DeSantis on Haley’s debate performance: ‘She lost her cool’

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said during a post-debate interview that former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley “lost her cool” while on stage Wednesday night.

“I think part of the fallout from the debate tonight is … I think she lost her cool,” DeSantis told CNN’s Anderson Cooper after the fifth GOP debate. “She’s constantly saying, ‘You’re lying.’ That doesn’t do it. Her record is her record.”

“She wouldn’t explain, you know, why she was taking these positions, and I think to just say that, I don’t think that people buy that,” he continued. “I think you got to be more substantive, and I think you got to be credible as to how are you going to be a nominee of a party that really is focused on working people and small business and less on the big corporations than maybe the old guard Republican Party.”

DeSantis and Haley took swipes at each other throughout the GOP debate, which was hosted by CNN. It started just hours after former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) ended his campaign and at the same time as a Fox News town hall that featured former President Trump.

Haley frequently invoked a website called desantislies.com, arguing that DeSantis was mischaracterizing her stance on issues.

“First of all, bless his heart. desantislies.com. We have never raised a tax,” Haley retorted after DeSantis said she tried to raise the gas tax in South Carolina as governor.

“I can tell you that we killed the gas tax multiple times. But what we said is if you want to raise the gas tax, you have to reduce the income tax by five times that amount. They didn’t want to do it. We’ve killed taxes every step of the way,” she added later.

DeSantis also targeted Haley on other issues, such as raising the retirement age for younger Americans.

“What we do is, we go to those in their 20s and say we’re going to change the retirement age to reflect life expectancy. Instead of costs of living increases, we do increases based on inflation. We limit benefits on the wealthy, and we expand Medicare Advantage plans,” Haley said.  

DeSantis claimed in response that “under her administration, you would have seniors getting a less cost of living adjustments, while your tax dollars are going to pay the pensions of Ukrainian bureaucrats,” to which Haley interjected, “That’s not true. That’s such a lie, Ron.” 

The Iowa caucus is less than a week away. Polling shows Trump leading widely in the state, though DeSantis and Haley have expressed confidence about their prospects.