‘I kick back.’ SC’s Nikki Haley blows off attacks in GOP presidential race
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley says it is a mistake for U.S. Sen. Tim Scott to take shots at her during debates as the two battle for their home state’s favorite son or daughter status in the race for GOP presidential nomination.
Haley has been critical of presidential candidates who have served in Congress, including Scott, whom she appointed to the U.S. Senate in late 2012 after he served one term in the U.S. House.
She has pointed to the growing U.S. debt, which now tops $33 trillion, saying members of Congress have not done enough to slow down government spending..
But Haley stands by her appointment of Scott to the U.S. Senate, to complete the unfinished term of Jim DeMint.
“I appointed Tim Scott because he was the right person at the right time. I think he’s been a good senator,” Haley said Monday after signing paperwork to run in the S.C. Republican presidential primary. “I think South Carolina should be proud of the work that he’s done.”
But in the last Republican debate, the two came to blows, with Scott bringing up the cost of $50,000 curtains, ordered by the Obama administration, which hung in Haley’s U.N. Ambassador home in New York !!when she served under the Trump administration. Scott also fired at Haley for supporting an increase in South Carolina’s gas tax while she was the state’s governor, which she only would support if there was a corresponding income tax cut.
“I have not attacked Tim Scott,” Haley said Monday. “When I am attacked, I kick back, and that’s exactly what I did. I don’t know why his political people are telling him to attack me. I think that’s a mistake. But as far as I’m concerned, I’m not focused on him or any other candidate. I’m focused on saving our country, and that’s what I’ll continue to do.”
But Scott’s campaign says Haley was to the first to fire a shot during the campaign.
“Another example of Nikki saying one thing and doing another,” said Scott campaign spokesman Matt Gorman. “She attacked Tim in her very first answer at the first debate! Her surrogates came after him before he even announced. Roll the tape. She knows there’s no path for a moderate like her to win, so she’s busy tearing a conservative like Tim Scott down.”
Haley has been receiving attacks from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ camp in recent weeks as she climbs in the polls, now sitting in second place in South Carolina and New Hampshire, behind former president Donald Trump. A new Des Moines Register poll has Haley tied with DeSantis for second place in Iowa. Trump, however, is the frontrunner by far for the GOP nomination.
“I texted Nikki yesterday because DeSantis is attacking you for a reason,” said U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman, R-Rock Hill. “And the same thing with Donald Trump, putting the birdcage outside of her room. I texted Nikki, I said, ‘This is great. When the ex-president of the United States is criticizing you, you know you’re doing something right.’”
This story was originally published October 30, 2023 at 2:31 PM.
