Before Haley lost at South Carolina. she told the interviewer: “It’s not normal to mock members of the military. It’s not normal to spend $50 million worth of campaign funds on a personal lawsuit. It’s not normal to side with tyrants and dictators who murder political opponents. is not normal. …None of this is normal,” she might have added. It is unusual for a man to be found liable in three separate lawsuits, totaling more than $500 million for exaggerating his wealth in one case and defaming a woman he sexually assaulted in another.
If Haley stays in the race for at least a few weeks until Super Tuesday, she will accomplish four things. First, he would force Trump, who is already spending millions to pay his lawyers, to spend even more resources. Second, she will force more voters – independents, soft Republicans, and Democrats who complain relentlessly about President Biden’s age – to face the reality of President Trump’s possible second term. Dew. Third, the Supreme Court will give President Trump more time to rule on disqualification and immunity, incite voter revolt, and decide whether to nominate someone to face at least one criminal trial before the next election. It may force you to make a decision. Finally, if they win and get a sizable number of delegates, especially if Trump is convicted and the delegates get buyer’s remorse at the Republican National Convention in July. It might work in her favor.
Although it is unlikely that Haley will survive a third election with Trump, it is worth considering whether she had a chance against him. Supposedly, she refused to attack him, agreed to support him if he was the candidate, and wasted most of the campaign period bickering with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. It got her nowhere. Moreover, it prevented her from consolidating the votes of anyone other than Trump.
Certainly, there is no guarantee that another approach would have been more successful. But she may have launched an anti-Trump message starting in 2023 and then supplemented it in three important ways.
First, instead of spending your time and energy attacking Republicans other than Trump;, She could have made a determined and strong effort to persuade independents and even Democrats to vote in the primary. She was never going to win over Trump voters. What she needed was to expand the base of anti-Trump voters in the Republican primary.
She may have appealed to those voters with the appeal that our democracy is at stake. She makes a convincing argument that keeping him on the ballot will lead to a new “big lie” and new riots if he loses. Smart Never Trump advisers may have helped her find these voters during her primaries and persuade them to support her. This strategy certainly could have distinguished her from her other candidates and attracted media coverage (It’s completely new!) and raised even more campaign donations. (She already has support from some Democrats, but could have gotten more.)
Second, Haley could have maximized Trump’s foreign policy attacks. She traveled to conflict zones in Ukraine and pledged to help keep Ukraine independent, and may have dared President Trump to do the same. (Imagine how humiliating it would have been if his indictment had prevented him from traveling abroad!) Other Republicans, Includes Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) came on the trip.that It’s strange that Haley never did.
She may also have explicitly accused President Trump of being more loyal to Russian President Vladimir Putin than to U.S. national security interests. Why has Russia repeatedly considered siding with Trump in the election? she could have even shared something of hers his experiences as president and her time as ambassador to the United Nations; It reflected his misplaced loyalty and confusion about which side we were on (democracy or tyranny?).
Finally, in the wake of the first E. Jean Carroll decision, Ms. Haley could have adopted the stance of Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah). In February, Romney finally said what previous elected Republicans had not had the courage to say: “I will not vote for President Trump. I have to admit that this is a line that should not be crossed.”
yes i will go there. In May 2023, the moment the jury in the first Carroll trial found him responsible for the sexual abuse, Haley may have started referring to him as a “convicted sexual abuser.” be. And her words may have gotten even harsher in July, when Judge Lewis A. Kaplan decided it was appropriate to call his actions “rape.”
Correctly identifying him as a “convicted rapist” in debates and interviews might have at least gotten past the right-wing media bubble that protects MAGA voters from bad news about cult heroes.
We’ll never know whether Ms. Haley was as successful with a completely unconventional campaign that relied on independent voters and Democrats as much (or more) than anti-Trump Republicans. At the very least, she sparked a pro-Trump meltdown, forced Republican voters watching the debate to hear the hard truth, and told journalists that Trump was promoting the policies of America’s enemies and, according to a New York jury, a woman. It is possible that he forced her to report that he had raped her. .
Well, perhaps it’s not too late for her to make these points and work on a short trip to Ukraine before Super Tuesday. What does she have to lose?