Trump riled as Haley vows to stay in race
DONALD Trump pressured his closest rival for the Republican candidacy to drop out of the contest last night after beating her in New Hampshire, winning 54.5% of the vote.
The former US president seethed as he told Nikki Haley, a former UN ambassador, to stop the ‘bulls***’ after she won 43.2% of ballots cast.
Ms Haley got under the skin of Mr Trump with a rousing speech, telling her supporters: ‘This race is far from over.’
While the margin of her loss was half what was expected, Ms Haley is still losing to Mr Trump in the polls for every other state that will choose the Republican candidate to take on Joe Biden in November.
Even Mr Biden acknowledged it was ‘clear Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee’.
The New Hampshire primary was the second chance for Republicans to choose their candidate for the presidential election with him already having won Iowa in a ballot open only to Republicans in a deeply conservative state.
Yet in New Hampshire, independent voters had their say, meaning it was closer to the conditions of the general election.
Ms Haley had been predicted to lose to Mr Trump by 19 points, though in the end it was a margin of just 11 points.
Mr Trump appeared irate afterwards, saying: ‘Wow, she’s doing a speech like she won. She didn’t win. She lost. Let’s not have somebody take a victory when she had a very bad night. You can’t let people get away with bulls***.’
Yet Ms Haley insisted she was ‘going home to South Carolina’ where polls show her losing to Mr Trump by 30 points even though she is a former governor of the state.
‘I’m scrappy – and now we’re the last ones standing next to Trump,’ she said.
Democrats want Mr Trump to be the Republican nominee as he is seen as their greatest asset in motivating their voters.
Mr Biden’s approval ratings stand at just 33%, the lowest approval rating since that of former President George W Bush between 2006 to 2008.
Democrats held their primary in New Hampshire at the same time and Mr Biden won though he was not formally on the ballot.