President Joe Biden welcomed former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s words with open arms after she went after fellow Republicans’ voting records at the first GOP presidential debate on Wednesday.
Haley, one of the eight candidates to participate in the debate in Milwaukee, jumped on some of her GOP rivals ― Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and former Vice President Mike Pence ― for voting “to raise the debt” while also taking a shot at former President Donald Trump, who named her U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during his term in office. Trump had skipped the debate.
“And Donald Trump added $8 trillion to our debt, and our kids are never going to forgive us for this,” declared Haley in an apparent nod to the national debt increasing by about $7.8 trillion during the Trump administration.
“What she said,” wrote Biden, in a caption alongside a clip of her remarks.
Biden also made other not-so-subtle references to the debate on Wednesday, taking aim at biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who said the “climate change agenda is a hoax,” which was met by a sea of boos from the audience.
“Climate change is real, by the way,” Biden later wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
Haley, amid the candidates’ discussion of climate change, declared that climate change is “real,” as well.
“We do care about clean air, clean water ― we want to see that taken care of, but there is a right way to do it,” she stated on the debate stage.
“The right way is first of all, yes, is climate change real? Yes, it is. But if you want to go and really change the environment, we need to start telling China and India that they have to lower their emissions.”