Nikki Haley supporters have been touting her as a voice of old-school conservative reason in the 2024 GOP presidential primary and a logical alternative to former President Donald Trump (who announced his campaign after the 2022 midterms) and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (who hasn’t made any type of formal announcement but appears likely to be running). However, Never Trump conservative Tim Miller, in a humorous yet scathing video for The Bulwark, expresses a very different view of the ex-South Carolina governor and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
Miller, a former GOP strategist and frequent guest on MSNBC, expressed his total disdain for the MAGA movement by leaving the Republican Party. In his video, Miller is highly critical of his former party’s 2024 presidential field, from Haley to DeSantis. And he argues that it is a contradiction for someone as "MAGA" as Haley to paint herself as a voice of moderation.
"Haley officially announced her bid for the presidency on Tuesday, (February 14) in an identity-oriented video that tried to balance her desire to be a uniter who stood up to white supremacy and also a MAGA culture warrior who is mad at somebody for carrying a 'Racism is a pandemic' sign," Miller observes, adding that Haley once promised that she would not run for president in 2024 if Donald Trump ran.
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The Never Trumper argues, "This is just the latest in a long line of Trump-related flip-flops from a woman who once said that Trump was 'everything a governor doesn’t want in a president' before quitting her job as governor to work for him. Haley also flopped all over the place on the matter of January 6, first saying that Trump 'let us down' and was not needed 'in the picture' for the party going forward before eventually deciding that he was, in fact, needed in the Republican Party just a few months later."
Miller, however, is "skeptical" about the possibility of a former U.S. ambassador to the UN winning the nomination in a party that "has only gotten more MAGA and more nationalist."
"While Nikki’s MAGA phoniness is pretty gross," the former GOP strategist comments, "it would certainly be better for the GOP to have a globally minded nominee who brings a softer edge on the culture war and has, in the past, done the right thing on these divisive fights…. Unless some crazy s*** happens between now and Iowa, color me skeptical."
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