With Trump absent, Republican rivals trade attacks at first 2024 debate

Eight Republican presidential candidates traded barbs on Wednesday at their first debate of the 2024 election as they jockeyed for position behind the absent front-runner, Donald Trump, who derided the event in a pre-taped interview aimed at siphoning away viewers.

The raucous two-hour debate offered a view of the deep challenges the contenders face in seeking to dislodge Trump from his perch at the top of the field.

While the former president took the extraordinary step of skipping the debate entirely, his rivals were left taking shots at one another to try to emerge as the most viable alternative, five months before the first Republican presidential nominating contest in Iowa and more than 14 months before the election.

While Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has consistently stood in second place in polls, albeit well behind Trump, it was Vivek Ramaswamy, the 38-year-old tech entrepreneur and political neophyte, who was at the center of many of the Fox News debate's most dramatic moments.