Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy criticized former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley during the fourth Republican presidential primary debate on Wednesday night in Alabama over recent remarks that she made about anonymous social media accounts.
Ramaswamy made the comments in the NewsNation debate after talking about Wall Street heavyweights who are putting their support behind her campaign.
“Now you have Reid Hoffman, the person who’s effectively George Soros, Jr., funding lawsuits across this country against Donald Trump to keep them off the ballot, funding left-wing causes — we discovered this week that he is one of Nikki Haley’s largest supporters,” Ramaswamy said. “Larry Fink, the king of the woke industrial complex, the ESG movement, the CEO of Blackrock, the most powerful company in the world, now supporting Nikki Haley.”
Ramaswamy said that Haley’s assertion that meeting with those donors does not impact her is false and pointed to remarks that she made last month about anonymous social media accounts.
“It’s after that meeting later that day, that she says that every American needs to be doxxed by having their ID, their government issued ID tied to what they say on the internet,” Ramaswamy said.
Haley responded to criticisms over billionaires backing her campaign by saying the other candidates were “just jealous.”
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis jumped in and noted that Ramaswamy wrote a book about ESG and said that as governor, he pulled $2 billion away from Blackrock out of Florida’s pension.
“And the fact of the matter is, we know from her history, Nikki will cave to those big donors when it counts,” DeSantis said. “And that is not acceptable.”
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“I did write that book, Ron, and the irony is Nikki Haley was heaping praise on me when I wrote that book,” Ramaswamy responded. “But now I worry, I was warning about the woke industrial complex in this country as a warning. Apparently, she read it as a how-to manual, just like she reads George Orwell’s book as well.”
Ramaswamy said that “the only person more fascist than the Biden regime now is Nikki Haley, who thinks the government should identify every one of those individuals with an ID. That is not freedom, that is fascism, and she should come nowhere near the levers of power, let alone the White House.”
“The only person more fascist than the Biden regime now is Nikki Haley.”
— Vivek Ramaswamy hits Nikki Haley as a “fascist” for her previous statement in support of requiring social media companies to ban anonymous accounts. pic.twitter.com/qFh3JBR1ct
— The Recount (@therecount) December 7, 2023
Haley responded by saying that she wanted social media companies to show the public their algorithms and to crack down on foreign bots.
“That’s not what you said,” Ramaswamy responded. “That’s a lie.”
Haley stated, “I never said government should go and require anyone’s names.”
“That’s false,” Ramaswamy said.
“She said, ‘I want your name,'” DeSantis noted. “As President of the United States, her first day in office, she said one of the first things I’m going to do, all social medias, I want your name.”
Nikki Haley repeatedly shook her head in denial in response to the attacks from DeSantis and Ramaswamy.
Ramaswamy and DeSantis were references comments from Haley that made the rounds on social media last month.
NEW – Nikki Haley Says Allowing People to Post on Social Media Anonymously is a 'National Security Threat’
"Every person on social media should be verified by their name…It gets rid of the Russian bots, the Iranian bots, and the Chinese bots"pic.twitter.com/C6GoT7n1cN
— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) November 14, 2023
NEW – Nikki Haley: "I want everybody's name."pic.twitter.com/q53K690SC0
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) November 14, 2023
“It’d be a massive expansion of government. We have anonymous speech. The Federalist Papers were written with anonymous writers. J. Madison and Hamilton, they went under Publius. It’s something that’s important, especially given how conservatives have been attacked, and they’ve lost jobs, and they’ve been canceled, you know the regime would use that to weaponize that against our own people,” DeSantis added.
.@RonDeSantis attacks @NikkiHaley after her desire to dox anonymous accounts online.
"The federalist papers were written anoynoumously" pic.twitter.com/LesA5DPosy
— Media Research Center (@theMRC) December 7, 2023
Haley responded by stating that as governor, DeSantis “tried to push a law that would stop anonymous people from talking to the press and went so far to say bloggers should have to register with the state if they’re going to talk about write about elected officials.”
“It was in the, check your newspaper, it was absolutely there,” she added.
DeSantis Press Secretary Jeremy Redfern posted a video clip on X from a news conference nine months ago that showed DeSantis addressing the bill, saying that does not support it and never did.
.@GovRonDeSantis, at a press conference 9 months ago:
“There’s articles with my face on it that say ‘Oh! They’re gonna have bloggers have to register with the state!!!’
I’m like, okay, that’s not anything that I’ve ever supported. I don’t support…” pic.twitter.com/BR2ecppsFF
— Jeremy Redfern (@JeremyRedfernFL) December 7, 2023