Bruised and betrayed, Nikki Haley defies Trump juggernaut
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[February 09, 2024]
By Gram Slattery
HILTON HEAD ISLAND, South Carolina (Reuters) - These are testing times
for Nikki Haley.
The ex-envoy to the U.N. has been abandoned by allies and become an
outsider in her own party. She has lost a primary where she was the only
name on the ballot. The storm has come to her doorstep, with her home
targeted by "swatting" hoaxes.
Haley is still standing, for now, defying seemingly impossible odds to
stay in the race against Donald Trump to become the Republican
presidential nominee in the 2024 election.
Rob Godfrey, who served as a high-ranking Haley aide when she was
governor of South Carolina from 2011 through 2017, said she enjoyed
situations when she had her back against the wall.
"Ultimately, this was going to be a race that was going to pit her
against Donald Trump," he added. "I think she's comfortable in that role
as an underdog, even if the political class lined up against her."
Reuters spoke to eight people close to Haley, including senior campaign
operatives and donors, who nonetheless spoke of a sense of betrayal
within her team about her loss of support within the Republican Party in
recent weeks.
Some people within and close to the campaign feel increasingly isolated
by a hostile party, according to the people interviewed, most of whom
requested anonymity to speak frankly. One aide - describing the mood at
team HQ after almost all the Republican congressional delegation in her
home state of South Carolina endorsed Trump - said it felt as if F-16
fighter jets were circling overhead.
Haley's team did not respond to a request for comment.
The 52-year-old's reaction in recent days to the rising chorus of
Republican voices demanding she pull out to leave Trump unopposed has
been to unleash her strongest attacks to date on the former president
after months of holding back.
On the trail, she has blasted Trump - who dismisses her as a
"bird-brain" - for spending $50 million of campaign money on legal fees
and for throwing "tantrums". Her campaign has branded him a "chicken"
for refusing to debate her, the "king of hypocrisy" and an old man way
past his prime.
Haley has also sought to turn the tables on the 77-year-old former
president by casting herself as the outsider resisting the Republican
establishment.
"All those congressional members around him are the same ones that
haven't done anything for us," she said to cheers at a campaign event in
the South Carolina town of Hilton Head last week as she prepared to
contest the state primary on Feb. 24, where she trails by more than 30
percentage points.
"Trump can have 'em."
'THIS IS GOING TO BE MESSY'
The pressure on Team Haley, after heavy primary defeats in Iowa and New
Hampshire last month, ratcheted up in Nevada on Tuesday when Haley was
trounced by a "none of these candidates" option in a primary that Trump
didn't contest.
She still hasn't shown signs of cracking, though, insisting she would
stay in the race for the White House for "the long haul." Her campaign
has rolled out leadership teams in at least five states - Alaska,
Massachusetts, Idaho, Utah and Washington - that do not vote until
March.
"Just know, I'm not going anywhere," she said at a campaign event on
Wednesday. "I'm in this for the long haul. And this is going to be
messy. And this is going to hurt, and it's going to leave some bruises."
On Thursday, her campaign announced she would appear at a flurry of
events to be held in South Carolina over the weekend and host a rally in
Dallas next week.
The Nevada blow followed calls from high-ranking Republican officials
across the country for Haley to drop out in recent weeks. In South
Carolina - where she lives and has her headquarters - most of the state
legislature and all but one member of the congressional delegation has
endorsed the former president.
One Haley campaign operative described the situation on the ground as
"awkward," as so many prominent Republicans in the state had thrown
their weight behind the former president, leaving Haley's team
effectively isolated.
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Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. Ambassador to the
United Nations Nikki Haley reacts while attending a campaign event
at Indian Land High School's auditorium in Lancaster, South
Carolina, U.S. February 2, 2024. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton/File
Photo
The decisions in late January by U.S. Senator Tim Scott and U.S.
Representative Nancy Mace, both former Haley allies in South
Carolina, to endorse Trump enraged some members of the campaign,
according to two people close to Haley.
"Everybody has got to sleep with their own decisions," Haley said
last week of Scott, whom she first appointed to the U.S. Senate when
she was governor.
"We'll let him sleep with that."
Some staff and donors viewed the Mace endorsement as particularly
tough to take, given that Haley had campaigned on her behalf after
Trump endorsed Mace's primary opponent in the 2022 congressional
election, those people said.
During a press conference last week, Mace called Haley "China's
favorite governor," a reference to her recruitment of Chinese firms
to the state during her time in office. She later accused Haley of
raising taxes while she was in office.
On top of the political fighting, Haley's family home has been
targeted by two swatting incidents, where armed police rushed to the
scene after receiving hoax calls about people shot there. Her team
has requested U.S. Secret Service protection.
DONORS AND TRUMP FLAGS
Haley likely has the resources to stay in the race for several more
weeks, based on the fundraising figures her campaign has disclosed.
Her campaign said on Monday that it had raised $16.5 million in
January, including $11.7 million from "grassroots supporters." That
is more than it raised in the second and third quarters of 2023.
Some major Haley donors have ended their support since her loss to
Trump in the New Hampshire primary on Jan. 23 or indicated it will
be winding down. An advisor to Reid Hoffman, the billionaire
co-founder of LinkedIn, told Reuters he was pausing his support
after her New Hampshire loss, while metals magnate Andy Sabin said
she needed to drop out.
Others, like venture capitalist Tim Draper, have said they are
sticking by her. Several of her contributors told Reuters they
appreciate her willingness to stand up to Trump, even if her odds
are exceedingly long. Others say she needs to keep racking up
delegates so she emerges as the back-up plan to face Democratic
President Joe Biden in the November general election, in case
Trump's legal issues catch up with him.
At the recent event in Hilton Head, an affluent seaside resort town
popular with vacationers and retirees, a group of demonstrators
waved Trump flags outside the restaurant where Haley spoke and a
heckler interrupted her speech at one point before being escorted
out.
Many grassroots backers, however, made it clear they want Haley to
stay in the race. While her crowds were notably smaller than those
at Trump events, voters filled a high-school auditorium for her
rally in Lancaster last week, and the bar where she made her Hilton
Head stop was standing room only.
One supporter, Patricia Shapiro, a 68-year-old physician, said she
was upset that Republican leaders were trying to force Haley from
the race after just two states - Iowa and New Hampshire - had cast
ballots.
"This is supposed to be an election," she said. "This is not
supposed to be turning it off after the first two primaries."
Another supporter, Kim Barch, said that whether or not Haley wins in
South Carolina, she should keep campaigning so voters at least have
a choice.
"This isn't a coronation," Barch added. "I think she needs to go a
little bit further."
(Reporting by Gram Slattery; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Pravin
Char)
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