As the crowd loudly booed Ramaswamy, a visibly angry Haley told Ramaswamy to leave her daughter, who is 25, out of it. “Leave my daughter out of your voice,” she said. “You’re just scum.”
In the third debate of the Florida GOP primary, Indian American IT entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former US envoy to the UN Nikki Haley squared off once more. Following up on their prior primary altercation, Haley referred to Ramaswamy as “scum” after he mentioned her daughter at the third Republican presidential debate on stage in Miami on Wednesday night.
"She made fun of me for joining TikTok at the last discussion even though her own kid had been using the app for a while. So you might want to take care of your family first," Ramaswamy said as the contenders sparred over the video-sharing app, which is controlled by parent firm ByteDance, located in Beijing
“Leave my daughter out of your voice. You’re just scum,” Haley said during the debate in Miami.
Vivek calls out Nikki Haley for criticizing him for using TikTok despite her daughter also using the app.
HALEY: “You're just scum.”
If the shoe fits. 💅 pic.twitter.com/Qz1gvpDu3p
Together with three other Republican candidates for the White House, Haley and Ramaswamy shared the platform in Miami: Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida, and former governor Chris Christie of New Jersey. But former President Trump, the front-runner in the GOP, chose not to take part.
As the GOP contenders for president debated US foreign policy in light of the ongoing Middle East crisis on Wednesday, TikTok once again became a major talking topic. The Chinese software has drawn criticism, with many advocating for an outright prohibition in the US.
Haley and Ramaswamy, although behind Trump in the polls, serve as a reminder of the complex perspectives held by the Indian diaspora and the rising political power of Americans of Indian heritage.