Washington Wednesday: Another presidential bid

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Wednesday the 15th of February, 2022. Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Myrna Brown.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. It’s Washington Wednesday and now there are two.

Former President Trump announced another presidential bid shortly after the midterm elections. But that has not scared away other White House hopefuls. And as of this week, Trump officially has his first challenger for the GOP nomination.

A former governor — and a former member of the Trump administration — made it official in a video announcement on Tuesday.

HALEY: China and Russia are on the march. They all think we can be bullied, kicked around. You should know this about me: I don’t put up with bullies. And when you kick back, it hurts them more if you’re wearing heels. I’m Nikki Haley, and I’m running for president.

The 51-year-old wife and mother of two was born Nimrata Nikki Randhawa. Her father taught at a university in Punjab, India and her mother earned a law degree from the University of Delhi.

That was before they emigrated to Canada and later to a small town in South Carolina where Haley was born.

She told CBS:

HALEY: I think you grew up in a small town. And you know, your father wears a turban, your mother wears a sari, we look different. Everybody treated us different. When it came to taking standardized tests, there was black, white, and other we were always in other. So there were a lot of reasons that we looked and felt different. But it was in that small town that I'm very grateful because my parents reminded us that it's not about how you're different. It's about how you’re similar.

BROWN: The Clemson University alumna entered politics in 2004 with a successful campaign for the state legislature, then ran what many considered to be a long shot for governor in 2010.

AUDIO: [Celebration]

But months later, she celebrated victory in that race as well.

AUDIO: [Nikki! Nikki! Nikki!]

EICHER: Her critics on the left say she was too conservative as governor, particularly on abortion and first amendment rights. Her detractors on the right say she failed to rein in state spending, which rose sharply on her watch.

But she had plenty of support where it counted at the ballot box. In 2014, she cruised to reelection, beating her Democratic challenger by 14 points.

A few years later, she would accept President Trump’s nomination as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations where she got a taste of global politics. Here she is in 2018 announcing a U.S. withdrawal from the UN Human Rights Council.

HALEY: For too long, the Human Rights Council has been a protector of human rights abusers and a cesspool of political bias. Regrettably, it’s now clear that our call for reform was not heeded. Human rights abusers continue to serve on and be elected to the council.

BROWN: After serving in the Trump administration, Haley initially said she would stand down and support Trump if he once again threw his hat in the ring.

But things have changed:

HALEY: Republicans have lost the popular vote in seven of the last eight presidential elections. That has to change. It’s time for a new generation of leadership.

EICHER: After her video announcement on Tuesday, Haley will deliver remarks at a campaign launch event in Charleston today.

BROWN: Well, joining us now to talk about it is our own Kent Covington.

And Kent, before there was a Washington Wednesday, we used to call it White House Wednesday. And we’d pull you in to talk about candidates as they announced their campaigns. And that sounded like a good idea again today.

KENT COVINGTON: Happy to do it!

BROWN: What did Haley’s tenure as governor of South Carolina tell us about her?

COVINGTON: Well, first of all, I think we learned that she was a solidly conservative executive. We did mention a moment ago. One criticism is that general fund spending rose significantly on her watch. According to that analysis from the Cato Institute, it rose 38% from 2011 to 2016. But saying she had mixed or limited success in reining in spending is not the same thing as saying she is a big spending big government Republican. I don’t think her opponents will try to make that case. And I think it would be a difficult case to make.

I think she was a generally fiscally conservative governor. She did push for tax cuts. And then on other issues, again, things, like life, the expansion of carry rights, etc. She was also solidly conservative.

We also learned, I think, that she is a good retail politician. She’s a good communicator. She is poised. She thinks well on her feet. She presents well.

BROWN: How does her service as ambassador to the UN help her candidacy?

COVINGTON: It definitely helps. Between her time as governor, and then, her time as ambassador, it gives her an impressive résumé to run on. That’s not to say that resumes win elections. They don’t. But it certainly helps.

If former Vice President, Mike Pence does not run, then she could wind up, being the only person on the stage, other than Donald Trump, with both executive and foreign policy experience. So she is a highly credible candidate. Certainly not easily dismissed, and we have a long way to go until the next presidential election. But foreign policy concerns could weigh heavier in this election than in a lot of other recent elections. Depending on where things stand with Russia, and Iran, and most, especially China.

In her announcement video, she made a point of saying that Russia and China think that they can push us around and said she will stand up to them. And as ambassador, she had a stage to do just that. There is plenty of video footage of Haley on the international stage taking authoritarian regimes to task. So that’s definitely something that her campaign will be able to put to good use.

BROWN: Why did Nikki Haley change her mind about not running against Trump?

COVINGTON: Well, I think this comes down to the perception of Trump’s strength as a nominee. There was a time not long ago when the almost universally held belief was that if Trump chose to run again, he would be the nominee. No one would be able to mount a serious challenge to him within the Republican Party.

That has changed. Democrats in the midterm elections really focused on running against Trump. They worked hard to tie Republicans to Trump. And as we know, it was a far less successful election for Republicans than expected. And a lot of key Trump-endorsed candidates, or candidates handpicked by Trump, like Herschel Walker, in Georgia, lost.

And one can debate whether Trump deserves any blame for the way the midterm elections went or not. I’m not here to debate that. But there is a perception on both sides of the aisle that Trump really took a lot of political damage in the midterms.

Most Democrats genuinely believe, rightly or wrongly, that Trump, as the Republican nominee, is their best chance to hold on to the White House. And that will be Haley’s argument. I’ve heard her make the point in recent interviews that she’s never lost an election. So she will push the electability argument and try to convince voters that she has the best chance of defeating President Biden or whoever the eventual Democratic nominee turns out to be.

BROWN: Interesting. So, how do you see the rest of this presidential field shaping up?

KENT: Well, the number one rival right now and all of the extremely early polling to Donald Trump… Is Florida governor Ron DeSantis as Trump’s political clout has diminished DeSantis star has taken off. And a lot of that is because the red wave that we were expecting last year did happen… It was just confined almost entirely to Florida.

But outside of Trump and DeSantis, and now, we could see something unprecedented here.

It is rare enough to see a former one-term president running for president again. That rarely happens. But his former UN ambassador is running against him. His former vice president could run against him. Mike Pence has strongly indicated that he is considering it. Trump's former Secretary of State might be running against him. Mike Pompeo has sent strong signals that he’s feeling out a possible run. And I have heard rumblings that former national security advisor John Bolton could also run.

So, if all that happens, we could have a former president running for president against four members of his own administration. And I can’t say this for certainty here, as I talk to you. I haven’t looked it up, but I would think that has to be unprecedented. So the months ahead will be very interesting to watch.

BROWN: Okay, Kent, thanks so much!

COVINGTON: You bet!

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