Nikki Haley is accused of running a 'basement campaign' and answers questions

Nikki Haley, who is battling attacks from Donald J. Trump that she is too liberal and accusations from Ron DeSantis that she has hidden from voters and reporters, hit back Thursday, answering questions and defending her conservative credentials.

“This is the problem with the Republican Party now — they want to push out anyone who doesn't fit their narrative,” she told reporters in Hollis, N.H., when asked about reports from her opponents that painted her as in the pocket of Democrats donors. “I've said it time and time again to the Republican Party: We've lost the last seven of the eight popular votes for president because you keep pushing people away.”

Asked about Mr. Trump's plans to argue that nominating her for the White House would cost Republicans the bottom of the ballot, Ms. Haley told reporters that “Americans are not stupid.”

“The reality is: who lost the House for us? Who lost the Senate? Who Lost the White House? Donald Trump. Donald Trump. Donald Trump,” she said.

The back-and-forth appeared to be a dry run for her town hall on CNN Thursday night, days before the New Hampshire primary next week. It was also a rare moment for Ms. Haley on the road.

Ms. Haley, 51, a former governor of South Carolina and United Nations ambassador under Trump, has run a tightly controlled campaign. Although she has organized hundreds of events in the early voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, she has held about a half-dozen press conferences since August, including “gaggles,” where reporters on her trail are able to ask questions .

In recent weeks, she had stopped taking voters' questions at her events in Iowa and New Hampshire, frustrating some attendees, especially in New Hampshire, where voters tend to listen to candidates and make their voting decisions until the end. to weigh.

Mr. DeSantis, her main rival for second place, has seized on that sense of alienation by referring to her as a “bubble-packed candidate” in a recent email to his campaign.

“Try as she may, you can't try to hide your way to this nomination – and Nikki Haley continues to be exposed for pandering to the left on every issue important to conservatives,” said the email, sent by Andrew Romeo , the campaign's communications director.

On a conservative radio program, “The Hugh Hewitt Show,” Mr. DeSantis on Thursday morning criticized Ms. Haley for refusing to debate after announcing this week that she would no longer participate in primary debates that did not include Mr. Trump. . With a wide lead in most polls, the former president has skipped every primary debate so far.

“I'm the only one not running a basement campaign right now,” he argued on the show. “Biden is running a basement campaign. Trump won't debate, won't answer voters' questions. And now Haley will not debate or answer voters' questions.”

In recent events in New Hampshire, some voters have expressed concern that her refusal to engage with the public could hurt her chances there. Some wondered whether the decision came after the wave of negative press Ms. Haley received in December when a voter asked her to explain the causes of the Civil War and she failed to mention slavery.

Nelia Tefft, an unaffiliated voter from Center Conway, N.H., who drove two hours through a snowstorm to attend her Monday rally in Bretton Woods, said she was surprised that Ms. Haley did not answer questions as she had at her previous events , before she got up. in the polls.

“Back then she was always there taking pictures with people,” she said of Ms. Haley. “I was a little disappointed. I like to see her in action, giving direct answers, and she does that well most of the time, except during the Civil War, I think.”

Ms. Haley's schedule had been light until Thursday, with only one public event per day. Her plans for the tree stump in New Hampshire made a small detour Tuesday evening as she flew back to South Carolina after her father, Ajit Singh Randhawa, who has cancer, was hospitalized, a campaign spokeswoman confirmed. His condition was reported to be stable.

For the most part, the small and isolated nature of Ms. Haley's campaign has helped build a reputation as a disciplined operation. Her top advisers tend to avoid journalists, and her campaign officials and allies say that — unlike her opponents' campaigns — Ms. Haley's has not suffered from leaks.

But in Rochester, N.H., New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, who endorsed her, tried to limit the damage Wednesday evening. He claimed that her decision to drop the questions would not hurt her with voters in his state and that she had done so because she wanted to spend more time “taking selfies” and shaking hands one-on-one, he said.

“People come up to her all the time and ask her questions,” he said.

In Hollis, N.H., Ms. Haley answered three questions from the audience of more than 200 people Thursday morning, allowing her to respond to some of Mr. Trump's frequent attacks on her. .

Responding to Trump's attacks on her record, she again warned voters that he was the reason Republicans “lost the midterm elections.”

“Within five days we will shock the country,” she said.

Afterwards, she told reporters that she was not concerned about Mr. DeSantis overtaking her in her home state of South Carolina, since he had moved much of his staff there. “We are focused on Trump,” she said.

But when asked whether Trump is still qualified to be president if convicted, she is evasive. “It's more than that: Do you think the American people are going to vote for someone who has been convicted?” she asked, saying they were more concerned about the economy, education and the state of the world. “I'm going to beat him so we never have to deal with, 'Are we going to elect a convicted felon?'”