Maybe Haley has correctly surmised that a right-wing base hopped up on anti-trans, anti-abortion, anti-“woke” pablum isn’t interested in hearing about her work as ambassador to the United Nations. In one breath, Haley is playing the DeSantis-style right-wing populist demagogue, and Sarah Palin, spouting a focus-group-tested line about how “fighting back in heels hurts more.” She swings at imagined demons like transgender children and “critical race theory.” In the process, Haley sounds like an amalgamation of a dozen different Republican presidential hopefuls-but not at all like the Nikki Haley of even a few years ago, whoever that was. Haley’s video is a confusing mess largely because it tries pandering to everyone at once. But Haley doesn’t even mention Roof’s racism as a culprit-instead, she uses the Charleston tragedy as a sick opportunity to lecture Democrats, who Haley claims have turned away from God. ![]() In a bizarre segue, Haley cynically references the 2015 massacre at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, SC, by white supremacist Dylann Roof-a shooting driven by the same racist extremism Haley just shrugged off as a liberal fantasy. Nearly a full minute of the video is dedicated to marginalizing the idea that racism is a “real” problem. Haley goes on to criticize “some” people who think “America’s founding principles are bad,” while grainy, ominous images of the 1619 Project and anti-racism activists scroll across the screen. Haley, the child of Indian immigrants, doesn’t make it 20 seconds before reassuring her audience that she’s “not Black”-a line meant to reassure the more than 50 percent of Republicans who believe Black Americans have it too good. ![]() The video is a roller coaster of cringe content that could be mistaken for a Late Show parody of Republican sensationalism. Nowhere is that clearer than in the nearly four-minute media announcement video Haley inflicted on America’s most online voters. In order to understand Haley’s decision, it’s important to deconstruct the public image she’s paying media consultants and video editors millions of dollars to project. She lacks the fund-raising machinery of a MAGA champion like DeSantis, and doesn’t play to grassroots crowds as well as former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, another disaffected Trumper in search of a political revival. Haley’s early decision says a lot about the current state of the Republican Party-and where Trump’s former ambassador to the UN views herself in the Right’s increasingly unstable power structure. For this brief moment, it’s Haley’s show. Tim Scott, have yet to formally enter the fray. Ron DeSantis and fellow South Carolinian Sen. ![]() Former President Donald Trump announced his run back in November, but so far he’s failed to build infrastructure for his campaign and is reportedly struggling to raise money. The cheesiness of Haley’s announcement is offset by the reality that she is, for now, running essentially unchallenged. The end result was a campaign launch engineered within an inch of its life by Washington media consultants who are already trying to split the difference between portraying Haley as a mature, safe conservative and a passionate right-wing culture warrior. That news that would have packed more theatrical punch had Team Haley not spent much of the past two weeks extensively pre-announcing their big surprise to every media outlet willing to pick up the phone. Grab a drink, America, because the 2024 Republican presidential primary is already a giant mess! In a video announcement on Tuesday morning, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley formally declared her presidential dreams to the people of Twitter.
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