Everybody okay? Everybody all right? Everybody make it through okay? Yes we did. Good

evening and welcome to our special coverage of the third Republican

presidential primary debate which was held tonight in downtown

Miami Florida. The debate just wrapped up seconds ago after two hours on stage. You can

see there the debate hall, some of the candidates,

some of the five candidates who participated,

still milling there, people in the audience still milling there.

But just finishing up within the last few moments. I'm Rachel Matto here at

MS NBC headquarters with my colleagues Nicole Wallace and Joy Reed and

R. N. L. Beren, Stephanie Rule and Lawrence O'Donnell. Tonight's debate in Miami was a home game for one of the candidates.

Ron DeSantis, of course, is the Governor of Florida, but heck of a lot of good that's doing him.

A pull out just before this debate shows Governor DeSantis losing his home state at least as far as the polling says

by 39 points against his constituent Florida man and former President Donald Trump, who of course was not at tonight's debate.

Just like the first two debates, former President Donald Trump was a no show again tonight. He was about 10 miles away holding his own

competing event, which was kind of a standard Trump event thing. Tonight's event in downtown Miami

was the first Republican debate not hosted by Fox News.

It was hosted by our NBC news colleagues Lester Holt

and Kristen Welker, along with conservative talk radio host

Hugh Hewitt.

Right out of the gate, the moderators ask the candidates a question that a lot of them have

been either reluctant to answer or had a hard time coming up with an answer

too. It's the very, very basic simple question when the polling looks like this.

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