Republican presidential candidates Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley squared off in a tense debate on Wednesday, buying and selling barbs simply days earlier than the Iowa caucuses.

Donald Trump, the frontrunner within the race for the celebration’s 2024 nomination, as soon as once more selected to not attend and held a Fox News city corridor occasion on the similar time.

Iowa is the primary within the state-by-state contest to resolve who within the Republican celebration will contest the overall election, in all probability in opposition to Democratic President Joe Biden, in November.

Mr DeSantis and Ms Haley, a great distance behind Mr Trump within the Iowa polls, are hoping a powerful second place end within the state on Monday will breathe new life into their campaigns.

Here’s what we discovered once they went face to face on the stage in Des Moines.

Things obtained off to a heated begin when the pair traded insults of their very first solutions.

Mr DeSantis, 45, started proceedings by calling his opponent “another mealy-mouthed politician that tells you what she thinks you want to hear”.

Ms Haley then shot again and took intention at what she known as Mr DeSantis’s repeated “lies”.

“You’re going to find out about a lot of Ron’s lies,” she mentioned.

There have been 4 Republican debates earlier than this, however the one-on-one nature of this one, which was hosted by CNN at Drake University, resulted in way more direct assaults and testy exchanges.

It appeared as although each have been hoping to land a knockout blow earlier than Republicans in Iowa kickstart the subsequent part of this race and decide their most well-liked presidential candidate on Monday. The theme of the evening? Attack, assault assault.

As the 2 candidates battled on stage, the previous president was three miles (5km) away holding an occasion along with his supporters.

The query of his absence, and his lead within the polls, unsurprisingly got here quickly within the debate. Mr DeSantis accused the previous president of “running to pursue his issues” and ignoring the wants of American households.

He mentioned Mr Trump spewed “word vomit” on social media and solid doubt on his potential to get via the authorized battles he’s dealing with.

Ms Haley, for her half, as soon as once more mentioned that she didn’t consider Mr Trump was “the right president to go forward”.

Both have been extra vocal of their criticism of him than in earlier debates, taking intention at his dealing with of points starting from the pandemic to frame safety and relations with China.

At his personal occasion in Des Moines, Mr Trump additionally took intention at each candidates and touted the “tremendous” ranges of help he has in Iowa.

Additionally, his marketing campaign despatched out a number of emails in the course of the rival debate, criticising Ms Haley and Mr DeSantis on a variety of points together with Ms Haley’s “childish” international coverage positions and China and Mr DeSantis’ “lying record on Covid.”

Border safety and immigration got here up repeatedly, a mirrored image of the polls that present it’s a major concern for Republican voters in Iowa and across the US.

Mr DeSantis urged the gang to “not trust” Ms Haley with immigration.

“That’s like having the fox guard the henhouse,” he mentioned, pointing to earlier feedback by which she referred to the time period “illegal aliens” as “disrespectful”.

Ms Haley principally struck a extra nuanced tone on the topic, referring to the basis causes of migration in Central and South America and touting her credentials as a former ambassador to the United Nations.

She did, nonetheless, say undocumented migrants must be deported for “cutting the line”.

The battle in Ukraine proved to be some of the contentious problems with the evening, and each candidates sparred with each other over their positions on the battle.

Ms Haley hit out at Mr DeSantis for initially backing US funds for Ukraine, and then later altering his place.

“Nobody knows what he believes,” she mentioned.

“Let me tell you why Ukraine should matter. This is a freedom loving country,” she mentioned, including that it was a “friend” of America and that US help was about “preventing war”.

Mr DeSantis responded by saying the battle wanted to finish, and “people like Nikki Haley care more about Ukraine’s border than our southern border”.

The clashes over Ukraine mirror a wider rift within the Republican Party, which has been break up over US international coverage and continued help to Ukraine.

The viewers of 200 or so on the venue in Des Moines was additionally removed from raucous, however Mr DeSantis appeared to get the bigger share of the applause.

Some of his feedback, together with one second the place he described Ms Haley as having an issue with “ballistic podiatry” (in different phrases, capturing herself within the foot) prompted a very good response within the room.

That is probably unsurprising, as Iowa is broadly seen as extra beneficial to him than different states such as New Hampshire, the place the second Republican contest will happen and Nikki Haley is anticipated to carry out higher.

Ms Haley did have some memorable moments herself, and obtained a loud cheer when she described the Capitol riot on 6 January 2021 as a “terrible day”.

Afterwards her marketing campaign employees and supporters mentioned they noticed the occasion as a victory that may propel her going into the New Hampshire major.

“Tonight was a success,” Texas congressman Will Hurd informed the BBC. “More people were Googling Nikki Haley than Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump combined. Her momentum is continuing.”

But in a room not removed from the venue, at his separate city corridor in entrance of a beneficial crowd, Mr Trump skilled a stronger response. His supporters shouted “we love you” all through the occasion and he shook arms for greater than 10 minutes after it completed.

If Mr DeSantis and Ms Haley are to noticeably problem the previous president, they might want to tempt a few of these Iowan voters away from him earlier than Monday’s crucial caucuses.