Trump won New Hampshire last night, but he remained obsessed with Nikki Haley. A normal politician would have acknowledged that Haley ran a good campaign and then ignored her in the rest of the speech, knowing she had little chance of winning the nomination. But not Trump–for him it was all about the vendetta: “I don’t get too angry, I get even.”
Watch:
Notice that he had Tim Scott, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Marjorie Taylor Greene behind him as he said: 1). He won New Hampshire in the general election (he lost it to Hillary Clinton 2016 and to Biden in 2020); 2). New Hampshire allows Democrats to vote in the Republican primary (registered Democrats are not allowed to vote in the GOP primary; and 3). He won the 2020 general election.
South Carolina U.S. senator Tim Scott reminds me of Mike Pence–an evangelical Christian who stands in support of Trump as he spews his lies and demonizes his opponents. As I watch Scott in this video, I can’t decide whether he is thinking “I believe in this guy” or “what the heck am I doing here?” Whatever the case, Scott appears to have sacrificed his faith to political ambition. Vice president? Cabinet member?
Hopefully Haley will go all Chris Christie on Trump in South Carolina. We will see what happens, but something within me respects Haley’s decision to go down swinging on her home soil.
The politics of character is over (technically, it’s been over for a long time). Like Iowa, New Hampshire voters elected a candidate who is indicted on 91 felonies and is currently splitting time between the campaign trail and a trial to see how much he owes a woman, E.J. Carroll, who he sexually assaulted in a New York department store.
On to South Carolina.
A crucial distinction. Republicans gave Trump the New Hampshire primary. My understanding is that Haley carried independents by a wide margin.
Why does T seem to be afraid of Nikki Haley? Is it she was supposed to fall in line like Desantis and Scott, or is it that there is a faint hope that she will damage him in the South Carolina campaign?