MANCHESTER, N.H. – Three days before a New Hampshire primary in which former President Donald Trump hopes to defeat former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, he addressed a packed rally of his supporters alongside South Carolina’s top Republican elected officials.
Trump announced the group of conservative Palmetto State politicians – Haley’s successor Gov. Henry McMaster; Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette; State House Speaker Murrell Smith; Treasurer Curtis Loftis; Attorney General Alan Wilson; and U.S. Reps. William Timmons, Joe Wilson, and Russell Fry – as evidence of Haley’s political weakness. Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), a former presidential candidate, endorsed Trump on Friday, but was not present at Saturday night’s event.
“The Radical Left Democrats are supporting Nikki Haley for one reason because they know she’s very easy to beat. She’s gonna be very easy to beat. She’s them,” Trump declared before introducing the elected officials, several of whom spoke on his behalf. “That’s why I’m so proud to be joined today by an incredible group of leaders from Nikki’s home state of South Carolina where we’ll be in about three weeks.”
Trump’s effort to display dominance over Haley served a dual purpose. Since the eve of the Iowa caucuses, Trump has hammered Haley as a liberal infiltrator because of her reliance on the support of anti-Trump moderate Republicans and independents. To that end, he has made the misleading claim that Democrats are allowed to vote in New Hampshire’s Republican primary. In fact, while independents are free to vote in the state’s GOP primary without any advance preparation, registered Democrats who want to participate must have switched their registration to the Republican Party in early October.
“They want to turn liberal voters into Republicans for about two minutes while they vote and then go back to being liberal voters in the Democrat party,” he said on Saturday night. “It’s terrible.”
After repeatedly…
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