Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, in Iowa Thursday, tried to brush off a comment she made about New Hampshire voters having to “correct” the Iowa caucus results.
“We have done 150-plus town halls, you got to have some fun, too,” she said during a town hall hosted by CNN in Iowa.
“So we’re at this town hall, we had 700 people in New Hampshire, we’re cuttin’ up, and yes, I said that,” Ms. Haley said. “But keep in mind, I’m from an early state. South Carolina always knew that Iowa’s going to be the first caucus, New Hampshire’s going to be the first [primary] in the nation and South Carolina wanted to be the first in the South. It was a pact.”
“We banter against each other,” she said.
The former South Carolina governor was responding to criticism she received for saying that New Hampshire needs to vote correctly after the Iowa caucus results every four years.
“We have an opportunity to get this right. And I know we’ll get it right, and I trust you. I trust every single one of you. You know how to do this. You know Iowa starts it. You know that you correct it,” she said at a New Hampshire campaign event Wednesday. “And then my sweet state of South Carolina brings it home. That’s what we do.”
The Iowa caucus is Jan. 15. The New Hampshire primary is Jan. 23.
“New Hampshire makes fun of Iowa. Iowa makes fun of South Carolina. It’s what we do,” she said, adding that she thinks politics is “too serious and too dramatic.”
The former U.N. ambassador said her comment about Iowa did not mean she wasn’t confident over her performance in the state, although polls show her behind former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
“I would not sit here and in the cold, ‘cause it’s cold here,” she said. “I have been coming here for months, going to every part of Iowa, shaking every hand, answering every question, being the last person to leave at every one of these town halls. You are going to see me fight until the very end on the last day in Iowa — and I’m not playing in one state. I’m fighting in every state because I think everybody’s worth fighting for.”
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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