Republican leader and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley targeted Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy during the partys third presidential debate in Miami and even called him a scum after the Indian-origin politician remarked on her daughters TikTok activity.
There are concerns in the USA over TikTok app which is believed by many as being used by China as a potential spying tool.
In the last debate, she made fun of me for actually joining TikTok while her own daughter was actually using the app for a long time. So you might want to take care of your family first, Ramaswamy was quoted as saying by The Hill as the candidates clashed over the video-sharing app, which is owned by Beijing-based parent company ByteDance.
In a heated argument, Haley was quick in replying: Leave my daughter out of your voice.
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Youre just scum, she was quoted as saying by The Hill.
Interestingly, Vivek Ramaswamy joined TikTok this year.
In September, he posted on X: Had dinner with @JakePaul on Sunday. He changed my mind and convinced me to join TikTok. Yes, kids under age 16 shouldnt be using it, but the fact is that many young voters are were not going to change this country without winning. We cant just talk about the importance of the GOP reaching young voters while hiding in our own echo chambers. Its bad when the CCP collects data from U.S. users via TikTok, but the truth is its no better when American companies like Airbnb do the same thing by handing over U.S. user data to China, and were not going to get China to play by the same set of rules until we win this thing. Ill be on there starting later today.
The debate was attended by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott.
Ex-US President Donald Trump, the front-runner in the Republican presidential race, however, remained absent from it.