Haley swipes back at Ramaswamy's 'Dick Cheney in 3-inch heels' jab during Republican debate

Vivek Ramaswamy was the first Republican presidential hopeful to initiate a series of personal attacks against his fellow candidates on the debate stage in Miami on Wednesday night, lobbing a two-pronged swipe at the footwear of former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

The quip came in response to a question pertaining to the Israel-Hamas war, to which Ramaswamy said that while Israel “has the right and the responsibility to defend itself ... I want to be careful to avoid making the mistakes from the neocon establishment of the past.”

“Do you want a leader from a different generation that’s going to put our country first? Or Dick Cheney in 3-inch heels?” he continued. “In this case we’ve got two of them onstage tonight.” The comment was a reference to Haley, the only woman on stage, as well as a not-so-subtle dig at DeSantis, whose footwear — and specifically, the question of whether he wears heel lifts in his cowboy boots — has been the subject of recent controversy.

DeSantis has yet to address the jab — or the broader questions about the inner workings of his footwear — but Haley didn’t let it slide: “I’d first like to say they’re five-inch heels and I don’t wear them unless you can run in them. The second thing I will say is I wear heels, they’re not for a fashion statement, they’re for ammunition.”