Eight top Republican presidential candidates faced off Wednesday night in the first debate of the 2024 election cycle — laying out competing approaches to issues facing the country, from abortion to crime to aid for Ukraine.
The group was united in blasting President Biden but differed markedly on policy in substantive, if occasionally heated, exchanges less than five months before the first votes are cast.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was first to speak at the Fox News-hosted event in Milwaukee, Wis., and offered up a double-barreled attack on Biden’s record and his family’s ethics scandals.
“We cannot succeed as a country if you are working hard and you can’t afford groceries, a car or a new home while Hunter Biden can make hundreds of thousands of dollars on lousy paintings,” said DeSantis, 44, polling in second after former President Donald Trump, 77, who skipped the event.
