A new ad from the super PAC backing former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s presidential campaign accuses Republican presidential rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, of “throwing mud” at the former U.N. ambassador and mischaracterizing her stance on admitting refugees from Gaza into the United States, Florida Politics has reported.
“Poor Ron DeSantis — he’s losing, he’s lying. So now he’s throwing mud at Nikki Haley,” begins the ad from SFA Fund and released in Iowa and New Hampshire.
The narrator then asks for “the truth” before the ad moves to footage of Sean Hannity, who stated that “Nikki Haley has been clear that other Arab countries in the Middle East should be the ones taking in Palestinians.”
The ad comes in response to one put out by the pro-DeSantis PAC, Never Back Down that included remarks from Haley that “we should care about the Palestinian citizens” and “America’s always been sympathetic to the fact that you can separate civilians from terrorists,” according to Florida Politics.
The pro-DeSantis ad also included footage of the Florida governor saying that Haley is “trying to be politically correct” and “trying to please the media and people on the left,” while he says he doesn’t “care about that” and that he would not allow refugees from Gaza into the United States.
The ad also featured comments Haley made in 2017 as U.N. ambassador defending aid to the West Bank and Gaza, in which she said, “We need to do whatever we can to protect the region.”
The pro-Haley ad directly disputes the claims made by Never Back Down, accusations against Haley that DeSantis has reiterated in several media appearances.
In the pro-Haley ad, she says, “I’ve always said we shouldn’t take any Gazan refugees in the U.S.,” and then the ad switches to footage of Fox News’ Stuart Varney stating that “Nikki Haley warned the United Nations about Hamas’ threat to Israel.”
The attacks between the two Republican presidential candidates come as they battle for second place, far behind front-runner and former President Donald Trump, Florida Politics reports.
A USA Today poll released Monday has Haley just 1 percentage point behind DeSantis, at 11% support to his 12% and Trump's 58%.
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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