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'Every Time I Hear You I Feel a Little Bit Dumber': Nikki Haley Smacks Down Opponent in Debate

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  September 27, 2023 10:45 PM

During the second RNC debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, former Gov. Nikki Haley (R-SC) once again had a viral moment going up against Vivek Ramaswamy. Less than pleased with Ramawamy's defense about his use of TikTok, a frustrated Haley declared "this is infuriating, because TikTok is one of the most dangerous social media apps that we could have." As Ramaswamy tried to jump in, Haley cut herself off to say "honestly, every time I hear you I feel a little bit dumber for what you say."

Speaking over a stunned crowd reaction and Ramswamy, Haley added it's "because I can't believe--here you've got a TikTok situation, what they're doing--a 150 million people are on TikTok." She went on to issue a warning reminding that "that means they can get your contacts, they can get your financial information, they can get your text messages, they can get all of these things." 

The back-and-forth got more heated as the two candidates sought to speak over each other with Haley pointing out that "China knows exactly what they're doing, and what we've seen is you've gone and you've helped China make medicines in China, not America," bringing up other issues Ramaswamy was asked about. "You're now wanting kids to go get on this social media that's dangerous for all of us, you were in business with the Chinese that gave Hunter Biden $5 million dollars."

Haley went on to insist with great emphasis "we can't trust you" to Ramaswamy, reiterating a call to ban TikTok.

Ramswamy's response, when given 15 seconds to himself to respond, was to take issue with "personal insults," as he insisted the Republican Party would be better served by not engaging in them and instead "actually have a legitimate debate on policy."

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Earlier in that same debate, Ramaswamy had spoken about the need for young people to not go on addictive social media apps. This was in context of he mentioned he had the parents of a young man who died from acquiring Percocet laced with fentanyl that he acquired from Snapchat. 

Banning TikTok was discussed by many members of Congress earlier this year, though Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) spoke to Townhall ahead of the debate about the need for candidates to discuss China more on the debate stage, including but not solely as it applies to banning TikTok. 

Haley also went viral in her exchange with Ramaswamy in the first RNC debate from last month in Milwaukee, as Haley went after Ramswamy for his lack of foreign policy experience.