With her home state on the line, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley’s strategy served to “poison the well.” That’s according to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who spoke to the type of voters Haley drew in Iowa.
“…more of McCain, Romney Republicans.”
(Video: Fox News)
Since suspending his own campaign for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, DeSantis has returned to the Sunshine State to continue scoring conservative victories on parental rights, law and order as well as national security.
Saturday, a week out from the essentially head-to-head matchup between Haley and former President Donald Trump in South Carolina, America’s Governor joined Fox News host Brian Kilmeade for his “One Nation” show where he was asked about her lacking support in the Palmetto State.
Airing clips of Haley asserting “everything [Trump] touches we lose,” the host questioned the change in tone and her tactics.
To that, DeSantis contended roughly 80% are “conservative, populist voters. And I think Nikki Haley, she’s really playing to the 20% who are more of McCain, Romney Republicans”
“And look, we need a big tent. We need everyone in, but once you go in that direction, you really poison the well with the vast majority of Republican primary voters,” he argued.
Supporting his position that Haley has always been running a losing race, the conservative statesman reminded, “the thing was, is there were 7,000 Democrats who showed up and switched to Republican on the night of the caucus. I was at a couple of these caucus sites. These were very liberal Democrats. They had N-95 masks on. They had shirts that had liberal slogans on, and that was a core part of her strategy was to appeal to those people.”
“Her strategy has been to appeal to people who are kind of stock Republicans,” DeSantis reiterated, “but that’s just not going to work in a Republican primary. But, it’s definitely not going to work against somebody who’s as well-known and has already been president, like Donald Trump.”
Kilmeade also asked the governor to speak to the former president’s prospects going forward, specifically questioning whether or not DeSantis would resume his own run for the White House should Trump be convicted in one of his legal cases and suffer a loss of support ahead of the general election.
“Well look, Donald Trump is going to have almost 95% of the delegates whatever happens in those legal cases — and I raised that as a concern when I was running. And you know, not enough voters thought that that was something that they were concerned about — at least in Iowa,” remarked the Florida executive.
DeSantis also said, “I don’t see any situation where he would bow out, even in the face of criminal convictions. And I’ve thought that really from the beginning.”
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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