Rand Paul Launches ‘Never Nikki’ Campaign Attacking Haley: ‘Her Thirst for War Is So Strong”

Sen. Rand Paul has launched a #NeverNikki campaign, saying for South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley “has no business anywhere near the White House.”

“I don’t think any informed or knowledgeable libertarian or conservative can support Nikki Haley,” Paul posted on X.

In his launch video, Paul said he is “not yet ready to make a decision” on an endorsement, “but I am ready to make a decision on someone I cannot support. So I’m announcing this morning I am ‘Never Nikki.'”

He continued:

I’ve seen her attitude towards our interventions overseas. I’ve seen her involvement in the military industrial complex, $8 million being paid to become part of a team, but I’ve also seen her indicate that she thinks you should be registered to use the Internet, that people posting ideas anonymously… I think she fails to understand that our republic was founded on people like Ben Franklin, Sam Adams, [James] Madison, John Jay, and others who posted routinely. For fear of the government, they posted routinely anonymously. And I think her failure to really understand that or to think that you should register through the government somehow for the Internet is something that should disqualify her in the minds of all libertarian-leaning conservatives.

Paul posted a series of devastating attacks on the former ambassador to the United Nations, who famously flip-flopped after saying she would not run against Donald Trump, her former boss.

Nikki Haley with Donald Trump (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

“Haley supports Biden and McConnell and the forever-war crowd on funding for the war in Ukraine,” he said. “Her thirst for war is so strong, she actually said, ‘I’m sick of talking about a Department of Defense. I want a Department of Offense.'”

“She even personally received millions of dollars from the arms merchants who benefit from the war, a conflict of interest that undergirds her eagerness for foreign military intervention,” he said. “This position isn’t new, either — as governor of South Carolina, she gave tax dollars to those same arms merchants, and they showered her with campaign contributions and a seat on their board when she left office.”

Haley, who earned hundreds of thousands of dollars serving on the board of the second-largest defense contractor, maintains a warm relationship with Boeing and other defense contractors.

AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File

Paul continued, “While most others were decrying the mistakes of the past twenty years and fighting for an America First foreign policy, Nikki Haley was aligning herself with and declaring her foreign policy allies to be John McCain and Lindsey Graham.”

He said Haley “believes in nearly unlimited foreign aid. We have sent over $100 billion we don’t have to Ukraine already, and she wants more. But this also isn’t new. In her book With All Due Respect, she wrote, ‘Humanitarian Assistance will always be a priority for the United States; we will always be generous.'”

Paul went on to say, “But Nikki Haley’s ‘generosity’ with your tax dollars and her support for all foreign aid in the context of a $34 trillion-dollar debt is in no way libertarian or conservative”:

Paul turned to Haley’s comments in support of government regulation of free speech on the Internet, saying, “Beyond the issues of endless wars, Nikki Haley’s lack of respect for freedom of speech is shocking to anyone who believes in the Constitution. [She] believes that all Internet posters should be registered and verified.”

“This flies in the face of a free American Republic whose founders wrote anonymously the Federalist Papers and routinely posted newspaper articles and pamphlets under Pseudonyms,” he said. “Anyone who doesn’t fully believe in free speech or who wants endless wars has no business anywhere near the White House.”

Paul attacked her record as U.N. Ambassador as well, saying that Haley “routinely praised the mission of the United Nations, the results they achieved, and the people who ran it.”

Then-United States Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley listens during a United Nations Security Council emergency meeting concerning the situation in Syria, at United Nations headquarters, April 14, 2018, in New York City (Drew Angerer/Getty Images).

He quoted Haley as saying, “‘I believe the U.N. does valuable work.’ By that, she means your tax dollars since the U.S. is the primary funder of UN. She repeatedly praised the U.N. Secretary General (former president of Socialist International) and declared that they ‘think alike.'”

Paul struck at Haley for disagreeing with Trump’s foreign policy as well, saying she “disagreed with President Trump’s decision to pull U.S. troops out of Syria and Afghanistan and defended continued U.S. presence in both places.”

Paul then moved to her for her record as governor, saying Haley “advocated for a gas tax hike, a state-run vaccine registry, and never lifted a finger for school choice.”

Haley has come under fire for a history of flip-flopping and touting positions in conflict with her record. She recently made comments acknowledging she will “change personalities” from state to state on the campaign trail.

“The structure of [the primary] is really amazing. Iowa starts it. You change personalities, you go into New Hampshire.” she said on PBS about the Republican primary process.

“They continue on, and by the time it gets to South Carolina,” she added, “it gets bigger going into Super Tuesday. There’s something very cool about the process.”

Chris Christie, who dropped out of the race Wednesday, was caught in a “hot mic” moment attacking Haley’s campaign for the amount of money it has wasted.

Former Governor of New Jersey Chris Christie (L) and former Governor from South Carolina and UN ambassador Nikki Haley speak during a break in the fourth Republican presidential primary debate at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on December 6, 2023 (JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images).

“She has spent $68 million so far, just on TV,” Christie said, continuing, “She’s gonna get smoked. And you and I both know, and she’s not up to this.”

Bradley Jaye is a Capitol Hill Correspondent for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter at @BradleyAJaye.