Democrats trolled former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley's presidential announcement on Wednesday with a mobile billboard using her own words against her.
South Carolina Democrats drove a billboard truck Wednesday morning playing a clip that featured a redux of Haley lavishing praise on former President Donald Trump outside of her 2024 campaign launch event in Charleston, South Carolina.
NIKKI HALEY TESTS WHETHER GOP WANTS 'NEW GENERATION' OF LEADERSHIP IN EARLY ANNOUNCEMENT
"The South Carolina Democratic Party will be there to greet her with her own words. Haley, who claimed to have a 'great working relationship' with Donald Trump, spent over a year working for and praising the former president, and her governorship in South Carolina was a model for the MAGA agenda to come," the party said in a statement.
Here’s that video-billboard truck driving along King Street in downtown Charleston just over an hour before Haley’s event is set to begin, along with an apparent fan of her former boss and now rival for the GOP nomination, former President Donald Trump ⬇️ https://t.co/9jO25qVQLW pic.twitter.com/hEj06JjzAr
— Mary Green (@MaryGreenNews) February 15, 2023
Haley became Trump's first major Republican primary rival on Tuesday when she announced her candidacy via video, but Democrats were eager to highlight Haley's past favorable remarks on Trump and sought to caricature her as a MAGA sycophant.
Throughout the video, Haley was seen defending Trump, insisting that he "would never knowingly lie," "was great to work with," and that she "considered him a friend."
Trump has been uncharacteristically mute about Haley's debut, departing from his penchant for unleashing his rhetorical wrath on his rivals. Haley has similarly been mum about Trump, eschewing any mention of him in her campaign video.
Prior to her announcement, Trump needled her old clip posted on his Truth Social platform, highlighting past remarks in which Haley committed to backing him in 2024. "Nikki has to follow her heart, not her honor. She should definitely run," Trump said in the post.
Haley began her campaign calling for "a new generation" of leadership, but Democrats sniped that she was more of the same.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison, a fellow South Carolinian, panned Haley's announcement, alleging that she "embraced the most extreme elements of the MAGA agenda" and "couldn’t even identify a single policy difference between herself and Trump."
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Early polling indicates that Haley is trailing behind her competition, clinching a distant fourth place in the latest Race to the WH polling aggregate. Trump is leading the pack, followed by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) and former Vice President Mike Pence.
Following her announcement, Haley is set to stump in New Hampshire and Iowa in a series of town hall-style campaign events to kick-start her campaign.