Following a back-and-forth week of rhetorical wars, Republican presidential hopeful Nikki Haley is back in the Granite State next week for a full slate of campaign events.
The former U.N. ambassador begins her two-day, three-city swing on Tuesday evening with a town hall in Claremont.
On Wednesday, Haley hosts a meet and greet at 2 p.m. in Merrimack. The former South Carolina governor has a packed schedule Wednesday evening, with two “Parents In Charge” Community Discussions with Nikki Moms for Liberty’s Tiffany Justice. The campaign events will be held at the Founders Academy in Manchester.
As the New Hampshire Journal reports, Manchester is ground zero in the parental rights battle. According to the publication:
Manchester Public Schools maintains it has the right to keep information secret from parents regarding their children’s behavior, particularly if it involves issues of sexuality and gender. A local mother is suing the district after discovering her child was possibly engaging in such behavior. However, the school refused to answer her questions about the child’s activities.
After a lower court ruled against the mother, the case went to the state Supreme Court, which has yet to rule.
It’s been a week of battles for Haley, following a quarrelsome first Republican Party presidential debate last week in Wisconsin.
Her rhetorical wars, at least of late, have been with Ohio businessman and rising star Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
Haley went after her fellow Indian-American at the debate, asserting that Ramaswamy would “make America less safe” because of his foreign policy proposal calling for an expanded normalizing of Israel’s relations with the Middle East. He said his plan would build an even deeper relationship between the U.S. and Israel, a true friendship between the allies.
“And you know what friends do? Friends help each other stand on their own two feet. So I will lead Abraham Accords 2.0. I will partner with Israel to make sure Iran never is nuclear armed,” Ramaswamy said.
But Haley seized on the portion of Ramaswamy’s plan that marks a reduction in aid to Israel after the nation realizes broader success through better relations with its neighbors.
Haley hammered Ramaswamy again on Thursday for opposing boots-on-the-ground U.S. military intervention in Iran in defense of Israel. The 38-year-old biotech entrepreneur told news outlet Israel Hayom that as president, he would remain supportive of Israel, but he would not “put our own men and women on the line in a war with Iran.”
“Vivek must have missed that the fanatical terrorist regime in Iran regularly calls for ‘Death to America,’” Haley said in a statement. “If he doesn’t see a nuclear Iran as a threat to American security, then he should take his place beside AOC [far left U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY)] and the Squad and get nowhere near the White House.”
Ramaswamy fired back, telling Fox News Digital in a statement that his critics’ comments were part of another “flagrant distortion by the neocons.”
“Watch the actual video. I said we would fully support Israel, including militarily, but that we should *not* want U.S. men and women dying in a war between Israel and Iran,” Ramaswamy said.
“If [former Vice President Mike] Pence, Haley, [former New Jersey Gov. Chris] Christie, and [Karl] Rove feel differently, they should have the spine to say how many Americans they’d be prepared to see die in that conflict. I’ll wait,” he added.
Another flagrant distortion by the neocons. Watch the actual video. I said we would fully support Israel, including militarily, but that we should *not* want U.S. men & women dying in a war between Israel and Iran. If Pence, Haley, Christie, and Rove feel differently, they should… https://t.co/RiqaB3SkoM
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) August 31, 2023
Haley, Pence, and other Republican presidential candidates also have criticized Ramaswamy’s opposition to more U.S. military funding in the Ukraine, a position he shares with a majority of Americans.
U.S.-Israel relations still remain strong, despite erosion from an anti-Israel wing of the Democratic Party and Congress. A Gallup poll released last year, found 71 percent of U.S. adults have a favorable opinion of Israel, with just 27 percent holding a favorable opinion of the Palestinian Authority.
Haley and others looking up at Ramaswamy in the polls have hit him on his expanded “America First” foreign policy positions.
Ramaswamy, polling at 7.3 percent in the latest RealClearPolitics average of polls, is running third in the Republican Party presidential nomination chase. He’s only trailing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who has seen his support erode to 13.5 percent, and faraway front-runner former President Donald Trump (53.6 percent).
Haley has seen some movement of late, rising to fourth place, at 4.9 percent, followed by Pence (4.6 percent), Christie (2.5 percent) and South Carolina U.S. Senator Tim Scott (2.4 percent).
In the first primary state of New Hampshire, however, Haley is running a distant 7th, at 3.8 percent, according to RealClearPolitics.
– – –
M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
Photo “Nikki Haley” by Nikki Haley.
