CNN came out of the NewsNation Republican debate with a typical flourish: Republicans are seriously evil. Analyst Van Jones, who had a cup of coffee in the White House in the earliest days of President Obama, compared Nikki Haley to "Wonder Woman fighting off like a mob of like, supervillains."
CNN host Kaitlan Collins thought DeSantis had a good debate, but there was a lot of yelling crosstalk, and "I think the most notable point was Chris Christie at the end saying picture Election Day and saying Donald Trump will not be someone who's voting on that day because he is going to be a convicted felon."
CNN has been savoring that idea for five years now.
VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I thought like Wonder Woman fighting off like a whole mob of like supervillains. I mean, Nikki Haley had to defend herself every second of that debate performance. And she did well. She actually held up well. She was actually able to pull it off.And even when Vivek was saying that she didn't know the provinces, she knew the provinces. So, you know, Nikki Haley did a great job.
But I was very proud of Chris Christie. Chris Christie was a scholar and a gentleman tonight.
It's an interesting take, since Christie ended by suggesting "Trump's going to jail."
Alyssa Farah Griffin offered her usual preference: "Nikki Haley proved once again that she is a political heavyweight. She's arguably won all of the debates, or at least performed exceptionally well in them." Abby Phillip added Christie "probably did a better job defending her on the stage than doing anything necessarily for his own campaign."
David Urban signaled he's a Christie fan: "I think he did a great job tonight. Unfortunately, his numbers haven't moved since day one."
Scott Jennings said the four candidates show the split between pre-Trump GOP (Christie, Haley) and post-Trump GOP (DeSantis, Ramaswamy). He said Trump hasn't been heard by skipping all these debates: "He's gone from 55 to 61 in the national polling averages. It's hard to argue that his strategy of sitting this out has been "anything but genius."
Dana Bash interviewed Christie, praising him as a "savvy pol" (um, he's dead last in the polls in this group), and Christie called Ramaswamy the "drunk driver on the debate stage." Cooper grasped on that: "The drunk driver on the debate stage." Urban said "That was great. That's the best line of the night."
