Kayla Epstein
US reporter

Image source, Getty Images

It's round two of Vivek Ramaswamy vs everybody else. This time, Nikki Haley is in the ring.

"Honestly every time I hear you, I feel a little bit dumber for what you say,” she says to the entrepreneur, after Ramaswamy said he supported TikTok.

The app is popular with young people but has raised concerns of national security issues due to its Chinese ownership. Ramaswamy said he supported supported social media restrictions for young children and teens but did not want to exile the app.

Haley, a former UN Ambassador, proceeded to slam Ramaswamy for his stance on TikTok because she believed American's personal data was not safe with the app and its owners.

The two began to talk loudly over each other, and it was difficult to distinguish what they were saying.

Once again, the debate descended into a melee where it was difficult to hear what each candidate was shouting over the other.

Coincidentally, the debate has cut away to a quick ad break, and the first advert is from TikTok.

Candidates have just responded to a question about whether parents should be notified about their children changing gender identities.

Fox host Dana Perino asks: Would candidates pass a federal law requiring parents to be notified about their child changing gender identities?

The question leads to a larger conversation from the presidential hopefuls about trans-rights issues.

Vivek Ramaswamy expresses his opposition to gender affirmation surgery, claiming "chemical castration" under the age of 18 should not be allowed.

Former Vice President Mike Pence echoes Ramaswamy's comments, claiming he would "stand up for the rights of parents" and pass a federal ban on transgender surgery "anywhere in this country".

The next question turns to China.

Question: Does going after major tech platforms like Google harm the US economy and give China an edge?

"This issue of China is really going to be fundamental," says Governor Ron DeSantis, adding that it is essential that the US beat out China on the economy.

He adds that the US has "contracted out the majority of our needs" to Chinese companies.

DeSantis argues the US must "re-shore" its businesses, and bring them back to the US.

Image source, Getty Images

Candidates are now talking about education on the debate stage.

"Our country's education system is in decline because it's focused on indoctrination, denying parents' rights," begins Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

"Florida represents the revival of American education."

He goes on to boast that he "eliminated critical race theory" and has improved Florida's education system.

"There is not a redeeming quality in slavery," adds Tim Scott, the only black man to serve in both houses of Congress and the only African American candidate in the Republican race.

He is referring to school curriculum adopted in DeSantis's state of Florida that states students should be taught that enslaved people learned some skills they later used to their benefit.

Scott says "America is a great country because we have faced our demons in the mirror and made a decision".

He says that he has personally been discriminated against, but that "America is not a racist country".

Image source, Getty Images

Candidates are now being asked about rising health care costs in the US, which Nikki Haley says is one of the leading causes of bankruptcy for families in America.

Haley complains that patients have "been in the backseat for way too long".

She argues the US needs to "bring competition back to healthcare".

"Once we give the patient the ability to decide their healthcare, deciding which plan they want, that is when we'll see the magic happen," she says.

Before the break, the candidates were asked about gun safety.

Moderator Ilia Calderón begins her question by saying that mental health issues are not a specifically American problem, but mass shootings are.

"The liberal left is hell bent on prosecuting" legal gun owners, says North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum.

"Get back to the core issues of the family," he recommends, and don't try to take guns from those that are legally entitled to have them.

Mike Pence says he is "sick and tired of these mass shootings happening in America".

Pence says he will get Congress to pass a "federal expedited death penalty for anyone involved in a mass shooting so they will meet their fate in month and not years".

We have been hearing from Republicans on our BBC voter panel throughout the night. We're halfway through the debate and a lot has already happened.

Here's what voters Jim and Kathleen think.

Jim Sullivan, Indiana, 53:

Kathleen McClellan, Louisiana, 68:

Image source, Getty Images

Moderators have now turned to the issue of crime. Fox anchor Dana Perino claims crime is a "tremendous problem" in the US and asks candidates what they plan to do about it.

Chris Christie says he plans to appoint an attorney general specifically to "bring our cities back under control".

He then uses the opportunity to take another shot at Donald Trump, claiming he knows the former president is watching and should have to answer the question as well.

“You're not here tonight because you're afraid of being on the stage and defending your record," he says.

"You keep doing that. No one up here is going to call you Donald Trump anymore. We're going to call you Donald Duck."

When Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is asked about crime, he claims that in Florida "we back the blue".

President Biden's personal X, formerly known as Twitter, account just weighed in to tonight's debate, tweeting a video of Ron DeSantis with the caption: "Couldn't agree more".

The clip shows a moment from earlier in the debate where DeSantis attacks Trump and blames him for economic inflation.

"You know who else is missing in action? Donald Trump is missing in action. He should be on this stage tonight," says DeSantis.

DeSantis says Trump added $7.8 trillion in debt and "that set the stage for the inflation we have now".

Kayla Epstein
US reporter

Image source, Getty Images

A sign that Vivek Ramaswamy gained strength in the last debate: candidates are going out of their way to attack him.

Tim Scott, a South Carolina Senator who played it relatively safe in the first debate, came ready to attack Ramaswamy for doing business in China.

What ensued was a multi-candidate pile-up, with the rivals shouting unintelligibly over each other while Ramaswamy insisted, “I was interrupted by lot of people here”.

Next up was Mike Pence, who praised Ramaswamy for pulling out of a deal in China in 2018 before issuing the following dis:

“That must have been about the time he started voting in presidential elections.”

We'll see if they're all still in a fighting mood after the commercial break.

Image source, Getty Images

Now Vivek Ramaswamy is responding to questions about the issue of immigration in the US.

Ramaswamy says he agrees with his Republican colleagues on their views: "Militarise the southern border, stop funding sanctuary cities and end foreign aid to Mexico and Central America," he says.

But he wants to "take it a step further", he says, adding that he favours "ending birthright citizenship for the kids of illegal immigrants in this country".

He says Democrats will likely take issue with him because of the 14th amendment, which grants citizenship to all people "born or naturalized in the United States".

"The difference between me and them is I've actually read the 14th amendment," he claims.

The question on immigration begins with a sound byte from Republican President Ronald Reagan.

In the clip, Reagan speaks of "amnesty for those that have put down roots, though sometime back they may have entered illegally".

Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is asked about his immigration policy

"Treat this like the law enforcement problem that it is," says Christie, himself a former criminal prosecutor.

"Our laws are being broken every day at the southern border. And Joe Biden and his crew are letting it go."

"Donald Trump failed on this as well," he concludes, saying that he failed to build his much touted border wall and make Mexico pay for it.

"It's gotta stop," adds Nikki Haley, who claims border agents are not being permitted to do their jobs.

"Go back to the Remain in Mexico Policy. Instead of catch-and-release go back to catch-and-deport," she says, referring to a policy that required asylum seekers to wait outside of the US during the process.

She also pledged that as president she would "defund sanctuary cities" referring to the Democrat-run cities that refuse to collaborate with federal deportation agents.

Now back to the debate, where moderators have quickly changed the topic to an issue impacting families in the US: rising daycare costs.

Fox anchor Dana Perino notes that as many as 70,000 child care centres are in danger of closing after some pandemic-era funding is set to run out at the end of this month, according to a new report, external.

She notes that Senator Tim Scott had a measure for child care assistance that fell through in the Senate.

Scott blames the Biden administration for rising daycare costs, calling Biden's "Build Back Better" plan the "Build Back Broker" plan.

Mike Wendling
US digital reporter

Image source, Getty Images

Donald Trump has just finished speaking to a crowd in Michigan.

He was about half an hour into his speech before he made the first mention of any of his Republican rivals - targeting Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

"He wanted to destroy Social Security, now he's backpedalling a little bit," Trump said, also criticising his rival's policies about Medicare, the government health plan for the elderly.

It was a very brief attack - before he turned his fire back on his main target, President Biden.

It was a typically lengthy, wide-ranging and hyperbolic Trump speech – almost certainly timed to run into the debate’s start.

He made just one other short allusion to his opponents, calling those on the stage in California “job candidates”.

“They’re all competing for a job,” he said – presumably, he meant a job as his vice-presidential running mate.

Kayla Epstein
Reporting from Simi Valley, California

Ron DeSantis, Trump's main threat, just called out his absence directly.

"Donald Trump is missing in action," he said.

It was a notable moment, and could signal a shift from Trump's main rival.

With the exception of Chris Christie, the Republican candidates have been careful about directly criticising Donald Trump on the debate stage or campaign trail, even thought they're trying to beat him.

He simply remains too popular with the Republican base, the reasoning goes, to savage him too harshly.

But just now, that changed.

DeSantis has leveled some criticism at Trump before, but this is a very direct attack on Trump's decision to hold a rally rather than answer questions for Republican voters.

We'll see if he keeps it up during the rest of the debate.

Image source, Fox Business

It's been a chaotic start to the debate with candidates continually talking over each other, and the moderators.

Now moderators have turned to the topic of a potential government shutdown in the US.

"If the government shuts down, should voters blame populist Republicans?" Chris Christie is asked.

Voters should blame everyone in Washington, DC, Christie responds.

"They get sent down there to do the job and they've been failing at doing the job," Christie says.

"Joe Biden doesn't belong on the picket line he belongs on the unemployment line," begins former Vice-President Mike Pence.

That dig refers to Biden's visit to Michigan to visit striking autoworkers.

He adds that regulations on gasoline and energy are "driving automotive manufacturing into the graveyard".

Tim Scott says his goal is "protecting the America that we all love".

Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley chimes in, saying: "Biden showed up on that picket line but why are those workers actually there?"

She goes on to blame Biden for a rise in inflation, saying that this has driven the protests.

Image source, EPA

With a warning to "keep it civilised" the candidates are now each being given a minute to state their case.

"Americans want to believe a leader who says you can follow me 'I got you don't worry'. President Biden is trying to do that with Bidenomics," says host Dana Perino.

Asked if he would "fire workers" who strike, Senator Tim Scott begins by pointing out that the US president has no ability to fire anyone in the private sector.

The question refers to the striking auto workers in Michigan, where Biden went yesterday and Trump is visiting today.

Scott deflects the question, saying that he should instead focus on protecting the southern border.

Vivek Ramaswamy then chimes in and says: "I don't have a lot of patience for the union bosses, I do have patience for the workers."

He then tells workers they should go picket in front of the White House because of the administration's "disastrous economic policies".

"Unlock American energy, drill, frack, burn coal, embrace nuclear energy," he says.

Republican candidates have taken the stage and the debate has just begun.

The event started with a tribute to former US President Ronald Reagan, as the debate is taking place at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.

Time is running out to make an impactpublished at 01:53 British Summer Time 28 September 2023

01:53 BST 28 September 2023

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America correspondent

To paraphrase American baseball legend Yogi Berra, it’s getting late early for Republican presidential hopefuls not named Donald Trump.

While this is only the second Republican presidential candidate debate and the start of balloting for the party’s nomination is still almost four months away, Trump has had a durable lead over his rivals for months now.

And rather than closing the gap, his closest rival, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, is falling further behind.

The debate comes at a key moment for all of these candidates, just a handful of days before their campaigns have to report fundraising totals for the past three months.

When those numbers are made public next month, they will offer an unvarnished look at which campaigns have been able to continue to attract the support of donors and which ones have coffers that are about to run dry. And the conclusions analysts and party insiders draw from those numbers can amount to a fatal blow for struggling candidates.

As the old political saying goes, campaigns don’t end, they just run out of money.

Tonight’s debate could be the last chance for these candidates to manufacture a dramatic moment that gets their supporters to open their wallets and keep them afloat long enough to have a shot at besting Trump at the ballot box.