“Honestly, every time I hear you I feel a little bit dumber for what you say.”
Nikki Haley’s put-down of Vivek Ramaswamy was perhaps the closest thing to a zinger in an otherwise messy Republican primary debate in which Mike Pence’s jokes bombed, Chris Christie’s “Donald Duck” jibe fell flat and Ramaswamy suffered second album syndrome.
It also came as the only woman on stage finds momentum in her effort to displace the faltering Ron DeSantis, governor of Florida, as the party’s leading alternative to Donald Trump.
After last month’s first debate, where she provided a dose of realism on issues such as abortion, Haley has been drawing bigger crowds and fresh interest from donors. A CNN poll conducted by SSRS found that, in a hypothetical matchup, she leads Biden 49% to 43% while every other major Republican candidate is neck-and-neck with him.
On Wednesday, with her daughter, Rena, seated prominently behind the moderators, the former South Carolina governor again gave the kind of crisp, non-Maga answers that may appeal to moderate suburban voters.
“First of all, how can we be the best country in the world, and have the most expensive healthcare in the world?” she demanded. “We have an issue. My mom was in the hospital. And when she was in the hospital, they tried to bring her a couple of Tylenol. And she said: ‘I don’t need it.’ And they said; ‘Honey, go ahead and take it because you’re paying for it anyway.’”
In another sign of a candidate on the move, Haley was front and centre in many of the night’s most heated exchanges. She picked fights with some rivals, became a target for others and, in perhaps the ultimate compliment, drew fire from the Trump campaign, which distributed an email headed “The Real Nikki Haley” that described her as weak on border security and linked her to the Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Haley has not covered herself in glory with shapeshifting views on Trump but now said he “went wrong” by focusing on trade with China. “He didn’t focus on the fact that they were buying up our farmland. He didn’t focus on the fact that they were killing Americans. He didn’t focus on the fact that they were stealing $600bn in intellectual property. He didn’t focus on the fact that they put a spy base off our shores in Cuba.”
Unlike DeSantis and Christie, however, Haley did not lambast Trump for failing to show up again. Aaron Kall, the director of debate at the University of Michigan, said: “Haley’s failure to more explicitly hit Trump could add to speculation that she’s not fully committed to defeating the frontrunner and instead holding out hope for serious vice-presidential consideration.”
Haley did renew hostilities with Ramaswamy with barely concealed contempt. She assailed him for creating a campaign account on TikTok, the social media app that many Republicans criticise as a possible spy tool for China. “This is infuriating because TikTok is one of the most dangerous social media apps that we could have and what you’ve got – honestly, every time I hear you I feel a little bit dumber for what you say,” she said.
Highlighting his business dealings in China, Haley went on to tell Ramaswamy: “We don’t trust you.”
(It should be noted that Haley wrote a blurb for Ramaswamy’s latest book, Woke, Inc. Later in the debate “spin room”, he told reporters: “She has a grudge against me. I don’t have a grudge against her.”)
Haley also duelled with Senator Tim Scott, her fellow South Carolinian and once her pick to fill the state’s open Senate seat. As Scott accused Haley of backing a gas tax as South Carolina governor and upgrading the curtains in her office as UN ambassador, she responded: “Bring it, Tim.”
Later Haley’s campaign said Scott’s claim was based on a New York Times report from 2018, which the paper later admitted “created an unfair impression”, adding an editors’ note that said: “The article should not have focused on Ms Haley, nor should a picture of her have been used.”
Perhaps scenting blood, Haley went on the offensive against DeSantis, suggesting as president he would be against energy independence. “He always talks about what happens on day one; you better watch out because what happens on day two is when you’re in trouble. Day two in Florida, you ban fracking, you ban offshore drilling.”
DeSantis, who had been given an easy ride in both debates, denied it was true but failed to find an effective counter-punch. Later in the spin room, his surrogate Ken Cuccinelli, a former senior official in the Trump administration, tried to land one: “Nikki Haley was creating a straw man in her desperation today and she did look very desperate at times. Her exchange with Tim Scott looked that way.”
Cuccinelli claimed Haley was playing “follow the leader” by copying DeSantis’s policy of sending special operations to attack drug cartels in Mexico. “I think we can expect to see more of that from Nikki Haley.”
Trump currently devotes a chunk of his campaign rallies to eviscerating DeSantis, likening him to an injured bird, and spares Haley his venom. That may be about to change.
Kari Lake, a former candidate for governor of Arizona acting as a Trump surrogate after the debate, told the Guardian: “I didn’t see her breaking out – maybe breaking out in sweat. I know a lot of people were yawning in listening to this.”
Lake urged Haley and the other candidates to reflect on the polling, end their “vanity project” and unite behind the frontrunner. “We don’t have time to be divided like this. They need to go home, do some soul searching, jump behind a political giant: an American fighter named Donald Trump.”
Nothing that took place on stage at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, on Wednesday suggested Trump will fail to claim the nomination. Haley’s critics say that, beyond the moderate facade, she too is a Maga extremist. But she is showing an ability to hide it better than most.
