Haley slams Trump on Jan. 6, saying he will 'have to answer for it'

Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley condemned former President Donald Trump regarding the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, saying it is something that he will have to answer for.

"I think what happened on January 6 was a terrible day and I think President Trump will have to answer for it," Haley said during the Republican debate against Florida Gov. DeSantis. 

She said that while there were election issues in certain swing states, at the end of the day President Joe Biden won the 2020 election.

"Trump lost," she said. "Biden won that election and the idea that he's gone and carried this out forever to the point that he's going to continue to say these things to scare the American people, is wrong."

Haley was referencing remarks Trump has made where he said that the 2020 election was stolen from him.

"We've seen a lot of states come together and do more election integrity bills," she said. "We need to do more than that. We still have three or four states that I'm worried about that don't have that. But at the end of the day, I will always defend and fight for the Constitution."

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GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis blasted former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley on the subject of China, arguing that a lot of her supporters make money in China. 

"We got to decouple our economy, particularly things that are nationally studied insignificant to our national survival," he said when asked about China. "You got to be methodically strategic about it. There's a lot of moving parts there. We're going to do that. Nikki Haley's not going to be able to do that because a lot of her supporters make money in China."

He then touted his accomplishments of banning China from purchasing land in his home state of Florida. 

When asked about China, Haley said that the U.S. needs to move trading being done in China to allies such as Japan, the Philippines, Australia, and Israel. 

"The first thing we have to do is we have to make sure we stop selling them any land and we take back the land they have already purchased," he said.

China has been a hot topic in foreign policy over the past few years over trade and COVID-19.

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Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis said during the Republican debate that former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley may be more liberal than California GOP Gov. Gavin Newsom.

“I debated the governor of California, Gavin Newsom,” DeSantis said at the start of the debate.  “I thought he lied a lot. Man, Nikki Haley gives him a run for his money, and she may even be more liberal than Gavin Newsom is.” 

He said that she caves on the issues and doesn't fight.

“As Republicans, you need someone who is going to be in there and fight for you,” DeSantis said. “Anytime the going gets tough, anytime people come down, she caves.” 

During opening remarks, DeSantis called Haley a “mealy-mouthed politician,” and Haley told Drake University students not to turn the debate into a drinking game every time DeSantis lied because they “will be overserved.” 

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Presidential candidate and Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis said that the eight million immigrants that have come into the U.S. illegally under Biden have to go back. 

"President Biden's let in eight million people just in four years," he said on the debate stage in Iowa. "They all have to go back. We have to enforce the rule of law in this country."

He went on to slam the situation in Brooklyn, New York where a high school closed its doors to students and had them do remote learning in order to shelter around 2,000 migrants.

DeSantis went on to slam Haley, arguing that she is "bankrolled" by people who support open borders. 

"When I was governor of South Carolina, we passed the toughest illegal immigration law in the country," she said in defense. "Obama sued us over it and we fought it."

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Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley said that Florida GOP Gov. DeSantis's campaign is "imploding" and he is upset donors are going to her. 

"He's only mad about the donors because donors used to be with him but they're no longer with him now and that's because he's upset about the fact that his campaign is imploding," Haley said.  

DeSantis slammed Haley for looking down on middle America over a joke she made previously about voters in New Hampshire "correcting" Iowa's votes.

"We don't need a candidate that is going to look down on middle America," he said. "We've had enough of that. I'm the only one that's going to be able to lead this country's revival."

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The debate is being moderated by CNN anchors Jake Tapper and Dana Bash at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. 

While former President Donald Trump qualified for the final debate, he skipped it and attended a televised town hall meeting that occurred at the same time. 

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie dropped out of the primary earlier in the day and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy didn't qualify.