CNN town hall with Nikki Haley

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley participates in a CNN Republican Presidential Town Hall moderated by CNN’s Jake Tapper at New England College in Henniker, New Hampshire, on January 18.

Nikki Haley’s goal in New Hampshire’s Republican presidential primary Tuesday is to “be strong” and do better than she did in the Iowa caucuses, she said at a CNN town hall Thursday night at New England College in Henniker, New Hampshire.

But the former South Carolina governor stopped short of saying she needs to defeat former President Donald Trump in the Granite State primary. Polls, however, do show she is much closer to Trump in New Hampshire, where she is expected to benefit from a more moderate Republican primary electorate — with undeclared voters also able to participate in Tuesday’s contest.

Here are key takeaways from the CNN town hall:

Catch up on all of the key takeaways from the town hall with Nikki Haley.

Let’s be real: It’s all on the line for Nikki Haley in next week’s Republican primary in the Granite State. If the former South Carolina governor can’t win in New Hampshire, I’m not sure where she can win. 

 Here are the facts. 

It goes beyond these three stats, however. 

New Hampshire is custom-made for Haley. We know from the polling that Trump has struggled with Republican-leaning independents. They are expected to make up nearly 50% of the vote in next week’s primary. (This has historically been the case, and, no, registered Democrats can’t vote in the primary, unlike what Trump has said.)

We know that Trump has been relatively weak with moderate voters. They will make up far more of the GOP electorate in New Hampshire than they did in Iowa or will in any of the other early-voting states. 

Trump also has issues with wealthier voters. New Hampshire Republicans tend to be on the relatively wealthy side compared to other Republican primary electorates. 

Now, none of this is to say that Trump would lose the GOP nomination if Haley wins on Tuesday. He’d still be the heavy favorite to emerge as his party’s 2024 nominee. 

It’s more to say that Haley has no real statistical argument for how she can win the nomination if she can’t win in New Hampshire. 

During tonight’s CNN town hall, GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley repeatedly referred to rising prices squeezing American families – something borne out by the numbers.

US inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) , hit a peak of 9.1% year-over-year in June 2022, well above the 2% the Federal Reserve targets (albeit through a separate inflation measure called the Personal Consumption Expenditures price index). And while inflation has slowed down since then – the December CPI came in at 3.4% annually – it’s still running hotter than policymakers, politicians and everyday, bill-paying Americans would like.

It’s important to note, as well, that just because the pace of price increases has slowed down, that’s not the same thing as prices actually going back down. You might not be seeing the same kind of jump in prices at the grocery store or at the mall, but you’re likely still seeing the prices for a number of things go higher.

And economists say that so-called last mile, getting inflation down that final stretch back to target, could be the trickiest bit of the Fed’s inflation fight. Housing costs are still a challenge, as mortgage rates remain elevated and housing supply scarce. And attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea could ultimately make some goods more expensive by adding costs to global shipping needs.

CNN political commentator Alyssa Farah Griffin called GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley’s remarks on race Thursday “a missed opportunity for her.”

In response to a question from CNN’s Jake Tapper during a town hall, Haley doubled down on her claim that America has “never been a racist country.”

Griffin said Republicans display “a stunning lack of leadership” when it comes to discussing race, and called on the party to be willing to learn.

“I realize there is an element of the right that does not want to be lectured about race, but element of the right needs to learn and need to grow,” Griffin said.

Haley participates in a CNN Republican Presidential Town Hall moderated by CNN’s Jake Tapper at New England College in Henniker, New Hampshire, on Thursday.

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said Thursday that it took Iran “shooting our men and women in Iraq and Syria … 130 times” for President Joe Biden to “do something” about it.   

 Fact’s First: Haley’s claim is false. 

The first time the US took action against Iranian-backed forces on October 26 — when an F-15 fighter jet and a pair of F-16 fighters used precision-guided munitions against weapons and ammunition storage facilities linked to Iranian-backed militias in eastern Syria — US and coalition forces had come under attack 19 times in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war. Those strikes have been followed by several more, including on November 8, November 12, November 20, and December 25. 

As of Thursday, there have been at least 142 attacks on US and coalition forces in Iraq and Syria since the attacks began on October 17.  

Haley participates in a CNN Republican Presidential Town Hall moderated by CNN’s Jake Tapper at New England College in Henniker, New Hampshire, on Thursday.

Asked during a CNN town hall about whether she would support a recent bipartisan deal in Congress to expand the child tax credit, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said she would want to “do it across the board and make sure that it’s fair.” 

“If you’re gonna do tax credits, do it for everybody,” she said. “Don’t play favorites. Don’t pick winners and losers. That’s not what we do in America.” 

Facts First: Haley is mischaracterizing how the child tax credit works. A wide swath of American families are already eligible for and claim the child tax credit. Very low-income and very high-income households don’t qualify. The congressional deal would temporarily enable lower-income families to claim more of the credit.  

The child tax credit allows eligible families to reduce their tax liability by up to $2,000 per qualifying child. The agreement calls for increasing the maximum refundable credit for those households who owe little or no income taxes.  

Also, many low-income families currently receive the same child tax credit whether they have one or more kids. Under the deal, these households would receive the same credit for each of their children, just as higher-income families already do. These provisions would be in effect for three tax years, from 2023 through 2025. 

The proposal would help more than 80% of the 19 million children who receive no credit or a partial one because their families earn too little, according to the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Once fully in effect in 2025, the provisions would lift at least half a million children out of poverty and improve the financial situation of about 5 million more children who would remain below the poverty line. 

Some Democrats and advocates are disappointed with the deal because it wouldn’t expand eligibility for the child tax credit to all lower-income families, as the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act did for one year. 

Haley participates in a CNN Republican Presidential Town Hall moderated by CNN’s Jake Tapper at New England College in Henniker, New Hampshire, on Thursday.

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley once again characterized President Joe Biden’s electric vehicle policies as mandatory, saying the president’s goal is “everybody’s got to drive an electric car by 2033.”  

“Americans don’t all want electric cars; quit telling them how to live,” Haley said during Thursday’s town hall.  

Facts First: Haley’s claim – along with a very similar claim she made during CNN’s presidential debate earlier this month where she said Biden’s goal was for everyone to drive an EV by 2035 – is misleading. Biden has not moved forward with EV mandates, though his administration has made an aggressive push for automakers and consumers to move toward electric vehicles. 

The Biden administration has proposed ambitious new tailpipe emissions regulations for automakers, offered tax credits to people who buy certain electric vehicles, invested in new electric vehicle charging stations and ordered federal entities to purchase electric vehicles, among other policies promoting the adoption of EVs. But there is no Biden requirement mandating the use of electric vehicles and no Biden proposal to prohibit citizens from continuing to use gasoline-powered engines as more EVs hit the roads. 

Depending on how automakers were to respond, the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed new tailpipe rules could, if adopted, require electric vehicles to make up two-thirds of new cars sold in the US by 2032. Several blue states, including California, have passed laws banning the sale of new gas-powered vehicles by 2035. 

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley participates in a CNN Republican Presidential Town Hall moderated by CNN’s Jake Tapper at New England College in Henniker, New Hampshire, on January 18, 2024.

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said there is a possibility of a two-state solution at the end of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, though she claimed Palestinians have repeatedly rejected the idea.  

Haley’s comments come as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday dismissed the idea of creating a Palestinian state, saying it would clash with Israel’s security, which is at odds with President Biden’s stated position.

“When I was at the UN, I mean, the two-state solution came up over and over again and Israel always showed up at the table. The Palestinians always rejected the two-state solution. And the reason they’ve rejected the two-state solution is because they want a one-state solution,” Haley said during a CNN town hall.

“The Palestinians don’t want Israel to exist … Any discussions we had with them, the Palestinian Authority doesn’t want to negotiate with Israel,” she added. 

Haley’s stance contrasts with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis who has criticized her for supporting a two-state solution when she was at the UN.

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley participated in a CNN town hall in New Hampshire on Thursday night.

See some of the best photos from the event:

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley speaks during the CNN town hall on Thursday.

An audience member asks a question during the town hall.

CNN's Jake Tapper hosted the town hall.

Haley answers a question during the town hall. She sought to make the case why she should be the GOP nominee.

The town hall was held at New England College in Henniker, New Hampshire.

The event took place at a pivotal moment for Haley after coming in third in the Iowa caucuses.

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley participates in a CNN Republican Presidential Town Hall moderated by CNN’s Jake Tapper at New England College in Henniker, New Hampshire, on January 18.

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley pushed back against Donald Trump’s claim that she has no chance of getting the GOP nomination.

“If he thinks I have no chance and I have no hope, then why is he running millions of dollars of ads against me? If he thinks I have no chance and I have no hope, then why … when I served in his cabinet did he say I was tough, the best UN ambassador he ever had, and no one could even move me? I mean he gave me all this praise until I decided to run against him,” she said.

Haley added that she does not hate Trump and that she voted for him twice because she agrees with a lot of his policies.

“But rightly or wrongly, chaos follows him. And everybody knows I’m right. And we can’t continue down this path and go through four more years of chaos. We won’t survive it,” she said.

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley participates in a CNN Republican Presidential Town Hall moderated by CNN’s Jake Tapper at New England College in Henniker, New Hampshire, on January 18, 2024.

GOP candidate Nikki Haley called Congress the “most privileged nursing home in the country” while arguing that both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are too old to be commander in chief.

“We don’t need to have our options be two 80-year-olds running for president. We’ve got too many issues,” she said, answering a question from voter Rip Holden who said he found Haley’s ads attacking Biden’s age rude. Biden is 81 years old and Trump is 77.

Haley argued that she was not being disrespectful, but she was “speaking the hard truth” and vowed to be a “new generational leader.”

“I appreciate anybody that goes in for service, but the problem is Joe Biden refuses to leave and all of these people who are in their 80s, they need to know for the good of our country, know when to walk away,” Haley said.

Nikki Haley, when asked about the effect artificial intelligence could have on jobs, said “don’t look at it as good or bad.”

“When you look at artificial intelligence, a lot of good come from it: innovations, whether it’s health care, whether it’s in education, whether it’s in creating the next new industry,” she said. “There’s a lot of great things that come out, but there are some warning signs that if we don’t deal with it in the right way, it could be incredibly dangerous.”

AI is widely expected to be a significant disruptor to jobs globally, potentially deepening inequality in the process, the International Monetary Fund reported earlier this week. IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva wrote that AI could affect almost 40% of jobs around the world, “replacing some and complementing others,” and that there needs to be a “careful balance of policies to tap its potential.”

In October, President Joe Biden released a sweeping executive order that sought to create standards for safety, security and privacy while also harness the technology’s potential.

Joan Jett in 1982.

GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley said rock singer Joan Jett is one of her biggest role models because “she never gave up” in the face of disapproval.

She called the “Cherry Bomb” singer “one of the first rockers, like true rockers” and detailed her rise to fame in the music industry.

“They didn’t look at the talent. They just automatically pushed her aside for things that were just who she was,” Haley said. “And she never gave up and she kept pushing and she kept pushing no matter how much they discounted her and made it like she was never going to make it.”

Former President Donald Trump argued his GOP rival Nikki Haley had no path to the Republican nomination because she lacked the support from “Make America Great Again” Republicans.

“She’s not going to make it. She has no chance, she’s got no way. MAGA’s not going to be with her,” Trump said in a Fox News interview with Sean Hannity that aired on Thursday.

“She would not be able to handle that position. She would not be able to handle the onslaught,” Trump added.

Trump repeatedly made the false claim that New Hampshire laws allow Democrats to vote in the Republican primary and argued such a scenario would benefit Haley. After attacking Haley repeatedly, Trump again said he wanted to unify the Republican Party and the nation. 

“With all of that being said, within the Republican Party I want to bring unity, and within the nation I want to bring unity, and you know, unity is going to come from success,” Trump said.

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley participates in a CNN Republican Presidential Town Hall moderated by CNN’s Jake Tapper at New England College in Henniker, New Hampshire, on January 18, 2024.

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley repeated her position that America was never a racist country.

She said growing up as a “brown girl” in a small rural town, “we had plenty of racism that we had to deal with, but my parents never said we lived in a racist country.”

Haley said she doesn’t want anyone to think that being a minority in the US is a disadvantage.

Pressed by CNN’s Jake Tapper that America, as an institution, was founded on racist precepts, Haley said, “I refuse to believe that the premise of when (the Founding Fathers) formed our country was based on the fact that it was a racist country to start with. I refuse to believe that.”

In contrast, at a CNN town hall on Tuesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis responded to Haley’s initial comments, distinguishing he thinks the United States is “not a racist country” currently, but has “had challenges with how race was viewed.”

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley participates in a CNN Republican Presidential Town Hall moderated by CNN’s Jake Tapper at New England College in Henniker, New Hampshire, on January 18.

Former US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley says she’s been a proponent of congressional term limits “for as long as I can remember.”

But she added that she thinks “Congress is never going to vote for term limits.”

“That doesn’t mean we don’t try,” Haley said in response to a question from New Hampshire voter Lizabeth McLaughlin.

If elected president, Haley said she would create a “Haley term limits pledge,” which asks anyone who files for office — including incumbents — to either sign the pledge or not. The pledge would then be shared with the general public, “that way you are empowered with the information.”

She said that when enough people who sign the pledge make it to Congress, lawmakers will then vote on term limit legislation.

“We’ll do it from the outside in. I always think the best way to move reforms forward is when you work with the people to push it from the outside in and force Congress to do the right thing,” the former South Carolina governor said.

Haley participates in a CNN Republican Presidential Town Hall moderated by CNN’s Jake Tapper at New England College in Henniker, New Hampshire, on Thursday.

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley criticized President Joe Biden’s handling of recent Houthi attacks in the Red Sea.

“All of this could have been prevented,” she said, adding that it all is provoked by Iran, which funds the Houthis.

She slammed the president for lifting the terrorist designation on the Houthis, something the Biden administration reinstated this week amid continued attacks by the Yemen-based militia.

“What we know about Iran and all of their proxies is when they get cash, it doesn’t go to take care of the Iranian people. It goes to fuel terrorism. That’s what’s happened,” Haley said.

The former United Nations ambassador said the best way to prevent war “is to deter it in the first place.”

Haley participates in a CNN Republican Presidential Town Hall moderated by CNN’s Jake Tapper at New England College in Henniker, New Hampshire, on Thursday.

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley provided an update on her father’s health, saying he is doing “much better” and is back home after being hospitalized. 

“He is doing—doing well. He is now back home. Michael and I take care of my parents. They live with us and so, when something like that happens, I need to go and put eyes on them, make sure they’re ok,” Haley said.

“They are now watching tonight. I love you, mom and dad. And he’s doing much better,” she continued.

Haley took a brief detour from the campaign trail to fly to South Carolina on Tuesday night after her father was hospitalized. She returned to the Granite State on Wednesday night and held an event in Rochester.

In this June 2023 photo, Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley walks with her husband Maj. Michael Haley following a deployment ceremony for his unit of the South Carolina National Guard on at Johnson Hagood Stadium in Charleston, South Carolina.

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said she was finally able to get in touch with her husband, Michael Haley— who is deployed overseas — after not being able to speak with him the day of the Iowa caucuses because he didn’t have connection.

“He’s currently deployed. He’s in the horn of Africa. And you said you weren’t able to connect to him the day of the Iowa caucuses, I assume you’ve been able to since? I hope? How’s he doing?” CNN’s Jake Tapper asked.

“It was probably about two or three days that he had no connection. And so that’s always tough because you’re kind of holding your breath and you can’t. But I have since, yes, we got a chance to talk and so all is good on his front,” Haley said.

She then added that when you have a loved one deployed that it’s your “long prayer that they just come back home to you safely.”

Haley said that she’s incredibly proud of her husband and his military brothers and sisters that are serving: “God bless them for what they do.”

Haley participates in a CNN town hall at New England College in Henniker, New Hampshire, Thursday.

GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley said during CNN’s town hall that Americans “are feeling that squeeze” from rising prices, and that it’s not at the grocery store but also on those monthly mortgage bills. She’s right about that.

Mortgage rates spiked after March 2022, when the Federal Reserve began its historic inflation-curbing campaign of dramatic monetary policy tightening. Average mortgage rates surpassed 7% in August and ultimately peaked at 7.79% in October. As of today, they were 6.6%.

In 2019, the median monthly mortgage payment was $1,242, when factoring an average mortgage rate of 4.13% into a $320,250 median priced home, according to Bankrate citing US Census Bureau data. Right before the end of 2023, the median monthly mortgage payment was estimated at $2,361, according to Redfin, for a mortgage of the same size and with a mortgage rate of 6.61%. By those estimates, the median monthly mortgage payment is about 90% higher today than in 2019.

Haley participates in a CNN town hall on Thursday in New Hampshire.

GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley said that she would pardon former President Donald Trump if he were convicted.

“For me, the last thing we need is an 80-year-old president sitting in jail because that’s just going to further divide our country,” she told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “This is no longer about whether he’s innocent or guilty. This is about the fact: How do we bring the country back together?”

She went on to say that she thinks a Trump pardon would be “healing for the country.”

Haley did say she would first want to see how Trump’s court cases play out and added that she believes Trump would want the same before thinking about a pardon.

The former South Carolina governor said that she would want to allow Trump “to defend himself and prove that he has been treated, you know, the wrong way” in court.

In an all-caps post on Truth Social Thursday, Trump argued that presidents of the United States should have full immunity from prosecution even if they “cross the line” while in office, pushing his claims even further as he awaits a highly anticipated ruling from a federal appeals court in Washington regarding his attempts to overturn the 2020 election.

The former president now faces 91 criminal charges across four indictments.

This post has been updated with context on Donald Trump.

CNN’s Kate Sullivan, Dan Berman and Katelyn Polantz contributed reporting.

Haley participates in a CNN town hall at New England College in Henniker, New Hampshire, on Thursday.

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said she wants to bring people into the Republican Party, in anticipation of support from independents in New Hampshire’s primary election next week.

She said she doesn’t ask people about their party affiliation when they come to her events.

The former United Nations ambassador said Republicans have lost the last several popular votes for president. To win the majority of Americans “you bring out the best of people and move forward,” she said, arguing that she is the candidate to do that.

Haley said if independents and conservative Democrats want to come back to the Republican Party and vote for her based on her platform, “I want them back.”

“That’s how we win,” she said.

Some context: Haley’s rise in New Hampshire has been aided by the state’s more moderate electorate and the outsize role independents play within the primary. Both registered Republicans and independents are allowed to vote in the GOP primary, raising concerns within the Trump campaign about left-leaning independents turning out to cast ballots against the former president.

Haley participates in a CNN Republican Presidential Town Hall moderated by CNN’s Jake Tapper at New England College in Henniker, New Hampshire, on January 18.

During Thursday’s debate, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley brushed off recent personal attacks hurled at her by former President Donald Trump.

CNN’s Jake Tapper brought up the attacks Trump has posted regarding Haley’s parents — who are immigrants from India — and falsely questioning her eligibility to run for president.

Haley responded by saying she is “the proud daughter of Bamberg, South Carolina, so I love my sweet town and I’m proud to say I’m from there.”

“The name calling? I know Trump well. That’s what he does when he feels threatened. That’s what he does when he feels insecure. I don’t take these things personally. It doesn’t bother me,” Haley said. “So it’s not going to waste any energy for me. I’m going to continue to focus on the things that people want to talk about and not get into the name calling back with him.”

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley participates in a CNN Republican Presidential Town Hall moderated by CNN’s Jake Tapper at New England College in Henniker, New Hampshire, on January 18, 2024.

GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley attacked her opponent former President Donald Trump for not participating in any debates.

“I would love for him to debate, that’s what I have said this whole time, I think it’s good for voters to see what their options are,” she said at a CNN town hall, answering a question from New Hampshire voter Benjamin Grayzel, an undeclared voter who voted for Joe Biden in 2020 and currently supporting Haley.

Haley said the former president tends “to throw a temper tantrum” and likened Trump to incumbent President Joe Biden.

“Neither one of them will debate their opponents,” Haley said. “It’s very telling that we’re dealing with more of the same. More of the same where you’ve got these incumbent presidents that they think they don’t have to show you the differences between them and their opponents.”

Haley argued that she would be a new generational leader, something she has said several times on the campaign trail, reiterating that most Americans don’t want to see a rematch between Trump and Biden in the general election.

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley participates in a CNN Republican Presidential Town Hall moderated by CNN’s Jake Tapper at New England College in Henniker, New Hampshire, on January 18, 2024.

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said a stronger performance in the New Hampshire primaries is her “personal goal” after finishing in third place in the Iowa caucuses, behind former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

“What I want to do is be strong. We’re not going to know what strong looks like until those numbers come in,” she told CNN’s Jake Tapper when asked if a second-place ranking in the primaries would be good enough for her.

“We want to do better than we did in Iowa, that’s my personal goal. To make sure we do better than we did in Iowa,” she added.

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley participates in a CNN Republican Presidential Town Hall moderated by CNN’s Jake Tapper at New England College in Henniker, New Hampshire, on January 18, 2024.

CNN is hosting a GOP presidential town hall with Nikki Haley from New England College in Henniker, New Hampshire, following the network’s town hall with Ron DeSantis earlier this week.

Haley is taking questions from CNN anchor Jake Tapper and a live audience of New Hampshire voters who say they intend to vote in the state’s GOP primary, both registered Republicans and undecided or independent voters who are allowed to participate in the state’s primary election.

Tapper said at the start of the event that to find tonight’s questioners, CNN cast a wide net and solicited help from various organizations including universities, business groups religious groups and conservative advocacy organizations.

Guests of the Haley campaign and New England College are also in the audience tonight, but they will not be asking questions, Tapper noted.

The town hall comes ahead of next week’s pivotal primary in that state, where Haley is looking to secure a strong showing to springboard her campaign.

How to watch the Haley town hall: The town hall is streaming live without a cable log-in via CNN.com, CNN connected TV and mobile apps and on CNN Max for Max subscribers. The town hall will also be available On Demand beginning Friday to pay TV subscribers via CNN.com, CNN apps, and Cable Operator Platforms.

Nikki Haley speaks during a campaign event in Hollis, New Hampshire, on Thursday.

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley ramped up her attacks on former President Donald Trump on Thursday as the New Hampshire primary draws closer.

“Trump says things. Americans aren’t stupid to just believe what he says. The reality is: who lost the House for us, who lost the Senate, who lost the White House? Donald Trump, Donald Trump, Donald Trump,” Haley said to reporters, following a campaign stop in the town of Hollis.

“Nikki Haley will win every single one of those back for us — I’ve proven that. So, he can say whatever he wants. His record has been that he lost the House, he lost the Senate, he lost the White House. That’s a fact,” she continued.

The former South Carolina governor continued to point to her electability, touting the Wall Street Journal poll from December that shows her leading in a head-to-head matchup against President Joe Biden.

“I win by 17 points against Biden. And Trump can call that a dirty poll all he wants. It was his own pollster that did it,” Haley said.

Retail stop: Haley also made a brief stop at Robie’s Country Store in Hooksett, New Hampshire, Thursday afternoon. She spoke for about two minutes, arguing that a majority of Americans do not want to see a Trump-Biden rematch, and that she could serve instead as a “new generational leader.”

Haley’s campaign says it is ramping up the number of shorter retail stops Haley makes in New Hampshire ahead of the primary.

Nikki Haley speaks during a campaign event in Hollis, New Hampshire, on Thursday.

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley on Thursday said her recent comment that the US has “never been a racist country” was not a slip of the tongue, adding that she doesn’t want anyone to think they live in a racist country or that being a minority in the US is a disadvantage.

During an interview with Fox News on Tuesday, Haley claimed the US has “never been a racist country” when asked whether she thought the Republican Party was a racist party. 

Speaking with reporters on Thursday in New Hampshire, Haley was asked if those comments were a “slip of the tongue.”

“No. Listen, I was born a brown girl in a small, rural town in South Carolina. If my parents never wanted us to think we lived in a racist country – did we face racism? Yes. But what I can tell you is that brown girl that grew up in that small rural town, grew up to become the first female minority governor in history, went on to become UN ambassador and is now running to for president of the United States,” she said.

“I don’t want any brown, Black, or other child thinking they live in a racist state – racist country,” she continued. “I want them to know they can do and be anything they want to be without anyone getting in the way. Does that mean we have racism in our country? At times, yes, we do. Our goal should be how do we make today better than yesterday. I’m not going to make any child think that they’re coming in disadvantaged right off the bat just because of how they look. Thank God my parents didn’t raise me that way.”

The stage is set ahead of a CNN Republican Presidential Town Hall with former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley at New England College in Henniker, New Hampshire, on January 18.

Nikki Haley is set to participate in a CNN town hall tonight at 9 p.m. ET, just days before a New Hampshire primary that the onetime South Carolina governor hopes will shake loose former President Donald Trump’s hold on the 2024 Republican race.

Haley’s campaign has long viewed the Granite State — where the GOP primary electorate includes more moderates and independents than other early-voting states — as her best shot at a win. Trump, whose campaign in recent weeks has identified Haley as a threat, has escalated his attacks against her ahead of the primary.

Here are a few things to watch for at Thursday night’s town hall:

Read up on more things to watch ahead of tonight’s CNN town hall.

Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Dean Phillips gestures while addressing a gathering during a campaign stop on Thursday in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Former 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang endorsed Dean Phillips for president on Thursday while campaigning with the Minnesota Democrat in New Hampshire.

“In this time of need, only one person decided to place his country above his professional aspirations, put his conviction above the chattering class, and that is the man I am proud to endorse tonight as the next President of the United States, three-term congressman from Minnesota Dean Phillips,” Yang said at an event in Hanover.

Phillips has adopted policies supported by Yang, like Medicare for All and Universal Basic Income pilot programs, as he attempts to appeal to a progressive base of voters and looks to challenge incumbent President Joe Biden.

Nikki Haley talks with people at the historic Robie Country Store on January 18, in Hooksett, New Hampshire.

Former President Donald Trump is escalating attacks against former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley as he looks to clinch another victory in New Hampshire next week.

Meantime, Haley is ramping up the number of short campaign stops around the state, and is criticizing the former president along the way.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is back in his home state to attend to official business. He is expected to return to New Hampshire on Friday before spending some of the weekend in South Carolina — where he is shifting resources in an urgent move to salvage his White House bid.

Here’s a look at what’s been going on on the campaign trail:

Other news to know:

Former President Donald Trump is urging the US Supreme Court to reverse the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling that removed him from that state’s ballot.

The brief submitted by Trump’s attorneys Thursday to the high court sets out their arguments for why the state court erred when it issued the unprecedented decision last month.

“The Court should reverse the Colorado decision because President Trump is not even subject to section 3, as the President is not an ‘officer of the United States’ under the Constitution. And even if President Trump were subject to section 3 he did not ‘engage in’ anything that qualifies as ‘insurrection,’” Trump’s attorneys argued.

The efforts, Trump team argues, “promise to unleash chaos and bedlam if other state courts and state officials follow Colorado’s lead and exclude the likely Republican presidential nominee from their ballots.”

The Colorado Supreme Court last month said Trump is constitutionally ineligible to run in 2024 because the 14th Amendment’s ban on insurrectionists holding office covers his conduct on January 6, 2021.

The US Supreme Court agreed earlier this month to hear the case, accepting an appeal brought by Trump. The justices are separately involved in other matters that could impact the federal criminal case against the former president. The US Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the Colorado case on February 8.

Nick Zaharias of Derry, New Hampshire, a public witness, loads a test ballot into a vote counting machine while testing machines before the New Hampshire primary, at the Derry Municipal Center on Tuesday, January 16.

All Republican primary candidates are vying for the 22 delegates who are at stake in Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary

While winning the New Hampshire primary is helpful, it is not critical to winning the nomination or the White House. Joe Biden, Barack Obama and George W. Bush all lost the New Hampshire primary before going on to win their first term in the general election. Donald Trump won the primary in 2016.

The Granite State continues to be an important battleground in the general election. George W. Bush just eked out a narrow victory in 2000, without which Al Gore would have won the White House. While Biden won the state with nearly 53% of the vote, it hasn’t always gone to the national winner. John Kerry won the state in 2004, and Hillary Clinton won it by less than half a percentage point in 2016.

In the 2020 general election, 46% of New Hampshire’s voters were self-described independents. 31% of the state’s voters identified as Republicans and 23% identified as Democrats. Biden won 62% of the voters who identified as independents.

Critical battleground: Republicans and Democrats have their typical area of success, but the greater Manchester and Nashua region is a critical battleground. While the cities have leaned Democratic in recent years, GOP Gov. Chris Sununu won both cities in 2020 and 2022, even as they voted Democratic in federal races. The surrounding towns are highly competitive, but recently Democrats have had more success to the west of Manchester and Nashua.

Former President Donald Trump walks on to the stage during a rally ahead of the New Hampshire primary election, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on Wednesday.

Former President Donald Trump is peddling false claims about voting rules for next week’s New Hampshire primary, as he tries to blunt Nikki Haley’s momentum in the state.

At a campaign event in Portsmouth on Wednesday, Trump falsely claimed that New Hampshire laws “allow Democrats to vote in the Republican primary.” He also said, “Nikki Haley is counting on Democrats and liberals to infiltrate your Republican primary.”

Facts First: This is false. Registered Democrats can’t participate in the New Hampshire GOP primary. Only Republicans and independents can vote in the Republican contest.

Trump has a well-documented history of lying about elections, most famously in 2020, when he routinely spouted disinformation about mail-in ballots and other voting rules.

In New Hampshire, there’s a large share of independent voters, who are called “undeclared.” The state prides itself in letting undeclared voters participate in either party’s presidential primary. They can pick which ballot to take when they show up at their polling place on Tuesday. But registered Democrats can’t crossover to the GOP.

“Registered Democrats cannot vote in the Republican primary, and registered Republicans cannot vote in the Democratic primary,” New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan told CNN on Wednesday. “We’ve been pretty clear about the process.”

Trump complained that “Democrats … can walk in and just sign up right away” to cast a ballot in the Republican primary. But that’s not accurate — he appears to be conflating the voting rules for independents with what he thinks the rules are for Democrats.

Former President Donald Trump during a campaign event in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on Wednesday, January 17.

Election officials in Washington state confirmed Thursday that Donald Trump’s name will remain on the GOP primary ballot, after a state judge dismissed a lawsuit that tried to disqualify him based on the 14th Amendment. 

Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs, a Democrat, said his office would move forward with the ballot-printing process, now that the lawsuit was rejected. He also praised the judge for issuing a ruling in a “timely and well-considered fashion.”  

The GOP primary is slated for March 12, one week after the Super Tuesday contests. 

This is the latest state where Trump beat back an attempt to bar him from the ballot, after victories in Michigan, Oregon, California and elsewhere. 

Cases against Trump’s eligibility prevailed in Colorado and Maine, though appeals are underway.

CNN’s Ethan Cohen and Andy Rose contributed reporting to this post.

Joe Biden supporters would rather he win Tuesday’s Democratic primary in New Hampshire. State Democratic leaders want that too. But the trick for everyone involved has been figuring out how to make that happen since the president’s name doesn’t appear on the ballot.

That’s left the state’s Democratic establishment trying to spread the word about an unofficial campaign to write in Biden’s name – but not spread it so loudly that they risk embarrassing the president, and themselves, if someone else — like Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips — wins.

Biden did not register for the New Hampshire ballot following an internal party dispute over the date of the primary and the Democratic National Committee’s decision that the election effectively won’t count. Still, the fear is that not winning here would feed the narrative that he is weak heading into the general election. And state Democratic leaders want to avoid a win by a newcomer that could undermine their case to the DNC that their first-in-the-nation primary should be reinstated in 2028.

The Biden campaign has been keeping the write-in effort beyond arm’s length – and not just to abide by rules against coordination with an outside effort, or to stick by the president’s convictions about moving the first approved primary to South Carolina. Expecting a win out of a situation in which he’s not on the ballot has always seemed iffy at best, and aides wanted to preserve their ability to dismiss the results if they do turn out to be humiliating.

Officially, the Biden campaign will not celebrate a win. They will not spin a loss. Whatever happens on Tuesday and Wednesday will go by without the Wilmington headquarters acknowledging it. The campaign is declining comment on the effort, even anonymously, to anyone who asks.

Read more about what is at stake for Democrats in New Hampshire.

President Joe Biden speaks at an event in Raleigh, North Carolina, on January 18.

President Joe Biden delivered remarks from Raleigh, North Carolina, Thursday, touting steps his administration has taken to invest in the state through his administration’s signature pieces of legislation.

“Look, our goal is to connect everyone in America to affordable, reliable high-speed Internet by the year 2030 — everyone in America, just like Franklin Roosevelt did a generation ago with electricity,” Biden told the audience. “I promised to be president for all America, whether you voted for me or not —these investments help all Americans in red states and blue states as well, we’re not leaving anybody behind.” 

The president was introduced by North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, who he called “the best governor in the country,” while Cooper offered effusive praise for the president.

During his remarks, Biden touted $3 billion in funding to date to expand high-speed internet across the state while unveiling $82 million to connect 16,000 additional homes and businesses, “bringing high speed all across the state of North Carolina.”  Still, he acknowledged that “costs are still high, but inflation continues to fall, and mortgage rates are falling—they’re going to fall more.” 

He also slammed Trump for comments predicting a recession.

“And by the way, did you hear he wants to see the stock market crash?” Biden said. “You know why? He doesn’t want to be the next Herbert Hoover. As I told him, he’s already Hoover. He’s the only president to be president for four years and lose jobs.” 

“Frankly, to put it very politely, he doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” he added.

House Speaker Mike Johnson walks out of the West Wing to make a statement at the White House, in Washington DC, on January 17.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and scores of other GOP lawmakers threw their support behind Donald Trump on Thursday as they asked the US Supreme Court to overturn the Colorado Supreme Court ruling removing him from that state’s ballot.

In a friend-of-the-court brief, the Republicans argue that the Colorado Supreme Court “severely intrudes” on Congress’ power by allowing the Constitution’s “insurrectionist ban” to be enforced without authorization from Congress.

“Disqualification under Section 3 is an extraordinarily harsh result, and the Fourteenth Amendment’s own text confirms that Congress, representing the Nation’s various interests and constituencies, is the best judge of when to authorize Section 3’s affirmative enforcement,” the lawmakers told the justices in their brief.
The Colorado ruling “will only supercharge state officials to conjure bases for labeling political opponents as having engaged in insurrection,” they added, arguing that the justices should overturn the decision “to minimize the partisan incentive to boot opponents off the ballot” under the 14th Amendment’s “insurrectionist ban.”

Many of the arguments by the group of lawmakers, led by GOP Sen. Ted Cruz and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and joined by 177 other members of Congress, are similar to those being pushed by Trump and his allies, including that the “insurrectionist ban” does not apply to presidents, as the Colorado court held.

Read more on the lawmakers’ request here.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during a campaign stop in Hampton, New Hampshire, on Wednesday.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told Hugh Hewitt that he has the money, the staff and the ability to stay in the presidential race until the end of March.

“Oh, yes on that. 100%. We can do that,” DeSantis said on Hewitt’s radio show Thursday morning. The governor is back in his home state today before heading to New Hampshire Friday and South Carolina over the weekend. 

While DeSantis said that he’s in the race to “win the nomination,” he indicated that he wouldn’t stay in for vanity’s sake. 

“I don’t want to be V.P. I don’t want to be in the cabinet. I don’t want a T.V. show. I’m in it to win it, and at some point, you know, if that’s not working out for you, like I recognize that this isn’t a vanity thing for me, but I do believe that we have an opportunity in November to do very, very well,” DeSantis said. 

Commenting on another 2024 rival, DeSantis said, “Nikki Haley cannot compete with Donald Trump” in New Hampshire.

“The fact that she can’t do it there, she can’t do it anywhere. She’s certainly not going to do it in South Carolina,” he said. 

Nikki Haley speaks at a campaign rally in Rochester, New Hampshire, on Wednesday.

Nikki Haley and her allies have invested heavily in the New Hampshire primary, spending roughly twice as much on advertising there as former President Donald Trump’s political network since the start of the 2024 White House race. 

Haley’s advertising advantage in New Hampshire, however, has narrowed in the new year, as Trump and his allies ramped up spending there to counter signs of momentum for the South Carolina governor. 

Meanwhile, Ron DeSantis and his allies have essentially ceded New Hampshire airwaves, having gone dark in the state in mid-November after spending millions there over the summer. 

Former President Donald Trump reacts to the crowd during a campaign event in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on Wednesday.

According to AdImpact data, Haley’s campaign and outside groups supporting it have spent about $30 million advertising in New Hampshire since the start of 2023. By comparison, Trump’s campaign and its allies have spent about $14.6 million on New Hampshire advertising since the start of the race, while a pro-DeSantis super PAC spent about $8 million there last year. 

New Hampshire advertising totals: Republican campaigns and outside groups have spent more than $75 million advertising in New Hampshire overall, significantly more than the roughly $50 million that campaigns and outside groups spent in New Hampshire during the 2020 battle for the Democratic presidential nomination. 

New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu stands alongside Nikki Haley as she speaks to the press at a town hall campaign event in North Conway, New Hampshire, in December.

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu said Thursday that the former President Donald Trump is “scared” of Haley, whom he said has “exceeded expectations,” when asked about Trump’s escalating attacks on Haley in New Hampshire.

“He’s afraid his base isn’t going to come out for him. That’s his very bizarre way of getting out the vote,” he said on CNN This Morning. “Now that she’s finally saying look, thank you for your service, Mr. President, we’re moving on from you. He takes everything a little personally. He’s a little sensitive that guy.”

Sununu downplayed Trump’s wide lead in Iowa, arguing 56,000 votes in a state of 3 million people was “very low” turnout. “At the end of the day, as we drive voter turnout, those are new voters, that all goes to Nikki Haley. He’s scared his voters will be apathetic and stay at home. That’s what he’s doing is trying to rile up his base,” he said.

Pressed on his answer that he would vote for Trump if he was a convicted felon, Sununu dismissed it as a “complete hypothetical,” noting “these cases are going on for years.”

“If you’re waiting for a court case or something to defeat Donald Trump, you can’t do it. You’ve got to come out and vote. He gets defeated at the ballot box. That’s democracy,” he said, explaining Trump has “never been beaten by these external things.”

Vice President Kamala Harris introduces President Joe Biden during an event in the East Room of the White House in October.

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are set to make their first joint campaign appearance of 2024 next week as they look to lay out how abortion rights are at stake in November’s election.

Biden and Harris, along with first lady Jill Biden and second gentleman Doug Emhoff, will speak at an event in northern Virginia on Tuesday, the same day as the New Hampshire primaries.

The event, which a campaign official said will focus on reproductive rights, comes one day after the anniversary of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which enshrined the federal constitutional right to an abortion for decades before the Supreme Court overturned it in 2022.

The Biden campaign has long argued abortion rights will be front and center in the 2024 campaign.

In recent years, the issue has been an influential factor in campaigns for elective office up and down the ballot. The GOP’s failure to meet expectations in the 2022 midterm elections, when Democrats retained control of the US Senate and only narrowly lost the House of Representatives, raised the prospect that the high court’s decision could alter the political landscape for years to come.

Read more on Biden and Harris’ efforts here.

Former President Donald Trump speaks to supporters during a campaign rally in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on Wednesday.

Ahead of the 2024 presidential election, former President Donald Trump is returning to his birther playbook:

Here’s how…

Attacking with conspiracy theories and nicknames: The former president is back to attacking his political rivals with insults, conspiracy theories and nicknames to make them seem different from the White voters who primarily make up the GOP base. He did it over the course of years and on repeat to former President Barack Obama, with lies about Obama’s birth and frequent use of Obama’s middle name, Hussein. Trump has also baselessly questioned whether Vice President Kamala Harris, whose parents are immigrants, was eligible. Again with the 14th Amendment: Trump is pushing the ridiculous theory on his social media platform that Haley should be disqualified from running even though she was born in the US and thus definitively a natural born citizen qualified for the office under the 14th Amendment. Appealing to independent voters:  Trump criticized Haley’s record in his Cabinet and at the United Nations and complained that she is trying to encourage independents to take part in the process and support her in the GOP primary next week. “If you want a nominee who was endorsed by all the RINOs, globalists and demented never-Trumpers,” he said, choose Haley. “RINO” is short for Republican in Name Only and has essentially become shorthand, in Trump’s parlance, for any Republican who questions him.

Read Wolf’s full analysis on Trump returning to a familiar playbook.

Former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on Wednesday.

Donald Trump is unveiling a two-pronged strategy to claim a second big election victory in New Hampshire’s primary next week that he hopes will quickly end the GOP nominating race.

Using his legal strategy as a political gambit. Trump’s decision to attend the Carroll case in person illustrates how he’s seeking to create a narrative of political persecution as he rallies Republicans to drown out his GOP rivals and to shape his potential general election clash with President Joe Biden. His behavior in court highlighted his enduring contempt for the legal system. Injecting a racial element into political attacks. After leaving the courthouse, he returned to the state where 24 hours earlier he had referred to Haley by her birth name, which reflects her South Asian heritage. The former president has also referred to Haley, who’s trying to become the first female GOP presidential nominee, as “birdbrain.”

Read more about Collinson’s analysis of Trump’s strategy to win in the Granite State.

Left to right: Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley.

The Republican presidential candidates are all vying to take on President Joe Biden in November 2024. Here’s what to know about them:

Supporters of Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump wait in line to enter a campaign event in Atkinson, New Hampshire, during a winter snowstorm on Tuesday.

The Republican presidential candidates are all vying to take on President Joe Biden in November 2024. But first, they’re competing in the GOP primaries and caucuses, which begin in January, to emerge as the party’s nominee.

The first event of the Republican primary calendar —the Iowa caucuses — took place Monday. Next up, is the New Hampshire primary.

Here’s a look at the key upcoming primary dates:

January:

February:

March:

Access the full 2024 election calendar.

Winning individual primaries and caucuses is just one step in the long path to winning a party’s presidential nomination.

How does the Republican Party pick a presidential candidate, in a nutshell? Both parties hold conventions in the summer where delegates technically select the nominee. The process and rules are different for each party, but the primaries are about winning enough delegates to secure the nomination. There are different kinds of nominating contests and different kinds of delegates in a calendar that stretches from January to June, so keeping track of the delegate math can get complicated.

What is a delegate? Performing well in primaries and caucuses equals delegates, and the larger goal is amassing the magic number of delegates to secure a nomination before delegate voting at the party convention.

How many delegates are there? Whoever wins the GOP nomination needs to win at least 1,215 out of 2,429 delegates awarded as part of the primary process. In years without an incumbent, like Republicans are experiencing in 2024, the winner frequently does not hit the magic number until May or even June. In 2016, in his first of three White House runs, Donald Trump hit the magic number on May 26.

But if Trump’s lead in polls holds up during early primaries, he could wrap things up much earlier.

Keep reading here about how Republicans select their nominee.