#nikki haley presidential

[worldnewsforus11]

Trump's election tampering trial has been postponed indefinitely by a fe...

[lilithism1848]

[tomorrowusa]

« Trump won’t just go away; he'll have to be defeated. And Haley can’t defeat him because she has no answer for the central problem: She needs the support of a group of voters who are religiously devoted to him.

However, I do believe that the longer she stays in the race, the more damage she’ll do to Trump’s bid.

[ … ]

It's probably not her intention, but Haley is providing a service to the nation: a soft launch of reminding voters that Trump is a chaos agent of the highest order who put the nation through a dizzying series of unnecessary crucibles that tested the very durability of our institutions and our ability to withstand his anti-democratic onslaught.

Haley has begun to do the work that Biden and his campaign team will greatly expand on — if they're smart. »

— Charles M. Blow writing in the New York Times.

For some bizarre reason, candidates for the GOP presidential nomination thought they could make headway without criticizing the deeply flawed frontrunner.

When Nikki Haley belatedly started slamming Trump, the public attention devoted to her campaign shot up. It's certainly too late to do her much good, but her attacks on Trump do increase the possibility of him responding in such a way that women voters would find offensive.

If Trump loses this year, the GOP will be in shambles. If the party doesn't disintegrate like the Whigs, it will be looking to somebody who was not tied too closely to Trump. By publicly creating some space between herself and The Orange One, Nikki Haley could be looking ahead to 2028.

In the meantime, the more people attacking Trump from different directions – the better. There's already some indication that Biden, or at least his surrogates, are stepping up attacks on Trump's economic record. Reminding voters that Trump's fumbling of the early pandemic response led to economic meltdown should get more emphasis.

[william-r-melich]

Nikki Go Home - 02/26/2024

Donald Trump defeated Nikki Haley again, and she won't go home. Trump won by 20 points over Haley in South Carolina's Republican Primary on Saturday, February 24th, 59% to 39%. She's still committed to staying at least through Super Tuesday, March 5th. She recently lost a big donor, Koch. Others may follow suit, but as long as she keeps getting enough support to keep going, it appears that she'll just keep on humiliating herself. She's become the democrats' darling, staying in to detract from Trump's funds and focus from defeating Joe Biden, or whoever they might throw in there at some point leading up to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this August. She's becoming an annoying distraction to Trump and the MAGA Republicans, and her condescending attitude makes her actions even more repulsive, in my opinion. The republicans need to unite behind Trump, which most of them are, there's just a few swampy Rhino's and a political whore (I don't want to mention any names, but her initials are Nikki Haley.) putting up a few roadblocks and detours. This will only slow Trump down. Barring a conviction or some other unfortunate, tragic occurrence, I'm convinced that Trump will be the next POTUS. I and many others are still waiting on the US Supreme Court to weigh in on the presidential immunity aspect related to the January 6 protest which was not an insurrection. The fact that Trump was never charged with an insurrection should make presidential immunity irrelevant anyway. Trump is right, all these cases against him are the left's attempt at election interference. Mark my words, it won't work. It's all so crazy and banana republic, 3rd world communist-like tactics being implemented by this corrupt, bass-akwards nightmare of an administration. Nikki Haley has gone nuts too, but she needs to give it up, go home and either stay out of the way or jump on the Trump bandwagon.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Kaili Joy Gray at Daily Kos:

Nikki Haley had a nice run as the anti-Trump candidate in the Republican primary. She was so good at it, she continued to get a big chunk of votes even after she dropped out. And she got so much praise for refusing to bow to the MAGA cult.

But that’s all over now because Haley has joined the bend-the-knee club and endorsed the candidate she called “unstable and unhinged.” During a conversation at the Hudson Institute on Wednesday, Haley claimed that despite everything she said about Trump, President Joe Biden is somehow worse. “So I will be voting for Trump,” she said. “Having said that, I stand by what I said in my suspension speech. Trump would be smart to reach out to the millions of people who voted for me and continue to support me and not assume that they’re just going to be with him. And I genuinely hope he does that.” [...] So what’s changed? Maybe it's just Haley's concerns for her own political future and a realization—rightly or wrongly—that the only way to have one is to, like the rest of the GOP cult, kiss the ring. The same ring she insisted in February she had no need to smooch.

Nikki Haley doing the cowardly act of backing Donald Trump in the general after calling him unstable and unhinged during the later stages of the primary in order to secure her GOP future.

[phoenixyfriend]

Sounds like Nikki Haley is dropping out, btw

My guess is that she wanted that one definite win (Vermont) so that if Trump goes down for criminal charges or health reasons (I'm holding out for the McDs to catch up to him, personally), she's the only one with the delegates to claim his spot.

[sbrown82]

If this white woman dipped in turmeric don’t go sit her ass down!!! 🤔🤬

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Rising GOP support for the U.S. taking unilateral military action in Mexico against drug cartels is increasingly rattling people on both sides of the border who worry talk of an attack is getting normalized.

Wednesday’s Republican presidential primary debate featured high-stakes policy disagreements on a range of issues from abortion to the environment — but found near-unanimous consensus on the idea of using American military force to fight drug smuggling and migration.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis made the strongest pledge on the stage with his response to Fox News moderator Martha MacCallum’s question asked whether he would support sending U.S. special forces into Mexico to “take out fentanyl labs, to take out drug cartel operations.”

“Yes. And I will do it on day one,” said DeSantis.

The Governor’s eagerness reflects a growing normalization of the idea, which Republicans have embraced from the campaign trail to the halls of Congress.

Even more moderate GOP candidates such as former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott have suggested support for some version of unilateral military action across the Rio Grande.

Former President Trump’s hawkish approach to the bilateral relationship has led the way in mainstreaming the idea. As President, he sought Pentagon advice on launching missiles into Mexico, according to “A Sacred Oath,” a memoir by former Defense Secretary Mark Esper.

Esper talked Trump down, but the proposal still casts a shadow on U.S.-Mexico relations.

“I believe any action that is unilateral by the United States vis-à-vis Mexico, especially by U.S. uniformed forces, be they police or military, would be completely counterproductive to United States-Mexico relations,” said John Negroponte, who served as permanent representative to the U.N. under President George W. Bush and as ambassador to Mexico under Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

“Mexico is our largest trading partner. We share a 2,200-mile border and we have inter-relationships that are extensive and across an entire spectrum of issues such as migration, trade, people-to-people relations and environmental concerns. I believe such action would be extremely ill-advised,” Negroponte said.

Over the past century, bilateral relations have eased from the brink of war to deep collaboration on that catalog of issues, though many in Mexico remain distrustful of U.S. influence.

The last major U.S. military intervention in Mexico ended in 1917, as the latter country’s revolution entered its final phase. Known then as the “Punitive Expedition,” the mission led by Gen. John Pershing saw 10,000 U.S. combatants deployed to northern Mexico over the better part of a year.

Better commercial and cross-border relations came with decades of political stability in Mexico, culminating in the signature of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1992.

While cooperation has only intensified since then, open and direct collaboration between U.S. and Mexican security forces remains elusive; the Pentagon’s long-term goal of better integration with the Mexican military hit a speed bump amid Trump-related tensions.

But a century of progress could be erased overnight, a Mexican official told The Hill.

“Any military intervention in Mexico would be a monumental setback for the U.S. and would derail the bilateral relationship. It can destroy the North American trading bloc and worsen the security situation, triggering a wave of migration in the region.”

Now, bilateral tensions are being stimulated on both sides of the border, with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador pursuing an internal image of defiance against the United States.

“It’s been made worse obviously in the process by President López Obrador’s denial of Mexico’s role in fentanyl trafficking — the fact that he says that fentanyl isn’t produced in Mexico — which is absurd because its own armed forces parade seizures of labs and of fentanyl being produced in Mexico,” said Arturo Sarukhán, who served as Mexican ambassador to the United States from 2007-13.

“In many ways, López Obrador unwittingly has fanned the flames of anger, vis-à-vis Mexican positions on law enforcement collaboration, so it’s the perfect storm.”

Despite the political pressures that driven in part by a frantic search for solutions to the opioid epidemic, a few cooler heads remain.

On the debate stage Wednesday, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) opposed the unilateral use of U.S. military or police force in Mexico, harkening back to his experience as head of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

“We cannot be successful against the cartel unless we bring in Mexico as a partner. We have to use economic pressure to accomplish that,” said Hutchinson, though he added that López Obrador “has not been helpful.”

Former Vice President Mike Pence lauded Hutchinson’s appeal for economic pressure, but said he would “engage Mexico the exact same way” as the Trump administration to ensure security cooperation.

Hutchinson, who also served as the top border security official when the Department of Homeland Security was created in 2003, was more channeling the approach of the pre-Trump GOP.

“What Hutchinson said last night is a clear reminder of the way the GOP would go about addressing issues of transnational collaboration in the fight against transnational organized crime with countries like Mexico,” said Sarukhán.

But the post-Trump GOP, according to its opponents, is a ticking time bomb.

“I think what you’re seeing is the unraveling of a political party in real time,” said Texas Rep. Joaquín Castro, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Western Hemisphere Subcommittee.

The idea of unilateral military action is a placeholder for a lack of policy proposals in other fields, said Castro, but he warned the idea is already snowballing.

“What happens is, somebody popular in their party starts talking about it, and then the other candidates start parroting it. And after time, their base takes it on as a core idea and gets behind it.”

“And then the base starts demanding that every Republican in the country, whether they’re running for President or school board, agrees with this idea. And that’s the evolution of this whole thing. And that’s what’s gonna happen here. If something doesn’t change, that’s what’s gonna happen here.”

Pressed for further comment on DeSantis’s hard-line position, his campaign said “he will do what is necessary to stop the deadly flow of Fentanyl and other narcotics from the Mexican drug cartels.”

“Ron DeSantis rightly didn’t back down to the Experts(TM) during COVID and he likewise won’t let them keep him from securing our southern border,” said press secretary Bryan Griffin.

Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D), a global crisis negotiator who served as U.S. permanent representative to the U.N. under Clinton, warned that military action in Mexico would both backfire and fail to solve the underlying issues.

“It shows the nativist shift of the Republican Party from internationalism to irresponsible diplomacy. It would be a disaster if there were any military action against Mexico — a foreign policy disaster for the United States,” he said.

“Plus, it makes no sense to resolve the problem,” Richardson added.

[head-post]

Biden and Trump end primary election season with easy victories in 4 states

US incumbent President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump easily won Tuesday’s primary election in the states of Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, and South Dakota.

It was Trump’s first appearance on the ballot since he faced a historic hush money trial in New York last week. The former president won uncontested in New Jersey with 98% of the vote. Biden also won in New Jersey with an easy 88% of the vote, although nearly 9% of voters checked the “uncommitted” box at the polls.

Trump won New Mexico with 84 per cent of the vote, where voters could still vote for rivals who had dropped out of the Republican presidential race. Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, who ended her presidential campaign in March and announced a fortnight ago that she would vote for Trump in the November 5 presidential election, still won nearly 9% of the vote in New Mexico. Biden, meanwhile, got 84% in New Mexico, but again lost 9% to the “uncommitted” ballot option.

Trump won the Montana primary with 87% of the vote, but lost 10% of the vote to the “no preference” option. Biden won 91% of the vote there.

Biden won a majority of the vote in South Dakota with 73 per cent. But he lost 12 per cent of the vote to little-known challenger Marianne Williamson and 11 per cent of the vote to Minnesota Congressman Dean Phillips, another prominent Democratic candidate. Trump, meanwhile, was the only Republican candidate in South Dakota and was declared the winner by that state’s Republican Party.

There was also a Democratic Party primary in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, which Biden won with 87 per cent of the vote.

There are only a few contests left before the primary election season is over. However, these elections are merely a formality, as both Biden and Trump have long since secured the necessary number of delegates needed to secure their parties’ nominations.

Trump now has 2,243 delegates, nearly double the required 1,215 delegates. He will officially accept his party’s nomination at the Republican Party National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which will be held from July 15 to 18.

Biden, meanwhile, has 3,864 delegates, which is also nearly double the required 1,968 delegates. He will officially receive his party’s nomination at the Democratic Party National Convention in Chicago, Illinois, which will be held August 19-22.

Read more HERE

[dontmean2bepoliticalbut]

[jessica-marie-baumgartner]

Bout time

[mxescargot]

nikki haley sweep in my heart ok

[tomorrowusa]

Three of Trump's rivals for the GOP nomination say they would pardon Trump for his crimes if they get elected president.

The leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination faces 91 criminal charges, nearly half of which are at the federal level. And yet his two main GOP rivals have said they would pardon him if they’re elected. [ ... ] While campaigning in the days leading up to the first votes of 2024’s Republican primary elections, Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley have both signalled they would grant clemency to the former president because it would be in the nation’s “interest” to do so. [ ... ] Republican officials and Mr Trump’s GOP rivals for the 2024 nomination have largely rushed to his defence after his indictments. Vivek Ramaswamy pledged to pardon Mr Trump shortly after he was federally indicted in the Mar-a-Lago case. [ ... ] Pardoning him would merely prove that the US does have “two systems of justice,” GOP rival Chris Christie told supporters in New Hampshire last week. But not the kind that Mr Trump believes. “One for all of us and one for the most powerful,” Mr Christie said. “If we allow that to happen as a country, we would be no better – no better – than a lot of these tin-pot democracies around the world who treat the privileged different than they treat everyday citizens.”

Asa Hutchinson, who is technically still in the race, reasserted that he would not pardon Trump.

Republican Asa Hutchinson won't pardon Trump if he's convicted

So here's the GOP Trump pardon scoreboard...

It's worth noting that President Gerald Ford gave a full pardon to Richard Nixon a month after he succeeded the disgraced Nixon. The pardon was highly unpopular and was likely a factor in Ford's narrow defeat by Democrat Jimmy Carter in the 1976 election.

Pardons for Trump might play well with the MAGA base but would be much less popular with the broader public.

[william-r-melich]

A Big, Expected Win for Trump - 03/04/2024

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 9 - 0 to reverse the Colorado's supreme court ruling to remove Trump from the presidential primary election ballot. They determined that an individual state cannot remove a candidate for national office based on section 3 of the 14th amendment. Next up is the presidential immunity case in which oral arguments will be heard by SCOTUS beginning on April 22nd. Trump should win that one too, but I wouldn't count on it. I never thought they would rule Obama care constitutional, but unfortunately, they did, which made health insurance premium rates at least double in cost. I'll never forget judge Robert's twisted reasoning of saying that it's not a tax, but you can call it a tax, what the heck? Of course, Trump ran the table again in the latest primaries except for losing D.C.'s which is really a win for Trump and comes as a badge of honor, obviously because Washington D.C. is over 90% liberal democrats who vehemently hate Trump. Tomorrow is super Tuesday with 16 states, Guam, and 865 delegates up for grabs. Right now, Trump has 244 of the 1,215 delegates needed to secure the nomination. Nikkie Haley has 43, Ron DeSantis who dropped from the race on January 21st has 9, and Vivek Ramaswamy who dropped on January 15th has 3. The rest have zero. I'll be holding my breath (so to speak) from April 22nd onward, probably until sometime in June or July when SCOTUS rules on the presidential immunity appeals case. If they rule in favor of Trump having immunity while he was president, that'll throw the proverbial monkey wrench on all the charges against him relating to the January 6 Capitol breach which really was mostly peaceful and definitely not an insurrection. I hope for the sake of truth and goodness that the judges will have the wisdom and courage to uphold the constitution by ruling in Trump's favor, thus recognizing the immunity that he and every other president has had. As always, time will tell...

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Aldous J Pennyfarthing at Daily Kos:

Following Donald Trump’s example is typically a very bad idea. This is the same guy who stared at an eclipse, thought it might be a good idea to inject disinfectant, and insists on flushing toilets 10 to 15 times, even though the government recommends stolen top secret nuclear documents be flushed no more than three times in order to conserve water. And while listening to Trump is equally as bad—Truth Social investors are discovering that now—it might, ironically, end up saving the country. You may recall when several starry-eyed Republicans ran for president based largely on the notion that a guy with a fraudulent business who’d literally attempted to end America and faced dozens of felony charges might have some vulnerabilities in the general election. Well, one of those candidates—former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley—stuck around a bit longer than Trump would have liked and it’s still having an impact.

[...] On Tuesday night in the GOP’s closed Pennsylvania primary, Haley got more than 155,000 votes, or roughly 16.6% of the total. This is a pretty significant number for someone who’s no longer campaigning, and whose opponent is a universally known figure running as a quasi-incumbent.

The Hill reports that Haley got close to 20% in several Pennsylvania counties. And this could be reason for concern with “polling average of the state from Decision Desk HQ/The Hill has Trump ahead of President Biden in the state by just 0.4 percent, meaning every vote may have added importance there compared to many other states.”  And it’s not just in Pennsylvania. According to The Hill Haley “received more than 77,000 votes in the Georgia primary in March in March a few days after she dropped out, more than 150,000 votes, or almost 20 percent, in the Washington primary and more than 110,000 votes in the Arizona primary.” Clearly, Trump remains a polarizing figure within the GOP. And since telling Haley supporters to go screw, they’ve pretty much obeyed. The good news for Trump is that, as a wannabe dictator, he demands slavish obedience to all his dictates—and people are falling in line. The bad news for Trump is that if people actually listen to him, it could cost him the election.

As Washington Post senior political reporter Aaron Blake notes, the results in closed GOP-only primaries since Haley dropped out appear to show her momentum has barely slowed. 

In closed primary states so far, Nikki Haley continues to nab around 15%-25% of the GOP primary vote despite dropping out in March. That would be a bad omen for Trump come fall.