A 9-year-old who referenced Nikki Haley’s opinion on Donald Trump told her that, just like Chris Christie, he thinks she’s a “flip-flopper,” comparing the 2024 GOP candidate to 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry.
At a town hall in New Hampshire the day after she declined to mention slavery as being a cause of the Civil War, Haley took a question from a young audience member. And his words weren’t exactly flattering.
“So Chris Christie thinks that you’re a flip-flopper on the Donald Trump issue,” a boy, who identified himself as Adam, began. “And honestly, I agree with him. You’re basically the new John Kerry,” he said, drawing laughter from others in the room.
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He then asked the former Trump administration U.N. ambassador: “How can you change your opinion like that in just eight years, and will you pardon Donald Trump?”
Haley responded by saying that politics is about “distraction,” and that she hasn’t been able to satisfy “anti-Trumpers” like Christie or “pro-Trumpers” since announcing her candidacy.
“I told you, I think he was the right president at the right time. I told you that I agreed with a lot of his policies. But do I think he’s the right president to go forward? No. We can’t handle the chaos anymore,” she said.
From there, Haley went after Christie, who recently called her a “Trump enabler,” adding that she is “part of the problem and should be ashamed.”
“I mean, God bless him. He’s a friend. He’s obsessed with Trump. He sleeps, eats, and breathes it every day. I’m thinking bigger than that,” Haley said. “If we do that, we’re no different than Trump. That’s what we’re trying to get away from—is the idea that we obsess about a person. This is about a country. We’re better than that. We’re bigger than that. So I am who I am. I told my truth just like you told your truth, except I am no John Kerry.”
As to whether or not she would pardon Trump if he were to be convicted of any of the 91 felonies he is accused of, Haley deployed the well-worn defense that if Trump were to face consequences for his actions, then that would be needlessly divisive for the country.
“What’s in the best interest of the country is not to have an 80-year-old man sitting in jail that continues to divide our country. What’s in the best interest of the country is to pardon him so that we can move on as a country and no longer talk about him,” she said, as if doing so is a sure way of achieving that.
