Donald Trump pushed the noses of Nikki Haley supporters as deep as he could into the stench of defeat in a victory speech following his New Hampshire primary win. Mr. Trump declared January 23: “She didn’t win. She lost.” Not only that: “Who the hell was the impostor that went up on stage before and like claimed a victory? She did very poorly, actually.” So much for an olive branch to the independent and moderate minded voters of Nikki Haley.
Instead, Mr. Trump followed by doubling down on his social media platform. He threatened the contributors to Nikki Haley’s campaign: “Anybody that makes a ‘Contribution’ to Birdbrain, from this moment forth, will be permanently barred from the MAGA camp. We don’t want them, and will not accept them….” The feeling of contempt could only be mutual on the side of Nikki Haley supporters. The notion of any olive branch was thus summarily tossed onto the burning bonfire of MAGA extremism.
Even so, Nikki Haley supporters were not to be deterred. Haley raised $1 million the day after she promised her supporters to stay in the race.
Indeed, every day Nikki Haley remains in the Republican primary is a reminder that moderate and independent minded Republicans, as well as independents in general, remain up for grabs. Mr. Trump’s rhetoric following his victory in New Hampshire—vengeful and some would say disgraceful—shows a way for Republicans to snatch defeat from a victory. Joe Biden supporters can only stand back to watch in wonder.
Of course, if Donald Trump is convicted as a felon for January 6 crimes before the Republican convention ends in mid-July, Nikki Haley could win the lottery. A good reason to stay in no matter what. She would be on her way in that case, current polling shows, to a ticket to the White House come November. She could win even in the face of the headwind for Republicans of low unemployment, a record economy, and the stock market at all-time highs of President Biden’s White House. Haley could do all that because she would go forth at age 52 against the issue of Mr. Biden’s age without Mr. Trump’s presentation, day in and day out, of challenges to normalcy, sanity and democracy in a nation more diverse than any MAGA base.
Mr. Trump’s New Hampshire speech also shows how far he remains mired in the mendacity of election lies. Far from staying away from election lies to develop more centrist themes as the Republican front runner, Mr. Trump told the New Hampshire voters that in addition to his winning the 2016 election, “we also won in 2020 – by more. And we did much better in 2020 than we did in 2016.”
Any doubt that Mr. Trump in fact lost the 2020 election fair and square to Joe Biden, by a 306 to 232 electoral vote margin, is answered by a chart appearing in the January 6 Report (available from Celadon Books). The chart in the Executive Summary quotes statement after statement to Mr. Trump directly to his face by the members of his own government in charge of investigating his voter fraud claims that all his claims were false. The chart quotes statements of the falsity to Trump of Attorney General Bill Barr, followed by those of Barr’s successor, Acting Attorney General Richard Donoghue, and of Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen. Also, attestations of the falsity by Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and other Georgia officials, of National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien, and of Trump’s own uber loyal Campaign Senior Advisor Jason Miller. The chart presents over to the left side each explicit statement of the falsity to Mr. Trump, while the chart on the right-side quotes Mr. Trump’s fully knowing repetition of those same falsehoods to the American people a day or two later.
Such a documented history of shameless mendacity on the part of any person anywhere—much less by a former President of the United States—would be astounding. Mr. Trump’s documented history of mendacity is the one thing about him that no one can beat. At least one can say of the man in the Old Testament the Bible warned not to build his house on sand that, well, he at least had some sand to build on. Mr. Trump by contrast is building an entire election campaign for the presidency of the United States of America on an air pocket of election lies and made-up grievances. Once the air pocket is exposed to the general electorate of the entire American people, not just the MAGA base, one can only expect Mr. Trump’s descent, together with the electoral fortunes of his party, to increase in rapidity. And then fall suddenly and all at once. Nikki Haley (on whom even Mr. Trump’s utterly shameless birther lie does not work), can avoid all that. Indeed, one can only think it would be better for the nation and for the two-party democratic system both parties share, for Nimarata Nikki Haley to prevail in the Republican primaries—no matter which party one intends to choose in November 2024.
My Republican friends should know best the air pocket of Mr. Trump’s election lies and false grievances will not stand. After all, it was a Republican, Abraham Lincoln, who famously told the American people a demagogue cannot prevail in a preserved American republic. President Lincoln said: “You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all of the time.” In the end, the American people as a whole will not be so fooled. The American people in their entirety instead can be counted on to elect to keep their democracy and personal liberties.
Robert P. Wise is a Northsider
