Haley Blames Media for Making ‘Race About Trump,’ Vows To Fight On

But if the general electorate is desperate for another option why hasn’t Haley broken through in the primary? “If I'm going to be candid,” she replied to RealClearPolitics, “the reason it hasn't resonated is because all of you have made this race about Trump. You haven’t made it about a primary, you haven't made it about the direction of the country.”

“You've just made it about Trump,” she told a small group of invited reporters in an hour-long conversation. “And I'm not anti-Trump.”

Haley was in Washington the Friday ahead of Super Tuesday after a stop the night before in Virginia,  crisscrossing the country in a last-ditch attempt to deny Trump a third Republican nomination. The task is daunting. Trump has swept each of the early primary contests. Trump leads Haley in the RealClearPolitics Average by 64.2 points.

And yet Haley seemed unwilling to accept the mantle of an anti-Trump movement that consistently failed Republicans. “Look, if I was doing that, I would be Chris Christie,” she said referencing the New Jersey Republican who dropped out of the race earlier this year. “Christie was anti-Trump. I'm pro-American.”

This vision has not yet been enough to close the gap with Trump. Her fusionism of the disparate disaffected pockets of Republican voters has, however, won over a sizeable minority of the party, leading Haley to vow that “we're gonna keep going as long as we can be competitive.” And while she did not give a date certain, she did offer new data to support her argument that the country wants an alternative: a fundraising haul of $12 million in February from over 300,000 donors.

An accountant before politics, Haley said that 95% of donations “are $200 or less,” and she told the room full of skeptical reporters eager to write her obituary that when she walks into a fundraiser, “they don’t ask me, ‘what’s your strategy.’ They don’t ask ‘what’s your plan.’ All they say is ‘thank you for giving me hope.’”

Her White House hopes now hinge on “expanding the tent,” and Haley stressed that to actually win in November the Republican party needs to break its habit of only talking “to people that look and act like them.” She detailed instead “the new life that Republicans want,” one where the GOP includes more Americans, minorities, and suburban women in particular, who might not be on board with traditional party orthodoxy.

This sounded suspiciously like the prescription included in the autopsy Republicans conducted after their 2012 loss, a script that a populist named Trump tore to pieces four years later on his way to victory. When a reporter asked why she believed she could win with that playbook a decade later, Haley replied, “Because they didn’t do it. Nothing happened after that. I’m actually doing it.” Then she talked about crowd size.

“Look at the rallies, these people are actually coming in. It didn't happen with Mitt,” Haley said of Utah Sen. Mitt Romney who failed to defeat former President Obama. “It didn't happen after Mitt. It’s happening with us.”

“We're growing our tent; I desperately want that,” she explained of her campaign for a new Republican party and a new direction for the country, noting that the young and old voters and people of “every race” turn out to support her vision. “We'll have gay people, we will have trans people, we have every different kind of person because it's not about a label, it’s about wanting to feel part of something.”

Haley has no interest, however, in taking that movement with her if it means abandoning the GOP. She reported seeing the “smoke signals” from No Labels, an organization pushing for a third-party candidate in November, but said she has not spoken to “anybody” about joining that effort because that would require compromising her conservative principles.

“I’m a Republican,” Haley said in her most comprehensive remarks yet on the possibility of a third-party bid. “If I were to do No Labels, that would require a Democrat vice president. I can't do what I want to do as president with a Democrat vice president,” she continued, citing the need for fiscal discipline, changes to education, and welfare reform.

“I've always believed if you do something, do it right or don't do it. And so, I don't think I could do it,” Haley explained. “If I ran for No Labels, that would mean it's about me. It's not about me, it's about the direction I think the country should go.”

Haley has been desperate to talk about that vision. Bipartisan in her criticism, she chastised Biden for “calling his opponents ‘fascists’” and Trump for calling his opponents “vermin,” attacking both men for focusing on petty politics rather than policy and the direction of the country. Despite her desire to talk about issues, the reporters present Friday peppered Haley about the horse race instead, specifically if, and when, she would drop out. A cheerful but matter of fact Haley replied, “If you're in a race, the last thing you think about is not being in the race.”

While the former ambassador to the United Nations wants to discuss foreign and domestic issues, she isn’t blind to the reason why so many Republicans remain so loyal to her old boss.

“It's basically he fought for them,” she said offering her interpretation for his strong support. “They want to fight for him, even though they know he may not win.” And while Haley credited Trump for once bringing voters into the party who had felt unseen, she cautioned that more blind loyalty would lead to defeat: “And that's the part that worries me because if Republicans don't win, then we're headed towards a President Kamala Harris.”