That didn’t take long. Just one day after announcing she is seeking the Republican nomination for president in 2024, Nikki Haley is already coming under fire by the left. It was only a few months ago that The View host Sunny Hostin tried to shame Haley for not using her birth name (for the record, Hostin doesn’t either), yet Hostin and her colleagues were at it again – this time labeling the former South Carolina governor a ‘political grifter’ and ‘election denier.’
On Wednesday’s show, Megyn, who is live in Las Vegas this week, was joined by David Sacks, co-host of the All-In Podcast, to discuss the backlash Haley is already facing despite the fact that she is the type of ‘establishment Republican’ the left claims to be okay with.
The Anti-Haley Talking Points
In case you were wondering whether or not the media was going to be more respectful of Republican candidates not named Donald Trump, the answer appears to be no. “[Haley] is the sort of Republican that a Democrat could love because she’s a little bit more establishment, more ‘mainstream,’” Megyn said. “She’s definitely not a bull in a china shop like Trump, but they won’t love her. The left never does.” Megyn likened it to 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney, who the media seemed to love until, as she described it, they turned him “into a white supremacist misogynist incarnate.”
If Haley was wondering what kind of criticism she can expect in the coming months, the ladies of The View seemingly offered a preview:
Whoopie Goldberg: “You used to actually have some sanity and knew right from wrong then you lost your mind.”
Joy Behar: “This is part of the Invasion of the Body Snatchers. There are these politicians on the right who now have become mentally crazy… She’s an election denier too, isn’t she?”
Sonny Hostin: “I think she’s very much a political grifter and a chameleon, and the bar is very low because it’s on the ground.”
The election denier comment, in particular, didn’t stand up to scrutiny. Behar had to read a statement from the ABC legal department later in the show saying, “Nikki hasn’t herself cast doubt on the 2020 election.” Hostin, however, wanted to make clear that, while “she’s not an election denier, she’s election denier-adjacent.” The correction stood out to Megyn. “[They] couldn’t even get off the air without having to admit she had misstated the facts,” she noted. “There’s not going to be any love for the Republican candidate – no matter who it is.”
Haley’s Positioning in the GOP
As Sacks sees it, Haley’s issue going forward is not that she isn’t ‘left’ enough for the media, but rather that she isn’t ‘right’ enough for today’s Republican voter. “She’s just too establishment Republican, and she only appeals to that wing of the party,” he said. She is uncomfortable taking on corporate interests; she’s not comfortable taking on these sort of hot button cultural issues.”
In his view, she faces a similarly uphill battle on immigration and foreign policy. “Her story about immigration is a personal story that I think is sort of inspiring and heartwarming, but I don’t think she’s got a lot to say about illegal immigration,” Sacks explained. “On foreign policy, she’s very much in line with the military industrial complex and the foreign policy establishment… that I think the Republican base has grown to suspect.”
Given the state of the GOP in the post-Trump era, Sacks believes the 2024 nominee is going to have to appeal mostly to the anti-establishment base, while still be palatable to the entire party.
The Double Standard
Perhaps the most telling part of this exchange is the double standard it illustrates. “I love The View calling [Haley] a ‘political grifter’ because she’s waffled from time to time on Trump,” Megyn said. “I guess it’s no problem if your name is Kamala Harris and you call Joe Biden a racist at a presidential debate and then run as his VP. That’s not grifting, that’s just good politics.”
You can check out Megyn’s full show with David Sacks by tuning in to episode 494 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.