Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley defended her decision to accept corporate money, as she emerged as the top target of her rivals during the fourth Republican presidential debate.

“Look, we will take support from anybody we can take support from, but I have been a conservative fighter all my life,” Haley said Wednesday on the stage in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. “I was a Tea Party candidate when I became governor. We opposed every single corporate bailout we possibly could.”

Haley, who has been surging in the polls and attracted new interest from big-dollar donors in recent weeks, drew pointed attacks straight out of the gate from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Ohio entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.

Ramaswamy criticized Haley for taking money from LinkedIn Corp. co-founder Reid Hoffman, who donated $250,000 to a super political action committee backing her. Hoffman has historically donated to Democratic candidates but is one of several billionaires who see Haley as a potential alternative to Donald Trump, the GOP frontrunner.

Ramaswamy said charged that one of Haley’s biggest supporters was BlackRock chief executive officer Larry Fink, who he termed “the king of the woke industrial complex.”

“To say that doesn’t affect her is false,” Ramaswamy added.

Haley retorted, “They’re just jealous. They wish they were supporting them.”

Union Minister Giriraj Singh’s allegedly derogatory comment over Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee shaking a leg with celebrities, has drawn a sharp retort from the state’s ruling Trinamool Congress. Calling his comment “misogynistic” and “archaic”, the party has demanded an apology. Mr Singh has denied making any inappropriate comment and accused Trinamool of trying to “create confusion”.  

Posting a purported video clip of the minister’s speech on X, formerly Twitter, the party said it was a reminder of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Didi O Didi” jibe.  

“It’s evident that the BJP leaders find it incredibly hard to fathom a woman in power challenging their authority. Their archaic mindset, steeped in gender biases, is blatantly on display,” its post read.  

In the widely circulated video the party posted, the minister is purportedly heard saying, “Jashn mana rahi hai, thumke laga rahi hai, yeh uchit nahi hai. (She is celebrating and dancing; this is inappropriate.)” 

“We are full of anger…we would ask BJP who gave you the right to disrespect a woman? Giriraj Singh is a Union Minister holding a position of responsibility…the way he said such inappropriate thing, even if he apologizes, it’s too less,” Bengal minister Shashi Panja is quoted as saying by news agency ANI. 

In an interview to NDTV, Mr Singh denied making any derogatory comment. “I didn’t say anything wrong… I just said that the Chief Minister of a state where poverty is very high is celebrating at a programme…I have given a statement about a Chief Minister and not against any woman leader. I stand by my statement,” he told NDTV. 

Ms Banerjee said she joins in a few steps if someone requests – the way she does with tribal dancers. 

At the Kolkata International Film Festival on Tuesday, Ms Banerjee had joined Salman Khan, Sonakshi Sinha, Mahesh Bhatt, Anil Kapoor, Shatrughan Sinha, and others on stage and danced a few steps.

The fourth Republican Presidential Debate wrapped up, with four candidates up against each other to secure a spot as the party’s presidential candidate through a stringent selection process. Indian-American entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie were on stage for the face-off.

Indian-American Vivek Ramaswamy and Ron DeSantis were leading the fourth Presidential Debate, with Mr Ramaswamy taking the lead regarding speaking time just 30 minutes into the debate. Nikki Haley relatively remained silent in the debate but remained in focus and centre of attacks from her opponents in the debate.

A close contest took place between Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy, with almost similar speaking times. Speaking time is not the sole metric to judge a candidate’s ability. More speaking time and convincing arguments can help sway public opinion in the candidate’s favour during the voting process.

Nikki Haley defended her decision to accept corporate money and is emerging as the top target of her rivals during the fourth Republican presidential debate.

The Republican debate started with a pile-up of allegations against Nikki Haley, with Ron DeSantis attacking her, saying, “She caves anytime the left comes after her,” CNN reported and said he is the only candidate who has delivered against the Democrats. Nikki Haley responded to the allegations and said, “He is lying about her track record”.

Vivek Ramaswamy attacked Ms Haley too for acting on the will of the donors and said she had joined the board of Boeing after stepping down as US ambassador to the United Nations and gave paid speeches “like Hillary Clinton”.

The candidates hoped to stall Nikki Haley’s momentum in the presidential debate. Haley’s rise has been attributed to strong performances in the previous three debates, and she is riding high on a key endorsement from the powerful Koch family and $250,000 from billionaire Democratic donor Reid Hoffman.

A heated back and forth was seen between Vivek Ramaswamy, the leading candidate in the fourth debate and Chris Christie. The former Governor accused Mr Ramaswamy of changing his positions in the Ukraine war and said his plan for resolving the war in Ukraine was to give Russia all the territory it had seized in Ukraine. The Indian-American entrepreneur said this is not what he proposed.

“You do this at every debate. You go out on the stump and you say something, all of us see it on video, we confront you on the debate stage, you say you didn’t say it, and then you back away,” Mr Christie responded.

Chris Christie also questioned his opponents over their stance on sending US troops to Gaza in the ongoing war in the region and said he would “absolutely” send US troops to rescue American hostages and slammed Ron DeSantis for not responding to the question directly. Like the previous three Republican debates, Christie is after former US President Donald Trump, who is hoping for a Republican ticket to contest for another term and questioned his opponents on why they are not discussing Trump.
 
“Truth needs to be spoken. He is unfit,” Chris Christie said on Trump’s Republican ticket hopes and referred to him as Voldemort – the antagonist in J.K. Rowling’s series “Harry Potter,” CNN reported.