You had to know Nikki Haley would attempt to walk back her campaign-killing social media comments from yesterday. You also had to know Elon Musk would have thoughts on the matter.

To recap, Nikki Haley told Fox News that, if elected president, she would see to it that you would not be allowed to stay anonymous on the internet. She said, "I want everyone's names." She even said that on a podcast hosted by a guy who goes under an assumed name. Spoiler: "Comfortably Smug" is not his government name.

Today on CNBC, Haley tried to walk backward. "I don't mind anonymous American people having free speech. What I don't like is anonymous Russians and Chinese and Iranians having free speech."

Nope. Still nope.

Set aside the Twitter Files and Facebook Files full of red flags that show what happens when the government gets too in bed with social media. Telling people they need to register their names is to the First Amendment what telling people to register their guns is to the Second Amendment. Nikki can claim she doesn't want American names all they want. The names are still going on a list. The government will still have access to that list. And while the Big Tech companies might refuse to give them to President Haley, they'd give it to President Newsom with candies and flowers.

Also, her bars about the Russians, the Chinese, and the Iranians don't work either. We should be encouraging free speech in all countries. Sure, it sucks that people from foreign countries can post memes or carry on about an American candidate's cowboy boots. But what if it's Russians, Chinese people, and Iranians using their anonymity to speak out about their government? They need their anonymity because, without it, the Russian, Chinese, and Iranian governments WILL FUCKING MURDER THEM!

Elon Musk, who is somewhat of a free speech fanboi, found her comments to be super messed up.

The problem is I disagree with Elon's comments about her presidential hopes. The reason why I had her #2 on my power rankings is that, as much as we would all like to believe otherwise, the establishment, the moderates, and the RINOs all still vote in the primary.

Yeah, I know, "but muh polls!" There are people who affirm their identity on a number that says a celebrity with 100% name ID and who is the former president is really popular. And I'm NOT saying Trump isn't in the lead. But it is well within the realm of possibility Haley can pull off an upset in Iowa, catch momentum heading to New Hampshire, and then go to South Carolina where she is the former governor.

I keep saying "career killing" and "campaign killing" to put it out into the universe. The truth of the matter is there are WAY too many Republicans, those who aren't very online, who would agree with her on anonymous accounts. They could get behind this.

We keep saying that this is the most important election of our lifetimes. We need to treat Nikki Haley's comments on social media as if we believe that.

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Brodigan is Grand Poobah of this here website and when he isn't writing words about things enjoys day drinking, pro-wrestling, and country music. You can find him on the Twitter too.

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