Gov. Haley’s SOTU Response: GOP Establishment Rejects Angry Conservatism

Gov. Nikki Haley’s (R-SC) decision to speak out against Donald Trump and other anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim forces in the Republican Party is certainly laudable – but her awareness of American history needs a little work. She offered a tacit rebuke of Donald Trump when she said, “During anxious times, it can be tempting to follow the siren call of the angriest voices”.

Although Haley didn’t call out Trump by name, she admitted in a later interview that he was among those to whom she referred.

“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. I’m very angry because our country is being run horribly and I will gladly accept the mantle of anger.

Coulter held firm. “The law is the law, and I don’t care how many people agree with me”, she said. “So what I would say to Mr. Trump is don’t take it personally”. But until then, Trump said he would remain “very, very angry”.

As a result, talk the morning after her address centered on Haley’s vice presidential ambitions. News storiesdisplayed here appear in our category for and are licensed via a specific agreement between LongIsland.comand The Associated Press, the world’s oldest and largest news organization. “I’m extremely angry and upset about it. I think it’s ridiculous”. She called them out for what they have done, just like Obama called out Democrats and Republicans. But the 43-year-old Haley echoed Obama’s sentiments about Trump’s campaign, which has drawn much of its support from his flamboyant anti-immigrant, anti-Washington rhetoric and pointed taunts at his Republican opponents, most of whom are current or former governors and senators.

McDonough, the White House chief of staff, didn’t specifically direct his praise at that portion of Haley’s speech, and he declined to predict what effect the address might have on the Republican presidential primary. Ted Cruz 33 percent to 22 percent, according to the average from Real Clear Politics, though no polls have been released in SC in almost a month. Most succinct was a tweet from the right’s bombastic blond bomb thrower, Ann Coulter, which said, “Trump should deport Nikki Haley”. Last weekend he helped convene an anti-poverty summit with some of the GOP presidential candidates – Trump was absent – where he pressed for “a safety net that is created to help get people out of poverty”.

The nation’s youngest governor at 43, Haley also seemed to try to smooth some of her party’s more combative edges.

“When I say it about my other friends that are running for president, they don’t throw stones”, Haley said.

“If a candidate wanted to sit down and talk, I would sit down and talk”, she said.

Proud of her Indian-American Heritage, the two-term Governor of SC said religion and race should not be the criteria when it comes to legal immigration.