Come On, Folks, Give Nikki Haley a Break

Trump attacked Haley hours before he took the stage in Florida, accusing her of being weak on immigration during a phone interview with MSNBC Wednesday. “She liked me better when I was a giver of contributions than she does when I’m not”, Trump said, adding that he is leading in Haley’s state of SC.

“It’s the first time in my life I can remember the response to the State of the Union not going after the President, but rather going off on the front-runner of, in this case, her own party”, Rush Limbaugh said. “But I thought that she did a nice job, I think at least, of reflecting what many of us here are talking about this week”, he said.

DONALD TRUMP: By the way, I have a massive lead in SC. Our country is being run by incompetent people.

Haley said Wednesday that tone and language matters in the election, especially with Trump, whom she called a friend.

While listing her policy differences with Republican presidential candidates, Haley noted that “Marco Rubio supports amnesty, which I don’t”.

“The one that got me is when he said, ‘Ban all Muslims”, she said.

“Let’s not start that now”, continued the woman who presides over a state that made it illegal for “any white man to intermarry with any woman of either the Indian or negro races” until 1967.

While the Republican National Committee and many 2016 presidential contenders praised Haley’s response, some conservatives were critical of her apparent references to Trump.

Her critique of BHO’s speech “expanded the theme of who is and who is not qualified to be a Republican, and the Republican Party is now anti-conservative”.

Haley said that Republicans share the blame with Democrats for the nation’s distrust of Washington and need to “recognize our contributions to the erosion of the public trust in America’s leadership”.

And while Utah Republican chair James Evans agreed with Haley on toning down the rhetoric, he told ABC News that the issue is broader than one candidate. But Carly Fiorina said the speech hit the “wrong note”, and Trump himself pretty much would have fired Haley if possible. Following the shooting, Haley promptly pushed for removing the Confederate flag from the SC state house grounds.

Trump and his supporters, along with some of the far-right, were critical of Haley’s address.

“During anxious times, it can be tempting to follow the siren call of the angriest voices”, Haley said. Establishment Republicans have long argued their party needs to pitch a bigger tent if it hopes to recapture the White House in November.

Haley did not mention the GOP presidential race. “And that is what she should be judged on”, Rep. Cathy McMorris-Rodgers, chairwoman of the House Republican Conference, said.

“That is a pro-growth agenda for the American people, one that reaches out and tries to attract more people for our cause”, Thune said.