Ramaswamy Calls Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis ‘Dick Cheney in Three-Inch Heels’

It’s not unusual during a presidential primary to wonder what different candidates have to offer when they are part of the same political party. So when moderator Lester Holt asked GOP candidate Vivek Ramaswamy what set him apart from the other Republicans sharing the stage with him at Wednesday’s third GOP debate on NBC, he went right for the jugular… or rather, the footwear.

As he reminded the audience of past Republican policies that became unpopular, specifically neoconservative policies in the Middle East following 9/11, Ramaswamy referred to fellow GOP candidate, former Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, as “[former Vice President] Dick Cheney in three-inch heels,” with an added swipe at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis:

But I want to be careful to avoid making the mistakes from the neocon establishment of the past. Corrupt politicians in both parties spent trillions, killed millions, made billions for themselves in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, fighting wars that sent thousands of our sons and daughters, people my age, to die in wars that did not advance anyone’s interests, adding $7 trillion to our national debt. …

You have the likes of Nikki Haley, who stepped down from her time at the U.N., bankrupt or in debt was her family. Then she becomes a military contractor. She joins the board of Boeing and otherwise, and is now a multimillionaire. So I think that that’s wrong when Republicans do it or Democrats do it.

That’s the choice we face. Do you want a leader from a different generation who’s going to put this country first, or do you want Dick Cheney in three-inch heels? In which case, we’ve got two of them on stage tonight.

Haley later corrected him: “They’re five-inch heels, and I don’t wear them unless you can run in them,” adding that they weren’t a “fashion statement,” they were “ammunition.”

Watch the video above via NBC News.