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Ex-South Carolina Governor, Former Trump Toady, Neocon Darling: Who is 2024 Candidate Nikki Haley?

© AFP 2023 / Jewel SAMADUS Ambassador to the UN and UN security council president, Nikki Haley speaks during an United Nations Security Council meeting on Syria, at the UN headquarters in New York
US Ambassador to the UN and UN security council president, Nikki Haley speaks during an United Nations Security Council meeting on Syria, at the UN headquarters in New York - Sputnik International, 1920, 14.02.2023
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Nikki Haley announced her presidential ambitions on Tuesday, becoming the third Republican to enter the race after Donald Trump and former Montana Secretary of State Corey Stapleton. What’s Haley’s background? What’s her work experience? And what makes her think she has the fortitude to become leader of the “free world”? Sputnik recalls her record.
“Time for a new generation. Let’s do this!” Nikki Haley wrote in a tweet accompanying a campaign video announcing her 2024 presidential bid.
First, a few quick facts: Haley is a 51-year-old South Carolina native, mother of two, daughter of Indian American immigrants, former US ambassador to the United Nations (2017-2018), former Republican governor of South Carolina (2011-2017), and former member of the South Carolina House of Representatives (2005-2011).

What’s Wrong With the ‘Old Generation’?

Haley’s relationship vis-à-vis her old boss Donald Trump has defined her rise as a national-level politician, but has often left pundits and the former president himself scratching their heads in confusion about just where she stands. “Nikki Haley needs to ‘clarify immediately’ her stance on Trump,” a Meet the Press panel show summarized Sunday, pointing to the politician’s chameleonesque record alternating between praising the former president and attacking him.
Haley launched a barrage of criticism against Trump in the winter of 2021, dismissing his claims that the 2020 presidential election had been rigged, and emphasized that Republicans “shouldn’t have followed him,” “shouldn’t have listened to him,” and couldn’t “let that ever happen again.”
“I don’t think he’s going to be in the picture,” Haley said in February 2021, when asked about Trump’s chances in 2024. “I don’t think he can. He’s fallen so far,” she noted.
In the weeks and months that followed, as Trump recovered, Haley went back to praising him, touting his foreign policy and “strong” border policy, and assuring supporters that as ambassador to the UN, she “saw firsthand…that Donald Trump put America first.”
In April 2021, Haley assured that she would not run for president if Trump did, and that this was “something that we’ll have a conversation about at some point if that decision is something that has to be made.”
Trump picked up on Haley’s tendency to flip-flop, quipping in late 2021 that “every time she criticizes me, she uncriticizes me about 15 minutes later.” Trump suggested the South Carolina politician’s maneuvering was predicated on her assessment of his popularity with the Republican base, much of which which remains loyal to the former president. Trump has previously indicated that he wouldn’t mind if she primaried him in 2024, recalling that in 2016 he was also challenged “by people that were, you know, I never thought they were effective.”
Trump taunted Haley to announce a run last week, jabbing her as a person who’s “overly ambitious” and who “just couldn’t stay in her seat.”
Former South Carolina Republican Governor Nikki Haley. - Sputnik International, 1920, 14.02.2023
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Fair-Weather Friendship

Haley’s off-again-on-again praise and criticism of Trump isn’t new. In 2016, after being tapped by the GOP to give the official rebuttal to then-President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech, Haley called on Republicans to reject “the siren call of the angriest voices” – an overt reference to then-presidential candidate Trump and his over-the-top attacks on Obama. Later during the campaign, Haley said that she would vote for anyone but Trump in the primaries, and that the business mogul represented “everything a governor doesn’t want in a president.” Haley went on to endorse Senator Marco Rubio for president, and slammed Trump for his purported failure to “disavow the KKK.”
Haley flipped on a dime at the Republican National Convention in July of 2016, saying she would “of course” endorse Trump to prevent Hillary Clinton from becoming president. In 2017, after being tapped by Trump for the job of UN ambassador, Haley accepted out of a “sense of duty” to country.

What Does Haley’s Candidacy Bring to the Table?

In her campaign video, Haley touted herself as a populist alternative to the Washington swamp, with a dash of Southern charm and a hint of female empowerment thrown in for good measure.
“Republicans have lost the popular vote in seven out of the last eight presidential elections. That has to change. Joe Biden’s record is abysmal, but that shouldn’t come as a surprise. The Washington establishment has failed us over and over and over again. It’s time for a new generation of leadership to rediscover fiscal responsibility, secure our border and strengthen our country, our pride and our purpose,” Haley said, channeling the rhetoric not so much of Trump as Ronald Reagan.
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Neocon Roots

Both as Trump’s UN ambassador and since, Haley has refused to drift from the swamp’s script on foreign affairs, openly contradicting her boss on Russia sanctions and ignoring his calls for a better relationship between the US and Russia, naming China as the “number one national security threat” to America, and suggesting that the “Iranian regime” was “shaking in their boots” after the US murdered Quds Forces commander Qasem Soleimani.
“Some people look at America and see vulnerability. The socialist left sees an opportunity to rewrite history. China and Russia are on the march. They all think we can be bullied, kicked around. You should know this about me: I don’t put up with bullies, and when you kick back it hurts them more if you’re wearing heels,” she said in her campaign video.
Last August, a report citing tax documents revealed that Haley’s Stand for America political nonprofit has been receiving donations from a myriad of special interest groups, including big-money contributors to President Biden, as well as neoconservative establishment-linked donors, including never-Trumpers who poured money into Ohio GOP "moderate" Governor John Kasich’s primary bid in 2016.
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What are Haley’s Chances to Oust Trump?

A Morning Consult poll tracking the 2024 GOP primaries released Tuesday showed that just 3 percent of Republicans would like to see Nikki Haley as party’s leader, compared with 47 percent who say it should be Trump. Haley is stuck behind Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (polling at 31 percent), Mike Pence (7 percent), and tied for fourth with never-Trumper former Wyoming Congresswoman Liz Cheney and Texas Senator Ted Cruz, another neocon with an on-again-off-again habit of praising or attacking Trump, depending on where the political winds seem to be blowing.
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