As Haley Does Well, She Tells Vivek: Every Time I Hear You, I Feel A Little Bit Dumber
SIMI VALLEY, CA (IANS) – At the second Republican presidential debate, Indian-origin candidates Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy did not mince words when it came to attacking each other, with the former South Carolina Governor telling the tech entrepreneur that “every time I hear you, I feel a little bit dumber”.
The debate on September 27 night took place at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library here, and was hosted by the Fox Business Network and Univision.
Besides Haley and Ramaswamy, the other participating candidates were Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, former Vice President Mike Pence, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum.
While former President Donald Trump skipped the debate this time as well, former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, who appeared in the first Republican presidential primary debate on August 23, did not meet the heightened polling and fundraising standards.
The 38-year-old Ramaswamy irked Haley, 51, by defending his collaboration on Chinese short-video-making app TikTok with influencer Jake Paul, reports The New York Post.
“There’s exactly one person in the Republican Party which talks a big game about reaching young people, and that’s me,” the 38-year-old Indian-origin boasted.
When it was her turn, Haley fired back and said: “TikTok is one of the most dangerous social media assets that we could have… Honestly, every time I hear you, I feel a little bit dumber.”
She also touched on the national security concerns surrounding TikTok and referenced its historical ties to the Chinese Community Party.
In his reply, Ramaswamy said: “We will be better served as a Republican Party if we’re not sitting here hurling personal insults and actually have a legitimate debate about policy.”
Even during the first Republican presidential primary debate on August 23, Haley had criticized Ramaswamy taking aim at his foreign policy views.
Meanwhile, some of the other participating candidates also took aim at the tech entrepreneur, who is the youngest among them all, reports The New York Post.
Senator Scott said: “Vivek just said we were all good people, and I appreciate that. Because in the last debate, he said we were all bought and paid for. I thought about that for a little while.
“I can’t imagine how you could say that, knowing that you are just in business with the Chinese Communist Party and the same people that funded Hunter Biden millions of dollars was a partner of yours as well.”
Former Vice President Pence also slammed Ramaswamy’s resistance to military aid to war-torn Ukraine.
Ramaswamy is currently polling in fourth place in the latest RealClearPolitics aggregate of the 2024 Republican pack.
Pradeep Srivastava
/
I have the following comments.
1. It seems all the opponents of Trump have given up on defeating Trump, who has a commanding lead over all of them, and are, instead, focused on winning the second spot. What’s the point? Are they shooting for the Vice President slot or a cabinet position should Trump become the president? Or, are they just trying to gain some visibility so that they could run for an office in the future or maybe write and sell books?
2. It was the second time I found Nikki Haley sparring with Vivek Ramaswami. Being an Indian American myself, and having known many Indian Americans, what I have noticed is that Indian Americans compete more with each other than with the mainstream Americans. That’s unfortunate. Being disunited has hurt Indians in India in the past because the foreign invaders took advantage of that. And, by the same token, being disunited in a foreign country will not help the Indian Americans. However, I do like the concept of “disagreeing without being disagreeable”, which is what I would recommend if there are policy differences.
3, Ramaswami’s reluctance to military aid to Ukraine which is fighting its invader, Russia, is incomprehensible to me. It seems he is a “Putin Republican”, akin to Trump and the MAGA Republicans. No wonder he has been called “The Skinny Trump “!
4. I personally didn’t see anything wrong with Ramaswami using Tik Tok to connect with the young voters. You have to connect with them wherever they are. If they are on Tik Tok, you connect with them on Tik Tok.
September 29, 2023Qmind.
/
This country is in The Crossroads of deriliction and destruction. The last time there was prosperity and peace was when Clinton was President and there was in fact a budget surplus !! Lunheard of ! Now we are 35 trillion and counting in the hole and we have what Trump calls “Bird Brain” like Nikki Haley who is a retard compared to Vivek, thinking she will be elected president. This woman is comparable to Cynthia May of UK vs Rishi Sunak. We all know what a disaster it was.. Trump has said he will never have her in the cabinet or any of his followers will have it have her in the cabinet she is basically at stooge pigeon supported by some wealthy donors who know they can control a woman better than someone like Trump or Vivek or De Santis.This is not a time for partisan it is a time for person or personality versus partisan if this country has to get out of this sinkhole we are in only ones who can save this country right now is Trump and Vivek.
Dictated but not edited
September 30, 2023