Democrats are increasingly backing GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley who is serving as the party’s “puppet,” former Fox News host Tucker Carlson has claimed.
Mr. Carlson made the comments in a video alongside Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy which was published on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Jan. 3.
You thought Democrats were going to dump Biden for Gavin Newsom, but they're not. They're backing Nikki Haley instead. pic.twitter.com/KcpNMFdZAm
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) January 3, 2024
“You thought Democrats were going to dump [President Joe] Biden for [California Gov.] Gavin Newsom, but they’re not. They’re backing Nikki Haley instead,” Mr. Carlson wrote in a post alongside the roughly seven-minute video.
The host began the video by referring to the former South Carolina governor and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations as “a Republican candidate who’s actually a Democrat.”
He went on to state that President Biden’s poor polling performance in recent months makes it a “tough moment” for Democratic mega-donors.
Mr. Carlson then said Democratic donors are increasingly turning to Ms. Haley, whose campaign raised $24 million between October and December and who has received recent major endorsements from New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu and Americans for Prosperity Action, which is backed by billionaire Charles Koch.
“So what do you do? Well, if you’re smart, maybe you subvert the other party. Maybe you back a Republican candidate who’s actually a Democrat, whose priorities are identical to yours. And of course, they found one, her name is Nikki Haley,” he said, before highlighting what he said were her “endless neocon wars.”
‘Trojan Horse’
“Strip away all the outward characteristics, and Nikki Haley is identical in her priorities to Joe Biden and the people who back Joe Biden,” he said.
Mr. Carlson then shared a video of Ms. Haley during a town hall in Davenport, Iowa, in October.
During the campaign event, the former South Carolina governor claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin was behind the Hamas incursion of Israel on Oct. 7 and that Russian intelligence had helped aid the attack, which had simultaneously taken attention off the ongoing Russia–Ukraine conflict.
Tech entrepreneur Mr. Ramaswamy then weighed in on Mr. Carlson’s claims, concurring with the TV host that Ms. Haley is a “puppet” for the Democratic Party, and branding her a “Trojan horse.”
