Findings from CNN’s New Hampshire Forum with Nikki Haley

(CNN) — Nikki Haley’s goal in New Hampshire’s Republican presidential primary this Tuesday is to “be strong,” she said at a CNN town hall Thursday night.

But the former South Carolina governor stopped short of saying she needs to beat former President Donald Trump in the state’s primary.

“All I want to do is be strong. We won’t know what strength looks like until those numbers come in,” he said at New England College in Heniker, New Hampshire.

Haley said her “personal goal is to do better than we did in Iowa,” where she finished third, 32 points behind Trump and 2 points behind Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, in Monday’s state caucuses.

Polls, however, show him very close to Trump in New Hampshire, where he is expected to benefit from more moderate Republican primary voters, with undeclared voters also able to participate in Tuesday’s contest.

Here are some takeaways from a CNN forum moderated by Jack Tapper.

Haley reiterated his view that the United States “has never been a racist country.”

Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley participates in a CNN town hall on January 18, 2024 in Heniker, New Hampshire. (Credit: Will Lanzoni/CNN)

Earlier this week, Haley was asked in a Fox News interview if she thought the Republican Party was racist, while the MSNBC host wondered if Haley could win the Republican nomination as a woman of color. Haley answered the question more broadly, replying that the United States “has never been a racist country.”

During Thursday’s forum, the former governor was asked if she stood by the response given the country’s history of legalized racism, including slavery. Haley doubled down, saying that America was founded on the idea that all men are created equal.

“The intention was to do the right thing,” he said of the country’s founding. “Now, did they have to go fix it on the road? Yes, but I don’t think we were ever intended to be a racist country.”

On a personal level, he said that while he experienced racism growing up in rural South Carolina, his parents told him that those experiences would not define what he could achieve.

“We had a lot of racism that we had to deal with, but my parents never said we lived in a racist country, and I’m so thankful they didn’t,” Haley said. Because every brown and black child out there, if they “If you say they live or were born in a racist country, you’re immediately telling them they don’t have a chance.”

Haley highlighted her accomplishments in becoming one of the nation’s first minority governors and later becoming Trump’s U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. He echoed comments he made during the election campaign that many Americans harbored “national self-loathing,” even though the United States was not “racist” but “blessed.”

“I think it’s important that we tell all kids, ‘Look, America isn’t perfect. We have our scars, we know that,'” he said. “But our goal is always to make today better than yesterday.” should be.”

Haley takes on Trump and Biden

Haley has ratcheted up her criticism of Trump, but has tempered it (this is a Republican primary, after all) by repeatedly linking him to President Joe Biden and trying to portray the two as two threats to progress and national unity.

“Do we really want two 80-year-olds running for president when we have a country in disarray and the world on fire?” he said, before drawing parallels between Trump’s legal troubles and the controversies surrounding Biden.

“They are very distracted by their own investigation and their own complaints,” Haley added. “We don’t need distractions. We need people who love America and understand that if their time is running out, step aside and let a new generation of leaders come.

According to this narrative, Haley is an alternative not just to Trump or Biden, but to the entire climate of modern politics: a “generational” and temperamental change that everyone can get behind.

It’s a message that seems tailor-made for New Hampshire, where independents can vote in the primary and possibly later. In total, Haley mentioned Biden about 20 times and Trump about a dozen, though the former president was the subject of many more questions. (Also note: Haley never mentions DeSantis once.)

Haley argued polls showing her leading other Republican candidates among the broader electorate in a hypothetical matchup against Biden.

“I want to attract people to the party. Because at the end of the day, we have to heal and come together as Americans,” he said.

Haley also weighed in on her recent criticism of Trump, accusing him of throwing “tantrums” and saying she feels “threatened” and “insecure” by the challenges he poses.

“For better or worse, chaos follows,” he said. “We cannot continue on this path and go through another four years of chaos. We will not survive it. “Democratic anarchy cannot be reconciled with republican anarchy.”

Responding to Trump’s Racist Attacks

Haley was asked about Trump’s racist attacks against her in recent days ahead of the New Hampshire primary.

“I know President Trump very well,” Haley said. “He does this when he feels threatened. “He does this when he feels insecure.”

Earlier this month, Trump promoted a post that falsely claimed Haley was unfit to be president because “her parents were not US citizens at the time of her birth.” Haley, who was born in Bamberg, South Carolina, is a natural born citizen and is eligible to run.

Trump has spent years casting doubt on whether Hawaii-born former President Barack Obama was actually born in the United States and demanding he produce his birth certificate, a baseless claim.

In a Truth Social post, Trump also referred to the former South Carolina governor as “Nikki ‘Nimrada’ Haley”, misspelling her name in a way that some saw as a pun on “Nimrod”. Hailey, the daughter of Indian immigrants, goes by her middle name Nikki and took her husband’s last name after marriage.

Haley on Thursday dismissed the comments as “insulting” and said he would not waste power on her.

“I don’t take these things personally. “It doesn’t bother me,” he said. “I will continue to focus on things that people want to talk about and not insult him again.”

Haley will pardon Trump under certain conditions

Haley did not close the door on pardoning Trump if she is elected president.

She said she would not forgive him in advance and said she felt “everything has to work.” Haley also strongly indicated that she does not believe in the kind of blanket immunity that Trump has recently argued presidents should have.

But she went on to say that in a situation where she was president and Trump was found guilty of any of the serious crimes he currently faces, she would consider a pardon.

He explained: “It is no longer a question of whether he is innocent or guilty. It’s about the fact ‘how can we bring the country together?’ And I’m determined to make sure that all this division and all this chaos goes away, and I think an apology for that will go away.”

Haley said she thought it would be “therapy for the country”.

Trump faces 91 criminal charges in four indictments. He denied doing anything wrong.

foreign policy

Haley leans heavily on her time as UN ambassador and sometimes uses her husband Michael, who is currently stationed in Africa with the South Carolina Army National Guard, as a figurehead for her views.

He criticized Biden for not taking a more aggressive stance toward Iran, saying Iran was behind both Hamas in Gaza and the Houthis in Yemen.

He also attacked Trump and Biden for withdrawing America from Afghanistan. He said Trump was wrong to suggest talks with the Taliban on US soil and that Biden hastened a US withdrawal.

“What was heartbreaking for me was that I saw my husband watching the news that day. And saw them driving a jeep and said, ‘These are our vehicles.’ … Then he saw them wearing American uniforms and mocking our American soldiers,” he said. “To see an image of that, think of all the people who served in Afghanistan for 20 years.”

“The level of improvement in the quality of life for women there … it’s all gone,” Haley said.

Haley was also asked whether she would end the United States’ longstanding commitment to a two-state solution to resolve the decades-long conflict between Israel and Palestine.

He argued that “Israel must first defend itself” after the October 7 terrorist attack and said he understood Israel’s discomfort with Hamas’ presence.

“Israel is a bright spot in a tough neighborhood. They are at the forefront of the fight against terrorism. It has never been the case that Israel needed the United States; “It has always been that America needs Israel,” he said.