Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley was twice the target of a “swatting” incident over the past month as she has run against Donald Trump for the Republican nomination and polling shows she’d crush Biden in the general.
Swatting is a dangerous and malicious practice where individuals make hoax emergency calls, often to law enforcement, with the intent of prompting a heavily armed police response at the target’s location. This reckless act not only poses serious risks to the victims but also diverts valuable resources and can lead to potentially lethal consequences.
The incidents resulted in guns being drawn on Haley’s parents. ABC News detailed the scary incidents.
Appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” the former South Carolina governor and 2024 Republican presidential candidate said that officers had “guns drawn” and pointed at her parents, who were with a caregiver, after police were reportedly falsely directed to her residence on suspicion of a crime.
Haley and her son were not home at the time of what she called an “awful situation,” which was first reported by Reuters.
Haley’s husband, Michael, was also not present as he is currently deployed overseas with the South Carolina National Guard.
According to an email referencing comments from Kiawah Island Public Safety Director Craig Harris to other town officials, obtained by Reuters, the incident occurred on Dec. 30 after a man called 911 and “claimed to have shot his girlfriend and threatened to harm himself while at the residence of Nikki Haley,” Harris said.
Swatting has become a major tool against conservative lawmakers. Over the holidays, two outspoken Republicans had their homes attacked. New Conservative Post reported, “. On Christmas Day, someone attempted to send a SWAT Team to Marjorie Taylor Greene’s house…In a sickening display, a caller allegedly used a crisis hotline for the police department in Rome, Georgia, where Greene’s house is located, to claim that the house needed a SWAT Team to stop a shooting.
Just hours after the attack on Greene, another Republican member of Congress had their home “swatted.” Brandon Williams, a Republican, also had his upstate New York home “swatted” on Christmas.”
Our home was swatted this afternoon. Thanks to the Deputies and Troopers who contacted me before arriving.
They left with homemade cookies and spiced nuts! Merry Christmas everyone! pic.twitter.com/uQ2xkzLVJ6
— Rep. Brandon Williams (@RepWilliams) December 25, 2023
The incidents are still under investigation.
