Former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley fired back at 2020 Democrat Joe Biden with a challenge after he criticized her intelligence.
Biden, during a campaign event in South Carolina on Wednesday, knocked Haley for not expanding Medicaid while she was governor of the state, adding that she “didn’t have the brains” to do it.
Biden has started criticizing @NikkiHaley more directly in South Carolina recently for declining to expand Medicaid here.
In Georgetown, he appears to start saying she “didn’t have the brains” before stopping himself and changing it to “foresight” because he wants to “be polite” pic.twitter.com/xjT3Y2RL4H
— Jamie Lovegrove (@jslovegrove) February 26, 2020
Within minutes of the former vice president’s remark circulating on social media, Haley responded to the comments.
“Hold up Joe,” she tweeted. “I will put my brain up against yours anytime. Bring it. #GodBlessJoe”
Hold up Joe. I will put my brain up against yours anytime. Bring it. #GodBlessJoe https://t.co/x5bfrVCrCa
— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) February 26, 2020
In 2012, Haley opted out of Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion in a move that earned praise from Americans for Tax Reform.
“In South Carolina, 1 in 4 citizens are receiving Medicaid, and the state simply cannot afford an additional expansion of an entitlement that is already projected to eat up more and more of the state’s budget, squeezing out funding for other priorities such as education and transportation,” the conservative advocacy group wrote at the time.
Biden isn’t the first 2020 Democrat Haley has called out this week. The South Carolina native also criticized Sen. Bernie Sanders for attempting to drive the United States toward socialism.
“Right now, the Democratic presidential front-runner is an avowed socialist named Bernie Sanders,” Haley said during a speech to a think tank on Wednesday. “Only in a prosperous country like America can people be so flippant about capitalism and so naive about socialism.”
She added, “Socialism is a total disaster, and, as Americans, we must condemn it wherever it exists.”
Residents in Haley’s home state will be voting on Saturday in a primary that Biden currently leads with Sanders following in second place, according to recent polling.
