Republican strategist Alice
Stewart and Democratic strategist
Karen Finney are here with me now.
So, Alice,
Iowa votes first,
followed by New Hampshire.
Nikki Haley made some comments about this
that her opponents are seizing upon.
Take a listen.
You know, Iowa starts it.
You know that you correct it.
You know that you continue to go
there.
I think it was incredibly disrespectful
to Iowa
and to say somehow
their votes need to be, quote, corrected.
I think she's trying to provide
an excuse for her not doing well.
All right.
So she was talking
to a New Hampshire audience
and there is this history of
New Hampshire
voting differently than Iowa
or whether it's
Iowa going for Obama and New Hampshire
going for Hillary
or Iowa going for Ted Cruz.
You remember that.
And New Hampshire
and New Hampshire going for Trump.
There is this history.
But what do you make of it?
Look, I think look,
you look at historically Iowa generally.
Whoever wins
the Iowa caucus doesn't necessarily mean
they're going to be the nominee
for the party
and certainly in the general election.
But you still have to love and respect
those Iowa voters.
You have to be out there right now.
11 days out. We're in the 11th hour.
You're gripping
and grinning with those people.
You're not giving them the back hand.
And I think that was a mistake.
Clearly,
they're looking at where they feel
they're going to land in Iowa,
potentially third place.
But they are doing strong
in New Hampshire and South Carolina.
She's really playing to that audience.
But you have to remember,
everything you say is on television
and being recorded.
And the people in Iowa
are certainly going to hear that.
But I think
right now she's banking on doing well
in Iowa and doing a strong finish
in New Hampshire and South Carolina.
But but the reality is,
you never want to take Iowa for granted
and certainly don't want to. And so.
You know,
there's also a competition
between Iowa
and New Hampshire that goes back,
you know, for a long time.
So I actually do that.
As she knows, her
chances in New Hampshire are better.
She's doing much better in the polls.
Dos Santos is trying to
make his stand in Iowa.
And so this is a way to kind of juice
the electorate a little bit, to say,
come on, y'all,
I know you can turn out for me.
I mean, we've seen that dynamic as well.
So I sort of took I agree with you.
I wouldn't
advise, you know,
sloughing off any voters at this point.
But I think she was trying
to kind of appeal
to New Hampshire voters and say,
come on, I'm counting on you.
And if there are any voters in Iowa
that were kind of on the fence,
I think they probably may have
dropped this
in a different backyard
after after that state.
We'll see.
So, Alice,
for the first time in the 2024
election cycle, Trump
is out with a new ad attacking
Nikki Haley in New Hampshire,
giving you an idea of how good
her momentum is in New Hampshire.
Here's a little clip of it.
Haley and Biden
opposed Trump's border wall.
Confirm warnings of terrorists
sneaking in through our southern border.
Yet Haley joined Biden
in opposing Trump's visitor ban
from terrorist nations.
Haley's weakness puts us in grave danger.
Okay.
Well,
the visitor ban was the Muslim ban,
which is
which was pretty unpopular
by a lot of people.
But in terms of Trump
opposing,
in terms of Haley
opposing Trump's border wall, Haley says
that's not true,
that the Trump people are taking
comments out of context.
She said the border wall
would not be enough.
But but this is clear
evidence that he sees her as a threat.
Clearly, look,
Trump's never let the facts
get in the way of a good ad,
and this is no exception to that.
Look, he is obviously seeing her
as a threat in New Hampshire,
and that is why
he's putting this ad out there.
If you notice up until now,
his main attacks and ads
and pushed back on social media
have been against President Biden,
thinking he is going to
mop the floor in the primary
and take on Joe Biden,
which is a smart strategy.
But if you see them having to go
after and spend
good hard money
on ads against another Republican,
he clearly sees her
as a threat in New Hampshire.
And if I were the Haley campaign,
I would say bring it on
and double down on on this issue.
There's another ad that I want to show
you also airing.
I think this is a digital
ad from Chris Christie.
Pretty interesting. Take a listen.
I have an admission to make.
Eight years ago,
when I decided to endorse Donald Trump
for president,
I did it because he was winning.
And I did it
because I thought I could make him
a better candidate
and a better president.
Well, I was wrong.
I made a mistake.
What do you think?
You know, it's too late.
Chris, come on, now.
Nobody's.
I mean, that's what I would say, that
nobody's buying it.
I mean, he
he made a valiant effort
to try to see
if he could make some inroads
with a slice of the electorate
that was
in the GOP primary
that was open to that message.
There aren't enough voters.
Clearly, it's not working.
He hasn't gained momentum.
He had a small bump early on.
And now,
I mean, it's nice to
I think it's a lovely ad,
but it's just not working at this point.
I don't think it's going to.
I think what we're going to see
at the end of in New
Hampshire is a lot more calls
for him to get out. Yeah.
And there's a lot of Republicans
that share that sentiment.
They have buyer's remorse.
They voted for Trump once
and possibly twice,
thinking that he would
grow into the office,
He would tone down the divisive rhetoric
and he didn't.
And people are looking to turn the page.
I do think the best chance for people
that share that sentiment with Governor
Christie is let's find another candidate
and the party writ large.
One candidate
winnow the field
after Iowa and New Hampshire.
And let's have a good head to head
competition between a non-Trump candidate
and Donald Trump.
And then we have a fighting.
And who you like, Haley.
Look, I'm for anyone that can take on Joe
Biden and win.
And I don't have a dog in this hunt
in terms of who
the non-Trump candidate should be.
But if you're looking at head
to heads against Biden,
most of the polls show Nikki
Haley has a better chance.
And I think, again,
we're seeing that, yes,
many Republicans may feel that way,
but that is not
who is coming out to vote in the primary
unless there's some,
you know,
crazy thing happens in New Hampshire.
So far, it hasn't seemed that
that message has really caught
on enough to motivate people.
All right, Karen and Alice,
thanks so much. Good to have you here.