OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
While former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s campaign touted her alleged strength heading into Tuesday’s Republican primary in New Hampshire, even predicting she could pull off a big upset over rival Donald Trump, in fact, she appears to have crashed and burned for the second straight time.
After coming in third place in Iowa last week, Haley finished well behind Trump, the out-and-out 2024 GOP primary leader, after some three-quarters of Republican voters in the Granite State cast a ballot for him.
“Roughly 7 in 10 of the New Hampshire voters backing Trump said they were registered as Republicans. And about 8 in 10 of Trump’s voters denied the legitimacy of President Joe Biden’s election win in 2020,” CNN reported.
“Most Trump voters in New Hampshire made up their minds early and cast their votes with little hesitation: about three-quarters say they decided on Trump more than a month ago. A similar share said that they cast their vote for the candidate they ‘strongly favored,’ with only a few saying they liked Trump with reservations, or that their vote was driven largely by dislike of his rivals,” the report continued.
“By contrast, Haley voters decided later – most in the last month – and often with some reluctance: roughly 4 in 10 Haley voters in New Hampshire attributed their support of her mostly to distaste for her opponents, with about 3 in 10 saying they liked her with reservations, and only about a third that they strongly favored Haley,” CNN noted further.
Trump took aim at his remaining rival, his one-time UN ambassador, following remarks she made after her loss to him in the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday.
In an exclusive interview with Fox News, the former president indicated that he believes Haley should drop out of the race now after losing the Granite State and coming in third place last week in Iowa.
“I’m very honored by the result,” Trump told Fox News Digital of the primary results.
He then said he was “looking forward to going against the worst president in the history of our country.”
When he was asked if he felt the former South Carolina governor would suspend her campaign, he said: “I don’t know, she should.”
“She should because, otherwise, we have to keep wasting money instead of spending on Biden,” Trump said. “If she doesn’t drop out, we have to waste money instead of spending it on Biden, which is our focus.”
“The party is very united except for her,” Trump said of Haley.
“The party is very united, and we’re looking forward to going against the worst president in the history of our country,” he added.
Later, Trump expressed amazement that Haley appeared to portray her loss as somehow a win for her campaign.
“I have to tell you, it was very interesting because I said, ‘Wow, what a great victory,’” Trump said. “But then, somebody ran up to the stage all dressed up nicely — when it was at 7. But now I walked up, and it said 14.”
“She ran up when it was 7, and you know, we have to do what’s good for our party, and she was up, and I said, ‘Wow, she’s doing a speech like she won. She didn’t win. She lost,’” he continued. “Last week, we had a little bit of a problem. If you remember, Ron was very upset because she ran up and she pretended she won Iowa.”
“And I looked around, and I said, didn’t she come in third? Yeah, she came in third,” he said. “And then I looked at the polls. She was talking about most win-ability. Who is going to win? I have one put up: we have won almost every single poll in the last three months against crooked Joe Biden. Almost every poll. And she doesn’t win those polls.”
