NH primary voters root for Haley
Biden touts himself as the only one who could beat Trump.
United States President Joe Biden is touting himself as a Donald Trump beater as supporters of Republican presidential nomination seeker Nikki Haley are rejecting the former president ahead of the New Hampshire primary of the conservative party.
Agence France-Presse reports that Biden and his allies are also using the fear factor of a Trump comeback, painting a dark picture of dictator-like, retributionobsessed Trump in his speeches — and himself as the only man who can save America’s institutions.
Critics, especially among younger and more progressive Democrats, say Biden hasn’t given voters a compelling narrative about how he’d improve their lives in a second term.
The campaign has largely dropped mentions of his much-trumpeted “Bidenomics” policy while many voters are still struggling to make ends meet because of high prices caused by inflation.
Instead the Biden campaign’s strategy has been to hammer Trump — and it may be working.
Recent polls have shown Biden trailing in key battleground states, but a Quinnipiac University survey on 10 January showed Biden narrowly beating Trump in pivotal Pennsylvania by 49 percent to 46 percent.
In October Trump was ahead by 47 percent to 45.
More importantly the poll showed voters thought “preserving democracy” was the most important issue facing the nation, on 24 percent — ahead of border security on 23 percent and the economy on 15 percent.
Haley supporters
New Hampshire voters plotting ways to block the former US president from November’s ballot are lining up behind Haley as their best weapon against a second Trump term, and planning to cast their primary ballot for her on Tuesday.
Local Jan Dodge, 71 and registered as an Independent voter, came to the iconic Robbie’s general store on the banks of the Merrimack river Thursday to listen to Haley speak.
Trump, says Dodge, was “horrible for four years.”
“And he would be even more horrible” should he take back the White House, she adds.
She found Trump’s “lies” about the 2020 vote, which he lost to Biden and for which he is now facing a criminal indictment for election interference, offensive.
Haley remains a long way behind Trump after the Republican frontrunner’s landslide victory in the Iowa caucuses.
Frank Tuoti, 70, who was backing Haley on her own merits, says Haley is “a stabilizing force.”
“I think she’s a calming, stabilizing influence,” Tuoti adds.
Blanket immunity
Trump is running for a White House comeback in November while simultaneously fighting 91 criminal charges in four separate cases that include allegedly seeking to overturn his 2020 election loss and hoarding top secret documents at his golf resorts.
A federal appeals court in Washington is currently considering Trump’s claim to immunity against prosecution over his role in efforts to change the results of the 2020 election.
On Thursday, he said his claim of “total” presidential immunity against criminal prosecution should extend even if his actions “cross the line” and he urged the Supreme Court to rule in his favor.
Trump suggested that US presidents need immunity to be able to make hard decisions, and that this need outweighs the danger from presidents who break the rules.