Langworthy: 'No clear winner' in last week's GOP presidential debate

Dec 21, 2023

Rep. Nick Langworthy

Rep. Nick Lagworthy, who attended last week’s Republican presidential debate in Milwaukee, said Monday he saw no clear winner in the first GOP candidates forum.

“It was a big, broad field of candidates, every single one who would be better than President (Joe) Biden,” Langworthy said while driving to events in the eastern part of his 23rd Congressional District.

Langworthy also attended the conservative Right Thinkers monthly meeting at The Hall in Allegany Monday evening, where he was part of a panel discussing federal policy.

After viewing the initial Republican presidential debate, Langworthy, a former New York State GOP chairman, said, “I don’t think there was a clear winner. It was a great lineup. There were a lot of people on stage who could do” the job.

Langworthy, R-Pendleton, added: “I look forward to when former President (Donald) Trump joins the debate.” He added, “From the public polling I see, he enjoys wide popular support and is the frontrunner. He has a strong following. He’s ahead of Biden in some key swing states.”

What did Langworthy think about some of the other Republicans on the debate stage last Wednesday.

While he saw “no clear winner,” the freshman congressman called Vivek Ramaswamy, the Ohio biotech entrepreneur, “a very interesting candidate.”

Ramaswamy, said Langworthy, “brings a much bigger perspective. He’s a millennial candidate for the presidency. He’s intense. He’s tapping in to some of the angst I sense as I work the district. He’s intriguing in terms of his populist flair, but I don’t think there was a clear winner.”

Turning to Nikki Haley, Langworthy said, “I think Nickki Haley was very strong in her delivery. I think she had outstanding performance.” The former South Carolina governor and U.N. ambassador under Trump, “showed a toughness,” he said.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis may have halted his slide in the polls at the debate. He “had something to say,” Langworthy said. “DeSantis was not the center of attention. He made some very good points.”

He added: “I’m a big fan of Sen. Tim Scott” of South Carolina.

Other candidates turned on the rising Ramaswamy rather than DeSantis, who is polling more than 40 points behind Trump in national polls.

“It’s a wide-open field,” Langworthy said. “We need someone who understand about how small town America works. This is organic. Everyone can speculate. I don’t think endorsements matter. You have to get the attention and hearts and minds of people in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.”

The debates are an important showcase,” Langworthy said. “They help build momentum. It’s a test of the candidates in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina — in that order.”

Trump, who had declared he would not attend the first debate, continues to lead the Republican presidential candidate pack.

A post-debate poll by Emerson College for the Republican National Committee found Trump’s support dipping 6 points to about 50% among likely Republican primary voters.

Trump’s surrender to the Fulton County (Ga.) Sheriff’s Office the day after the debate may have affected his drop in support. The 13-county indictment Trump faced upped the total felonies the former president has been charged with up to 91.

The same poll, published in The Hill, found Ramaswamy down 1 point to 10%, DeSantis up 2 points to 12%, Haley up 2 points to 7% and former vice president and Indiana governor Mike Pence up 3 points to 7%. Emerson College polled 1,000 likely GOP primary voters Aug. 25-26 and compared the results to the pre-debate polling.

Langworthy echoed the charges of most Congressional Republicans that the indictments against Trump have been “highly political” and an indication of the “weaponization of the Department of Justice.”

Why did the Department of Justice wait 2½ years to bring charges against Trump, he asked? “We’re upon the presidential election and nominating process. This is interference in the election.”

Langworthy, who has endorsed Trump in the past, pointed out that he has endorsed no candidate in the 2024 presidential contest.

Still, Trump is the leading GOP candidate and “has a right to defend himself in a court of law,” Langworthy said. “They have layered on the charges,” he added.

The charges include the classified documents Trump took with him to Mar-a-Lago after leaving the White House and refused to return; the Jan. 6 insurrection — both brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith; a Manhattan case alleging he falsified business records; and the Georgia charges related to allegations that Trump and 18 other codefendants conspired to change the Georgia presidential vote in 2020.

“There’s a lot of politics here,” Langworthy of the charges lodged against Trump — often on the testimony of Trump associates. “This is a vast and clear weaponization of the Department of Justice.”

It is “unprecedented” that the frontrunning candidate for the GOP nomination finds himself in this situation, Langworthy said. “He’s entitled to defend himself.”

Langworthy said that despite slowing inflation, Americans haven’t seen that decline at the supermarket or the gas station. “The American people do not feel inflation is improving. People have serious concerns about their own well-being.”

The congressman said, “We are teetering with debt and uncertainty. We need to get back to common sense decision making. We’ve got to show some restraint in our spending.”

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