Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley came under fire at the onset of the 2024 debate, attacked by both Vivek Ramaswamy and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) for her comments on a podcast about anonymous accounts online.
The sentiment, which Haley almost immediately walked back, drew harsh criticism from Ramaswamy, who called her “more fascist than the Biden regime.”
Ramaswamy was commenting on the recent news that Special Counsel Jack Smith requested the notifications tab from former President Donald Trump’s Twitter account, calling it massive government overreach and claiming President Joe Biden was seeking everyone’s “retweets.”
Haley, on a podcast, said that she would demand everyone’s ID on social media, as a way to crack down on anonymous accounts. After outrage, she walked it back, claiming it was part of an effort to crack down on bots and state-sponsored actions.
Haley denied making her comments, which both DeSantis and Ramaswamy challenged on her.
Ramaswamy said that Haley reads “George Orwell’s books” as how-to manuals and that we are “marching toward fascism” under Biden, noting the Smith subpoena.
“Haley thinks the government should identify every individual … that is not freedom, that is fascism,” Ramaswamy said.
Haley challenged the characterization, saying she only wanted to boot millions of bots offline.
“We can roll the tape,” replied DeSantis.
“We have anonymous speech, DeSantis said. “The Federalist Papers were written under anonymous speech.
Moderator Megyn Kelly eventually changed the topic, so she could get to Chris Christie for the first time.
