The fierce urgency of being No. 2: GOP candidates fight each other as Trump cruises toward...

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2023/11/09/gop-debate-trump-2024-nomination/ [login to see] 7/
When moderator Lester Holt opened the third Republican debate Wednesday night by asking the candidates why they would be better GOP nominees than Donald Trump, they were a little more willing than they've been before to criticize the former president.

But in the two hours that followed, Trump's challengers didn't keep it up, preferring to spar with one another and aim an occasional slap at President Joe Biden. Which means, for those keeping score on debate winners and losers: Count the Republican frontrunner who wasn't there as the big winner. Again.

Trump was down the road from the Miami debate, in Hialeah, speaking for more than an hour at one of his signature rallies. "Nobody's talking about it," Trump told the crowd in a brief and shrugging reference to the competing forum, using derogatory nicknames for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former UN ambassador Nikki Haley. "So it's 61% for your favorite president, me, and 10% for Ron DeSanctimonious and 7% for birdbrain," he said.