Republican leader and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley targeted Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy during the party's third presidential debate in Miami and even called him a 'scum' after the Indian-origin politician remarked on her daughter's TikTok activity.

There are concerns in the USA over TikTok app which is believed by many as being used by China as a potential spying tool.

“In the last debate, she made fun of me for actually joining TikTok while her own daughter was actually using the app for a long time. So you might want to take care of your family first,” Ramaswamy was quoted as saying by The Hill as the candidates clashed over the video-sharing app, which is owned by Beijing-based parent company ByteDance.

In a heated argument, Haley was quick in replying: "Leave my daughter out of your voice."

“You’re just scum," she was quoted as saying by The Hill.

Interestingly, Vivek Ramaswamy joined TikTok this year.

In September, he posted on X: "Had dinner with @JakePaul on Sunday. He changed my mind and convinced me to join TikTok. Yes, kids under age 16 shouldn’t be using it, but the fact is that many young voters are & we’re not going to change this country without winning. We can’t just talk about the importance of the GOP 'reaching young voters' while hiding in our own echo chambers. It’s bad when the CCP collects data from U.S. users via TikTok, but the truth is it’s no better when 'American' companies like Airbnb do the same thing by handing over U.S. user data to China, and we’re not going to get China to play by the same set of rules until we win this thing. I’ll be on there starting later today."

The debate was attended by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott.

Ex-US President Donald Trump, the front-runner in the Republican presidential race, however, remained absent from it.