Governor Ron DeSantis’s presidential campaign is stepping up its attacks against opponent Nikki Haley this week, criticizing her record on China and accusing her of supporting “CCP-style” and “dangerous” government policies.
In a new ad released on Wednesday, the DeSantis campaign scrutinized her record while serving as South Carolina Governor from 2011 to 2017. The one-minute video included news clips spliced together, comparing Haley’s soft-on-China approach with Joe Biden’s and noting that she recruited Chinese companies to do business in her state. In one clip, Haley refers to China as a “friend.”
“You look at their [China’s] infrastructure – they are everywhere in the world now and they want to continue to do that so they have a stronghold. And what we need to do is say, ‘That’s fine,'” Haley says during one segment.
At another point in the video, Haley encourages a supporter to “don’t believe what you read on the internet” when asked why she gave “thousands” of acres of land to China.
“We already have a pro-China liberal in the White House. We don’t need another one in Nikki Haley,” the DeSantis campaign said.
The video also noted that Chinese investments in South Carolina grew from $308 million at the start of Haley’s term to nearly $670 million in 2015.
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We already have one pro-China liberal in the White House.
We don't need another. pic.twitter.com/NGToOJ8uUO
— DeSantis War Room 🐊 (@DeSantisWarRoom) November 15, 2023
The DeSantis campaign has also continued to hammer Haley this week over her calls to ban anonymous social media users. In an interview with host Glenn Beck on Wednesday, DeSantis drew a parallel between Haley’s proposed speech measures and the authoritarianism of Communist China.
“Forcing disclosure of names and registration, that’s what China has done. China did that recently. That is totally inappropriate for the United States of America,” the Florida Governor said.
A statement published that same day from campaign press secretary Bryan Griffin also compared Haley’s policies to that of China, accusing her of laying “groundwork” for a “CCP-style, dangerous government.”
“Once again, Nikki Haley admits she’s out of touch on a key issue and then runs for cover when the heat gets turned up on her. But it’s no wonder she’s running from this one. This idea harkens back to the ‘Russian disinformation’ charade pushed by the DC establishment and corporate media as a pretext for censoring dissent. And it would lay the groundwork for CCP-style, dangerous government overreach like social credit scores.
He continued,
“No matter how she tries to spin it, Haley can’t take back her ‘Day One’ plan to have the government strip Americans of their First Amendment rights, just like she can’t take back her record of rolling out the red carpet for China, refusing to block men from using women’s bathrooms, pushing a gas tax, and siding with BLM rioters,”
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"Haley simply revealed views that a significant number of voters will find troubling. In any case, Haley has created a new controversy for herself."
— @ByronYork writing about Haley's "big unforced error"https://t.co/9pnSENpUSU pic.twitter.com/fUVffBdqjV
— DeSantis War Room 🐊 (@DeSantisWarRoom) November 15, 2023
In response to the attacks, a spokesman for the Haley campaign attempted to shift blame to DeSantis, accusing him of being soft on China.
“Ron DeSantis aggressively recruits Chinese companies and investment to Florida,’ the spokesman told the ‘Daily Mail’ in a statement. “He even scrubbed the Florida government website of proof of his recruitment. He signed a multimillion-dollar contract with a Chinese aircraft company and allowed a sanctioned, Chinese-owned company to expand near a military base.”
“Ron DeSantis is lying about his record because he’s losing, and he’ll say anything to try to revive his corpse of a campaign,”
DeSantis signed a series of bills in May banning Chinese citizens from purchasing land in Florida.
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