Rand Paul Launches ‘Never Nikki’ Initiative, Slams Haley for Supporting ‘Forever Wars’
Senator Rand Paul (R., Ky.) announced Friday that he would never support Nikki Haley as the 2024 Republican presidential nominee, even going so far as to launch a “Never Nikki” website to air his criticisms of the former South Carolina governor.
“I’m not yet ready to make a decision, but I am ready to make a decision on someone who I cannot support,” Paul said in a video address posted to X on Friday morning. “So I am announcing this morning that I am ‘Never Nikki.'”
“I don’t think any informed or knowledgeable libertarian or conservative should support Nikki Haley. I’ve seen her attitude towards our interventions overseas. I’ve seen her involvement in the military-industrial complex,” the Kentucky Senator continued.
Paul announced the launch of a website, nevernikki.net, where people can sign up and express their disapproval of the former U.N. ambassador. Much of his condemnation focused on Haley’s support of “the forever-war crowd on funding for the war in Ukraine,” specifically citing President Joe Biden and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, his fellow Kentucky senator who has vocally advocated the continuation of U.S. aid to Ukraine.
Haley has distinguished herself as the most vocal foreign-policy hawk in the Republican presidential primary, repeatedly sparring with her more isolationist opponents such as Vivek Ramaswamy over the wisdom of continuing to provide aid to Ukraine. Haley has argued that the U.S. must support Ukraine in its efforts to beat back the Russian invasion, as failing to do so will only embolden U.S. adversaries like China. Ramaswamy and, to a lesser extent, Ron DeSantis, have argued that the U.S. should instead focus its limited resources on the Pacific in a bid to deter Chinese aggression.
In his video, Paul also implied that Haley’s foreign-policy views have been shaped by her participation in the “military-industrial complex,” referencing the lucrative Boeing board seat she accepted after leaving the Trump administration.
Paul then took aim at Haley’s proposal that social-media should curtail anonymous accounts due to national-security concerns.
“I’ve also seen her indicate that she thinks you should be registered to use the internet; the people posting ideas anonymously. I think she fails to understand that our Republic was founded upon people like Benjamin Franklin, Sam Adams, [James] Madison, John Jay, and others who posted routinely for fear of the government,” Paul said near the end of the video.
“Every person on social media should be verified by their name. It’s a national security threat,” Haley told on Fox News in November. “When you do that, all of a sudden people have to stand by what they say and it gets rid of the Russian bots, the Iranian bots and the Chinese bots.” She later walked back the comments, insisting that only foreign bots, not anonymous American users, should be banned from social-media platforms.
On Wednesday, former New Jersey governor Chris Christie withdrew from the 2024 Republican presidential race. Ahead of his announcement, a hot mic caught him criticizing Haley saying, “She’s gonna get smoked. You and I both know it. She’s not up to this.”
Christie had faced calls to withdraw his candidacy as the New Hampshire primary neared, and polling showed a tight race between Haley and Trump. A CNN/University of New Hampshire poll recently found Haley, whom Trump appointed as American ambassador to the United Nations, within seven percentage points of her former boss as of early January.
“Let’s say I dropped out of the race right now, and I supported Nikki Haley,” Christie told supporters. “And then three months from now, four months from now, when you’re ready to go to the convention, she comes out as his vice president. What will I look like? What will all the people who supported her at my behest look like?”
“I’m not going to make the same mistake again,” Christie said, alluding to his 2016 endorsement of Trump.
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Paul campaigned in 2016 as a dark-horse candidate for the Republican presidential nomination. In his video address, he did not endorse any Republican candidate but spoke positively of Trump, Florida governor Ron DeSantis, and tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.
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