As fate would have it, the Republican debate is being held Thursday in SC, and Van Susteren had some words of advice for Haley when she said she’d be there to welcome the candidates. That she was asked to deliver the GOP response to President Obama’s State of the Union address not only speaks well of our sitting governor, but might indeed portend what lies ahead – if not this year, perhaps sometime down the road.
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Yet, Haley’s tone on Trump took a sharper turn as his 2016 candidacy has taken off. After his proposal to ban Muslims from the United States, Haley called the idea unconstitutional. “We need to be honest with each other and with ourselves”, Haley said. This isn’t a matter of political correctness. Please see our terms of service for more information. Obama rejected that idea outright. More recently, she opposed the resettlement of Syrian refugees in SC and had the state join a lawsuit that has derailed the Obama administrations attempt to use executive action to protect millions of unauthorized immigrants from deportation. While this may have been a swipe at President Obama, Trump was also scolded by Obama earlier this week during Tuesday’s State of the Union address.
“Some people think that you have to be the loudest voice in the room to make a difference”, she said. That is just not true. At times, the best solution may be to bring down the volume.
When asked if she was referring to the billionaire businessman in her speech, Haley admitted that Trump was one of the people she was singling out.
Fox News contributor Laura Ingraham tweeted that Haley squandered an opportunity to stand with working Americans on immigration, while Rush Limbaugh called her remarks proof positive that the Republican party is trying to drive out conservatives.
Trump himself described Haley as a “very nice woman” and said he had no problem with being depicted as angry. “One of the weakest weakest recovery on record, and by far the weakest recovery ever on record”, Trump said.
“During anxious times, it can be tempting to follow the siren call of the angriest voices”, she said Tuesday. The GOP crowd will continue to get whittled down as Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton jockey for the nod from the Democrats. It is the first stop in what the White House says will be a year-long tour to talk with Americans about the need to fix the nation’s polarized politics.
Republicans like to blame Trump for hijacking the party, but equally to blame are the others in the race for letting it happen – and continuing to do so, now just two weeks from the Iowa caucuses.
Democracy, Obama said, requires “basic bonds of trust between its citizens”.
Cruz quickly countered in a statement. It was a searing warning call imploring us to move with urgency and unity to defeat a plague that is already crippling our democracy.
Let’s hope that through all such noise and fury, Haley’s message was heard among Republicans on the hustings, who at Trump’s impetus have made this primary season the ugliest in memory. “When the president makes a good case, it helps Hillary more than Bernie”.
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Some of the critique of Haley’s response from conservatives online seemed to have a racial tint: Haley wasn’t just wrong because of what she said; she was more wrong, for some on Twitter, because she is Indian-American.
