Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley said Thursday that former President Donald Trump felt ‘threatened’ and ‘insecure,’ which is why he pushed a ‘birther’ conspiracy theory about her eligiblity to serve as president.
Haley appeared Thursday night at a CNN town hall in New Hampshire, as she barnstorms the Granite State hoping to loosen Trump’s grip on the Republican Party.
In recent weeks, Trump has highlighted a racist theory suggesting Haley, who was born in the United States, was ineligible to be commander-in-chief because her Indian immigrant parents were not yet U.S. citizens.
Haley, Trump’s former U.N. ambassador, responded by saying she is ‘the proud daughter of Bamberg, South Carolina, so I love my sweet town and I’m proud to say I’m from there.’
‘The name calling? I know Trump well,’ the former South Carolina governor continued. ‘That’s what he does when he feels threatened. That’s what he does when he feels insecure.’
Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley said Thursday that former President Donald Trump felt ‘threatened’ and ‘insecure,’ which is why he pushed a ‘birther’ conspiracy theory about her eligiblity to serve as president
Former President Donald Trump, seen at a New Hampshire campaign stop earlier this week, pushed a ‘birther’ conspiracy theory about Haley on his Truth Social website and misspelled her first name, Nimarata, as ‘Nimrada’ in a social media post
‘I don’t take these things personally. It doesn’t bother me,’ Haley added. ‘So it’s not going to waste any energy for me. I’m going to continue to focus on the things that people want to talk about and not get into name calling back with him.’
In addition to pushing on Truth Social the ‘birther’ conspiracy theory, Trump referred to Haley by her first name, Nimarata, but spelled it wrong.
‘Anyone listening to Nikki “Nimrada” Haley’s wacked out speech last night, would think that she won the Iowa Primary,’ Trump posted to Truth Social on Tuesday. ‘She didn’t, and she couldn’t even beat a very flawed Ron DeSanctimonious, who’s out of money, and out of hope.’
Trump and his allies have also gone after Haley for attracting some Democratic support.
‘Democrats are allowed to vote. They’re going to vote for her because they don’t want to run against me, it’s a very simple system,’ Trump claimed Thursday night during an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity.
A New Hampshire voter asked Haley about that Tuesday night, explaining that it gave him pause that Democratic voters were crossing over to vote for Haley in the Republican primary.
‘First of all, I will tell you we’ve been here for 11 months. We’ve had over 75, 80 town halls answering every question, shaking every hand. I’m the last person to leave. I don’t ask people when they come in the door if they’re Republican, Democrat or independent,’ she said.
Haley talked about how she has support from conservative Don Bolduc, the failed GOP 2022 New Hampshire Senate candidate, who’s been a ‘pro-Trumper for a long time,’ she said, while adding she also has the support of moderate New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu.
CNN’s Jake Tapper (right) asked presidential candidate Nikki Haley (left) Thursday night what a ‘win’ would look like in New Hampshire and if it meant she could come in second place. New Hampshire first-in-the-nation primary takes place Tuesday
Independents have come our way, Haley continued.
Democrats, Haley explained, have come her way because they’re displeased with President Joe Biden.
‘What I want everybody here to remember is Republicans have lost the last seven out of eight popular votes for president. That is nothing to be proud of,’ she said.
‘If you’re going to win the majority of Americans, you have to make sure, as a leader you don’t decide who’s good and who’s bad, who’s right and who’s wrong,’ she said.
‘What I’m doing is telling people what I’m for. If independents and conservatives and moderate Republicans like that, I love that, if conservative Democrats are saying I want to come back home to the Republican Party because they left it, I want them back,’ Haley continued.
The ex-ambassador said she would never target progressives.
‘They’re never going to be for me,’ she said. ‘But what I will do is I want the younger voter, I want those moderates, I want those independents, I want them to come back to the Republican Party because this is how we win.’
Haley, who is still behind Trump in most New Hampshire polls, but within spitting distance, also couched what a ‘win’ would look like Tuesday night in the first-in-the-nation primary.
‘Look, I have said from the beginning we wanted to be strong in Iowa, we wanted to be stronger in New Hampshire and we want to get even stronger in my sweet state of South Carolina,’ she said.
Haley came in third place in the Iowa caucuses, right behind Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose second place was 30 points behind frontrunner Trump.
DeSantis was endorsed by Iowa’s popular GOP Gov. Kim Reynolds and traveled to all 99 counties, while Haley spent more time focused on the second contest, New Hampshire’s primary.
CNN’s Jake Tapper pointed out that every Republican candidate who’s won both Iowa and New Hampshire has gone on to clinch the GOP nomination.
‘So you named the past and all of the hes. I’m talking about the she,’ Haley said. ‘She’s going to go forward and finish this race.’
She said she wanted to perform stronger than she did in Iowa – but wouldn’t say if that meant it had to be first place.
‘We’re not going to know what strong looks like until those numbers come in,’ Haley said.