Takeaways from the CNN town halls with 2024 Republican candidates

A series of CNN town halls with Republican presidential contenders — though months apart — offered windows into some of the themes that have dominated the party’s 2024 primary from its outset and that continue to play central roles just weeks before the first votes are cast.

Five top-polling GOP hopefuls have participated in town halls hosted by CNN this year: former President Donald Trump in May; former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie in June; and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy this week.

Former Vice President Mike Pence, who has since dropped out of the race, also participated in a CNN town hall in June.

Here are six takeaways from those town halls:

Their positions differed, but most Republican candidates’ cautious comments when asked about abortion restrictions made plain that they are all worried about the same thing: potential backlash against the GOP in the 2024 general election.

At his May town hall, Trump touted the Supreme Court’s decision last year to overturn Roe v. Wade as “such a great victory” – and one made possible by his appointment of three conservative justices.

But he repeatedly ducked questions about how many weeks into a pregnancy abortion should be made illegal and whether he would sign a federal abortion ban into law. “We now have a great negotiating ability, and I think we’re going to be able to get something done,” Trump said.

Haley, in June, said she believes there is a “federal role” in restricting abortion rights. But she wouldn’t directly answer questions about at what point in pregnancies she would seek to outlaw the procedure.

Instead, Haley said she would seek a consensus on abortion that could overcome the Senate’s 60-vote threshold to end a filibuster. And she extended an olive branch to supporters of abortion rights.

“I don’t judge anyone for being pro-choice any more than I want them to judge me for being pro-life,” she said.

DeSantis this week touted Florida’s law banning most abortions after about six weeks and accused Trump — who has suggested the Florida measure went too far — of “flip-flopping” on the issue.

But he also treaded carefully when asked about a Texas woman who sought court approval to have an abortion after learning her fetus had a fatal condition and doctors told her she could risk her future fertility if she didn’t get the procedure. The Texas Supreme Court on Monday ruled against her, even though Cox had already left the state to seek an abortion elsewhere.

“If you’re in that situation as a mother, that’s an incredibly difficult thing to have to deal with,” DeSantis said. “We’ve got to approach these issues with compassion, because these are very difficult issues.”

Among the most significant fault lines in the GOP primary is the United States’ role in Ukraine’s war against Russia.

Haley and Christie have been the most vocal proponents of continued American involvement in supporting Ukraine’s efforts, arguing that victory for Russia would set off an even more deadly global crisis.

“This is bigger than Ukraine,” Haley said. “This is a war about freedom and it’s one we have to win.”

Christie described it as “a proxy war with China,” pointing out that Beijing is buying Russian oil and supplying Iran with drones. He said that while US involvement in the war is unpleasant, “the alternative is for the Chinese to take over, the Russians, the Iranians and the North Koreans – a bad foursome.”

Trump and DeSantis took more guarded approaches. DeSantis urged European countries to do more to aid Ukraine.

Trump refused to say whether he wanted Ukraine to prevail in its war with invading Russia. “I don’t think in terms of winning and losing,” he said, “I think in terms of getting it settled so we stop killing all these people.”

Asked to choose a side he would prefer to win, Trump again demurred. “I want everyone to stop dying,” he said before promising to end the war in “24 hours.”

Ramaswamy, who has been the GOP field’s fiercest critic of US involvement in the Russia-Ukraine war, went further than his rivals and called for the country to make territorial concessions to Russia in exchange for an end to the war. He also said NATO should offer a “hard commitment” not to admit Ukraine if Russian leader Vladimir Putin “exits his military alliance with China.”

“Diplomacy is the solution,” Ramaswamy said. “My foreign policy is to avoid World War III, declare independence from China and then focus on securing our own homeland.”

At his town hall, the former president demonstrated no remorse for his role in the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. Asked about Pence’s assertion that Trump’s actions endangered the former vice president’s family at the Capitol, Trump said he did not owe Pence an apology. He claimed Pence “did something wrong” because he did not try to reject states’ Electoral College votes during his ceremonial role in the counting of the votes that day.

The former president also said he was “inclined to pardon” many of the pro-Trump rioters who were convicted for their roles in the attack on the Capitol.

He said he won’t be able to pardon “every single one” but it would be “a large portion of them.”

The town hall — much like his campaign rallies and interviews —featured the same Trump that Americans have seen since the end of the 2020 election. It was filled with his grievances over his loss to President Joe Biden, vows of political retribution against his enemies and claims that he had done nothing wrong, despite facing federal and state indictments.

As he has at virtually every stop since leaving office, Trump repeated his lies about widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

He also would not commit to accepting the results of the 2024 presidential election, saying he would do so only “if I think it’s an honest election.”

The most forceful critic of Trump has long been Christie, who at his June town hall warned that if Trump wins another term, he would spend those four years focused on “settling scores” with his political enemies.

“He has shown himself, particularly in his post-presidency,” Christie said, “to be completely self-centered, completely self-consumed and doesn’t give a damn about the American people, in my point of view.”

Other candidates, over the course of the campaign, have largely avoided direct clashes with Trump over his actions on January 6, his indictments and other controveries that have dominated headlines since the former president left office.

Instead, they have largely criticized Trump from the right, focusing on policy matters.

However, the town halls did provide windows into how Trump’s rivals believe they can address his conduct.

DeSantis — who entered his CNN town hall with a clear plan to attack Trump just weeks before the January 15 Iowa caucuses — took a notable personal shot at the former president.

“When he gets off the teleprompter now, you don’t know what he’s gonna say,” the Florida governor said. “It’s a different Donald Trump than in ‘15 and ‘16. You know, back then he was colorful, but it was really America First, about the policies. Now a lot of it’s about him.”

Haley, who served as Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, said her former boss was wrong to defend the events of January 6.

“He thinks it was a beautiful day; I think it was a terrible day. I’ll always stand by that,” she said.

Haley ignited a debate over the future of Social Security and Medicare when she accused DeSantis and Trump of “not being honest with the American people.”

Both the former South Carolina governor and Christie have proposed raising the retirement age for future program beneficiaries and means-testing the programs so that wealthy Americans don’t receive benefits.

“We can’t keep kicking this can down the road,” Haley said. “And I know that Trump and DeSantis have both said we’re not going to deal with entitlement reform – well, all you’re doing is leaving it for the next president and that’s leaving a lot of Americans in trouble.”

Recalling an Iowa voter who told him years ago that she wanted to be paid back for what she’d paid into the system “no matter how much money I make,” Christie said the country needed to prioritize.

“Do you want your money back at the cost of the person who won’t be able to eat, at the cost of the person who won’t be able to pay (for) shelter?” he said.

At his town hall this week, DeSantis criticized Haley’s position on reforming Social Security, but he largely avoided specifics on how he would preserve its longevity – steering clear of a topic that dogged him earlier in the campaign season. DeSantis accused Haley of wanting to raise the retirement age to access Social Security benefits. That’s something DeSantis voted for in Congress.

Picking up on a theme he’d emphasized at the fourth Republican presidential primary debate, Ramaswamy claimed at his town hall that the federal government has “lied systematically” to Americans — a moment that showcased his efforts to appeal to the Trump-aligned, conspiracy-minded element of the GOP electorate.

He cherry-picked pieces of information to suggest that federal law enforcement agents had fueled the January 6 insurrection, portraying the attack as “entrapment.” FBI Director Christopher Wray earlier this year said such suggestions were “ludicrous.”

A stark contrast was DeSantis, who launched his campaign amid a fight with Disney back home over the company’s opposition to the Florida law opponents have labeled “Don’t Say Gay” and has long tied his campaign to messaging on cultural issues. His speeches are frequently peppered with criticisms of “woke” policies, critical race theory, transgender rights and more.

It was noticeable, then, that DeSantis effectively ditched those terms for the entirety of his hourlong town hall. Doing so could have been an effort to broaden his appeal with the kind of general audience DeSantis has long struggled to reach.

Months earlier, Haley had taken shots at DeSantis for his fight with Disney.

“Because they went and criticized him, now he’s going to spend taxpayer dollars on a lawsuit,” Haley said, before adding a jab that might as well have been aimed at Trump too.

“All this vendetta stuff,” she said. “We can’t go down that (road).”