Nikki Haley’s soundbite from the debate was: “This is exactly why Margaret Thatcher said: “If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman.” I watched the GOP 2024 presidential debate on August 23rd with my ultra-liberal grandmother and father. They were shocked and pleasantly surprised when former South Carolina Governor and Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, expressed some seemingly moderate views.
Many Republicans criticize the Biden administration for giving too much aid to Ukraine in their fight against Russia. In fact, Ron DeSantis declared that when elected president, he would suspend aid to Ukraine until other European countries step up. Haley strongly disagreed with this. She said that the United States gives less than 3.5% of our defense budget to Ukraine and that 11 other European countries give the same or more relative to their GDP. This is an incredibly important point, especially when you have other candidates saying we should suspend aid until European countries step up and match our donations. Well, they have stepped up. We are not going to see them give the same dollar amount because they just don’t have the kind of money we have. However, seeing them give the same percentage of their GDP to Ukraine is sufficient to show that it is an equal effort.
Nikki Haley said the following during the Debate: “Putin has said once Russia takes Ukraine, Poland and The Baltics are next. That’s a world war. We’re trying to prevent a world war. Look at what Putin did today, he killed Pergozan. When I was at the UN, the Russian Ambassador suddenly died. This guy is a murderer, and you [Vivek Ramaswamy] are choosing a murder over a current American country.”
I watched this clip in a Tik Tok video posted by @karaaah. The comment section under the video looked like this:
“Listen I’m not a Republican but this lady 🔥”
“Not a Republican but wow, I like her”
“Wait I like her”
“Okay you know what, I like her”
During the debate, Haley also took a less conservative approach to abortion. While most other candidates danced around a number of weeks for a ban on abortion, Nikki Haley said the following: “Can’t we all agree that contraception should be available? And can’t we all agree that we are not going to put a woman in jail or give her the death penalty if she gets an abortion? Let’s treat this like the respectful issue that it is, and humanize a situation and stop demonizing a situation.” Now, she did say that she is firm in her pro-life stance. She, like all the other GOP candidates, did mention the outlandish Republican argument citing late term abortions. The reality is that these account for less than 1% of all abortions in the US. But more importantly, her decision to say that we should not demonize or imprison women who get abortions was a refreshing thing to hear from a GOP candidate, especially from someone who worked in the Trump administration.
Tik Tok user @131kc stitched (a way of responding to a video on Tik Tok) the CNN clip of Haley’s statement on abortion in a now viral video, saying:
“Is this a Republican that I’m not completely appalled by?”
Indeed the comments were all along the lines of, “I literally said the same thing when is saw this… she made sense which ultimately confused me” New York Times columnist David Brooks writes in a piece titled “Nikki Haley is the Best Trump Alternative”, “many of her opponents took the issue as a chance to perform self-righteous bluster – to make the issue about themselves. She was the only one who acknowledged the complexity of the issue, who tried to humanize people caught in horrible situations, who acknowledged that the absolutist position is politically unsustainable.”
And when the conversation turned to the state of our economy, she did not, like most Republicans tend to do, blame the Biden administration. Rather, she said the following: “Donald Trump added 8 trillion to our debt and our kids are never gonna forgive us for this. And so, at the end of the day, you look at the 2024 budget, Republicans asked for 7.4 billion in earmarks, Democrats asked for 2.8 billion. So, you tell me who are the big spenders? I think it’s time for an accountant in the White House.” She continued, “The truth is that Biden didn’t do this to us, our Republicans did this to us too.” NYT columnist David Brooks writes, “She was the candidate brave enough to state the obvious truth that Trump took decades of G.O.P. fiscal conservative posturing and he blew it to smithereens. The other candidates assumed the usual conservative postures about cutting taxes and spending, but she introduced the reality: Under Trump, the G.O.P. added $8 trillion to the national debt.”
In writing this, I want to make a few things clear: Yes, Nikki Haley upholds the typical horrific GOP approach to gun control. And yes, she is pro-life, anti-trans, and has said that she would support Trump if he won the nomination. So how anti-Trump can she be? Trump is a horrible egotistical thug and a liar who puts his own power above democracy. How can she support such an individual and still get our vote?
But of the Republican candidates on the debate stage, she made somewhat more moderate points and came off as sensible and at times even critical of the Trump administration. She was able to make some sensible points while simultaneously not isolating the ultra-MAGA Republican right. As David Brooks put it, “She seems to be one of the few candidates who understands that to run against Trump you have to run against Trump.”
As I’m writing this article, I just received a text from my grandmother with a link to a tweet about Nikki Haley’s stance on the United Auto Workers’ strike. The tweet reads, “While @UAW is fighting for workers, @NikkiHaley is bragging about her record of union busting.” Below the link to said tweet, my grandmother wrote, “She’s anti-union! Vile human being.” It’s safe to say that regardless of a few moderate statements on the debate stage, Nikki Haley does not and will not ever have my grandmother’s vote.