- Haley urged not to be “obsessed with the past.”
- She spoke in South Carolina, trailing Donald Trump by 20 points
- She warned against demonizing rhetoric
Nikki Haley criticized both Joe Biden and Donald Trump in her speech Saturday night after losing her home state to Trump, denouncing the “obsession” in the final moments after Trump revisited his claims of 2020 voter fraud.
She made the comment while trailing Trump by 20 points in the primary election, after Trump spoke in his own victory speech about his “lead” over Biden fading in 2020 as battleground states continued to vote.
“We will not get out of our downward spiral if we continue to obsess over the past,” Haley told a crowd of supporters.
“Does anyone seriously believe that Joe Biden or Donald Trump will unite our country to solve our problems?” One of them calls his fellow Americans fascists. The other calls his fellow Americans vermin. They are not fighting for the future of our district. “They demand that we fight each other,” she said.
Nikki Haley urged her rivals to stop “obsessing with the past.”
She was referring to Biden's condemnation of what he called “extreme MAGA philosophy.”
In her speech Saturday evening, Haley pointed out that she received around 40 percent of the vote, which she said was enough to move on. Shortly thereafter, their overall score dropped to 38 percent
“It's not just Trump, it's the whole philosophy that underlies this – I'm going to say something, it's like semi-fascism,” he said in a remark that drew comparisons to Hillary Clinton's infamous “basket of deplorables” language on Trump -Trailer.
Last year, Trump used the term “vermin” to describe migrants who are “poisoning the blood of the United States,” in language that critics linked to similar language used by Adolph Hitler.
If Haley wanted to call out someone for targeting fascists, she could have pointed to Saturday afternoon, when Trump again used the term to describe Biden supporters. “He’s surrounded by some very bad fascists,” Trump said at CPAC.
“I would rather lose my freedom than surrender to this group” “of thugs and tyrants, fascist scoundrels and villains,” Trump said after going after Biden and “crazy prosecutors” he blamed for his criminal charges .
Trump continued to repeat multiple claims of voter fraud in 2020, as courts rejected his allies' claims and he lost the popular vote by 7 million votes.
Donald Trump pushed his claims of voter fraud Saturday afternoon and evening, even as he accepted the results received in South Carolina
President Biden compared MAGA to “semi-fascism”
Haley took aim at both opponents' ages and complained that she was obsessed with the past. Trump twice invoked his claims of 2020 voter fraud on Saturday
“And in 2020 they cheated like dogs and we all know it,” Trump said.
During his victory speech, Trump also referenced states he ran against in 2020.
“We are the leader in Pennsylvania.” And suddenly nothing happened. It was booming. “And then we’re leading all over Georgia and then we’re booming,” Trump said.
Haley's comments about “obsession” with the past fit with her general criticisms of her rivals based on their age, whom she sometimes describes as “80-year-olds.” Biden is 81, Trump is 77 and Haley is 52.