Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley on Thursday said her GOP rival Vivek Ramaswamy “threw a petty shot,” when addressing their ongoing feud during an interview with Fox News.
At the third primary debate in Miami, Haley called Ramaswamy a “scum” after he brought up her daughter during an exchange about TikTok. Haley said she was “showing a lot of restraint” in this moment.
“Even though it was a personal shot, and it was a shot that wasn't necessary, I think the bigger point is there are big differences between me and Ramaswamy. He doesn't think we should be helping Israel. He thinks that we should let Putin have Ukraine,” Haley said.
"We have real issues on that debate stage that differentiate us and that's what I wanted to talk about. He threw a petty shot there. It says more about him than it does about me,” she added.
Haley also responded to former President Donald Trump slamming her during his rally in Hialeah on Wednesday. Trump mocked the former South Carolina governor for previously saying she would not seek her party’s nomination if he opted to run a second time.
“Yes, I said I wouldn't run against him, but it was before we had the fall in Afghanistan, before we saw inflation go through the roof. It was before we lost the mid-terms…We cannot win the issues and fights of the 21st century if we continue to use politicians of the 20th century,” Haley said.
Haley said her strategy to surpass Trump in the polls and become the GOP frontrunner is “slow and steady.”
“It is slow and steady wins the race. We're now surging, second in Iowa, second in New Hampshire, second in South Carolina and we have one more fellow to go after and we'll do it.
Asked about Iranian proxies recently hitting US forces, Haley said it is “infuriating that our military men and women are having to deal with this.”
“The way to deal with that is you completely go and slam the infrastructure where the strikes are taking place. Eliminate their [Iran] ability to do any strikes to our men and women and let them know there will be hell to pay if they hurt an American soldier,” the former UN ambassador said.