Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley weighed in on competitor Ron DeSantis’ odd-looking footwear choices during an interview Wednesday on The Daily Show, saying that she’d like to see whether the Florida governor can run in his pair of seemingly lifted boots—like she can in high heels.
After raising a number of serious issues, like the Israel–Hamas war and the proper place of the Confederate flag in society, guest host Charlamagne tha God ended on a lighter note.
“Are you wearing higher heels than Ron DeSantis next week at the debate so that you can look taller than him on the stage?” he asked.
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Haley and DeSantis, along with Chris Christie, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), have qualified for the third debate of the GOP primary season, which is in Miami next Wednesday with NBC News hosting. In the previous meeting of GOP candidates at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in September, Haley was to DeSantis’ right on the debate stage.
“I don’t know. We’ll have to figure that out,” Haley replied. “I can tell you I’ve always talked about my high heels. I’ve never hid that from anybody. I’ve always said, ‘Don’t wear ’em if you can’t run in ’em,’ so we’ll see if he can run in ’em.”
Haley has made her footwear a running theme of her public life since at least 2012. “I think the media’s a little frightened of women. I wear high heels and it’s not a fashion statement; it’s for ammunition,” the then-South Carolina governor said during a stop on her book tour that year. And in her campaign announcement this past February, she said, “I don’t put up with bullies, and when you kick back, it hurts them more if you’re wearing heels.”
The rumors about what DeSantis has on his feet, on the other hand, are much more recent. When asked about it on a podcast Monday, the governor denied wearing lifts.
“Those are just standard, off-the-rack Lucchese boots,” he claimed.
