Nikki Haley is — at least for now — refusing to drop out of the 2024 Republican primary. Following her second-place finish in New Hampshire, she delivered an upbeat concession speech, promising to continue her campaign at least through South Carolina’s primary later this month. The address infuriated Donald Trump and his allies, who falsely accused Haley of claiming victory.
Kellyanne Conway, the former Trump campaign manager turned Fox News contributor, even told Sean Hannity that Haley is guilty of “election denial” and must drop out of the race given Trump’s victories in Iowa and New Hampshire.
“This is a democracy, a constitutional republic, we must respect the will of the people — and Nikki Haley can’t become an election denier,” Conway said. “She’s been rejected, she can say tonight [that] she came in second, or you can say she came in last.”
One could cut the irony with a dull butter knife.
Haley’s opponent is the nation’s chief election denier. Trump repeated his false claims that he actually won the 2020 presidential election during his own victory speech in New Hampshire. Conway had little to say about Trump’s own claims of fraud, despite having acknowledged in May of last year that Biden was the legitimate winner of the 2020 election.
Fellow Fox News host Mark Levin made similar attacks against Haley, accusing her of giving a “classless and dishonest speech,” in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
“She keeps claiming victory when she loses. She gave her statement early to spin her media advocates. She stands for nothing but her own self-aggrandizement,” Levin wrote in a statement that could easily describe the antics of the former president.
To be clear, Haley did not claim victory in New Hampshire; she even congratulated Trump on his win during her concession. But the narrative that she had quickly took off within right-wing social media.
Pro-Trump shitposter Catturd wrote that “The funniest thing [he’s] ever seen in politics is Nikki Haley giving victory speeches every time she loses.” The X post was promoted by Trump’s son, Eric Trump.
The conservative satire blog The Babylon Bee published an article titled “Nikki Haley Announces She Has Won New Hampshire By Negative 12 Points,” which racked up over 5,000 shares on X.
Trump himself spent the better part of Tuesday night fuming over the fact that Haley hadn’t immediately folded and withdrawn from the race. In his victory speech, with two of his former opponents standing behind him on stage, Trump raged at Haley.
“Let’s not have somebody take a victory when she had a very bad night,” Trump said. “She ran up when it was 7 [PM]… and I said ‘she’s doing like a speech like she won,’ she didn’t win, she lost.”
“You can’t let people get away with bullshit. And when I watched her in the fancy dress, that probably wasn’t so fancy, come up, I said, ‘What’s she doing? We won.’” Trump added.
The former president then spent the late hours of Tuesday night and witching hours of Wednesday morning leveling a barrage of Truth Social attacks against Haley.
“Haley said she had to WIN in New Hampshire. SHE DIDN’T!!!” He wrote in one post.
“Could somebody please explain to Nikki Haley that she lost — and lost really badly. She also lost Iowa, BIG, last week. They were, as certain Non-Fake Media says, “CRUSHING DEFEATS,” Trump added later that night.
Fundamentally, it’s not about whether Haley won, lost, came in second, or came in last. It’s about the fact that Donald Trump cannot stand the fact that anyone in the Republican Party would deign to challenge his supremacy when his hold on the 2024 nomination is all but official.
