Nikki Haley called Vivek Ramaswamy “scum” after he attacked her 25-year-old daughter for having a TikTok account while she sat in the audience at the third Republican presidential debate on Wednesday.
Ramaswamy went after the former South Carolina governor during the tense showdown in Miami between candidates trying to narrow the gap with GOP front-runner Donald Trump.
But Haley erupted when Ramaswamy delivered a low blow by targeting her family after he called Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky a “Nazi” in “cargo pants.”
“In the last debate she made fun of me for joining TikTok when her own daughter had actually been using the app for a long time, so maybe you should take care of your own family first,” he said.
“Keep my daughter’s name out of your voice,” Haley replied. “You’re just scum.”
The crowd booed Ramaswamy’s insult on a night that began with him lashing out at the NBC anchors and his rivals.
Haley’s daughter Rena works as a pediatric nurse in South Carolina and was in the audience at the Florida debate.
At the end of the evening, Rena came on stage to hug her mother. Ramaswamy, whose wife and sons came on stage to greet him, swerved around the duo to avoid them.
Vivek Ramaswamy (right) attacked Nikki Haley’s (left) 25-year-old daughter Rena, who he said was on Tiktok, after Haley criticized him for being on the app. “You might want to take care of your own family first,” he said. “Keep my daughter’s name out of your voice,” Haley replied, adding, “You’re just scum.”
The crowd booed as the heated conversation became more personal.
Afterward, Haley told NBC News that as a mother, she wanted to defend her daughter.
“I am a mother. “So as soon as you start saying something about my 25-year-old daughter, I fight back,” she explained.
“But it’s not just about the personal. “I just have so many problems with him,” she continues, describing her differences with Ramaswamy on foreign policy and other issues.
And she took a final swipe at her rival: “I don’t even give him the time of day,” she said of Ramaswamy. “He has just proven that he is unfit to be president of the United States.” We have really serious problems. … Those are the things I wanted to talk about — not the fact that he got the wrong size of my heels.”
Meanwhile, Ramaswamy stepped up his attack, saying a candidate’s adult child was fair game. Ramaswamy has two young sons.
“I think that’s a fair question about the lack of self-confidence,” he told CNN. Saying “no” isn’t a low blow to caring for Haley’s adult daughter.
Ramaswamy was in attack mode from the start of the third Republican primary debate, at times brutal in taking down his rivals and other top party figures.
He used his opening statement to offer Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel the opportunity to take the stage and resign. And he criticized the debate moderators, calling them Democrats and falsely accusing them of manipulating the 2020 election results so that Donald Trump lost.
He also lashed out at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, calling the war hero a “Nazi” and “a comedian in cargo pants.” Zelensky is Jewish.
“Ukraine is not a model of democracy,” he noted. “It celebrated a Nazi in its ranks – the comedian in cargo pants, a man named Zelensky – who did it in its own ranks. ‘It’s not democratic.’
Nikki Haley with her daughter Rena on the debate stage. She works as a pediatric nurse in South Carolina and was in the audience at the Florida debate.
Michael Haley and Nikki Haley with their daughter Rena and her husband Joshua Jackson
Haley went after him again.
‘I’ll tell you [Vladimir Putin] and president [Xi Jinping] My mouth is watering at the thought of someone like that becoming president. “They would like to see that,” she said, pointing at Ramaswamy.
Many Republicans called on the U.S. to stop funding Ukraine’s fight against Russia, arguing that the money would be better spent in the United States.
Ramaswamy was one of Ukraine’s biggest critics, but his personal attack on Zelensky went a step further than in the past.
“To portray this as some kind of battle between good and evil, don’t believe me,” Ramaswamy said of the war in Ukraine.
Chris Christie then also attacked Ramaswamy and warned: “Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.”
But it was Ramaswamy who delivered the evening’s hardest blows so far, accusing Haley of profiting from her political career and hurling insults on the debate stage.
He called Haley, who is in third place in several polls just behind runner-up Ron DeSantis, a “Dick Cheney in three-inch heels.”
Haley hit back: “I want to start by saying that they are 5 inch heels and I don’t wear them unless you can walk in them.”…The second thing I would say is that I wear high heels and they don’t serve as a fashion statement. They are for ammunition.’
Ramaswamy left all the candidates – including the party president – burning with anger.
He called on Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel to resign, saying she was responsible for the party’s losses in Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio on Tuesday night.
“Since Ronna McDaniel took over as RNC chairwoman in 2017, we’ve lost in 2018, 2020, 2022 – not a red wave that never came.” “We got trounced last night in 2023,” he said.
“And I think we need to have accountability in our party. By the way, Ronna, if you want to come on stage tonight, you want to look the GOP voters in the eye and tell them you’re resigning, I’m giving you my time.”
Vivek Ramaswamy and his wife Apoorva watch as their three-year-old son Karthik does a somersault in his father’s arms on stage at the end of the debate
Vivek Ramaswamy and Nikki Haley greet the crowd after the debate
The five candidates on stage for the third Republican primary debate: Chris Christie, Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy and Tim Scott
At the end of the debate, Ramaswamy stood at the edge of the stage and bent down to speak to McDaniel, who was sitting in the front row. The two appeared to be having a very heated conversation, chatting animatedly and waving at each other.
Additionally, Ramaswamy attacked NBC News anchors Lester Holt and Kristen Welker, saying the anchors should be replaced by former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson, podcast host Joe Rogan and Tesla and X CEO Elon Musk .
“Kristen – I will take advantage of this time because this is about you in the media and the corrupt media establishment, you ask – the Trump-Russia collusion hoax that you have been spreading on this network for years was so real or made Hillary Clinton .” – Disinformation? Answer the question. “Go,” he demanded.
The NBC News anchor didn’t have a chance to respond as the audience applauded and cheered.