Haley Campaign Press Release - DeSantis Debate Preview: These Boots Are Made for Lying

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Nikki Haley for President campaign released a new video reminding voters and the media that Ron DeSantis will say anything during the upcoming debate — even a bald-faced lie.

Over the past year, Ron DeSantis and his friends spent $100 million only to lose half of his support in the polls. No wonder he's desperate and throwing mud. DeSantis has been caught lying about his energy record. He's been fact checked again and again for lying about Haley's record on refugees. Just this week, he orchestrated a government-wide cover-up of his Chinese business recruitment. Ron DeSantis doesn't tell the truth about anything.

Read more about DeSantis' record on energy in NBC News.

HALEY: Ron DeSantis is against fracking, he's against drilling.

DeSANTIS: No, it's not true.

(Simi Valley, September 27, 2023)

BACKGROUND

Ron DeSantis opposes fracking and drilling.

• DeSantis signed an executive order banning drilling and fracking on his second day in office.

• DeSantis was praised by the liberal Sierra Club.

• DeSantis excuses his opposition, saying Florida voters passed a constitutional amendment banning drilling, but he supported a ban before the amendment passed. In addition, the voter ban did not include fracking, which he also opposed.

• Breitbart: Claim: Former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley claimed fellow Republican presidential candidate Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) banned fracking in Florida during Wednesday's second GOP primary debate. Verdict: TRUE. As governor, DeSantis campaigned on and implemented a ban on fracking in Florida's waters.

Ron DeSantis aggressively recruited Chinese businesses to Florida, and now he is trying to cover it up.

• DeSantis chairs Florida's economic development entity, Enterprise Florida, that seeks direct Chinese investment in Florida. Enterprise Florida was changed to Select Florida on Nov. 1, 2023.

• A 2019-2022 annual report details the great lengths Enterprise Florida went to recruit Chinese investment, including attending international trade shows and using tailored marketing tools to attract Chinese investors. The annual report, which has been scrubbed from the Internet, states, "EFI Hong Kong leveraged trade shows and industry or investment forums to expand our network and explore trade and investment opportunities for Florida."

• As of Nov. 1, Enterprise Florida had an office in Hong Kong, which has since been scrubbed from the Internet. A 2022 annual report shows they still had an office in Hong Kong.

• An October 2022 report boasted about the jobs resulting from Chinese investment in Florida.

• An exposé by The Messenger shows that Ron DeSantis scrubbed the internet of all the evidence of his China ties as soon as the media started asking questions.

Ron DeSantis' attacks and claims have been called false by multiple fact checkers.

• PolitiFact: No, Nikki Haley didn't say she wants the U.S. to take in Gaza refugees, as DeSantis PAC claims

• CNN: Fact check: DeSantis campaign falsely describes Haley's comments on the people of Gaza

• Semafor: Wild subplot in the 2024 primary this week: Haley said that not all Palestinians were Hamas or anti-Semites, and DeSantis claimed this meant she wanted to take in waves of Gaza refugees. (She doesn't, he made it up.)

• Reason: Indeed, Haley never said that the U.S. should take refugees from Gaza. But when DeSantis stated (erroneously) that she had, she felt the need to clarify that she definitively had not. In fact, she told Fox News that just as Jordan and Turkey took the majority of Syrian refugees during her tenure at the U.N., "the Hamas-sympathizing countries should take these Gazans now."

• CheckYourFact: Fact Check: Did Nikki Haley say the U.S. should take in Gaza refugees? Verdict: False

• Guy Benson: A note from me: My radio show account has deleted a tweet stating that Nikki Haley 'proposed' settling Gazan refugees in the US, which was not a fair characterization.

• National Review: @RonDeSantis 's accusation is based on an interview @NikkiHaley did with Jake Tapper in which she disagreed with the Florida governor's argument that Gazan civilians and Hamas can be lumped together. Never has she proposed taking the refugees into the U.S.

• Newsmax: "Most recently, the PAC, in an advertisement, selectively edited footage of Haley addressing the United Nations in 2017 as the American ambassador to make it seem like she once endorsed allowing in Syrian refugees... But CheckYourFact pointed out that the clip's context was not Haley backing refugee resettlement of Palestinians. Instead, she was criticizing DeSantis' remarks about all 'people from Gaza' being antisemitic."

• Newsmax: "Last night, during our town hall we reported that presidential candidate Nikki Haley favors bringing in Palestinian refugees to the United States. To be clear, she does not favor bringing them to the United States. Governor Haley has said any refugees should go to countries like Turkey, Qatar, and Iran."