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Nikki Haley might need are available in third within the Iowa caucuses, however as she campaigns in New Hampshire for its first-in-the-nation major subsequent week, her consideration is squarely targeted on just one rival: Donald J. Trump.
Ms. Haley, a former South Carolina governor who served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations beneath Mr. Trump, has begun fine-tuning her argument in opposition to her former boss, attempting out new jabs and unleashing a brand new assault advert proper out of the gate. She has additionally stepped up her efforts to border herself as Mr. Trump’s prime rival, saying that she would not take part in major debates that don’t embrace him.
In latest remarks and in a brand new tv advert, Ms. Haley paints Mr. Trump and President Biden as two sides of the identical coin: politicians previous their prime who’re unable to place forth a imaginative and prescient for the nation’s future as a result of they’re “consumed by the previous, by investigations, by grievances.”
At a marketing campaign rally on Wednesday in Rochester, N.H., she fended off Mr. Trump’s assaults on her immigration file, warned voters to not consider his advertisements in opposition to her and reminded them that it was Mr. Trump who had needed to boost the age for Social Safety eligibility and had as soon as proposed growing the gasoline tax.
“These are issues he must reply for. Oh, that’s proper! He received’t get on the talk stage,” she swiped.
In Bretton Woods, N.H., the place she held her first rally after the Iowa caucuses on Tuesday, Ms. Haley stated she had voted for Mr. Trump twice and was “proud to serve in his administration” earlier than delving into her acquainted critique that, whether or not pretty or not, “chaos follows” the previous president. However she additionally took a number of extra acidic digs.
“The vast majority of Individuals assume that having two 80-year-olds operating for president shouldn’t be what they need,” she stated to a smattering of applause on the Omni Mount Washington Resort.
To make sure, Ms. Haley has not fully deserted her measured method to Mr. Trump. On Thursday, she instructed voters she wouldn’t assault him personally — “individuals both need me to hate Trump or love Trump” — saying persons are uninterested in that type of politics. “I simply inform it on coverage,” she stated.
She has not flatly rejected operating as his vice chairman and doesn’t speak about his legal expenses. In a CNN interview, Ms. Haley claimed she had not “paid consideration to his circumstances” when the host, Dana Bash, requested how she felt about her get together’s front-runner being held responsible for sexual abuse. Ms. Bash was referring to the defamation lawsuit filed by the author E. Jean Carroll, which is now on trial.
“This one I haven’t checked out,” Ms. Haley contended, “but when he’s discovered responsible, he must pay the worth.” (Mr. Trump has already been discovered liable in a civil trial, and a jury is simply weighing how a lot he has to pay.)
Though she was sluggish to make inroads in Iowa, she has been closely competing in New Hampshire from the beginning, buoyed by a latest inflow of money from her allied tremendous PAC and the prospect of a extra impartial and college-educated voters. On Wednesday, her chief opponent for second place, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, introduced he could be relocating the vast majority of his workers to South Carolina, her dwelling turf, whereas largely pulling again on occasions in New Hampshire.
Mr. DeSantis is aiming to take benefit in her personal yard forward of that late-February major, the place the Republican base is extra in keeping with the largely white and Christian evangelical voters present in Iowa. Ms. Haley, for her half, has lengthy contended that she would carry out effectively sufficient in Iowa and New Hampshire to catapult her marketing campaign right into a showdown with Mr. Trump in South Carolina.
However Mr. Trump continues to carry leads in each states. It was in South Carolina the place Mr. Trump solidified his path to the G.O.P. nomination seven years in the past. And a brand new ballot from New Hampshire’s St. Anselm School reveals that whereas Ms. Haley is handily profitable over New Hampshire independents, Mr. Trump’s maintain on Republican voters is so overwhelming that he leads by double digits, 52 % to 38 %.
Nonetheless, he has responded in type to Ms. Haley, looking for to totally dispense along with his nearest rivals after a blowout victory in Iowa.
At his rally in a rustic membership in Atkinson, N.H., this week, he attacked her monitor file as governor and portrayed her as out of contact and never Republican. His marketing campaign has despatched out a slew of emails with topic strains together with: “Nikki Haley Loves China,” “Nikki Haley Is Funded By Democrats, Wall Road, & Globalists” and “Nikki Haley Is Weak On Immigration And Opposes A Border Wall.”
On Wednesday in Portsmouth, N.H., he additional polished his assaults on Ms. Haley, pointing to her previous positions on taxes, Social Safety and Medicare and condemned her for being supported by liberals and moderates.
Citing a ballot that confirmed that just about half of Ms. Haley’s supporters in Iowa stated they’d vote for President Biden over Mr. Trump, the previous president stated, “Now, that implies that she’s like a Democrat. I really assume she would possibly go to the Democratic Celebration.”
Later, he criticized her as being too weak on border safety, a signature concern that has animated Mr. Trump’s presidential campaigns. As he accused her of supporting open borders, he instructed a whole bunch in New Hampshire, “I don’t know that she’s a Democrat, however she’s very shut. She’s far too shut for you.”
Mr. Trump was additionally set to say that “Nikki Haley wouldn’t simply lose the White Home, she’d lose us the Home and Senate,” in line with remarks shared by his marketing campaign. He left that line out of his speech, however it was reported on-line, and Ms. Haley had a prepared rebuttal. Whereas Mr. Trump was nonetheless onstage, she wrote on X that Trump “is confused about his personal file,” and famous that Republicans misplaced the Home, Senate and presidency throughout his tenure.
Earlier within the day, her marketing campaign preemptively rebutted his criticism on her file, releasing a two-minute compilation capturing Mr. Trump thanking Ms. Haley for her work as governor and ambassador.
Democrats have been hitting Ms. Haley, too. They’ve pointed to her signing of strict abortion and immigration restrictions and her cautious therapy of Mr. Trump as indicators that she is a part of the identical outdated wave of extremist Republicans as Mr. Trump, reasonably than a recent face.
“Irrespective of how they gown it up, these MAGA Republicans have already instructed us how they need to crash our economic system and rip away our freedoms for their very own political acquire — and we’ll take them at their phrase,” Ray Buckley, chairman of the New Hampshire Democratic Celebration, stated in an announcement.
Neil Vigdor contributed reporting from Bretton Woods, N.H.
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