Fact-check: Republican candidates face off at fourth 2024 GOP debate

Fingers pointed and tempers flared as four Republican candidates for the 2024 presidential nomination faced off during the fourth primary debate. 

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy squabbled about electability, corruption and support for Israel during the event in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. They also discussed support for former President Donald Trump, the GOP front-runner, who skipped this debate as he had the previous three.

Here, we fact-check their claims.

DeSantis: "I did a bill in Florida to stop the gender mutilation of minors. It's child abuse and it's wrong. She opposes that bill. She thinks it's fine and the law shouldn't get involved with it." 

This claim has two parts, and each needs more context.

In May 2023, the Florida Legislature passed a bill that banned gender-affirming surgeries for minors. Experts told PolitiFact that gender-affirming surgeries are not the same as genital mutilation. And the law didn’t ban just surgeries  — it banned all gender-affirming medical care, including puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, which are supported by most major U.S. medical organizations. 

Surgeries are rarely provided as part of gender-affirming care for minors. 

In a June CBS interview, Haley said when it comes to determining what care should be available for transgender youth, the "law should stay out of it and I think parents should handle it." She followed up by saying, "When that child becomes 18 if they want to make more of a permanent change they can do that."

Haley’s campaign pointed to a May ABC appearance in which she said that a minor shouldn’t have a "gender-changing procedure" and opposed "taxpayer dollars" funding one. 

China

DeSantis and Haley repeated familiar attacks on China. DeSantis quipped that Haley wrote a "love letter" to recruit Chinese business to South Carolina when she was governor. Fox News reported that Haley wrote to Chinese Ambassador Cui Tiankai in 2014 during her governorship, writing, "We consider your country a friend and are grateful for your contributions on the economic front." She recruited multiple Chinese companies to the state, including a fiberglass company with connections to the Chinese Communist Party.

Haley shot back that DeSantis accepted campaign support from a "Chinese" refrigerant company. McClatchy reported DeSantis held a 2022 rally at iGas USA, a Tampa-based refrigerant company, which has "backing from China." CEO Xianbin (Ben) Meng wrote DeSantis a check in August for more than $11,000, [McClatchy reported].

As Haley continued, DeSantis brought up how fact-checkers have not found "one instance of me recruiting a Chinese business" to Florida. That’s consistent with what PolitiFact reported this month.

Haley: "I said that if you have to be 18 to get a tattoo, you should have to be 18 to have anything done to change your gender."

During the debate, Haley likened her position on gender-affirming care for minors — that it should be up to parents until the child is 18 — to age requirements for getting a tattoo: "I said that if you have to be 18 to get a tattoo, you should have to be 18 to have anything done to change your gender." 

We’ve heard that comparison before. For what it’s worth, two-thirds of U.S. states allow minors to get tattoos if their parents consent. And medical experts have told us gender-affirming care is in many cases considered medically necessary, while tattoos are cosmetic.

DeSantis: Biden wants "a central bank digital currency"

This is misleading. President Joe Biden has not proposed a central bank digital currency. In March 2022, he issued an executive order directing a feasibility study for one, however. As a result, the Federal Reserve is studying the pros and cons of a central bank digital currency, as are dozens of countries.

The Federal Reserve said a central bank digital currency would not replace cash. It also said it has not decided to institute such a system, and that congressional approval would be required to create one.

DeSantis also said during the debate that a central bank digital currency would take away Americans’ privacy and regulate their purchases.

DeSantis’ press secretary, Bryan Griffin, told PolitiFact in April the fact that the Fed is studying it "leaves plenty of room for concern." But experts we spoke with in March said current U.S. laws wouldn’t permit the kind of control and surveillance DeSantis described.

Ramaswamy: "These people want to send your sons and daughters to go die in Ukraine. They’ve been arguing for it for a year."

The other candidates have not said this.

In the second Republican debate, on Sept. 27, DeSantis said, "It's in our interest to end this war. And that's what I will do as president. We are not going to have a blank check. We will not have U.S. troops."

Haley said at an August campaign stop, "I don’t think we need to put troops on the ground. But what we do need to do is get with our allies and make sure they have the equipment and ammunition they need to win."

Although Christie has strongly supported Ukraine in its fight against Russia, we couldn’t find an instance in speeches and other public statements in which he backed sending U.S. troops to fight there.

Haley, "We now know that 50% of adults 18 to 25 think that Hamas was warranted in what they did with Israel. That’s a problem."

When PolitiFact checked the polls in early November, we found a Harvard-Harris survey that found 48% of American 18-to-24 year olds said they sided with Hamas after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel. However, it was based on a subsample of 199 people with a large margin of error.

The responses to other questions were also inconsistent with that view. Respondents in that subgroup said, by 2-1 margins, that Hamas’ Oct. 7 action "was a terrorist attack"; that the attacks "were genocidal in nature"; that Israel has "a responsibility" to retaliate "against Hamas terrorists"; and that Hamas "is a terror group that rules Gaza with force and fear and is not supported by them."

Three other polls found lower rates of support for Hamas, we reported.

Ramaswamy: "I think the north star here is transgenderism is a mental health disorder."

PolitiFact rated Ramaswamy’s claim False after he introduced it at the second primary debate.

In the past, the medical community used to view the experience of being transgender as a "disorder," but they no longer agree on that categorization. In the last decade, diagnostic manuals published by the World Health Organization and American Psychiatric Association contained updated language to clarify that being transgender is not a mental illness. Experts told us that persistent gender dysphoria can cause other mental health issues, but it is not itself a mental health disorder.