Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) called GOP presidential primary rival Nikki Haley’s recent proposal for social media verification “dangerous and unconstitutional” and compared it to the Chinese Communist government.
Haley, the former South Carolina governor turned Trump appointee, is gaining ground on the former president in key states, while DeSantis sees falling poll numbers.
Haley floated the idea of verifying the identity of all social media users during a Fox News interview, in the context of a reported rise in antisemitism amid Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza. She called anonymous posts “a national security threat.”
DeSantis blasted the idea in a post on X, formerly Twitter, Tuesday evening.
“You know who were anonymous writers back in the day? Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison when they wrote the Federalist Papers,” he wrote. “They were not ‘national security threats,’ nor are the many conservative Americans across the country who exercise their Constitutional right to voice their opinions without fear of being harassed or canceled by the school they go to or the company they work for.”
The rivalry between DeSantis and Haley has gotten increasingly heated as both vie for attention under Trump, who remains the front-runner by a wide margin despite his mounting legal issues.
Haley on Tuesday called on social media companies to “show America their algorithms” and said such a plan would cut down online tension and root out foreign adversaries seeking to sow discord in America.
“You’re gonna get some civility when people know their name is next to what they say, and they know their pastor and their family member’s gonna see it,” she said. “It’s gonna help our kids, and it’s gonna help our country.”
DeSantis’s campaign has been struggling to blunt Haley’s rise after three GOP presidential debates since August. The next debate is slated for Dec. 6. Polls have shown the former United Nations ambassador under Trump closing in on second place, a position DeSantis had a firm grip on early after announcing his candidacy.
During a radio interview in Haley’s home state of South Carolina this week, DeSantis questioned Haley’s conservative bonafides, recalling the protests that erupted across the country after George Floyd, a Black man, was killed by a white Minneapolis police officer during a minor arrest in 2020.
“I remember when the George Floyd riots were happening, I called out the National Guard,” DeSantis said in an interview that aired on the conservative Tara Show. “I said, ‘I’m standing with police,’ she was tweeting that it needed to be personal and painful for every single person. I’m thinking to myself, ‘Why does that need to be personal and painful for you or me? We had nothing to do with it.’”
DeSantis accused Haley of “adopting this left-wing mindset and accepting the narrative.”
DeSantis was referring to Haley’s 2020 tweet after Floyd’s death, in which she posted about empathy, writing that it was “important to understand that the death of George Floyd was personal and painful for many. In order to heal, it needs to be personal and painful for everyone.”
Haley and DeSantis’s feud has escalated as the January start of the Iowa caucuses looms.
Both have made early primary states like Iowa and South Carolina key battlegrounds as they hope to knock Trump off his double-digit front-runner status.
Each raised more than $1 million in the 24 hours after the third GOP debate last week in Miami, which Trump skipped.
Haley’s campaign recently took out a $10 million ad buy targeting DeSantis in Iowa and New Hampshire.