Yesterday, Nikki Haley appeared on Hannity and was once again unable to make a clear case as to why she’s running for president. Despite her inconsistent support of the former president, she was unable to differentiate herself from him or any other GOP candidate for that matter. She’s choosing to dodge questions about Trump and ignore the fact that he remains the presumptive nominee.
In the lead up to her campaign launch, Haley has repeatedly said that she stands squarely behind the former president’s dangerous agenda. In a 2018 op-ed, Haley said “I proudly serve in this administration, and I enthusiastically support most of its decisions and the direction it is taking the country.” More recently, in 2021, Haley tweeted out “I’m really proud of the successes of the Trump administration. Whether it was foreign policy or domestic policy, we should embrace those. Those were the right policies. That’s what the Republican Party cares about.”
Haley has struggled to carve out a coherent political identity because she tries to have it both ways on Trump and his agenda. In a Wall Street Journal editorial published today, the right-leaning editorial board lambasted Haley, pointing out there’s no apparent reason why she’s running for president. The editorial board writes: “[t]he bigger challenge for Ms. Haley is identifying the rationale for her candidacy… She hasn’t staked out any clear domestic policy directions, and she doesn’t have an obvious core of support.”
When asked about how she plans to differentiate herself from Trump, Haley dodges the question:
“What I am saying is I don’t kick sideways, I’m kicking forward. Joe Biden is the president, he’s the one I’m running against. And what I’m saying is you don’t have to be 80 years old to be president. We don’t need to have these same people going back again, we need something new. We need a new generation of fighters, we need people that understand where the average American is coming from and we shouldn’t be afraid to fight for that. That’s what I’m willing to do. I’m not going to kick sideways. I don’t have time for that. That’s not my focus. I’m kicking forward. It’s all about Joe Biden and it’s all about the people in America winning again.”
Published: Feb 16, 2023