Who ‘won’ the second GOP debate?

After an unexpectedly strong performance in the last debate, Nikki Haley had the momentum — and she was hellbent not to relinquish it. She had some big moments, including ripping into Vivek Ramaswamy over his Putin apologia: “A win for Russia is a win for China.” She also called out Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for banning fracking and banning offshore wind farms, a claim DeSantis flatly denied. But according to PolitiFact, Haley, the former U.N. ambassador and governor of South Carolina, was right: “Just two days into his term, DeSantis issued an executive order with several water policy reforms and a line directing the Department of Environmental Protection to push to end all fracking in Florida. The order instructed the department to ‘take necessary actions to adamantly oppose all off-shore oil and gas activities off every coast in Florida and hydraulic fracturing in Florida.’”

And finally, Haley had this line directed at Ramaswamy: “Every time I hear you, I feel a little bit dumber.” While I’m normally loath to suggest that hurling personal insults qualifies as a “win,” this is the Republican primary campaign, after all.

Momentum is everything in a presidential campaign. DeSantis is in desperate need of it; his polling has collapsed by double digits over the last several months. And that his performance was devoid of any commanding or otherwise memorable moments means he failed to do what his campaign needed him to do. Whereas he was once the heir apparent in the Republican Party, his political future is anything but apparent.

Taking home the honor of loser and liar is DeSantis, who claimed early on in the debate that his comments suggesting that slaves benefited from slavery were “a hoax perpetrated by Kamala Harris.” Not so much.

DeSantis has vocally supported Florida’s new curriculum, which includes the following assertion as part of its middle school instruction: “Slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.” When he was pressed about this, DeSantis said, “They’re probably going to show that some of the folks that eventually parlayed, you know, being a blacksmith into doing things later in life.”

So, no, this was not a hoax perpetuated by Vice President Kamala Harris; it was a quote directly from the mouth of Ron DeSantis. But the fact that he was so desperate to distance himself from the truth is a tacit acknowledgment of just how misguided his comments were. It’s almost like DeSantis knows the difference between right and wrong, even if he’s not willing to be honest about it.