Charleston (USA), February 23 (EFE).- Republican candidate Nikki Haley, Donald Trump’s latest rival in her party for the November presidential elections, barely gathered a thousand supporters in her own land in the last rally before the Republican Party primaries tomorrow in South Carolina.
Haley, who has not yet beaten Trump in any state, had the opportunity to demonstrate in Charleston her supposed favorite status in the territory where she was born and raised and where she became governor between 2011 and 2017, the first woman to achieve this in Carolina. from the south.
Haley had chosen Patriots Point in Charleston as the setting for this symbolic rally, and her campaign placed the stage in front of the imposing silhouette of the aircraft carrier USS Yorker anchored in the port, but at the moment of truth, only a few hundred supporters They showed up, and Haley failed to lift their spirits that smacked of defeat.
Not even the hundred young people who handed out Haley paraphernalia – dozens of posters were left on the ground, without owners – managed to inspire a little enthusiasm among an audience where the average age was close to sixty and who did not even fill the fenced area at the end. fresh air.
Haley herself – dressed in a flag-adorned sweater and cap – did no better, and her last speech in her homeland did not have the haranguing tone required to achieve the heroics of turning around 30% of advantage that Trump has according to the latest polls.
First she claimed the achievements of her term as governor in South Carolina – she boasted of reducing the state debt, creating jobs and having implemented “the toughest immigration laws in the entire country” – and then went on to attack Joe Biden and Donald Trump, “some eighty-year-old gentlemen.”
He reproached Biden for having created chaos on the border with Mexico and allowing there to be “nine million illegals” in the country, as well as for wasting American money by increasing a debt of 34 billion dollars, all for allowing himself to be dragged along. for “the socialist garbage”, and for having caused “the debacle that was our withdrawal from Afghanistan.”
She called Trump “vindictive” and unstable, and asked how a citizen can entrust national security to a man who one day praises Vladimir Putin and another insults his own country’s soldiers, as he did with her husband Bill. Haley, military professional.
But it was not the ideas, but the tone with which Haley spoke that failed to convey the conviction that a politician needs, and she ended up asking, almost begging, that each of the attendees “grab and drag friends and family tomorrow” to go vote for her.
Related news
Petro asks to apply his health reform in entities controlled by the Government now
Trump points to Senator Tim Scott as a possible running mate in the presidential elections
Rechazo visceral a Donald Trump
Among the attendees, a couple in their fifties – he a surgeon, she a photographer – assure EFE that Haley’s followers are united above all by their visceral opposition to Trump: “If Haley doesn’t win, I will vote for anyone who isn’t Trump.” says Scott; Her wife, Robin, blames the primary system: according to her, Haley would win “on the street” if they were elections like in the rest of the world.
Another couple, Christian and Christy, acknowledge that they did not dislike the policy that Donald Trump applied in his government, “but he is a toxic, self-centered character,” they remember.
Even more emphatic are Taft and Jackie, owners of a private clinic: “If Haley doesn’t win and our choice is reduced to Trump or Biden, we’re going to Canada!” they exclaim.
But none of them chant Nikki’s name when her campaign team cheers them on. There is a feeling in the air that Haley is already in injury time.
Among the candidate’s merchandising, they sell some t-shirts with the slogan ‘Underestimate me, we’re going to have fun!’. The alleged irony does not have a single buyer.
Javier Otazu
By: EFE
The post Nikki Haley barely gathers a thousand supporters in her own land appeared first on Minuto30.
2024-02-24 02:26:59
#Nikki #Haley #barely #gathers #thousand #supporters #land