(The Hill) — Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign clapped back at conservative commentator Ann Coulter after she described Ramaswamy’s back-and-forth with fellow GOP hopeful Nikki Haley at Wednesday’s debate as “Hindu business.”
“Ann can tweet whatever she wants to,” Tricia McLaughlin, Ramaswamy’s communications director, said in a statement to The Hill. “Vivek has traveled this country and is very grateful for the warm support he has received from Christian voters across the country.”
She added, “Vivek shares and lives by the same Judeo-Christian values that this nation was founded on — and that the way Vivek lives his family life offers a positive example for their own children and grandchildren.”
Coulter’s post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, came amid a fiery exchange between Ramaswamy and Haley at the first Republican presidential primary debate on Wednesday.
After Ramaswamy said he did not support providing additional U.S. aid to Ukraine amid its war with Russia, Haley slammed the political newcomer’s lack of foreign policy experience.
“He wants to hand Ukraine to Russia, he wants to let China eat Taiwan, he wants to go and stop funding Israel,” Haley said. “You don’t do that to friends. What you do instead is you have the backs of your friends.”
“Under your watch, you will make America less safe,” she added. “You have no foreign policy experience, and it shows.”
Coulter, who was posting on X throughout the debate, said in a post during the exchange, “Nikki and Vivek are involved in some Hindu business, it seems. Not our fight.”
While Ramaswamy is Hindu, Haley is not. The former South Carolina governor was raised Sikh and converted to Christianity.
Coulter previously came under fire in February for making derogatory remarks about Haley’s Indian heritage.
Shortly after Haley announced her candidacy, the conservative commentator suggested that she “go back to [her] own country.” The Republican hopeful was born in the U.S. to Indian immigrant parents.