Did anyone happen to catch the name of that website Nikki Haley mentioned during the Debate on Wednesday night? I’m pretty sure she repeated it like, every time she was asked a question. So let’s have a lil looksie at DeSantisLies.com, shall we?
The problem is that according to the sources Nikki cited - Politifact, CNN, and CheckYourFact - DeSantis did not say those words; a PAC that supports him did. Here’s what happened:
Tapper says to Nikki, DeSantis said this, but surveys say most Gazans don’t like Hamas (which is not the same thing and has nothing to do with DeSantis’s statement, Tapper’s phrasing makes it sound like only Hamas is antisemitic; everyone else in Gaza is just along for the ride), what do you think? Haley then responds: “America has always been sympathetic to the fact that you can separate civilians from terrorists, and that’s what we have to do.”
Never Back Down, a PAC that supports DeSantis, used that quote to claim this means that Nikki wants to bring Gazan refugees here. Media conflates the PAC with the DeSantis Campaign.
NBC then quotes Nikki to DeSantis and asks for his response, and he responds that antisemitism in the region isn’t restricted to Hamas. The closest he gets to saying anything about Nikki bringing Gazans here is, “Nikki Haley would import people; that’s her position, I get that. I would not import.” He then pivots back to talking about the culture in Gaza and says, “That’s not something you want to import to America.” Later he says, “I’m willing to speak the truth, she’s trying to be politically correct.”
The next day on FoxNews, DeSantis says, “Over the weekend, [Nikki Haley] was taking issue with what I said, saying that you can separate someone who's Hamas in Gaza with somebody who's more of a freedom lover. So why would she be talking about that we can vet these people if she wasn't saying that they should come to this country? We would have no role in vetting them unless you're bringing them to this country. And so, she changed her tune.”
On Ron’s TheRealNikki.com site, he poses the question: “Why would she talk about vetting Gaza refugees unless she wants to import them?” However, he stops short of saying she wants to bring them here. I guess an argument could be made for her position, but she didn’t give us anything to prove he actually said the words. Questioning her motives for saying what she said is not the same as saying she wants to do something.
Here, Nikki thinks she has Ron on this because she used the WayBack Machine to grab an archive of Ron’s old governor campaign site. I guess she didn’t pay attention to the wording on the site.