“People like Nikki Haley care more about Ukraine's border than our southern border,” DeSantis charged at one point.

They also both spent considerable time slamming Trump, the far-and-away GOP frontrunner, criticizing him over a variety of issues from his handling of COVID to border security to relations with China.

Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who finally dropped out of the race Wednesday, seemed to build his entire raison d'etre around scorching Trump. How is this helping anything, Chris?

Trump, holding his own competing Town Hall on Fox at the exact same time, spent plenty of time doing the same, saying that DeSantis would be delivering pizza if it weren’t for him:

Trump on Ron DeSantis: He would be working in a pizza shop or maybe a law firm if he had not endorsed him pic.twitter.com/rH312Rogpa

— Adam Parkhomenko (@AdamParkhomenko) January 11, 2024

About a third of the way through the CNN debate, even though I was having fun watching with the group I was with, I thought to myself – what the hell is the point of this? Why let biased CNN anchor Jake Tapper, of all people, lead an evening seemingly dedicated to tearing down Republicans?

I know the arguments – debates are an opportunity for candidates to hone their skills, to prepare the eventual primary winner to slay in the general election, to let the candidates define themselves, and to winnow out the winners from the losers. Admittedly, in 2015 it was precisely these kinds of events that exposed Jeb! Bush and revealed that despite the hype, he was actually a lackluster candidate, and so his run quickly skidded to an untimely – for him anyway – halt. 

In 2019, debates showed that Kamala Harris was a particularly bad contender and had not Joe Biden inexplicably pulled her back into prominence and handed her the VP slot, her political career might have been over right then and there.

But this is a different time, a different era, a different America. We are facing an existential crisis, and there should be one goal and one goal only – to try to save this country by defeating Joe Biden and the progressive Democrats.

I turned to a fellow viewer as either Haley or DeSantis – I forget the precise moment – tore into their rival, and I said, wait, what? What are we doing here? Haley isn’t the problem. DeSantis isn’t the problem. Trump isn’t the problem. 

My wife chimed in:

Why @GOP is the stupid party. @GovRonDeSantis and @NikkiHaley have an unparalleled opportunity to highlight the failures of @JoeBiden and @TheDemocrats to a @CNN audience…instead, they're sniping at each other like middle school girls. pic.twitter.com/30Fd8M9U7M

— Roxanne Hoge (@RoxanneHoge) January 11, 2024

Whether you like or support any or none of those candidates, if you’re reading this site, it’s doubtful you think they caused the disasters currently befalling our nation. None of the three is responsible for the out-of-control inflation, the humanitarian and security-risk disaster at the border, the embarrassing shows of weakness America is projecting across the globe. 

Why are they not spending their time slicing and dicing what is arguably the worst president in American history, why are they not arguing that his policies are destroying the country as we know it, why are they not pointing out that he is incredibly divisive and despises at least half the citizens of the United States?

To be fair, all three of them did eventually get to Bumblin’ Joe and his foibles in their respective events – especially Trump – but in the case of DeSantis vs. Haley, it wasn’t until they had thoroughly trashed each other’s records. 

In another year, maybe this would be a good thing – contrasting yourself with your opponents, pointing out their flaws. But Trump has had a massive lead over his GOP rivals for months now, and nothing they do seems to change the dynamic. Shredding each other is likely to do little to change the calculus. 

It’s fair to say that Reagan’s 11^th commandment, “Thou shalt not speak ill of another Republican,” doesn’t necessarily apply during heated primaries in normal times, but the time is nigh that it should be invoked now as we are under continued assault and need to band together. I’m not saying that DeSantis or Haley should immediately throw in the towel – although I suspect one or both soon will – but it’s time to stop undercutting each other and the party as a whole. Our future may depend on it.

One reason this is so is because we’re going to need all hands on deck to overcome the leftist nightmare that has overtaken so many aspects of our society, from the toxic ideologies emanating from our universities to the crazed leftist mania infecting our military and causing recruiting to plummet – making us less safe – to the war on energy which is making daily life virtually unaffordable for millions of Americans.

The longer these seek-and-destroy sessions continue among Republicans, the harder the rifts will be to heal. I’ve never understood how or why Joe Biden elevated Kamala Harris to the VP spot after she basically called him a racist on live TV during a 2019 debate, but somehow he got over his anger and the two apparently made up (to the detriment of us all). 

She was arguably 100 percent correct, but the moment is indelible:

Let's be real—there’s a decent possibility he simply doesn’t remember her saying that at all. 

But can DeSantis, Haley, Trump, et al. just hug and make up after all the bad blood that's been spilled? I'm not so sure.

DeSantis and Haley have been solid Republican governors, even if you can disagree with specific decisions they’ve made or if you don’t like their personalities. But the time is very very close where these rivalries need to be put aside and the GOP needs to come together and fight the real enemies of the people – Joe Biden and his puppet masters like Barack Obama.

I don’t need to see another GOP presidential debate.