Political strategist Jonathan Harris breaks down the highlights from Wednesday's first Republican presidential primary debate and how Former President Donald Trump's absence affected the event.

<div class="block">Political strategist Jonathan Harris breaks down the highlights from Wednesday&#39;s first Republican presidential primary debate and how Former President Donald Trump&#39;s absence affected the event.</div>

Need2Know Headlines

Highlights From First GOP Presidential Primary Debate 

What were the biggest takeaways from last night? You know, the biggest takeaway for me was I think a lot of people had eyes on DeSantis obviously as a very comfortable second place. But I thought DeSantis was a little bit weaker than expected. The standout for me was actually Nikki Haley. I was really, really impressed with how Nikki Haley separated herself from a lot of the bickering that was going on with some of the other candidates. I thought it was really poignant when she quoted Margaret Thatcher and she said, if you want something, said, ask a man if you want something done, ask a woman, I thought she a very good job at when she took on Vivek when he was talking about defunding Ukraine and Israel and she snapped back at him and said, you have no foreign policy experience and it shows, I thought that was really incredible. And when she called out pence for some of the, the comments about abortion, I thought she held it to the facts, she said about abortion that, you know, there's a lot of the talk about it. But the fact of the matter is you're going to need 60 votes in the Senate and a majority in the House. And they don't have that right now. And she really seemed to keep everything kind of bolted to reality. And we know that some of these Republican debates have, you know, had arguments about the size of people's hands and all kinds of other things that I thought in contrast to some of the arguing with, you know, Vivek and Chris Christie and some of that, she was a very, I thought a very serious candidate on that stage. So it's interesting, Jonathan, we didn't see former President Trump on that stage. But how big did his presence loom over the debate? You know, I thought it was going to be a lot more than it was. But there was obviously that moment where, you know, I think that became the standout moment where Fox, the Fox host asked, would you support President Trump if he was convicted? And the majority of them said yes, Ronda Santi is kind of looking around for support first before, before he said yes. And that kind of really became the takeaway moment. So in that way, I think Trump's presence loomed heavy and it was, you know, I thought some of the criticism of Trump rang a bit hollow because all of the people on that stage had taken a pledge to support whoever the candidate is. And obviously, like I was saying yesterday, according to 538 you got Trump 40 points out ahead of his closest rival, which is the Santa. So you had them kind of criticizing Trump but then kind of agreeing to support him if he got the nomination. So that moment was really the takeaway, I think for a lot of people was even if Trump was convicted of his crimes of the crimes, he's accused of that the majority of them, I think it was six of the eight of them would still support him for president. That was a pretty telling moment, Jonathan when everyone had to raise their hand and you mentioned Rhonda Sanchez looking around for support. So who were the candidates who had the best performances? Who comes out of the night with the most momentum? You know, I think, I don't think Chris Christie lost any ground. I'm not sure that he gained any. I think Vivek really, I was actually shocked at some of the moments when he was booed. Some of the comments he made about climate change were booed. I thought that a lot of the candidates on stage really seemed to go after him a bit. He seemed as though he was almost auditioning more to be Trump's Vice president rather than running for president himself. I think Santi is going to have to really prove that he can stay in this race. He was, there's a video that leaked, I'm not sure if a lot of people have seen it where he was doing debate prep a while ago with Matt Gates and he was very combative in that video. And I think if he's not going to be able to have a better standing in these debates, how are you going to go against Biden? You know, I think he's going to have to show that he can kind of taper down some of that awkwardness and be deserving of his second place standing. What were some of the most prominent issues that were discussed on stage last night, Jonathan? You know, I thought it was really interesting again with Nikki Haley and the way that she spoke about Ukraine, really highlighting that former UN ambassador part of her resume and talking about, I think she made a very clear case. And again, all of this is, you know, depending on where you fall on the political side of the aisle. But if you are a conservative and you are watching it, I think she made a very clear case about why the US is supporting Ukraine because it's an effort to hold back Russia according to what Nikki Haley was saying to hold back Russia and to keep Russia and then she said China was next. And I think she was very clear about why she thinks it's important for the US to support Israel, why she thinks it's important for the US to support Ukraine. And I think whether or not you agree with that or you agree with, you know, republican ideology. I thought she was the most clear and the most concise and really descend into a lot of the bickering and nonsense and even her stance on abortion, abortion coming up very often last night, she highlighted that she has her personal feelings about it, but then also highlighted the difficulty going ahead as far as legislatively, a national ban and how difficult that would be. So, I thought she had a lot of, a lot of great moments that were very clear versus, you know, a lot of bickering. I think Tim Scott, I think a lot of people had eyes on Tim Scott and his was very, very kind of quiet and calm and a little and not as much as you know, people were hoping for from him. So I think Nikki Haley came out pretty good and I think Ron De Santis will probably remain comfortably second place, but I think he's going to definitely have to calm down some of the awkwardness and show why he deserves that second place standing. Ok. Political strategist, Jonathan Harris, Jonathan. Thank you.