Vivek Ramaswamy drew the most attacks, not everyone wanted to discuss Trump, and other GOP debate takeaways

The Donald Trump vs. everybody else primary is now officially underway.

Eight Republican presidential candidates debated for the first time in Milwaukee on Wednesday night as the former president and front-runner aimed to divert focus by releasing a previously recorded interview.

The candidates have been campaigning for several months in early voting states, but the debate marked the first time they made their pitches to a national audience. Trump’s interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson made little news but gave him an uninterrupted platform to attack some of his rivals and decry the indictments against him.

» READ MORE: Who won the first GOP debate? Our Opinion staff weighs in.

Here are some highlights from the two-hour debate and Trump’s 46-minute interview with Carlson.

Biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy seized his moment, introducing himself at the outset and spending the rest of the night butting into other candidates’ answers.

The 38-year-old is tied for second place with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in some polls but has grown his following as DeSantis has stalled. And while DeSantis delivered a solid if forgettable performance, Ramaswamy became the target of the most attacks Wednesday night.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie called him “a guy who sounds like ChatGPT.”

Former Vice President Mike Pence said that “now is not the time for on-the-job training” and called Ramaswamy a “rookie.”

For a lesser-known candidate such as Ramaswamy, the first debate is largely about getting your name out there. He presented as a young, charismatic — though at times condescending — outsider with some pretty extreme policy ideas that he laid out with a Ted Talk-like delivery.

» READ MORE: Who is Vivek Ramaswamy? A look at the GOP presidential candidate’s first visit to Philadelphia.

“We do need somebody of a different generation to lead this nation forward,” Ramaswamy said, touting his campaign travel beyond the early states. “Look at the way I’ve run this campaign, going to the South Side of Chicago to Kensington in the middle of Philadelphia.”

He asked the audience: “Do you want a super PAC puppet or do you want a patriot who speaks the truth?”

(Ramaswamy is one of several candidates with super PACs supporting his campaign.)

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley delivered one of the more effective criticisms of the night after Ramaswamy said he wouldn’t support more aid to Ukraine.

“He wants to hand Ukraine to Russia, he wants to let China eat Taiwan. ... You don’t do that to friends. What you do instead is you have the backs of your friends. But you have no foreign policy experience and it shows.”

Trump didn’t monopolize the debate. But when his name and the Jan. 6 insurrection did come up, there was division over who wanted to discuss it.

“This election is not about Jan. 6,” DeSantis said. “Is this what we’re going to be focusing on? The rehashing of this? The Democrats would love that.”

Christie, who has centered his campaign on attacking Trump, received loud boos as he countered that the former president’s role in trying to overturn the 2020 election is disqualifying.

“Before we can move on … we need to dispense with the person who said we need to suspend the Constitution,” Christie said, referring to Trump.

Haley said if Trump were convicted in one of the four criminal cases he’s facing, she would support him as the nominee, but she argued that it would be political suicide for the party.

“We have to face the facts that Trump is the most disliked politician in America and we can’t win a general election that way.”

All candidates were asked whether they’d support Trump as the nominee if he were convicted; only former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and Christie said they wouldn’t.

Every candidate who was asked said Pence did the right thing in certifying the election, though with differing degrees of enthusiasm.

Trump, in his interview with Carlson, repeated that he believed Pence had the ability to send the 2020 election results back to some states, including Pennsylvania, where he has falsely claimed there was widespread voter fraud.

A rollback of abortion rights drove Democratic turnout in 2022 and some Republican candidates have been wary of polling that shows most Americans support abortion in many cases. On Wednesday, candidates’ answers to a question on abortion varied widely.

DeSantis, who signed a six-week abortion ban in Florida and has said he favors leaving abortion laws up to the states, simply said: “I will support the cause of life as governor and as president.”

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, who also signed a six-week ban, said he would let states decide. “What is gonna work in New York will never work in North Dakota,” he said.

Pence and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott said they’d support a federal ban after 15 weeks.

Haley called the debate misleading because there aren’t enough votes in the narrowly divided Senate to pass a federal ban. Lawmakers in the Senate would need to find consensus, which she said already exists for bans on late-term abortions.

Pence argued a majority of Americans support legislation banning abortion “after a baby is capable of experiencing pain.”

“But 70% of the Senate does not,” Haley said. “You have to be honest with the American people.”

The candidates decried Biden’s policies but were light on specific fixes, offering general promises to limit government spending, support law enforcement, lower federal debt, and close the Southern border.

“We must reverse Bidenomics so middle-class families have a chance to succeed,” DeSantis said.

» READ MORE: What is 'Bidenomics'?

“We cannot sit by and allow the kind of spending going on in Washington,” Christie said.

Haley took a different approach, blaming some of her rivals for voting in favor of raising the debt ceiling and Trump for adding millions to the national debt. “It’s time for an accountant in the White House,” she said.

Ramaswamy said the fix was “simple,” noting he’d “unlock American energy, drill, frack, embrace coal and nuclear,” and loosen federal regulations.

In a rebuttal following the debate, Vice President Kamala Harris blasted the GOP field. “These candidates want to … strip fundamental rights and basic freedoms from millions of people,” she said. “And to reverse the Bidenomics strategy that has helped create 13 million jobs … and record-low unemployment.

While the eight GOP candidates had to compete for airtime, Trump got 46 uninterrupted minutes to talk about his 2016 win, his massive lead in national GOP primary polls, and unrelated topics such as the death of financier Jeffrey Epstein.

“We’ll get bigger ratings using this crazy forum that you’re using than probably the debate,” Trump said of the interview, posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Trump, who is ahead more than 40 points in several national polls, appeared comfortable and confident. The one-on-one format allowed him to control the conversation, ramble about topics of his choice, and face only friendly questions.

Only once did he mention a possibility that he wouldn’t be the Republican nominee.

“If someone got in other than me, they’ll go at him just as viciously as they did me,” Trump said. “These people are sick.”

Trump, who headed to Georgia Thursday to be arraigned, didn’t speak in detail about that case. He described all charges across the four criminal cases he’s facing as “all trivia, nonsense.”

Carlson asked a series of questions about whether the former president believes that bad actors would try to kill him or whether America was on the brink of a civil war.

“I don’t know,” Trump said. “I can say this: There is a level of passion that I’ve never seen, there’s a level of hatred that I’ve never seen. And that’s probably a bad combination.”