So Nikki Haley is now regarded as the shooting star among Republican challengers to former President Donald Trump on the great strength of uttering a four-letter word on national television the other night.
The word she said was “scum.”
She used it to describe another GOP candidate for the White House, Vivek Ramaswamy, who did something so terrible that he infuriated Haley and set off a chorus of outraged boos among the big Republican crowd at last week’s nationally televised presidential debate.
It was Ramaswamy they were booing. He said Haley’s daughter uses TikTok, a video service. Haley said, “Leave my daughter out of your voice.” When she heard the crowd’s boos supporting her, she added, “You’re just scum.”
If you missed this intellectual high point in the history of political debate, you surely saw it the next morning when all the cable news stations and network news shows played it over and over because they apparently thought it was the most important moment of the debate.
Swell.
There’s endless war in Ukraine and the Middle East, Trump’s up to his neck in legal troubles, and President Joe Biden’s in trouble because he talks and moves like an old man and his accomplishments in office seem not to have registered with half the country.
But “scum” becomes the story of the day and the moment in which Haley — formerly South Carolina’s governor and later Trump’s U.S. ambassador to the United Nations — finds herself declared chief among all Republican challengers to Trump.
Apparently, we can now kiss off Ramaswamy as a legitimate contender. He was always a long shot, but a noisy one. He knew how to gain attention, mainly by being loud and obnoxious. What the hell, it works for Trump, maybe it could work for him.
But criticize a candidate’s daughter, and you’ve gone too far. As Sarah Longwell, executive director of the Republican Accountability Project, wrote the next day in the New York Times:
“Ramaswamy was unhinged, unserious and unpleasant. ‘Smarmy’ isn’t a strong enough word.”
But the word “scum” seems to work perfectly, as attested to by the big Republican crowd’s roar of support for Haley.
So I have a question. If “scum” is the proper description of Ramaswamy for bringing up Haley’s daughter’s use of TikTok, and Republicans are hollering their support at the top of their lungs, then what’s the proper word to describe Donald Trump?
And why is everyone, from GOP presidential candidates to Republican voters, afraid to say it?
After all, Ramaswamy’s not the one who was caught on that “Access Hollywood” tape bragging about violating women’s bodies. Trump was.
Trump’s the one who’s had at least 25 women accuse him of rape, sexual assault and groping. He’s the one who’s bragged about entering a dressing room for young ladies at a beauty pageant he owned — and never mind that the young ladies were in their teens and undressed.
Trump’s the one accused of violating the Espionage Act. He’s the one lying about a rigged election. He’s the one who provoked a riot at the U.S. Capitol and nearly tore down democracy.
If all the Republicans are so happy calling Ramaswamy “scum,” then what’s the right name for Donald Trump?
And why can’t any of these Republican candidates or Trump loyalists find that word and say it out loud?
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