Five candidates vying for the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential nomination squared off in Miami, Florida, Wednesday evening for their third debate. In one of the evening’s most heated exchanges, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott pressed former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley to commit to support a federal ban on abortions after 15 weeks. Haley countered that she would “support anything that would pass” Congress. Once again, Republican front-runner Donald Trump skipped the debate in Miami. Instead, Trump hosted a rally nearby in South Florida, where he mocked other candidates, praised Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán as the “leader of Turkey” and confused North Korean leader Kim Jong-un with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
Donald Trump: “Kim Jong-un leads 1.4 billion people, and there’s no doubt about who the boss is. And they want me to say he’s not an intelligent man.”
Trump also said Hungary borders on Russia and Ukraine — which it doesn’t. We’ll have more on last night’s Republican debate later in the broadcast.
Meanwhile, the Minnesota Supreme Court has rejected a bid to block Trump from the state’s Republican primary ballot next year. There are similar efforts underway in Colorado and Michigan to bar Trump from running under the “insurrection” provision of the 14th Amendment.