Nikki Haley, the first prominent Republican to declare a challenge to former President Donald J. Trump in the 2024 election, has yet to see her presidential campaign burn. On Sunday night, he had a new chance to make his case for a 90-minute candidacy for CNN's town hall in prime time, in a bid to emerge from the low single digits in the polls where he was mired.
Ms Haley, former governor of South Carolina and UN ambassador under Mr Trump, is highly skilled on policy issues, consistently optimistic and poised. While he is a stark contrast to Mr. Trump, he has shied away from the opportunity to turn him — or even President Biden — into a political pummel.
At the end of the night, one audience member praised his attitude as a “breath of fresh air”, earning applause from a house full of Iowa Republicans. But it also means that there are very few gunplay moments that can win over Ms. Haley and a new look at primary voters, now facing a growing field of Republicans who are — or will soon be entering — the race.
Here are some takeaways from the event on Sunday night.
It was very different from Trump's town hall.
Compared to CNN's explosive and much-criticised town hall-style event with Mr. Trump last month, this event was a throwback to earlier, less aggressive days. There are no bursts of fact-checking, no audience boos from the stage and no forceful interrogation of candidates. Jake Tapper, the show's moderator, never saw a need to correct Ms. Haley.
Trump and DeSantis continue to be in focus.
The two big red elephants in the room, Mr. Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, were mostly mentioned in an indirect way, but the two Republican presidential hopefuls nevertheless made an appearance. Miss Haley reiterated her position that to save Social Security and Medicare, it is necessary to raise the retirement age for young workers and limit benefits for the wealthy. Both Mr Trump and Mr DeSantis, who have supported similar changes, have now said they would not touch the programme.
“I think it's important to be honest with the American people,” said Ms. Haley. “We are in this situation. Don't lie to them and say, ‘Oh, we don't have to deal with rights reform.' Yes, we do.”
Haley's mother also criticized Mr. DeSantis for his attacks on Disney as a “wake up” company. He had no beef with the Florida governor's criticism of Disney's opposition to what critics are calling the “Don't Say Gay” law, and even said he would go further than the law to discourage talk of gender and sexuality in school. But he called Mr DeSantis a “hypocrite” for accepting tens of thousands of dollars in political contributions from Disney before turning on the company, and using taxpayer dollars to sue him. “Pick up the phone, take care of it,” he said. “Finish as you should, and I think he's a hypocrite.”
Haley is trying to find the sweet spot for Republicans on social issues.
On social issues including abortion, gun restrictions and transgender rights, which animate a large part of the Republican vote base, Ms. Haley followed a conservative line. He defended, for example, leading the US withdrawal from the Paris climate accord while at the United Nations. (President Biden rejoined the deal in 2021.) But he has been less on the punitive rhetoric on issues that Mr. Trump and Mr. DeSantis have made important for their message.
Miss Haley deflected whether she supports the federal six-week abortion ban as recently passed in her home state of South Carolina. Any national restrictions, he said, would need 60 senators to approve, which he said was so far away that the question was barely worth considering.
In the most electrifying moment of the night, Haley describes how to persuade reluctant Republican lawmakers in South Carolina to remove the Confederate battle flag from the State Capitol following the massacre by a white supremacist of black believers at Mother Emanuel church in Charleston in 2015.
She agrees with banning transgender girls from school sports and even seems to suggest that allowing “real boys” in girls' locker rooms is linked to high rates of teenage girls considering suicide.
At the same time, she acknowledged that “we do have to be humane” about transgender children. At the South Carolina school when he was governor, Ms. Haley, the principal makes private bathroom accommodations for them. “They're safe, and most students don't even have to deal with them,” he said.
Haley is a stark contrast to Trump and DeSantis on foreign policy.
Ms. Haley also made a distinction with Mr. Trump and Mr. DeSantis on foreign policy issues, as he has in the past. The former UN ambassador rebuffed Mr DeSantis, who called Russia's invasion of Ukraine a “territorial dispute” – a characterization he has since abandoned – and he dismissed Mr Trump's refusal to say whether Ukraine should win the war.
He said both positions represented a naive belief in the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin. “If Ukraine withdraws,” said Ms. Haley, “then we all saw a world war.”
Asked by Mr. Tapper about congratulations from Mr. Trump to North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, for his recent rise to a leadership role at the World Health Organization, Ms. Haley called Mr. Kim, whose flattery letter was once praised by Trump, a “villain.”
“There is no reason we should be congratulated on the fact that they are now co-chairs of the World Health Organization,” said Ms. Haley.