Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley continued to bash Vivek Ramaswamy on Monday, claiming her Republican 2024 presidential primary foe’s foreign policy positions are “completely naive” and “narcissistic.”
The former United Nations ambassador made the comments at a town hall in Indian Land, South Carolina, slamming the entrepreneur for not valuing the United States’s relationships with important allies and not taking threats from Russia and China seriously.
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“When you have somebody onstage say, ‘I’m going to let Russia have this part of Ukraine, and I’m gonna tell them you can’t do anything with China going forward,’ it’s completely naive,” Haley declared to applause from the audience, per Politico. “And the other thing that bothers me — it is completely narcissistic to think that America doesn’t need friends.”
“We do need friends. We do need allies,” she added.
Haley’s campaign has emphasized her foreign policy experience in having prepared her for the Oval Office and used it to contrast her with Ramaswamy, the opponent with likely the least familiarity with diplomacy and one who stands above her in most national polls.
As important as it is for Haley to highlight her past work and strengths, it is also crucial to her chances in the GOP primary that she performs well in South Carolina, the state from which she hails and was governor from 2011 to 2017. But as of August 19, Haley sits behind former President Donald Trump, Gov. Ron DeSantis, and Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) in the Palmetto State, according to an average from RealClearPolitics.
Her standing may rise after an impressive display at last week’s first GOP primary debate in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. While Scott also calls South Carolina home and will similarly see the state as being integral to his election chances, his lackluster performance onstage could see Haley leapfrog him in polls as the presidential primaries draw ever closer.
What many saw impressive about Haley’s debate performance was her pragmatic viewpoints on topics such as abortion, as well as her emphasis on issues where she knows she stands out, namely, foreign policy. It was here that Haley had strong words for Ramaswamy last Wednesday in one of the most memorable moments of the night.
After a jab from Ramaswamy about a possible “future career on the boards of Lockheed and Raytheon,” the former governor responded, “Under your watch, you will make America less safe. You have no foreign policy experience, and it shows.”
“He wants to hand Ukraine to Russia, he wants to let China eat Taiwan, he wants to go and stop funding Israel,” Haley also said of Ramaswamy. “You don’t do that to friends. What you do instead is you have the backs of your friends.”
The former U.N. ambassador also criticized Ramaswamy for “choosing a murderer” in Russian President Vladimir Putin for indicating support for Ukraine is not a priority for the U.S. The entrepreneur has taken heat for his attitudes toward Ukraine and Taiwan, with rivals arguing his proposed policies display a lack of understanding of international relations.
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Ramaswamy’s camp repeated his stance toward Haley after her comments on Monday, with Tricia McLaughlin, a senior adviser to the Ramaswamy campaign, telling Politico, “Vivek is running for president of the United States, not a board seat on Lockheed Martin.”
Foreign policy does not expect to weigh as heavily on voters’ minds as so-called “kitchen-table issues” such as the economy. However, Haley’s recent approach on the campaign trail could bear fruit as more voters learn about her stances. And it is clear that she will need South Carolina’s favor in order to raise her chances of securing the Republican nomination.
