WEDNESDAY NIGHT was important for anyone undecided in Iowa’s G.O.P. primary caucus on 1/15/24. Major party candidates picked their poison in national exposure for sharing their positions on the many issues—some existential—facing the U.S. The final televised debate was hosted by CNN at Drake University and showcased only two of the candidates since, other than Donald Trump, they were the only ones who met the criteria in time to participate in the final pitch for votes.
The two were FL Gov. Ron De Santis and former SC Gov. Nikki Haley. (Trump instead made a solo appearance on a Fox News Town Hall with Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum where he presented himself, accurately IMO, as a wise, successful, and experienced leader who would have way too much to do than engage in ‘retribution,’ something the press has insisted is his motivation, at least in part, for running.)
Polling has shown a growing indifference to De Santis and, if you’re to believe the mainstream media (which I largely do not), a sudden increase in interest in Haley. In fact, the donor class has switched its allegiance from De Santis to Haley, ostensibly because of her Neocon positions, including her support for ‘forever wars’ and love of the military industrial complex. The questions the two were asked by the moderators, Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, were fairly astute and had the two battling each other rather than the putative nominee, 45th President Trump.
Haley smirked a lot, as she typically does, and spent a good amount of time calling De Santis a liar and referring her website, “desantislies.com.” A quick perusal of the site shows it to be more defensive than offensive, claiming (correctly) that De Santis has leveled certain criticisms about her that she claims (usually incorrectly) are untrue. For example, on the critical issue of illegal aliens and the border crisis, she claims De Santis accused her of supporting unlimited illegal immigration into the country, but “[t]here is no evidence of this claim,” adding somewhat unresponsively, “[o]n legal immigration, [I have] called for moving away from a quota system and moving toward a fairer, merit-based system. [I] also signed one of the toughest anti-illegal immigration laws in the country as governor.” [Emphasis added.]. In fact, there’s ample historical evidence of the claim she denies concerning what is perhaps the most pressing issue facing the nation today, including this particularly astonishing statement she made in 2015:
“[W]e are a country of immigrants. I am the proud daughter of Indian parents who reminded us every day how blessed we are to live in this country. They resent when people come here illegally. But let’s keep in mind, these people who are wanting to come here, they’re wanting to come for a better life too. They have kids too. They have a heart too, so we don’t need to be disrespectful. We don’t need to talk about them as criminals, they’re not. They’re families that want a better life and they’re desperate to get here.” [Emphasis added.]
Of course illegal aliens want better lives for themselves. All human beings do. One cannot blame them from taking advantage of Biden’s open borders for that reason, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t criminals. They are, under federal law as it exists today and yesterday, and hopefully as it will in the future. It is they who are “disrespecting” us by breaking our, yes, criminal laws.
When Haley wasn’t lying about De Santis’ lying, she was exuding sentiments of—Oh my goodness! Let me clutch my pearls (which she was wearing)! Let me fall to my fainting couch!—because De Santis didn’t let her get away with it and called her out on it. The longer the debate went on, the more desperate she became, especially when confronted with her own lies, like about the retirement age, Social Security, and Medicare. (CNN, of course, disagrees with my assessment.) Also: Recently, Haley embarrassed herself when she publicly failed to acknowledge that slavery was a cause of the Civil War.
Billionaire entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy didn’t meet CNN’s criteria to appear with De Santis and Haley on the CNN set, but he held a live audience show on X, formerly Twitter, with podcaster Tim Pool @Timcast.com (here). Ramaswamy believes (and I agree) CNN’s requirements were a bit rigged to obtain this desired outcome, which they believed would best catapult Haley, the first, best, and only choice of MSM and the ‘Uniparty.’).
Of note, not having met the requirements to participate, former NJ Gov. Chris Christie suspended his campaign before the debate, refusing to endorse anyone. His poll numbers have been abysmal. Rumors he’d drop out have been floating for some time. Still, one would’ve expected, first, that he’d continue through IA and NH in case he got any delegates he could negotiate with for his political future. (He still can, but knowing he isn’t running will obviously affect his count.) Second, one might think he’d endorse someone because it would encourage his supporters to cast their ballots for that someone, denying Trump an opportunity to gain those votes, which, of course, was NeverTrumper Christie’s admittedly most pressing campaign goal.
A hint to as why Christie didn’t do either of these things might be gleaned from something he said when he was caught on a hot mic (maybe accidentally or likely intentionally) before his announcement. Speaking of Haley, he said to an unidentified voter, “She’s going to get smoked, and you and I both know it. She’s not up to this,” among other vague comments about De Santis.
Meanwhile, former First Lady Michelle Obama said she is “terrified” of Trump winning. One might think her coming out of the woodwork with that quotable statement is a setup for her to jump into the political fray and run for president herself if Biden were to be unwilling or unable to complete his reelection bid. She has never expressed or shown an interest in running, and, in fact, has denied any such intention, but it may be she’d take the job if it were handed to her and outsource the job to Barack, who is probably a daemon operating in background, anyway.
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