Candidates at the first Republican presidential debate (sans Trump) were falling all over each other to say they would fix the fentanyl problem by toughening up border enforcement and even going over to Mexico to take out cartels. DeSantis said he'll shoot and kill anyone bringing fentanyl across the border; also on Day 1 in office he'll use US Special Forces across the Mexican border to go after fentanyl labs. "Would I treat cartels as foreign terrorists organizations? You bet I would." Pence also said he will "hunt down and destroy" drug cartels, and Tim Scott mentioned fentanyl too.
Former DEA chief and Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson was a surprising voice of reason, talking about how he negotiated with then-Mexican-president Vicente Fox over drugs. He called for education and treatment, as others have. Hutchinson was also the only candidate who didn’t raise their hand when asked if they would support “the elephant not in the room” for the nomination should he be criminally convicted. He pointed out that Trump might not be constitutionally eligible to take office, and Christie, who said he raised his hand reluctantly, then said, “We need to stop normalizing Donald Trump’s conduct. It’s beneath the office of the Presidency.”
DeSantis also blamed (as he does) George Soros for the crime problem for funding the races of progressive prosecutors, and said he kicked two of them out of Florida. Vivek Ramaswamy called for addressing the mental health crisis without "drugging people in psychiatric institutions with Zoloft and Seroquel." Ramasway just reiterated his support for federal marijuana legalization on Bill Maher's Club Random. But he wouldn't say Trump lost the 2020 election and IMHO he was the all-over-the-map big loser in the debate, calling climate change "a hoax" and saying he'd end the Dept. of Education. Others joined him in that sentiment and talked about breaking teacher unions, including Christie. Pence smacked Ramasway down when he said a president should be the right age, not too old or too young.
The only woman on stage, Nikki Haley, quoted Margaret Thatcher saying, “If you want something said, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman.” She reiterated her pro-life stance, but called for moving away from criminalizing women for having abortions. As South Carolina Governor, Haley signed a CBD legalization measure into law in 2014 and said about legalizing marijuana, “We’ve tried to do some sentencing reform in the past and we’re in the process of analyzing whether that’s worked...We’re watching the other states do what they can....I appreciate that states can make those decisions and while they are doing that in the best interest of them we have not seen that as a priority and in the best interest of South Carolina.” In 2015, Haley signed a hemp cultivation bill into law.
The next debate will be in Simi Valley, near the Reagan library, in September. Simi is where lots of cops go to retire, and the Rodney King trial was moved so that a jury wouldn’t convict the officers who beat him on camera. Had they been properly convicted, we might never have needed a Black Lives Matter movement.
Marijuana wasn’t mentioned. Toking game for next time: take a toke every time DeSantis mentions Soros, or flip flops, or Pence mentions God.
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