As Nikki Haley barnstorms South Carolina in an effort to prevent Donald Trump from being the Republican Party’s presidential nominee, she’s retracing some of her footsteps from eight years ago — and reusing a lot of the same language.
At this time in 2016, the then-South Carolina governor was also on the presidential campaign trail, but on behalf of Sen. Marco Rubio, whom she endorsed three days before the South Carolina primary.
And while much has changed in politics and the Republican Party since then, a look at her speeches introducing Rubio shows just how similar her argument against Trump is now as it was then, before he became the figure that redefined the GOP.
Nikki Haley and Marco Rubio in Chapin, S.C., on Feb. 17, 2016.Aaron P. Bernstein / Getty Images file
While Haley has ended up in a similar position, she took a detour to get there. She accepted a position in Trump’s Cabinet as ambassador to the United Nations just weeks after he was elected, serving for two years after resigning as governor. She went on to boost his re-election effort in 2020.
But in the two campaigns on either side of 2020, Haley made the case that Trump had a losing streak that created a general election risk for the GOP. It’s a theme she has hit hard recently, saying definitively that “Donald Trump can’t win.”
“He lost in 2018. He lost in 2020. He lost in 2022 and he continues to lose,” Haley said earlier this month in Bluffton, South Carolina. “How many more times do we have to lose until we start to say maybe he’s the problem?”
Eight years ago, Haley made a similar case — but Trump didn’t have a campaign record to go on at that point, so she based it on Trump’s business ventures.
“We’ve seen it with Trump vodka, we’ve seen it with Trump mortgage, we’ve seen it with all of his Trump endeavors. And right now he’s being sued for fraud with Trump University,” Haley said on Feb. 29, 2016, at a Rubio rally in Atlanta, between the South Carolina primary and Super Tuesday. “Every single one of them has failed. And now he wants to run for president. This is not a game. We are not a project.”
On her current campaign, Haley recently began tying Trump to President Joe Biden on issues like age, mental acuity and the fact that both are “tied up in investigations.”
“Both of them are tied up in investigations and all they do is talk about themselves,” she said of Trump and Biden on Feb. 7 in Charleston.
Eight years ago at that rally in Atlanta, Haley was also noting investigations into Trump — and into eventual Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
“We’ve got two presidential candidates who are under investigation,” Haley said. “Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.”
Earlier in that Atlanta rally for Rubio, she used the word “bully” to describe Donald Trump, saying: “I told my two little ones to do exactly what Marco Rubio did in the last debate — when a bully hits you, you hit that bully right back.”
Haley made the same case for her now adult children in a recent interview for NBC’s “TODAY,” telling co-host Craig Melvin: “You take on a bully because you don’t want your kids to grow up in a country that’s this divided.”
She made a similar case in her “state of the race” speech earlier this week in Greenville, South Carolina, where she indicated her intention to stay in the race and said she’s “never met a bully I couldn’t take on.”
“I am in this fight. I will take the bruises. I will take the cuts,” Haley said Tuesday, later adding, “All I ask is that you stay with me and go through this with me.”
It’s the same plea Haley made during her endorsement speech for Rubio three days before the South Carolina primary in 2016.
“This is one of many bruises I will take for Marco Rubio,” she told the crowd in Chapin, South Carolina. “So if I’m going to do that, I need you all to go out on Saturday.”
Trump went on to win the 2016 South Carolina primary later that week, beating Rubio by 10 points and cementing his front-runner status.
Other echoes from 2016 are permeating this year’s South Carolina campaign. Standing on stage alongside Rubio’s fellow South Carolina endorsers on primary night in 2016, Haley took a quick roll call: “When you see [Rep.] Trey Gowdy, when you see [Sen.] Tim Scott, when you see me, we are the start — along with a lot of other people — we’re the start of the new conservative movement that’s going to change this country for the better.”
Some eight years later, Scott announced the end of his own 2024 presidential bid on now-former Rep. Gowdy’s Fox News show. In January, Scott endorsed Trump over Haley, who appointed him to his Senate seat.
Quebec legislature member Youri Chassin has announced he’s leaving the Coalition Avenir Québec government to sit as an Independent.
He announced the decision shortly after writing an open letter criticizing Premier François Legault’s government for abandoning its principles of smaller government.
In the letter published in Le Journal de Montréal and Le Journal de Québec, Chassin accused the party of falling back on what he called the old formula of throwing money at problems instead of looking to do things differently.
Chassin says public services are more fragile than ever, despite rising spending that pushed the province to a record $11-billion deficit projected in the last budget.
He is the second CAQ member to leave the party in a little more than one week, after economy and energy minister Pierre Fitzgibbon announced Sept. 4 he would leave because he lost motivation to do his job.
Chassin says he has no intention of joining another party and will instead sit as an Independent until the end of his term.
He has represented the Saint-Jérôme riding since the CAQ rose to power in 2018, but has not served in cabinet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
MONTREAL – NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says he will not be taking advice from Pierre Poilievre after the Conservative leader challenged him to bring down government.
“I say directly to Pierre Poilievre: I’m not going to listen to you,” said Singh on Wednesday, accusing Poilievre of wanting to take away dental-care coverage from Canadians, among other things.
“I’m not going to listen to your advice. You want to destroy people’s lives, I want to build up a brighter future.”
Earlier in the day, Poilievre challenged Singh to commit to voting non-confidence in the government, saying his party will force a vote in the House of Commons “at the earliest possibly opportunity.”
“I’m asking Jagmeet Singh and the NDP to commit unequivocally before Monday’s byelections: will they vote non-confidence to bring down the costly coalition and trigger a carbon tax election, or will Jagmeet Singh sell out Canadians again?” Poilievre said.
“It’s put up or shut up time for the NDP.”
While Singh rejected the idea he would ever listen to Poilievre, he did not say how the NDP would vote on a non-confidence motion.
“I’ve said on any vote, we’re going to look at the vote and we’ll make our decision. I’m not going to say our decision ahead of time,” he said.
Singh’s top adviser said on Tuesday the NDP leader is not particularly eager to trigger an election, even as the Conservatives challenge him to do just that.
Anne McGrath, Singh’s principal secretary, says there will be more volatility in Parliament and the odds of an early election have risen.
“I don’t think he is anxious to launch one, or chomping at the bit to have one, but it can happen,” she said in an interview.
New Democrat MPs are in a second day of meetings in Montreal as they nail down a plan for how to navigate the minority Parliament this fall.
The caucus retreat comes one week after Singh announced the party has left the supply-and-confidence agreement with the governing Liberals.
It’s also taking place in the very city where New Democrats are hoping to pick up a seat on Monday, when voters go to the polls in Montreal’s LaSalle—Émard—Verdun. A second byelection is being held that day in the Winnipeg riding of Elmwood—Transcona, where the NDP is hoping to hold onto a seat the Conservatives are also vying for.
While New Democrats are seeking to distance themselves from the Liberals, they don’t appear ready to trigger a general election.
Singh signalled on Tuesday that he will have more to say Wednesday about the party’s strategy for the upcoming sitting.
He is hoping to convince Canadians that his party can defeat the federal Conservatives, who have been riding high in the polls over the last year.
Singh has attacked Poilievre as someone who would bring back Harper-style cuts to programs that Canadians rely on, including the national dental-care program that was part of the supply-and-confidence agreement.
The Canadian Press has asked Poilievre’s office whether the Conservative leader intends to keep the program in place, if he forms government after the next election.
With the return of Parliament just days away, the NDP is also keeping in mind how other parties will look to capitalize on the new makeup of the House of Commons.
The Bloc Québécois has already indicated that it’s written up a list of demands for the Liberals in exchange for support on votes.
The next federal election must take place by October 2025 at the latest.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante is defending her decision to turn off comments on her social media accounts — with an announcement on social media.
She posted screenshots to X this morning of vulgar names she’s been called on the platform, and says comments on her posts for months have been dominated by insults, to the point that she decided to block them.
Montreal’s Opposition leader and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association have criticized Plante for limiting freedom of expression by restricting comments on her X and Instagram accounts.
They say elected officials who use social media should be willing to hear from constituents on those platforms.
However, Plante says some people may believe there is a fundamental right to call someone offensive names and to normalize violence online, but she disagrees.
Her statement on X is closed to comments.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
