January 11 - 2024 campaign updates and highlights from GOP debate

With the economy among the key issues for voters, Gov. Ron DeSantis aimed to position himself as the best candidate to address those concerns, claiming that Haley supported policies that hurt her constituents’ wallets, like raising the gas tax.  

 “Nikki Haley when she was governor she promised she would never do the gas tax, then tried to raise the gas tax on hardworking South Carolinians,” DeSantis said.  

Facts First: This needs context. While Haley initially said that as governor she would not support an effort to raise the gas tax, she later said she would if it was paired with a cut to the state income tax.  

In responding to DeSantis during Wednesday’s debate, Haley acknowledged as much, saying: “We said if you want to raise the gas tax, you have to reduce the income tax by five times that amount. They didn’t want to do it.”  

It’s worth noting that this proposal was in response to state legislator’s efforts to raise the gas tax and did not constitute support for a standalone gas tax increase. 

Furthermore, Haley’s proposal was not received favorably by the Republican-held state legislature and ultimately the gas tax remained the same during her tenure as governor. The gas tax was later raised under her successor after legislators overrode a gubernatorial veto.  

CNN’s Arit John contributed to this post.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis criticized former President Donald Trump's handling of protests that took place during the summer of 2020 following the death of George Floyd.

DeSantis called the protests "the worst rioting in the modern history of this country."

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he believes his rival, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, has been “confused” on the issue of the abortion when asked whether he believes Haley is “sufficiently pro-life.”

DeSantis argued that Haley has been “using the language of the left” to attack anti-abortion activists.

Haley responded that she is “unapologetically pro-life” and pointed to a South Carolina bill that would have treated abortion as homicide and allowed the person to be punished as a murderer and subject to possible decades in prison. 

Asked if she agrees with DeSantis whether former President Donald Trump is not pro-life, Haley said: “I mean, look, I think that he did some pro-life things when he was president.”

Haley added that Trump should be asked the question.

"That's why he should be on this debate stage. Don't ask me what President Trump thinks. You need to have him on this debate stage and ask him for yourself,” she said.

Former President Donald Trump said Republicans “still have to win elections,” when asked by an Iowa voter about his criticism of six-week abortion bans and his commitment to pushing for restrictive abortion laws. 

The former president, who has criticized six-week abortion bans in the past, noted on Wednesday that “a lot of women don’t know if they’re pregnant in five or six weeks."

Trump, who has struggled at times to navigate the issue of abortion during his campaign, again touted his role in overturning Roe v. Wade and his support for exceptions for rape, incest and when the life of the mother is threatened. 

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley derided a defense argument used by former President Donald Trump's lawyer in his presidential immunity court hearing this week.

CNN's Jake Tapper asked Haley if she agreed with an argument that a president should have immunity for any conduct, including the ordering of an assassination of a political rival unless that president is impeached and convicted by the Senate for that offense.

She went on to describe the characteristics of what she believes make a good leader.

"What a leader does is they bring out the best in people and get them to see the way forward. That's what we need in our country," Haley said. "We don't need this chaos anymore."

Some background:  A panel of judges on a federal appeals court was skeptical of Trump's immunity arguments as they sharply questioned his lawyer during a hearing Tuesday over claims he can't be prosecuted because his actions after losing the 2020 election were part of his official duties.

Trump, who attended Tuesday's hearing, wants the DC US Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn a lower court ruling rejecting his claims of immunity in special counsel Jack Smith’s election subversion case and dismiss the federal charges against him.

Trump's lawyers argued that prosecuting Trump would "open a Pandora's box" of indicting other former presidents for actions they took while in office. The special counsel's office rebutted those arguments, urging the judges to deny Trump's immunity claims as no president is above the law.

Trump’s presence at the hearing less than a week before the Iowa caucuses underscored how intertwined his legal and political worlds have become. He's made the four criminal indictments against him a key part of his 2024 campaign.

In response to a question about Israel, Gov. Ron DeSantis said that Florida rescued Americans from the country in the wake of Hamas’ October 7 attack because “Biden wasn't helping Americans get out of the war zone.” 

Facts First: DeSantis’s claim is false. The Biden administration helped Americans evacuate from Israel after the attack.

The US government did charter flights for Americans seeking to leave Israel, with the first flight taking place on October 13. The State Department stopped the flights by the end of October due to lack of demand, signaling that the program was successful at helping the Americans who wanted to leave.   

DeSantis argued that the federal government didn’t do enough, which is why he organized flights from Israel to Florida for Americans looking to return home. But his flights only began after the State Department-led evacuations had started.  

CNN previously fact-checked a similar claim that DeSantis made at a CNN town hall in December. 

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley on Friday described the lack of communication between President Joe Biden and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin as “unforgivable" amid Austin's prostate cancer diagnosis and recent hospitalization.

Haley's remarks came in response to question about ordering strikes in Iran if she is elected president. She criticized Biden for being “slow” with responding to escalating attacks by Iran-backed proxy groups on US troops before calling out the lack of communication between Biden and Austin.

In recent days, Austin has faced intense scrutiny after his failure to disclose his hospitalization last week. On Tuesday, it was revealed that Austin is being treated for prostate cancer and suffered complications that led to him being taken to the hospital on New Year’s Day where he is still being treated, according to a statement from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

Nikki Haley claimed during Wednesday night’s CNN GOP debate that while at the United Nations, she stopped the flow of migration from certain parts of Central America.  

Haley recalled a previous trip to Honduras and Guatemala, saying, “We had our military go and train them on how to deal with gangs.” 

“We went and put drug boats on the water to keep the drugs from coming. But we said you have to have them processed from here. You can't have them come. We were able to stop that flow,” Haley said. 

Facts First: It’s unclear what operation Haley was referring to, though the United States does have a presence in Central American countries and often works in partnership with those countries to stem the flow of migration. While migration from different regions ebbs and flows, it hasn't altogether stopped from Honduras and Guatemala. 

In fiscal year 2023, border authorities encountered 433,771 migrants from Guatemala and Honduras at the US southern border, according to US Customs and Border Protection data.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis promised to decouple the United States from China’s economy to punish the latter country for its policies. The US and China are the first- and second-largest economies in the world. And given that China is the one of the biggest US trading partners, separating the two economies could spell pain for many Americans. In particular, it could make goods cost more if they’re solely produced in the US.

Asked how DeSantis would minimize the pain, he said he would offer “tax and regulatory” incentives to people in the US. “I want to make things here again,” he added.