Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis exchanged heated barbs in the final debate before Monday's Iowa caucuses, with Haley delivering a stinging rebuke of DeSantis' sliding poll numbers.
"The best way to tell about a candidate is to see how they've run their campaign," Haley said in Wednesday night's debate in Des Moines, Iowa, just five days before the first-in-the-nation caucuses. "He has blown through $150 million. I don't know how you do that through his campaign. He has nothing to show for it."
Haley has surged to a strong second place to former President Donald Trump in New Hampshire, while DeSantis' campaign and his supporting PACs have focused on traveling all 99 counties in Iowa.
The campaign travel and expenses were a focus of Haley's rebuke.
"He spent more money on private planes than he has on commercials trying to get Iowans to vote for him," Haley continued. "If you can't manage a campaign, how are you going to manage a country?"
Haley called out DeSantis' remarks frequently throughout the lively debate, often during his altotted time.
"You are so desperate," Haley said, getting reprimanded for interrupting DeSantis. "You are just so desperate. Ron's lying because Ron's losing. Everybody in the country sees it from what it is."
Haley continually pitched her campaign website that responds to frequent DeSantis attacks and also repeated her criticism of a massively funded campaign that has failed to put him atop the polls.
"It's a shame that we had to put up DeSantislies.com. If he would spend as much time trying to prove why he thinks he would be a good president, he would be doing better in the polls," Haley said later, responding to criticism about boys in girls bathrooms. "The reason he spent and blown through $150 million and gone down in the polls is because he spent more time trying to lie about me about me than he is about telling the truth about himself."
Haley also hit DeSantis for lies about her alleged softer immigration policies.
"Go to DeSantislies.com," Haley said earlier. "I said you can't just build a wall. You have to do more than build a wall. It was having the wall and everything else.
"You can't trust what Ron is saying. But this is a bigger issue. This is more than him just constantly being desperate and throwing things on me."
Haley responded to DeSantis' attacks on her moderate policies and inability to move strong, conservative policy.
"If leadership is about getting things done, how did you blow through $150 million in your campaign?" Haley circled back to her one of most-repeated debate hits.
After a brief exchange, Haley celebrated by deadpanning, "I think I hit a nerve."
"What I will tell you is, look: If you can't manage a campaign — it's been a revolving door of political people in and out of his campaign," Haley said.
"You heard of campaign people going to blows with each other because they can't all agree — $150 million and he spent more on private planes than commercials.
"I flew commercial. I stayed in Residence Inns. We saved our money. We spent it right because you have to understand: It's not your money; it's other people's money and you have to know how to handle it.
"If he can't handle the financial parts of a campaign, how is he going to handle the economy when it comes to the White House?"
Haley then circled back to her No. 1 most-repeated debate attack line.
"He has been demeaning me over and over again, telling lies, DeSantislies.com, because he thinks it makes him look bigger," Haley said, denouncing DeSantis' heavy focus in Iowa.
"You campaigned for president. You are invisible in new Hampshire, invisible in South Carolina — in fifth place. You got $150 million and you have gone down in the polls in Iowa. Why should we think you could manage or do anything in this country?"
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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