By Meg Kinnard, Associated Press
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Nikki Haley is utilizing the closing days of her South Carolina Republican main matchup with Donald Trump to hone her argument that she is the lone remaining candidate who can unite Americans, regardless of the previous president’s electoral wins so far and his reputation in her house state.
It’s a tall order for Haley as South Carolina prepares to vote on Saturday. Trump’s 2016 main win helped cement his front-runner standing, and he boasts help from the entire state’s prime elected leaders and all however one in all its congressional Republicans.
But Haley has maintained that her means to stay it out within the race, having outlasted a dozen also-ran candidates, signifies that she’s in it for the lengthy haul. Her amped-up fundraising may maintain her going regardless of her earlier losses to Trump.
Part of Haley’s argument is her continued showcase of her overseas coverage knowhow, having served as Trump’s United Nations ambassador for 2 years, as increasingly of her marketing campaign appearances function areas wherein she says she would have acted otherwise than her former boss.
“I will absolutely put the hammer on our NATO countries that they do have to carry their weight, but you do that behind closed doors,” Haley mentioned Sunday throughout a city corridor on Fox News with John Roberts, broadcast from a venue in downtown Columbia, South Carolina.
It was a reference to Trump’s warning to NATO allies throughout a marketing campaign rally earlier this month that he “would encourage” Russia “to do whatever the hell they want” to nations which are “delinquent” — nations that in his view will not be doing their half in that alliance. NATO’s chief mentioned Trump’s assaults on long-standing worldwide alliances and overseas support may undermine safety and put American and European forces in danger.
“We should make sure we tell our partners it’s in their best interest to hold their own weight,” Haley mentioned Sunday. She mentioned “Trump did it by saying he was going to encourage Putin to invade our allies. That’s the wrong way.”
She sharpened these feedback throughout a Monday morning marketing campaign cease within the central South Carolina metropolis of Sumter, house to an Air Force base in addition to many navy veterans. She mentioned Trump is “siding with a thug” in Vladimir Putin, whom she referred to as “a dictator who killed his political opponents.”
It’s an argument she makes in a brand new tv advert, a part of a $6 million promoting flurry Haley has launched within the closing weeks of the marketing campaign throughout her state.
In “Unite,” which begins airing Monday and was shared earlier than its launch with The Associated Press, Haley argues she is the one selection among the many remaining candidates who can deal with disputes with overseas leaders in a method that can maintain America on strong footing overseas.
“When your enemies think you’re weak, your leader must be strong,” a narrator says, over photos of overseas leaders together with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Putin. “When your country is divided, your president must unite us.”
The advert argues that Haley “provided moral clarity during our darkest hours,” over headlines from protection of the racist slaying of 9 Black parishioners at a Charleston church in 2015, throughout Haley’s second time period as South Carolina governor. “What’s next? That’s up to you.”
Saying Sunday — as she has all through her marketing campaign — that she’s “OK being the underdog now,” Haley has been agency in saying that she has by no means misplaced a race and believes voters will see her as the fitting option to shift away from the ”chaos” she says follows Trump. She additionally steadily notes that, whereas Trump has received the earliest contests, she has been ascendent, pointing to the shrinking margins between her totals and Trump‘s within the Iowa and New Hampshire contests.
But over the weekend, Haley additionally started making an attraction to South Carolinians who sometimes vote in Democratic primaries, for Saturday’s vote, a message she additionally echoed throughout marketing campaign occasions on Monday.
She famous that anybody who didn’t vote within the Feb. 3 Democratic main — which attracted below 5% of eligible voters statewide — can vote on this one, as she bid for crossover help from individuals who wish to forged a vote in opposition to Trump.
Meg Kinnard will be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP
Source: www.bostonherald.com”