Tuscaloosa

It wasn’t the Fantastic Four on stage but the squabbling verged on the epic as the quartet of Republican presidential candidates sans Mr. Big faced off in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The stakes were higher for the fourth and final GOP debate that Donald Trump ducked and didn’t want to take place in the first place. But his baleful spirit hovered over it.  Both Florida governor Ron DeSantis and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy looked like Trump Mini-Mes, dressed in the full Trumpian regalia — blue suit, white shirt and iridescent red tie. DeSantis talked about using the military to end the drug menace while Ramaswamy fantasized about wiping out the “administrative state” overnight.

It looks like the Republican National Committee will partner with just about anyone to put on a presidential debate. In a press release released Thursday morning, NewsNation, an upstart cable news network with less than 65,000 nightly viewers as of last year, announced that they will be hosting the fourth GOP debate in December.  It will take place in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. “All of us at NewsNation are incredibly honored to be hosting a presidential primary debate and to be part of what will be another historic election season,” said Sean Compton, president of Nexstar Networks which owns NewsNation.