Highlights from the second Republican presidential debate on Fox Business

The public support for the union cause is large enough for the center and some of the center-right that Trump wanted to fake a photo op tonight. Biden was in Michigan yesterday and Trump wanted the PR photo version of "I went out there, too."

Now, you peel back the layer, you look past the photo, and you find out it was more of a meeting with the bosses than the strikers. But I think that speaks to why and it's a funny thing to say. He has a feeling for how to fake what the broader support is, rather than the folks on the stage who were playing to a kind of a troll version of it.

This is an excerpt from Ari's appearance on MSNBC's special coverage of the debate. It has been slightly edited for length and clarity.

And so ends a debate that, absent the GOP's polling leader, felt absolutely pointless. The more Trump extends his polling lead and spites the entire primary process, the more these debates feel like superfluous endeavors — hourslong shouting matches between a bunch of people who will be lucky if they ever get within a stone’s throw of the office they’re running for. 

There’s a phrase folks use these days to signify their frustration with wasting time on nonsense: “This could have been an email.” Well, this debate could have been a series of social media threads. In fact, we’d cut down the crosstalk and save ourselves a few hours if, rather than hold a full-on debate next time, the GOP simply gave candidates 240 characters to lay out their angst-ridden talking points. The lack of authority from any of tonight’s participants was palpable and made this event feel as prestigious and consequential as a political dispute at a sticky-floored dive bar.

Haley blasted DeSantis for not, in her view, being sufficiently supportive of offshore drilling. She said that if he becomes president he will ban it, as he did in Florida. Even though some have given him credit for stopping drilling in the Everglades, DeSantis denied that he’d personally opposed offshore drilling and said the ban that exists is there thanks to a constitutional amendment approved by Florida voters.

The exchange between Haley and DeSantis illustrated that in forums, such as this, Republican candidates, even as they brag about their ability to work across the aisle, can’t even brag about the good things that have happened in their state. 

DeSantis should have told Haley that it’s a good thing that Florida, with its tourist beaches and its threatened Everglades, has come down against offshore drilling. Because offshore drilling is destructive. And nobody sunbathing wants to look out over rigs. But he wouldn’t dare come across as being insufficiently drill happy with Republican primary votes on the line.

It’s typical for these kinds of debates to have the last question be kind of a throwaway gag. Tonight’s pick from the moderators referenced the fact that if all of the candidates onstage are to remain in the race, Trump wins the nomination in a cakewalk. Therefore, the question went, if you had to pick someone else onstage to boot off the island, so to speak, who would it be?

That kind of question tends to get plenty of howls from quote-unquote “serious” people about missing the chance to ask one more “serious” question. And that’s exactly the excuse the candidates all chose to go with tonight, refusing to answer the question in an attempt to seem high-minded and magnanimous. Christie eventually said that he’d boot Trump off the island — which wasn’t an option! — and Ramaswamy, well, Ramaswamied the last few seconds of the debate away.

Now, do you think for one second that Trump would have hesitated to pick someone that he saw as weak and say they’re the one who should drop out first? Absolutely not. And he would have roasted that poor soul to within an inch of their life in the process. He’s already said that all of the people on the stage should go ahead and drop out to clear the way for him.

This was a layup of a question that could have shown shrewdness and wit, and helped draw contrasts with the other candidates. That none of them took this opportunity is the reason why none of them are breaking out yet. None of them have Trump’s showmanship and without that, they’re left trying to grasp the other bits and pieces that first attracted GOP voters to him in 2015. Without that extra spark of charisma, though, that natural lightheartedness that covers up his worst instincts and lets so many of his supporters ignore his many flaws, they’re going to remain dead in the water.

If any of the seven candidates could have made Donald Trump appear to have more stature as a politician, those are the seven people who could do it.

It was very shouty. There were a lot of good shade moments, but it felt more like a student council debate than a debate for any person who had any plausible chance of being president. It felt very small. None of them made an argument that sounded like an argument to be president of the United States.

This is an excerpt from Joy's appearance on MSNBC's special coverage of the debate moments ago. It has been edited slightly for length and clarity.

Like Trump, DeSantis frequently dismisses criticisms of his record and past comments as "false" and "not true" if they don't benefit him. Haley called out the Florida governor for opposing fracking, a process for extracting natural gas that is often embraced by conservatives and opposed by Democrats.

Well, folks, DeSantis did in fact oppose fracking, passing an executive order directing the state's energy department to ban the process in Florida.

Add abortion to the Affordable Care Act as another issue Republicans used to love to spend lots of time talking about and now don’t seem so interested.

Ramaswamy says a key to boosting America’s economy is “putting people back to work,” repeating what sounds like a pandemic-era claim about people being paid not to work. But in virtually the next breath, Ramaswamy vowed to slash the federal bureaucracy. In other words, he wants to put federal workers out of work.

Republican candidates seem to never acknowledge that contradiction. Maybe that explains why Republicans in the House don’t seem to have any qualms about forcing a government shutdown, which would cause immeasurable pain to those who work for the federal government.

DeSantis, asked about his claim that students shouldn’t receive loan forgiveness, suggested that saddling students with debt forces schools to cut programs he deems as fruitless — he cited gender studies specifically.

Ironically, some of those gender studies programs might do him some good, as they may help explain why polls in recent months have shown him performing poorly among women voters.

Moderators are asking good questions. The problem is that candidates aren't answering.

DeSantis was asked about Florida’s disastrous homeowners' insurance and flood insurance problems (that nobody wants to offer anymore because of risk caused by climate change).

He didn't even answer. He pivoted to a complaint about entitlements.

At this point, Floridians can't get coverage and private insurers are leaving the state and now the state has been forced into becoming this insurance provider. It's a huge, expensive problem.