Looking for a way to slow Nikki Haley’s rise in the GOP presidential race, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida is warning voters that she is soft on Palestinian resettlement in the U.S. and more interested in political correctness than sound policy plans.
Ms. Haley, a former U.S. ambassador to the U.N., countered that Mr. DeSantis is spreading lies about her because he is slipping in the polls and growing desperate.
Mr. DeSantis started the fight by telling voters Ms. Haley wants to roll out the welcome mat for Palestinians fleeing the Israel-Hamas conflict. He hammered home the message day after day this week, labeling Ms. Haley a “corporate Republican” and lumping her in with “more of the open borders type.”
Team Haley insisted the facts tell a different story.
“To no surprise, DeSantis’ campaign is spiraling out of control and now he’s running scared of his biggest threat — Nikki Haley — who also happens to be the only candidate who can beat Joe Biden,” the Haley campaign said in a press release accompanying a new television ad promoting her calls to “finish” Hamas. “The truth is, Ambassador Haley is the candidate America needs right now to take on Hamas, Iran, and all our nation’s enemies.”
The back-and-forth between the two Republicans follows a series of polls that show Ms. Haley gaining ground in the nomination battle and that Mr. DeSantis is no longer the consensus alternative to former President Donald Trump.
Former President Donald Trump remains the prohibitive favorite in the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
Ms. Haley now sits in second place in New Hampshire and in her home state of South Carolina, which are both prized early-voting states in the nomination race.
Mr. DeSantis still holds the No. 2 slot in Iowa, home to the kick-off Republican caucus where Christian conservatives tend to flock toward pro-Israel politicians.
Mr. DeSantis’ fundraising also cooled off over the last three months while Ms. Haley’s cash grab stayed steady.
With that as a backdrop, Mr. DeSantis has looked to distance himself from his rivals by taking a hardline against welcoming Palestinian refugees into the U.S.
He also has painted Ms. Haley as soft on China.
On Wednesday, Mr. DeSantis called on his rivals to join him in opposing President Biden’s announced plan to send $100 million of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, warning it would end up in the hands of Hamas.
Mr. DeSantis says he has sympathy for the Palestinian refugees, but it is simply too risky to jet them to America. He said Palestinians fleeing Gaza should go to Arab countries in the region.
“You look at how they behave. Not all of them are Hamas, but they are all antisemitic,” Mr. DeSantis said at a recent campaign stop. “None of them believe in Israel’s right to exist.”
Pressed on Mr. DeSantis’ comment during a recent appearance on CNN, Ms. Haley said the U.S. has been careful to delineate between Hammas and Palestinians living in Gaza.
“America has always been sympathetic to the fact that you can separate civilians from terrorists,” she said. “And that’s what we have to do.”
The DeSantis camp pounced on the remarks, saying the U.S. has done a bad job of vetting refugees in the past and Mr. Haley is open to letting Palestinian refugees pour into the country.
“It is not in our interest to be bringing people in from the Gaza Strip to the United States of America,” he said on Fox News radio. “We have to start doing what its in the best interest of the American people and don’t worry about virtue thinking or don’t worry about what elites think about this.”
The Haley camp dismissed the charge, saying she was talking “about DeSantis’s remarks about Palestinians being antisemitic, not about accepting refugees from Gaza.”
“FACT CHECK: DeSANTIS ATTACKS DEEMED ‘FALSE,’” the Haley camp said in an email blast.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.