at one point calling one of her rivals \u201cscum\u201d.<\/p>\n The candidates also grappled over immigration, the devastatingly bad night for Republicans in Tuesday\u2019s elections, and the party\u2019s staunchly anti-abortion stance on abortion that analysts say was the reason<\/a>.<\/p>\n Related: <\/span>With the US election a year away, most Americans don\u2019t want Biden or Trump<\/a><\/p>\n Discussion over Israel\u2019s actions in Gaza were, however, most prominent.<\/p>\n \u201cI will be telling Bibi [Israel\u2019s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu] to finish the job once and for all with these butchers Hamas. They\u2019re terrorists. They\u2019re massacring innocent people. They would wipe every Jew off the globe if they could,\u201d Ron DeSantis<\/a><\/span>, the Florida governor, said.<\/p>\n Haley, a former ambassador to the United Nations, was equally forthright. \u201cThe first thing I said to him when it happened was, \u2018finish them\u2019. They have to eliminate Hamas, [we have to] support Israel with whatever they need whenever they need it, and three, make sure we bring our hostages home.\u201d<\/p>\n DeSantis took credit for chartering flights to rescue stranded Americans in Israel, but overreached by claiming \u201cthere could have been more hostages, if we hadn\u2019t acted\u201d. The DeSantis flights, which some have criticized as a de facto foreign policy,<\/a> took place after Hamas took about 240 hostages on 7 October.<\/p>\n Haley and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy<\/a><\/span>, who has been criticized for controversial racial comments<\/a>, took potshots at each other. Haley\u2019s policies, Ramaswamy said, fueled war, and in a reference to a former vice-president called her \u201cDick Cheney in three-inch heels\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI wear five-inch heels, and don\u2019t wear them unless you can run on them,\u201d she shot straight back. \u201cI wear heels not for a fashion statement \u2013 they\u2019re for ammunition.\u201d<\/p>\n A further unpleasant exchange between the two came in a discussion about the Chinese social media platform TikTok. \u201cIn the last debate, she made fun of me for actually joining TikTok while her own daughter was actually using the app for a long time, so you might want to take care of your family first,\u201d Ramaswamy sniped.<\/p>\n \u201cLeave my daughter out of your mouth,\u201d Haley interjected. \u201cYou are just scum.\u201d<\/p>\n Haley performed well in the first two debates, and has enjoyed a recent surge in popularity<\/a>. She had painted DeSantis as an isolationist at a time when, she said, the US needed to work with global partners, and their feud continued Wednesday with bickering over China, each accusing the other of operating policies favorable to one of America\u2019s foes.<\/p>\n But the pair were united in tearing strategically into the absent the former president, who they trail by a significant margin in the race for the nomination. Trump, DeSantis said, \u201cowes it to you to be on this stage\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cHe said Republicans were gonna get tired of winning. Well, we saw it last night: I\u2019m sick of Republicans losing,\u201d DeSantis said, referring to Tuesday\u2019s Democratic electoral successes in Kentucky and Virginia<\/a>.<\/p>\n Haley said: \u201cI think he was the right president at the right time. I don\u2019t think he\u2019s the right president now. I think that he put us a trillion dollars in debt and our kids are never gonna forgive us for that. I think the fact that he used to be right on Ukraine and foreign issues \u2013 now he\u2019s getting weak in the knees and trying to be friendly again.\u201d<\/p>\n