Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy accused his rival Nikki Haley of leaning into identity politics Wednesday after the former ambassador to the United Nations floated that the biotech entrepreneur “may have a girl problem.”
The two have traded attacks throughout the campaign, but the dispute went to another level after last week’s third debate in Miami — during which Ramaswamy called Haley “Dick Cheney in three-inch heels” and criticized her adult daughter for using TikTok, to which Haley responded by calling the 38-year-old “scum.”
During the same debate, Ramaswamy called for RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel to resign and attacked debate co-moderator Kristen Welker.
Haley addressed Ramaswamy’s attacks in an interview with the “Ruthless” podcast Tuesday.
“He comes out of the gate, he hits the female chair of the party,” the 51-year-old said. “He hits the female anchor on the platform and then he hits me. And I’m not saying anything, but he might have a girl problem.”
“Sorry Nikki, having two X chromosomes doesn’t immunize you, Ronna McDaniel, or Kristen Welker from criticism. I don’t think Kamala Harris is going to run so there might be an opening for you in the party of identity politics,” Ramaswamy responded on X.
Haley is the only female in the GOP primary race. She has consciously modeled herself after former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and painted herself as a strong woman who wears heels “for ammunition” and spoke out against the “hypocrisy” of feminism in her book, “If You Want Something Done: Leadership Lessons from Bold Women.”
Being a feminist should not be about “victimhood,” but about “working hard and proving you deserve to be in the room,” Haley wrote.
She added that she had been treated unfairly at various moments in her life due to her skin color and gender, and could have “thrown a tantrum and played the victim,” but refused to do so.
Ramaswamy, who is Indian-American like Haley, previously made a dig at the former South Carolina governor for not using her full name, referring to her as “Nimrata Randhawa,” instead of her middle name “Nikki.”