Vivek Ramaswamy called Nikki Haley “Dick Cheney in three-inch heels” during a discussion about responding to Hamas, and Ms. Haley told Mr. Ramaswamy he is “scum” as the pair discussed the use of TikTok during the Republican presidential debate on Nov. 8. Those exchanges, and comments from the other three participants, prompted independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to take a jab on X.
“I’m loving this Republican debate. It’s fun watching politicians audition for a job they’ll never get,” Mr. Kennedy wrote in one of multiple posts on the social media platform throughout the debate.
Mr. Ramaswamy, Ms. Haley, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Tim Scott (S.C.), and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie took the stage at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County in Florida for the third round of the GOP 2024 presidential debate.
When discussion turned to TikTok, Mr. Ramaswamy cited Ms. Haley’s daughter, Rena Haley, having used the social media forum, whose parent company, ByteDance, is answerable to the Chinese Communist Party.
“Leave my daughter out of your voice,” Ms. Haley shot back. “You’re just scum,” she added.
Ms. Haley has said that her daughter no longer uses TikTok.
“In my first week as president, we would ban TikTok,” Mr. Christie said.
“I think that China is the top threat we face. They’ve been very effective at infiltrating different parts of our society,” Mr. Desantis said.
“These kids get these devices, and they have a mind of their own,” he added.
Fighting Corruption
A key part of Mr. Kennedy’s campaign platform is fighting corporate and government corruption, and working to end censorship and intrusion from the federal government and big tech companies.The wars in Ukraine and the Middle East were widely discussed at the debate, evoking a response from Mr. Kennedy, who has said he would immediately move to end the war in Ukraine if he were elected president.
“40 minutes in and these Republican candidates have only talked about war. What are they going to do to lower your mortgage, your gas prices, your grocery prices? That’s why I’m running for President. I’ll bring the resources home to make our country strong from the inside out,” Mr. Kennedy wrote on X.
Mr. Kennedy has called for de-escalating the war in Ukraine. He says he’s sympathetic to the Ukrainian cause and that Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded the country illegally but he chastised the United States for its role in the conflict.
“We have neglected many, many opportunities to settle this war peacefully,” he said. “We have turned that nation into a proxy war between Russia and the United States.”
Mr. Kennedy has called “the addiction to war” one of the “big problems we have in our federal government.”
“We’ve spent $8 trillion on wars since 9/11. If we kept that money home, we would’ve had childcare for every American. We would have free college education for every American. We’d be able to pay for our Social Security system.”
In one debate exchange on Nov. 8, Mr. Ramaswamy chastised Ms. Haley over her advocacy for Ukraine funding, noting that the country had moved to ban the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which the Ukrainian government claims is taking orders from Russia.
“To frame this as some kind of battle between good vs. evil—don’t buy it,” Mr. Ramaswamy said.
“Do you want U.S. taxpayer money to fund the banning of Christians?” he asked Ms. Haley.
“I am telling you, [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and [China leader] Xi are salivating at the thought that someone like that could become president,” she remarked.
Mr. Kennedy praised Mr. Ramaswamy, who called for “sacrificing” foreign wars and gutting “75 percent” of the federal bureaucracy in order to pay for Social Security.
“Give credit where credit is due. Vivek Ramaswamy makes some good points on Ukraine. Glad to see some of this awareness in the Republican party,” Mr. Kennedy wrote.
The candidates also addressed border security and fentanyl coming flooding the United States from across the southern border. Mr. DeSantis vowed to build a wall at the border “like Donald Trump promised.” Regarding the cartels, Mr. DeSantis promised they would be shot “stone cold dead.”
Ms. Haley reiterated her pledge to ban normal trade relations with China over its role in the fentanyl crisis in the United States. Like Mr. DeSantis, she said she would use the military to pursue the cartels.
Mr. Kennedy, who has also advocated for the completion of the southern border wall that President Donald Trump started, wrote, “Quite a few mentions of the border tonight during the Republican debate, but very few specifics. We must secure the border and stop fentanyl from pouring into our communities.”
Initially, Mr. Kennedy said he wasn’t in favor of former President Trump’s border wall. But after seeing the border firsthand in Arizona in July, he changed his mind. He said there’s a need for increased infrastructure and technology at the border, including more segments of a physical wall and sensors in areas where a wall isn’t feasible.
“The Democratic Party thinks our function should be welcoming all immigrants into the country no matter what, and to basically open the borders. And the experiment has been a disaster, a humanitarian catastrophe,” Mr. Kennedy told The Epoch Times in August.
Mr. Kennedy called the Biden administration’s open border policy “a way of funding a multibillion-dollar drug and human trafficking operation for the Mexican drug cartels.”
“As president, I will secure the border, which will end the cartel’s drug trafficking economy. I will build wide doors for those who wish to enter legally so that the U.S. can continue to be a beacon to the world where diversity and culture make us great,” he said.
“Immigration is good for our country, but this kind of immigration is unfair to everybody.”
Before announcing his run as an independent on Oct. 9, Mr. Kennedy challenged President Joe Biden for the Democrat party nomination and was outspoken in favor of a primary debate.
In a statement released on Nov. 8 before the Republican debate, Mr. Kennedy urged for a three-candidate forum that would also presumably include President Biden and President Trump.
“Tonight is another televised Republican debate. My guess is that it will just be one more flagrant example of political theater: grandstanding, yelling, shouting over each other. Aren’t you a little fed up with that?” Mr. Kennedy wrote.
“Our leaders set the tone for our country. If they can’t treat each other with courtesy, it’s no wonder that our society is becoming so divided,” he added.
“You know, it may seem like a pipe dream, but I’d like to invoke the possibility of a substantive, long-form debate that isn’t about exchanging one-liners, scoring points, and insulting the opponent.”
