GOP 2024 contender and once-rumored Trump VP pick Nikki Haley just had to face down a surprising critic at a recent event: a fourth-grader. The young boy used his opportunity to ask her a question to press her on what he characterized as her flip-flopping “on the Donald Trump issue.”
The hilarious incident occurred during a Haley Campaign event in the town of North Conway, New Hampshire, where a very well-spoken and clever 9-year-old boy, a mere fourth grader, twisted the screws on the neocon candidate and pressed her on her political opportunism when it comes to matters of Trump, principle, and her supposed opinions.
“Chris Christie thinks you’re a flip-flopper on the Donald Trump issue, and honestly, I agree with him. You’re basically the new John Kerry,” the boy said as the audience howled with laugter. “If you remember Kerry from 2004,” he continued. He then added, “How can you change your opinion like that in just eight years, and will you pardon Donald Trump?”
Haley, to her credit, handled it reasonably well. First, she told the young boy she was “very proud” of him for coming to the event and asking such a sophisticated question. She then said, “The first thing I will tell you is, is politics is about distraction.” Continuing, she claimed that both “anti-Trumpers” and “pro-Trumpers” criticize her for stance on former President Trump, but that she is “just telling you the truth like I see it.”
She then argued that she thought Trump had reasonably good policies but that America needs more stable, less chaotic leadership, by which she meant hers. Making those claims about Trump and the presidency, she said, “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.”
Continuing, she commented on Christie and his obsession with former President Trump, saying, “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. “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.”
Then, explaining why she would pardon Trump despite being a critic of him, Haley argued that it is in America’s best interest to not leave an aging man rotting in jail and deeply divide the country by doing so. She said, “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.” Watch Haley and the boy here:
Christie, attacking Haley recently for her different stances in different states, said, “[S]he isn’t willing to say the same things about abortion in New Hampshire that she says in Iowa because she doesn’t want to offend people in Iowa who have a different feeling than people in New Hampshire.” He continued, “But then she comes to New Hampshire, she doesn’t want to offend them either. And she’s unwilling to tell the truth about Donald Trump. She says he was the right president for the right time.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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