Democratic President Joe Biden trolled former Republican President Donald Trump with just three words and shared a clip of former GOP South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley taking a swipe at Trump and her Republican primary challengers.
During the first Republican primary debate in Milwaukee on Wednesday night, Haley lambasted Republicans for contributing to the increase in government spending and inflation.
When moderator Martha MacCallum asked Haley's thoughts on GOP primary rival and political newcomer Vivek Ramaswamy’s significant lead ahead of her in the polls, Haley replied:
"Well, I don’t care about polls."
"What I care about the fact is that no one is telling the American people the truth."
She then reminded Americans that Trump, for whom she served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, added to the national debt increase of approximately $8 trillion during his time at the White House.
"Our kids are never gonna forgive us for this," she said.
Trump, who is the GOP primary frontrunner, was notably absent from the debate.
Biden shared the clip of Haley's speech on X (formerly Twitter) and wrote:
"What she said."
Dark Brandon stans were here for it.
Before burying Trump, Haley tried to make the case that she—and not any of the other Republicans on the stage—is best to preside over the economy.
"The truth is that Biden didn’t do this to us. Our Republicans did this to us too," said Haley of the economy.
"They need to stop the spending, they need to stop the borrowing, they need to eliminate the earmarks that Republicans brought back in, and they need to make sure they understand these are taxpayer dollars, it’s not their dollars."
"And while they’re all saying this, you have Ron DeSantis, you’ve got Tim Scott, you’ve got Mike Pence, they all voted to raise the debt and Donald Trump added 8 trillion to our debt and our kids are never gonna forgive us for this."
"And so at the end of the day, you look at the 2024 budget, Republicans asked for 7.4 billion in earmarks, Democrats asked for 2.8 billion."
"So you tell me who are the big spenders. I think it’s time for an accountant in the White House."
Haley also referred to Trump as the “most disliked politician in America.”
She also praised former Vice President Mike Pence–who is also aiming for a presidential nomination–for his actions during the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol despite Trump pressuring him in his efforts to help overturn the 2020 election.
One of her highlights from the debate was when she went after Ramaswamy during a heated discussion on Russia.
As a defender of the U.S. supporting Ukraine, Haley told the Ohio entrepreneur and first-time political candidate:
“You have no foreign policy experience, and it shows."
Following the GOP showdown on Wednesday, Haley became the 12th woman ever to participate in a U.S. presidential debate in the nation's history of presidential politics.
She follows Carly Fiorina and Michele Bachmann as only the third Republican woman to appear on a presidential debate stage.
@lpeterp/Bluesky
@FPWellman/X
@bobsbeatgmail.com5/Threads