Primary ballot: New Hampshire all set for battle between Trump, Haley

Washington, Jan 22: Former President Donald Trump and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley head into New Hampshire Tuesday for the crucial second stage of the GOP primaries with the latter nailing the former as a “Liar who doesn’t deserve to win” and Trump saying people in Haley’s home turf are deserting her. Trading barbs at each at a rally Saturday, both candidates made a final push for the Hampshire vote for the nomination among the early voting states.
Haley’s messaging was direct. She said Trump was a “liar”. And Trump hit back at Haley by inviting special guests to the stage in Manchester – South Carolina lawmakers who criticised their former governor, Haley.
“Almost every politician in South Carolina is endorsing me,” Trump said.
Haley said Trump and his allies were lying about everything from her foreign policy positions to her proposals for Social Security. “If you got to lie to win, you don’t deserve to win,” said Haley at an event in Nashua. “Let me explain it to you. Because he’s going to lie about me. I’m going to tell you the truth about him.”
Nikki Haley criticised former President Trump for confusing her with former speaker Nancy Pelosi, the Californian democrat. Trump mixed up names when discussing the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack at his rally Friday night in Concord, New Hampshire.
Trump repeatedly claimed − “falsely” − that then-House Speaker Pelosi rejected his request of having 10,000 National Guard troops be deployed before January 6, 2021.
The name mixes occurred as Trump was criticising Haley. “Nikki Haley, you know they, do you know they destroyed all of the information, all of the evidence, everything, deleted and destroyed all of it. All of it because lots of things like Nikki Haley is in charge of security. We offered her 10,000 people, soldiers, National Guard, whatever they wanted. They turned it down. They don’t want to talk about that. These are very dishonest people,” Trump said.
Haley hit back at Trump’s remarks during a campaign stop in New Hampshire Saturday. “He was in a temper tantrum about me, which is fine he does that often, but he went on and talked about how I kept the police from going into the Capitol on January 6, went on and repeated that I didn’t do anything to secure the Capitol,” Haley said.
“Let’s be clear. I wasn’t in the Capitol on Jan. 6. I wasn’t in office on January 6th. He mentioned it three times. He got confused,” she added.
Trump seeks a big win in NH in hopes of pressuring rivals to drop out. A victory or a close second by Haley will create a tougher race. (IANS)