Haley Campaign Press Release - Fact Check: Ron DeSantis Said Stay Out of the "Bathroom Wars"

By: Angelo Fichera
Online here

"When he was running for governor and they asked him about that, he said he didn't think bathroom bills were a good use of his time."

— Nikki Haley, former governor of South Carolina True.

Ms. Haley was taking aim at Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida.

While campaigning to be the state's governor in 2018, Mr. DeSantis said, "Getting into bathroom wars, I don't think that's a good use of our time." He made the remarks, reported by The Tampa Bay Times, during a candidate forum.

However, as governor, Mr. DeSantis has signed legislation that requires people to use bathrooms in public buildings that correspond to their assigned sex at birth, as he noted during the debate on Wednesday night.

During their exchange on this issue, Mr. DeSantis accused Ms. Haley of killing a bill concerning bathrooms in South Carolina when she was governor. In 2016, a Republican lawmaker in the state introduced a bill aimed at requiring the use of public and school bathrooms to be based only on someone's gender at birth. Ms. Haley said at the time that she did not believe it was necessary for South Carolina to enact such legislation. The South Carolina bill did not advance past its introduction.

In a Fox News appearance last year, Ms. Haley said of the matter: "This is the women's issue of our time. This is complete insanity."

"When I was governor, they wanted to bring in a bathroom bill, a transgender bathroom bill, and I strong-armed and said we are not going to have that in South Carolina," she said. "Because typically what happens, if you truly care about safety of your kids, when there is a transgender student the school itself works with the parents. You give them an individual bathroom — that way they're not made fun of, that way they don't feel uncomfortable. But you don't make all the other students feel it."