Stop Trying To Make Nikki Haley/Tim Scott 2024 Happen. It’s Never Gonna Happen.

Politico keeping the 'normal Republican' dream alive.

Do you think Republicans Nikki Haley and Sen. Tim Scott watch the news or otherwise keep up on current events? It doesn’t seem likely when you read articles like this one from Tara Palmieri at Puck. It asks, "Can Tim Scott & Nikki Haley Roam the Same Earth?” That’s not a stumper. Sure, why not? Nothing’s stopping them. However, apparently, Scott and Haley labor under the misconception that they have political futures that extend beyond whatever it is they’re currently doing.

Palmieri begins with a brief description of Haley’s “hard choices.” For instance, she ditched her mentor Jeb Bush during the 2016 South Carolina Republican primary when he could’ve used her help as the sitting governor. Instead, she endorsed empty suit puppet Marco Rubio because she figured he was the party’s future. She was wrong, and he finished a distant second behind eventual nominee and destroyer of worlds Donald Trump.

In the end, of course, none of it meant anything. Like most others in the party, Haley eventually sidled up to Trump, who made her U.N. ambassador, and whom she harshly criticized after Jan. 6 (before semi-reversing herself, again and again ).

Yes, Haley has no core beliefs other than she’d like to become president, which has as much chance of happening as the expression “that’s so fetch.” 

PREVIOUSLY:

 Nikki Haley Wishes Mike Pence Would Stop Picking On Innocent Attempted-Mike Pence-Murderer Donald Trump   

 Tim Scott Has No Time For Black Women Testifying Trump Sent Lynch Mob After Them 

Palmieri claims that Haley is eying "a putative presidential run of her own in 2024.” That’s absurd because Trump is obviously running, and Haley has never stood up to him for longer than half a second. She couldn’t even defend Mike Pence’s right to say he should not have been murdered on January 6. No, the more likely anti-Trump candidate (not nominee, obviously) in 2024 is an avowed pro-democracy Republican like Liz Cheney, who never tried to have it both ways. Even faux-moderates like Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan or Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker at least don’t have Trump’s foot prints permanently embedded in their backs.

Laughably, Palmieri suggests that Haley's biggest obstacle to the White House is — wait for it, are you sitting down? — fellow South Carolinian Tim Scott.

Seriously.

It’s possible that Haley foresaw the future potential collision course back in 2012, as Tim Alberta wrote in his Politico masterpiece . Anyway, here it is.

Now 10 years later, as Haley builds her national political operation, she will not only have to differentiate herself from the other non-Trump candidates but also the man whose career she catapulted, whom she calls a friend, and who is a stylistic and ideological semi-clone with overlapping demographic appeal in a G.O.P. eager to win back minorities. Is there room for both in the Republican primary?

OK, a few things, that post-January 6 Haley cleanup job Albert wrote is more masturbatory than masterpiece. Neither Haley nor Scott have any real demographic appeal, overlapping or otherwise, in today’s overtly fascist Republican Party. And Republicans are hardly “ eager to win back minorities,” no matter how often an enabling media repeats this shameless PR. The party’s gone openly white Christian nationalist, and sure, Republicans love nothing better than people of color promoting their bigoted garbage. However, much to our regret, there’s an increasing number of POC Republicans out there who sound more like Marjorie Taylor Greene than Nikki Haley or Tim Scott. Relevant examples include North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson and Rep. Mayra Flores from Texas, a QAnon conspiracy theorist. It’s no longer enough to just provide cover for outright racist Republicans.

Last week, former House Speaker Paul Ryan gave his top three non-Trump picks for the 2024 Republican nominee — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, and Scott. Alas, poor Haley didn’t make the cut. Scott was an obvious “respectability” pick meant to promote the fiction that Republicans aren’t a pack of racists. Scott doesn’t represent a swing state and he’s more reliable henchman than actual diabolical mastermind.

Nonetheless, according to Palmieri, both Haley and Scott’s teams are proceeding as if they have a real shot at the Republican nomination. It’s sad and pathetic but worth a few derisive laughs.

[ Puck ]

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