Nikki Haley, the GOP presidential candidate for 2024 on Fox News in late April was asked about a lawsuit Disney had filed against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Disney claims that “a targeted government retaliation campaign” threatens Disney’s operations and jeopardizes the economic future of Disney in the region.
Haley responded by going full corporate, praising her record as South Carolina governor in attracting business to the state. She also invited Disney to bring “70,000+” jobs to her state. Haley’s tweet was a direct attack on DeSantis. She took a page from fellow Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who is running in 2024.
She wrote, “SC is not woke but we are not sanctimonious either,” at the time.
Haley’s remarks were widely criticized, not only because they were an attack on DeSantis, but also because most conservatives seem to agree that the GOP nominee for president must be prepared to fight against the worst elements that the Democratic Party and its willing accomplices from Woke Corporate America want to do to this country.
Haley has doubled down on her attacks on DeSantis, calling him “thin-skinned” for his feud with Disney, despite the fact that he received $50,000 from the company. As if a politician accepting money from a company and then calling them out on their harmful political activism in issues involving kids is bad.
NEW: Nikki Haley lowers the boom on @GovRonDeSantis. Says his dispute w/ Disney shows he has “thin skin” and points out his hypocrisy on the matter. “DeSantis took $50,000 worth of contributions from Disney.” Watch the EXCLUSIVE interview here! https://t.co/AyCzJEyuW0 @NikkiHaley… pic.twitter.com/ciRCDHZGCB
— David Brody (@DBrodyReports) May 9, 2023
For the reasons I mentioned above, this line of attack is stupid. This is a bad thing. I mean, a politician refusing to bow down to a corporation just because it gave them a large amount of money?
Another jab that she made at DeSantis, which was not included in the clip above, also missed the mark. I will explain why in a moment.
She claimed that DeSantis had not been decisive in his decision to delay a possible presidential announcement.
She left out a few inconvenient details in her rant. Most notably, she did not appear to be “decisive”, when it came down to the issue that was, without doubt, the most divisive in modern South Carolina’s history: whether or not to allow the Confederate flag to continue to fly at state Capitol grounds.
Haley has been largely credited with being the person who pushed for the removal of the flag after the racist murders of nine Emanuel AME members of Charleston, South Carolina, in June 2015. However, Haley dodged the issue for years before that. As a legislator, and later as governor, Haley avoided the subject, even though the boycott by the NAACP of South Carolina cost the state millions of dollars in lost revenue each year from sports events and businesses.
The Washington Post published a timeline that was surprisingly fair and thorough of Haley’s wishy-washy position on the issue when she was a South Carolina politician, which started to change after the mass shooting. She has since tried to bring in “nuances” into the debate and angered many people on both sides.
Haley, who is “decisive”, has also gone back and forth on Trump. She said in 2016 that Trump was unfit to hold office, but then turned around and worked in his administration. She then criticized him once again after leaving, saying that America must move on from the Trump years.
Strangely, she has echoed Trump’s bizarre attack on DeSantis in regard to his war on wokeness, which for many conservatives is a defining issue of our time.
Haley would be mistaken for Trump’s Vice Presidential nominee if he wins the nomination again. Since I do not know any other way, that is what I will say. Haley’s claims that DeSantis is “thin-skinned” when he is the only Republican on “our side,” who takes the fight to all the people it needs to, make no sense.
