After Nikki Haley posted a gun-wielding photo on her Twitter, a Democrat and an -ex-Marine took aim at the Republican and pointed out three mistakes in the picture.
Ruben Gallego, a war veteran and a Congressman from Arizona tweeted: “Poser alert: Why is your finger on the trigger!”
Then he listed out these points: “1. Bolt is clear back and there is no magazine. 2. The linked ammo on the stand you are ‘shooting’ from doesn’t feed into the magazine-fed weapon you have. 3. Your stockwell is gonna hurt you when that weapon kickback.”
The tweet attracted more than two million views as of Sunday morning and thousands of likes.
Mr Gallego’s sharp criticism came after Ms Haley posted the picture along with the caption “Making sure our military has the equipment they need to keep us safe is a priority. @SigSauerInc is keeping them on the cutting edge. Thank you for letting us check out the latest. #LiveFreeOrDie.”
Others soon joined the backlash against Ms Haley. One user wrote: “Gun rules: Treat every weapon as if it were loaded. Never point your weapon at anything you do not intend to shoot. Keep your finger straight and off the trigger until you intend to fire. Keep your weapon on safe until you intend to fire.” Then proceeded to add: “That’s how I was trained by Grandpa.”
One US army veteran commented on the Republican’s photo: “Don’t try to clean it up acting like you give a damn about our military and veterans when your [sic] all for Republicans including you cutting benefits to our veterans.”
Another user wrote: “Phony & performative.”
Meanwhile, last week, the former South Carolina governor claimed that Americans should not vote for Joe Biden because he may die during a second term and leave Vice President Kamala Harris in charge of the executive branch.
Ms Haley made the incendiary comment during an interview on Fox News, just days after Mr Biden – the oldest person to ever serve as America’s chief executive – announced his candidacy in next year’s presidential election.
“He announced that he’s running again in 2024, and I think that we can all be very clear and say with a matter of fact that if you vote for Joe Biden you really are counting on a President Harris because the idea that he would make it until 86 years old is not something that I think is likely,” she said.