‘Not Thin-Skinned Like Donald Trump’: Nikki Haley Responds to DeSantis Criticism

(Left) Former President Donald Trump in Atkinson, N.H., on Jan. 16, 2024. (Right) Former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley in West Des Moines, Iowa, on Jan. 15, 2024. Brandon Bell, Joe Raedle/Getty Images

GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley dismissed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ criticism of her being pro-corporate, claiming she is not “thin-skinned like Donald Trump.”

On Jan. 21, Mr. DeSantis exited from the Republican nomination race and endorsed former President Donald Trump while also taking a dig at Ms. Haley, calling her a “repackaged form of warmed-over corporatism.”

When asked about his comments in an interview with CNN, Ms. Haley replied, “Look, this is what the fellows do. The difference is, I don’t take politics personally. I never have … I’m not thin-skinned like Donald Trump. I think that people don’t want that. They want a leader who’s going to bring out the best in people and get our country going forward.”

Ms. Haley is now the only major Republican challenger to President Trump as all others have pulled out of the race. In her interview, Ms. Haley expressed confidence that she was going to win in the primaries.

“We’ve got New Hampshire. We’ve got South Carolina. We’ve got Super Tuesday. We’re going to keep on going. And we’re going to fight and we’re going to win,” Ms. Haley said.

“I’m used to people underestimating me. It’s always fun. But there were 14 people in this race and now there are two. I’m going to finish this so Joe Biden and Donald Trump are not an issue at all. That we actually put them in the past and we go forward. Because our country deserves it, and Americans want it. They’re tired.”

Responding to Ms. Haley’s comments, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement to The Hill that the former United Nations ambassador “sounds like she’s sensitive about being thin-skinned.”

In addition to Mr. DeSantis, two major Republicans who pulled out of the presidential race have also endorsed President Trump as the GOP candidate.

On Jan. 15, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy announced his exit and later called on Mr. DeSantis and Ms. Haley to follow suit.

“I think Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley would actually, at this point, do this country and this party a service by stepping aside to make sure that we’re focused on not only nominating Donald Trump but getting this country back and reviving those founding revolutionary ideals,” Mr. Ramaswamy said in a Jan. 16 interview with Fox News. “I do think that would be healthy for this country.”

On Friday, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) endorsed President Trump after withdrawing from the primaries. “We need a president who will unite our country. We need Donald Trump. We need a president who will protect your Social Security and my mama’s Social Security,” he said.

“We need a president today who will stop the crime and recklessness in the streets … We need a president who will restore law and order we need.”

Trump Versus Haley

The New Hampshire primary is scheduled for Tuesday and will be the United States’ first primary of this race.

President Trump has the backing of 52 percent of likely Republican primary voters in New Hampshire while Ms. Haley is trailing with 38 percent support, according to a recent poll conducted by the Saint Anselm College Survey Center at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics.

In her CNN interview, Ms. Haley insisted that President Trump is as bad a choice as President Biden to govern the United States for the next four years.

“If either one of them was good. I wouldn’t be running. Yes, they are equally bad, that’s why I’m running, because I don’t think we need to have Biden or Trump. I don’t think we need to have two 80-year-olds sitting in the White House when we’ve basically got to make sure that we can handle the war situation that we’re in.”

“We need to know they’re at the top of their game. We need to know that they can take care of our national security and our economy. Right now, I don’t know that people feel like that with either one. So that’s why we’re giving them a choice.”

President Trump slammed Ms. Haley as a globalist in a recent rally in Manchester, New Hampshire. “Nikki Haley is backed by the Deep State and the military-industrial complex because they know she is a globalist,” he said. “And really a globalist fool who they can easily manipulate into sending hundreds of billions of dollars to Ukraine.”

In another speech, he claimed that “radical left Democrats are supporting Nikki for a very simple reason because they know she’s easy to beat. They came out with a poll two days ago where she’s way down to Biden and I’m way up on Biden. And that’s the way it is. She’s unelectable.”

A recent Rasmussen Reports poll found that President Trump would get the backing of 49 percent of likely U.S. voters while only 41 percent would support President Biden if the 2024 presidential race boils down to these two candidates.

However, if the presidential election were to be between President Biden and Ms. Haley, then the Democrat candidate would beat her and win the race, the survey found.