Conservative commentator Benny Johnson recently posted a video to X showcasing Nikki Haley’s hometown of Bamberg, South Carolina. The small town’s residents were displeased with the GOP primary challenger, particularly for her “spending billions of dollars in another country.”
Johnson’s footage depicted a struggling small town, symbolic of many rural southern communities in the U.S. where jobs have been outsourced overseas, leaving a hollowed-out economy local behind it. The video shows a utterly dead downtown, void of foot traffic amid dilapidated buildings and broken windows.
“Everywhere we go in Bamberg, people tell us man, you gotta go check out what’s happening downtown. Not in a good way in a bad way. Here you can see just a complete dilapidation of the city,” Johnson said. “But what you can see here is a hometown that has obviously been forgotten about and utterly neglected, destroyed and ignored by the leaders and the people here in this place.”
Johnson interviewed numerous Bamberg residents, inquiring about their opinion of Nikki Haley amid the struggles of the dying town. “What do you think about Nikki Haley wanting to give hundreds of billions of dollars to foreign nations seems like Bamberg could use some help?” Benny asked a resident. “Yeah, exactly. Bamberg and the United States,” they responded. “America first, right?” Johnson added. “Yeah, I don’t see why we’re sending all this money to other people…we need it just as bad as they do,” the resident said.
A local business owner described the sad state of historic downtown Bamberg, where little has been done to revive the scene. The resident noted that his company had performed work to revitalize the area, but much more is required.
“We did some repairs on Main Street already. And for that scene to be closed for this long period of time. I mean, something should have been done. Really. We are. We are in the middle of everything. You have construction workers all around here. We could have been coming in, get this thing rolling, and open. Bamberg back up, let Bamberg be Bamberg again,” he said.
Another person lamented American politicians, including Haley, for allocating funds overseas amid domestic need. “We don’t need to be sending money elsewhere. It needs to stay here. We need to find a cure for cancer. money needs to get towards that, they said.” Johnson asked the woman if she had a message for Nikki Haley, to which she succinctly responded, “Give up.”
“America comes first but we can still help people. We’re a huge country. We got a lot more of us. But we can’t let all of our resources go to everybody else. We can’t, we leave ourself wide open,” another resident said.
The overwhelming sentiment gathered from the interviews in Bamberg, is that America is in dire need of resources to be allocated toward domestic issues. It is clear that many Americans support an “America first” platform.
“The people Bamberg obviously deserve better than what their politicians have delivered to them. And it’s amazing how republican or democrat whatever they all said the same thing. America first Donald Trump, Joe Biden doesn’t matter. America first. That’s what these people want. So yeah, no matter where you are in this nation, no matter where you come from America first. That’s the winning message,” Johnson concluded.
Note: The featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.
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