Nikki Haley takes on Donald Trump on her home turf in South Carolina

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CONWAY, S.C. — With two weeks left in South Carolina's Republican primary, Nikki Haley is challenging Donald Trump on her turf, and the former president is turning to her familiar playbook of personal attacks as she tries to defeat her last major challenger. nomination.

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Trump, who has shifted his campaign focus to the southern state after a narrow victory in Nevada, drew a large crowd of supporters Saturday afternoon at a rally in Conway, near Myrtle Beach, touting his time in office and repeating his false claims. In the 2020 election, he lost, he vilified the media, which he saw as biased against him, and attacked Haley, her husband, and President Joe Biden.

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During his speech at the rally, Trump insulted Haley by using the derisive nickname “Birdbrain” and praised South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, an early supporter of her. Trump said he chose Haley to be his ambassador to the United Nations in 2017 and to represent America on the world stage because he was eager to appoint McMaster — his second-in-command — as governor of South Carolina.

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“It worked. He was good. He was good. But I didn't put it there because I wanted it to be at the United Nations,” he said. “I wanted to take your lieutenant governor standing right here and make him governor.”

“I wanted it because I thought I deserved it,” Trump added

Trump, the longtime front-runner in the GOP presidential race, has won three states in a row and wants to use the Feb. 24 primary in South Carolina to shut down Haley's chances and focus entirely on an expected rematch with Biden. general election.

Haley skipped the Nevada caucuses, accusing the contest of being a sham for Trump, and instead focused on South Carolina, where she embarked on a two-week bus tour of the state where she was governor from 2011 to 2017.

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In a speech to about 200 people gathered outside Newberry's historic opera house, Haley on Saturday portrayed Trump as uncaring, uncaring and self-absorbed.

He said last week he has flexed his influence in the Republican Party, successfully pressured GOP lawmakers in Washington to reject a bipartisan border security deal, and asked Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel to consider stepping down.

“What is going on?” Haley said. “On that day of these losses, his fingerprints were there,” he added.

Haley echoed questions about Trump's mental fitness, attacking him after a Jan. 19 speech that repeatedly confused him with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. During her campaign, Haley, 52, called for sanity checks on politicians, unlike Trump, 77, and Biden, 81.

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“Why should we have someone in their 80s running for office?” he asked. “Why can't they let go of their power?”

One of the crowd said, “Because they are angry old men!” he shouted.

“They're grumpy old men,” Haley said.

Speaking to reporters afterward, Haley continued the argument by referring to a report released Thursday by the special counsel investigating Biden's possession of classified documents. The report described Biden's memory as “poor.”

“The American presidency is better than two 80-year-olds,” Haley said.

Retired firefighter Bob Pollard says he can't support Trump “because he's a maniac,” adding that Trump's campaign, which often talks about “vindictiveness” and his personal grievances, has turned into a “personal vendetta.”

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Harley O'Connell, a longtime South Carolina resident who endorsed Haley, said she plans to support the GOP nominee but wants it to be someone younger.

“It's time for some new blood,” O'Connell said.

Her husband, Mike O'Connell, pointed to the contrast between the candidates' foreign policy views and said Haley wants the US to help Ukraine in its war with Russia, as promised.

“We should encourage friendships and not discourage them,” he said of international relations.

In a speech and social media post on Saturday, Trump criticized overall foreign aid and Congressional plans for nearly $100 billion in aid to Ukraine and Israel. He also praised foreign strongmen, calling Russian President Vladimir Putin “very smart, very sharp”, describing Hungary's nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán as “one of the toughest guys” and saying Chinese President Xi Jinping is smart because he “controls”. . 1.4 billion people are an iron fist.”

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At another point in his speech, he stepped up his long-standing attacks on the NATO military alliance. Trump suggested that if one of the member states was attacked by Russia but did not meet its military spending targets within the alliance, America would not only defend that military ally, but Trump would invite Russia to “do what they want.”

In one personal attack, Trump repeatedly questioned why Haley's husband, Michael Haley, who served a year in Africa in the South Carolina Army National Guard, was not on the campaign trail. Trump, who did not join his wife Melania Trump during the election campaign, asked: “What happened to her husband? Where is he? He's gone. He knew. He knew.”

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Haley hit back in a post on X: “Michael was sent to serve our country and you know nothing about it. A man who does not consistently honor the sacrifices of military families cannot be a commander-in-chief.”

Trump has also stepped up his attacks on the media, disparaging the press at least a half-dozen times, many of whom have verbally recorded their agreement.

He sometimes ended with an apocalyptic view of the country, listing ills from dirty, overcrowded airports to impending nuclear war, and predicted that if he lost the election, the stock market would crash like it did in 1929, triggering the Great Depression. He referred to his supporters as “hostages” who have been “unjustly imprisoned for a long time” on trial for their roles in the January 6, 2021 uprising at the US Capitol.

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He began his long lament while speaking about an instrumental song that QAnon supporters claim is their anthem.

In Conway, people began lining up to see Trump hours before the doors opened to the arena, where he will take the stage later.

Organizers set up outdoor screens to watch the crowds.

The city is located along the Grand Strand, a vast stretch of South Carolina's north coast, home to Myrtle Beach and Horry County, one of the state's most staunchly conservative hotspots and the heartland of Trump's statewide support base. past campaigns.

Tim Carter of nearby Murrells Inlet said he has supported Trump since 2016 and will do so again this year.

“We're here to support Trump, improve our economy, close our borders, create more jobs for our people,” said Carter, a pastor and military veteran who leads an addiction recovery ministry.

Cheryl Savage of Conway, who was waiting in the stands to hear Trump speak, said the former president is “here to help us.” Savage said he supported Haley in his first run for governor in 2010, but now feels he is doing himself a disservice by staying in the race.

“He deserves a second term,” Savage said of Trump. “He's done a great job for four years.”

— Price reported from New York and Pollard from Newberry, South Carolina.

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