Nikki Haley’s CNN Town Hall: A Mix of Insights and a Striking Attack

By
Conservative Research Group
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You may not be aware that Nikki Haley took part in a CNN town hall hosted on Sunday night. It seems that the new trend among Republican candidates is going on far-left channels and being asked ridiculous questions in order to prove how tough they are. Personally, I still believe in “stop giving these hacks ratings and fodder”, but I digress.

Haley’s performance had a few different aspects. Some questions she answered well, while others showed why she isn’t gaining traction in the Republican primaries.

Haley, for example, reacted by saying Jake Tapper could ask Kamala Harris and Joe Biden if they supported late-term abortion. It’s not a bad idea to call out media hypocrisy, but I believe that the GOP candidates should also answer this question positively.

As I said, (in my opinion) the best answer is that we fought decades to make abortion an issue of state and that it should stay that way. Even with the best intentions, federalizing abortion again would set a precedent for the next Democrat government to be able to fully legalize it at the federal level. This would be a disaster for the pro-life movement. It would be better to limit the battle to the individual states and to claim that any federal interference is unconstitutional.

Haley has also played up her femininity, and that’s pretty much the extent of the campaign.

It’s cringeworthy because it is so clearly not Haley. I have no problem with a female president but the fact that she is female means nothing to me. Haley must make her case without relying on the fact that she is a woman as a way to gain an advantage. This stuff doesn’t work in a Republican Primary.

Haley struggled to answer the question “What is woke?” (another favorite leftist gotcha).

I expected her to be able to answer this question with more confidence. Although being “woke” is a term that describes a minority imposing their views on a majority, this in itself does not define the term. Heck, sometimes federalism means that the minority gets its way above the majority. That’s good.

The end result of wokeness is not the only thing that needs to be criticized. The problem with wokeness does not lie in the fact that it is a minority philosophy. It’s more that wokeness is a pervasive and harmful ideology. Even if the majority eventually supports it, it will still be a harmful ideology. It’s better to call it “cultural Marxism”. In pursuit of identity-based justice, being “woke” includes destroying norms and systems, including those that oppress others. It can be a matter of transgender ideologies and the destruction of women’s spaces, or it could be a matter of Critical Race Theory and the destruction of traditional education.

Haley did not fare much better when she was asked to compare herself with other GOP candidates. She repeated a very telling statement when asked about Disney’s fight with Ron DeSantis.

I’m sorry, what? I’m sorry, what? This is not the issue. Disney promised to fight against a proposed law at the time that would have protected children from sexualization.

Haley has already made it clear that she supports Disney’s fight in this regard, having recently called for the company to relocate to South Carolina. It is absurd for Haley to keep up this false, ridiculous attack on DeSantis that he is thin-skinned. Republicans who do not know the time have no right to be the Republican candidate.

Has Haley’s consultant not told her that the line about Disney giving money to DeSantis was self-defeating as well? She is essentially saying that she will do anything if the money donors give to her. What’s the point? DeSantis’s decision to tell Disney to “pound the sand” despite previous contributions shows the GOP the fortitude it needs. It is absurd to spin that as a bad thing and it shows Haley’s inexperience.

In summary, I don’t really understand Haley’s election campaign. She won’t say anything negative about Donald Trump, the front-runner. But she continues to make petty and misleading attacks against DeSantis which only makes her look worse. Despite this, both Trump and DeSantis supporters can’t stand the woman. Whatever her campaign was meant to be has devolved, and it won’t win anything (including a vice-presidential slot).