In the fourth Republican primary debate in Alabama on Wednesday, 6th December (local time), GOP candidate Vivek Ramaswamy launched a scathing attack on fellow candidate Nikki Haley over the issues of corruption and US aid to war-torn Ukraine.
In the opening minutes of the debate, Ramaswamy critiqued Haley, slamming her for receiving funds from affluent donors, including some who have supported President Joe Biden.
“Reid Hoffman, the person who is effectively George Soros Jr., funding lawsuits across this country against Donald Trump to keep him off the ballot, funding left-wing causes, we discovered this week that he is one of Nikki Haley’s largest supporters,” Ramaswamy said.
This comes after it was reported that Reid Hoffman gave USD 250,000 to a Nikki Haley Super Political Action Committee (PAC).
“After the third debate, when I criticized Ronna McDaniel after five failed years of leadership of this party and criticized Nikki for her corrupt foreign dealings as a military contractor, she said that I have a woman problem. Nikki, I don’t have a woman problem. You have a corruption problem. And I think that that’s what people need to know. Nikki is corrupt,” Ramaswamy said.
Ramaswamy then held up a sign which read “Nikki=Corrupt” while saying “This is a woman who will send your kids to die so she can buy a bigger house. This is the problem…using identity politics more effectively than Kamala Harris is a form of intellectual fraud.” Ramaswamy went on to “reject” the use of identity politics saying that “having two X chromosomes doesn’t immunize you from criticism.”
When asked to respond to Ramaswamy’s remarks, Nikki Haley said, “No, it’s not worth my time to respond to him.”
Vivek Ramaswamy challenges Nikki Hailey to name three regions in Eastern Ukraine
Vivek Ramaswamy questioned Nikki Haley’s foreign policy competence, claiming that “foreign policy experience is not the same as foreign policy wisdom,” and asked about her ability to even name Ukrainian provinces on a map. “One thing that Joe Biden and Nikki Haley have in common is that neither of them could even state for you three provinces in Eastern Ukraine that they want to send our troops to actually fight for”, Ramaswamy said.
With her expressions, Nikki Haley seemed blank as she could actually not think of the names of three Ukrainian provinces. “Look at that…she has no idea where she wants to send our sons and daughters and military equipment to go fight there…” Ramaswamy said.
Sharing a clip from the debate on X, Ramaswamy wrote, “I made a bet that @NikkiHaley couldn’t even name just three regions of eastern Ukraine that she wants to send America’s sons & daughters to die fighting for. Turns out, I was right.”
Interestingly, this is not the first time Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy have been at loggerheads over the issue of foreign policy. In the last Republican debate, Ramaswamy had called the South Caroline Governor “Dick Cheney in 3-inch heels” while accusing her of being a warmonger.
Notably, Vivek Ramaswamy is an Indian-American billionaire campaigning to become the US President. Currently, Ramaswamy stands out as the youngest major Republican presidential contender. He hails from Ohio and holds a biology degree from Harvard University and a Yale Law School diploma. In his speeches, he has taken an anti-war, anti-immigrant, anti-wokeism, and delinking Russia-China alliance stance.