Ramaswamy shuts down suggestion that comment about Haley’s daughter was low blow
Republican presidential candidates from left, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, participate in a Republican presidential primary debate hosted by NBC News Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2023, at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County in Miami. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy denied that citing former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley’s daughter on the GOP debate stage Wednesday was a “low blow” in a post-debate conversation with CNN’s Dana Bash.
During the debate, Ramaswamy went after Haley for criticizing his use of Tiktok.
“She made fun of me for actually joining TikTok, while her own daughter was actually using the app for a long time,” he said.
Haley immediately shot back.
“Leave my daughter out of your voice,” she said before referring to Ramaswamy as “scum.”
Ramaswamy said the comment was a snide critique of Haley’s parenting.
“The error is somebody sanctimoniously lecturing the rest of the country about the perils of [TikTok] while actually failing to set an example of leadership a little closer to home,” he said. “We have to show up and engage with the next generation. That’s the point I was making, and I stand by it.”
Ramaswamy called out other GOP candidates for refusing to use the app, which he has embraced in an attempt to court younger voters.
“I think that this is part of my problem with the older generation of Republicans,” he said. “They say, ‘Well, TikTok has some vague bad things with China,’ failing to recognize even American-owned companies hand over their user data to China.”
“People in their own communities, schools, families, young people are using it, and we’re doing them a disservice by not showing up and actually engaging with [the app],” he continued.