Defiant Haley mars Trump’s primary win
A Biden-Trump rematch in the US November elections looms
Former United States president Donald Trump won the key New Hampshire primary on Tuesday to virtually clinch the Republican presidential nomination and set up a rematch with President Joe Biden in the November election.
Trump’s remaining rival, former United Nations ambassador and ex-South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, however, refused to concede and vowed to seek the nomination in the next polls, the Nevada caucuses and South Carolina primary.
As of this writing, Washington Post, citing tallies of Associated Press, reports that Trump has 163,355 votes or 54.6 percent against Haley’s 129,087 votes or 43.15 percent with 91 percent of total votes reported.
Trump, 77, ranted against his defiant rival calling her an “imposter” for claiming victory but doing “very poorly,” according to CNN.
History is against the side of Haley as Republican candidates who won the Iowa caucuses and NH primary went on to win the party nomination.
“New Hampshire is first in the nation. It is not the last in the nation. This race is far from over. There are dozens of states left to go,” Haley told supporters in her election night speech Tuesday in New Hampshire, CNN reports.
She added that Democrats actually want to run against her former boss, due to his record of sowing “chaos.”
“They know Trump is the only Republican in the country who Joe Biden can defeat,” Haley, 52, said.
Biden wins as write-in bet
Biden, meanwhile, won an unofficial Democratic primary in New Hampshire, giving him a symbolic boost.
AP reports that Biden got 54,067 votes or 51.2 percent as a write-in candidate, against 20,814 of 19.7 percent for Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips.
The president marked Tuesday by campaigning alongside Vice President Kamala Harris in Virginia at a rally for abortion rights.
“It is now clear that Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee. And my message to the country is the stakes could not be higher. Our Democracy. Our personal freedoms — from the right to choose to the right to vote,” Biden said in a statement.
Demonstrators shouting “Genocide Joe has got to go” interrupted the Democrat at least 10 times during the rally in Manassas, his first campaign event of 2024.
One male activist unfurled a Palestinian flag and a female protester held up a banner reading “ceasefire” before they were escorted out of the rally.
Despite the protests, Biden launched his most full-frontal attack on Trump so far over reproductive freedoms.
“Donald Trump and the Republican speaker of the house are hell-bent on going even further,” he said, accusing Republicans of wanting to bring in a full ban on abortion across the US.