Nikki Haley gets 'tepid' CPAC reaction while vowing to defund 'countries that hate America'

Republican presidential hopeful Nikki Haley received what reporter Ben Jacobs described as a "tepid" response during her speech at the Conservative Action Political Conference on Friday.

The so-so response to Haley came despite the fact that her speech was filled with red-meat applause lines for Republican voters, including rants against bans on gas stoves and "gender pronoun classes."

Haley also vowed during her speech that she would "stop giving money to countries that hate America" when elected president, although she did not specify which countries those were and whether they would include Saudi Arabia, which was the origin country for 15 of the 19 al-Qaeda hijackers who attacked the World Trade Center and Pentagon on September 11, 2001.

Haley also claimed that "wokeness" is "a virus more dangerous than any pandemic," despite the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic killed more than a million Americans and "wokeness" hasn't yet accumulated any sort of body count.

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Despite all this, multiple reporters noted that the hall at CPAC was only half full for Haley's speech.

Current polls show that Haley is significantly trailing former President Donald Trump in the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, and that only Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis comes within shouting distance of Trump among GOP primary voters.