The super PAC supporting former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is out with a new ad in Iowa calling Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis a liar and contrasting his record on China with her own.
The SFA Fund ad, set to a voiceover from a female narrator with unflattering images of DeSantis in the background, opens with a declaration that “Ron DeSantis is lying because he’s losing.”
It then cuts to claims that “DeSantis called China Florida’s most important trading partner” and that he “even allowed a Chinese military contractor to expand just miles from a U.S. naval base.”
The spot then gets brutal.
“Phony Ron DeSantis. Too lame to lead. Too weak to win,” the ad continues before pivoting to a positive message about Haley’s record on China, which includes clips of television anchors saying she was “really tough on China.”
“Haley shows us what American foreign policy looks like,” one anchor says.
In a press release announcing the ad, SFA Fund provides two citations supporting claims. One, from the New York Post in early November, says Cirrus Aircraft, a subsidiary of China company Aviation Industry Corp., expanded its presence in Florida less than 15 miles from a military base.
The other, from FactCheck.org, breaks down claims made during a GOP presidential debate regarding China. It upholds Haley’s claim that DeSantis chaired Enterprise Florida, which produced an annual report touting China as an ideal trading partner.
It’s worth noting, however, that the same fact check also pointed out that the report referenced was outdated and that DeSantis rebutted that he dissolved the agency, a rebuttal that’s mostly true. DeSantis signed legislation consolidating the agency into the Department of Economic Opportunity, renamed now to the Department of Commerce. The fact check notes that his claim that he “abolished” the agency “overstates the impact of the bill he signed.”
The latest ad is similar to another released in late October that said DeSantis “can’t stop lying about Nikki Haley” and that “he’s lying because he’s losing.”
The sparring over China began after DeSantis accused Haley of being soft on China, referencing her attempts to attract Chinese businesses to South Carolina when she was Governor. The claim is based, at least in part, on a production plant for a Chinese fiberglass company, China Jushi, that was built in 2016 under Haley’s leadership.
Haley’s campaign has fired back against the claims, noting that DeSantis “aggressively recruited Chinese companies to Florida.”
“Desperate DeSantis can resort to as many lies as he wants, but his record on China speaks for itself. America needs a leader who will stand up to China, not with China. And the only candidate willing to stand up to China is Nikki Haley,” SFA Spokesperson Brittany Yanick said.
The Iowa Caucus is less than two weeks away, on Jan. 15. A Des Moines Register/NBC News/Mediacom Iowa Poll taken last month showed former President Donald Trump with a commanding lead in Iowa with support from 51% of likely Iowa caucusgoers. Haley was in a distant second place, at 19% support. That was a 3-percentage-point gain for the former South Carolina Governor since a previous poll taken in October.
