An upcoming GOP primary debate was scheduled for this week
on Thursday, to be exact.
And it's just been canceled, which I'm so, so, so depressed about.
We're planning on covering it here at TYT, but apparently Nikki Haley
pledged not to attend unless Donald Trump would be there as well.
And unsurprisingly, Trump made no such promise, leaving Ron DeSantis as the
only presidential hopeful who confirmed that he would attend that debate.
Now, here's what Nikki Haley wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
We've had five great debates in this campaign.
Unfortunately, Donald Trump has ducked all of them.
He has nowhere left to hide.
The next debate I do will either be with Donald Trump or with Joe Biden.
I look forward to it.
And it seems that Haley's latest campaign strategy is to completely ignore DeSantis
or pretend like DeSantis doesn't exist.
And I understand the temptation to do that.
His campaign has certainly been flailing. And after her third place finish in
the Iowa caucuses, just behind DeSantis, here's what she had to say.
At one point in this campaign, there were 14 of us running.
I was at 2% in the polls.
But tonight, Iowa did what Iowa always does so well.
The pundits will analyze the results from every angle.
We get that.
But when you look at how we're doing in New Hampshire.
In South Carolina.
I can safely say tonight.
Iowa made this Republican primary a two person race.
Okay.
That was amazing. That was.
I think that was the definition of cope. Okay.
You have Trump with 51%, then you have DeSantis at like I think it
was about 20%, a little over 20%.
And then Haley at like 19%, you came in third.
What are you talking about? This is not a two person race.
Even if you want to make it between Trump and whoever's second in line,
it wouldn't be you at the moment.
Haley. Like what is going on?
Well, so I can explain all of it.
And it is it's complicated and it's super interesting.
So first of all, of course to the absurdity.
And this is now a two person race.
Well, the people who finished the top two were DeSantis and Trump.
So does that mean you're counting yourself out.
So but Iowa and New Hampshire have a long track record
of politicians saying absurd things.
They're.
Marco Rubio bragged about how, he was basically in position to win
after Iowa because he came in third.
- Oh, little Marco. - Yeah.
And, and then, Joe Lieberman once said that he had Joe Mentum
after finishing fifth.
Okay. So I think that was in New Hampshire.
So. Okay. So these are absurd, absurd.
Thomas now, on the other hand, and Nikki Haley was trying to get into
second and she failed, as you saw there, 21, for DeSantis, 19 for Nikki Haley.
Okay.
Now, having said that, the part she's not wrong about both, in terms of reality
and in terms of strategy is, she is trying to winnow this into a two
person race, her and and Donald Trump, and she is largely succeeding.
So, yes, in the beginning, she was very low in Iowa.
She did rise up.
If she had overtaken DeSantis, then she would have had a really good case.
As it is, she fell a little short.
But today, a poll out, tied with Trump in New Hampshire.
Yeah, that's a giant deal.
And remember, she's the former governor of South Carolina.
And so now she does well in those first three states.
And it looks like she's going to it.
It has the potential the potential to change the dynamic of this race.
And they're also competing over donors. I'll get back to that in a second.
Now, let's get to that poll that Jake referenced.
And remember, this is just one poll. Okay.
But we have noticed that Nikki Haley has been rising in the polling,
especially in New Hampshire.
Now, American Research Group showed Trump and Haley tied at 40% of likely Republican
primary voters in the Granite State.
Governor Ron DeSantis was tied at 4% with Vivek Ramaswamy, who, of course,
dropped out of the race on Monday night after a lot of browbeating
and a lot of pressure from the Trump camp.
Mostly because if you know Ramaswami is skimming off of anyone's voting base,
it would be Trump since he's running or was running as Trump lite.
But nonetheless, you do see Haley performing relatively well
in New Hampshire, and I'm guessing that she's kind of trying
to fake it till she makes it right.
Try to build that momentum and see if she can ride that momentum
to a primary victory.
I think that that's unlikely to happen.
I could be proven wrong, but I wouldn't bet money on it
if you want to bet money on it.
So no, no, no, I don't want to bet anybody.
I don't know what's going to happen between Nikki Haley and Donald Trump.
Look.
So Iowa results cut in two different directions.
You say, hey, Trump blew out DeSantis by 30 points.
And he did.
And he had a great showing, historically compared to other Iowa caucuses.
And he did. Those things are true.
Now, having said that, Donald Trump is basically a second incumbent in this race.
So if if Joe Biden bragged about, beating any of his challengers
by only 30 points in Iowa, everybody would think, whoa, is Joe Biden going to lose?
Right? So the fact that she.
And now, if Joe Biden was tied with anybody in New Hampshire,
that would be a giant story.
And now Trump is tied.
And in Iowa, Trump only got 51% of the vote.
So he was supposed to be invincible in a Republican primary,
and half of Iowa voted against him.
Now, half of New Hampshire is set to vote against him.
It makes you think, for the first time in a long time, maybe beatable in a primary.
And remember, Nikki Haley has an awesome argument that has not basically that
has not worked with the Republican voters, but might begin to resonate at some point,
which is there is that poll still out there saying
that she would beat Biden by 17 points.
Right. So if the guarantees.
Yeah, exactly.
If the Republican base is hell bent on beating Biden,
if that's their top priority, it would bode better for those voters.
If Nikki Haley is the, you know, primary winner as opposed to Donald Trump.
But we'll see what happens.
I, for one, am under the impression that Nikki Haley has no chance.
I could be proven wrong, but I do want to just point out one other thing
that Nikki Haley has been attempting to do, and I think for the most.
Part, she is succeeded.
She's trying to avoid offending the Trump base.
Now the Trump base, based on polling based on anecdotal evidence
in regard to the interviews they've done, not huge fans of Nikki Haley.
They see her as the old guard of the Republican Party,
a traditional conservative Republican, a neocon, if you will.
But nonetheless, she was recently asked to weigh in on
the Aegean Donald Trump defamation case.
Remember, he was found guilty of sexual abuse and of defamation
in a civil trial that E Jean Carroll had brought forth against Donald Trump.
Then he continued to defame her.
So she filed yet another lawsuit against him.
And so let's take a look at Nikki Haley's exchange with CNN's Dana Bash
about Eugene Carroll's second defamation trial against Trump, because it'll give
you a sense of just how hard Nikki Haley is trying to avoid offending Trump's base.
Let's watch.
He's already been found liable for defaming E Jean Carroll, who accused
him of raping her 30 years ago.
A jury found him liable for sexual abuse, and this trial that he's attending today
is about damages that he must pay her.
You're the only woman in this race.
How do you feel about your party's frontrunner being held liable for sexual.
Reviews.
I mean, first of all, I haven't paid attention to his his cases.
And I'm not a lawyer.
All I know is that he's innocent until proven guilty.
And when he's proven guilty and he's sitting in a courtroom,
that's exactly what I'm talking about.
You've got investigations on Trump and Biden, but a lot.
Of people forgive me, but a lot of people in the Republican Party blow it all off
and say that it's all a witch hunt.
And I think some.
Of the some of the cases have been in particular, this one I haven't looked at.
But look, if he's found guilty, then he needs to pay the price.
He needs to do what he's supposed to.
Every one of these cases, they need to be heard out.
He needs to defend himself.
If he is found guilty, he's going to pay the price.
If he's not found guilty, then we move forward.
You're running against Trump in the GOP primaries and you're not
paying attention to his court cases.
Really. And also, you're you're not a lawyer.
So you don't have an opinion on the court cases.
Yeah.
Okay. Okay.
Nonsense.
Look, everybody knows Nikki Haley is a slimy politician.
So you didn't look at the case where your main opponent
was charged with rape and sexual assault.
You never took a a little peek to see what that was about.
It's the most unbelievable thing in the world, and we can all have it.
Did you have an opinion on the Johnny Depp case?
Well, how dare you? You're not even a lawyer.
You're not even lawyers. How could we?
- Come on. - That's ridiculous.
Of course you can have an opinion. Did you have an opinion on OJ?
Well, I'm not a lawyer, so I have no idea if OJ did it or not.
Right. And so.
And then she keeps saying, well, if he's proven guilty.
What are you talking about? He was proven guilty in this case.
Right. We're into the damages section.
And there's a second case on the same issue of defamation.
But he was already proven guilty in the first case.
So you see how she has to walk that, tightrope?
Same reason why she made the comments about, the Civil War
and didn't mention slavery because she thinks her base doesn't mind that Trump
sexually assaulted E Jean Carroll.
And they don't and they, they don't want to criticize slavery.
So that's why she's walking. Otherwise it's it's a layup.
Oh my God.
My opponent's been convicted of at least in a civil case of, of sexual assault.
She's she's this is not hard.
Again, she's terrified of provoking Trump's avid supporters.
Trump's base when in reality, what Nikki Haley is attempting to attract
in the, you know, electorate are the more moderate Republicans.
Maybe the never Trump Republicans.
And honestly, like right leaning independent voters, the hard core MAGA
supporters are never going to support her.
I just find it hard to believe that they would excuse me.
And then finally, as she's kind of tiptoeing around attacking Trump,
obviously Trump has no problem attacking her rather viciously.
He posted this on Truth Social today, Americans for Chinese Prosperity, a rhino
Charles Koch con job that is funding, along with many Democrats and others
that aren't feeling so well right now, is very embarrassed by the poor showing
of Nikki Bird Brain Haley in yesterday's Iowa primary.
Wow.
Listen, Nikki Haley is not politically aligned with me.
I do not like her, politically speaking.
I don't like neocons in general, calling her a birdbrain,
though I don't think Nikki Haley is a dumb person and like, attacking her
intelligence is just so ridiculous.
But nonetheless, he continues to say she placed a distant third
after spending millions of Cokes largely inherited and OPM dollars.
I hate what they represent, open borders and all
so bad for our country, Trump says.
I think he calls her birdbrain, for two reasons.
One, to be fair, she does look a tiny bit like a bird.
Okay. And and two, because let's keep it real.
She's a woman. Of course.
So those same voters who don't mind that he sexually assaulted another woman
are not going to mind.
They're going to think, oh, yeah, that chick got it burn bright.
Hahaha.
Now, by the way, Republican women, you must be so proud to support Trump.
Look at what he thinks of you overall. I mean, how could you?
Look, I'm exactly with Anna. She's a neocon, slimy politician.
Works for the donors.
I got no love for her at all, but she just beat the hell out of all
those other guys in the primary and is now the main challenger to Donald Trump.
In fact, I underestimated her and I talked about it earlier.
So she is already proven strategically to have done a pretty great job
politically on policy.
Can't stand her, but it's nuts to call her birdbrain.
That's the last thing she is.
And then finally, I mentioned the donors before.
Look, the reason Nikki Haley is taking a victory lap here is because
DeSantis was supposed to do great in Iowa and challenge Trump,
especially with the evangelical voters who were sick of his mean tweets and his,
outrageous behavior didn't happen.
And DeSantis is a terrible candidate.
So she's trying to push him out, especially by saying, I'm not even going
to debate him because it's obviously me.
Right.
And and he is doing disastrously in New Hampshire.
Right.
So the minute she pushes him out, all the donors flood to her.
Right? All the non-trump donors.
And there's there's a silver lining in what Trump said, so that Americans
for prosperity group, that the Koch brothers set up Americans for prosperity.
No, it's billionaires for their own prosperity.
Right.
And and here's Trump attacking the donors now, it's
because they're funding his opposition.
But for the first time, Republican voters are getting to see.
Oh, right. The donors control all these politicians.
Now, a lot of them knew that already. Right.
And so that's the silver lining for Republican voters overall.
But I love that we're having a conversation about donors.
Democrats were supposed to be the people that are in favor
of getting money out of politics.
And our side never talks about the corrupt donors.
Get better, do better.
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