As Haley celebrates 2nd place in New Hampshire primary and vows to keep running, Trump lashes out
Donald Trump is projected to have notched his second straight win in the Republican presidential nominating race by defeating his last remaining major rival, Nikki Haley, in New Hampshire's primary on Tuesday night.
But while the former president was on track for a double-digit win over Haley as of late Tuesday, with votes still being counted, he quickly lashed out at his former U.N. ambassador, who said in her own remarks that "our fight is not over" as she looked ahead to the next major primary in "my sweet state of South Carolina."
Trump, speaking shortly after Haley at his own event, mocked her attitude.
"Who the hell was the imposter that went up on the stage before and, like, claimed a victory?" he said in a drastically different tone after his commanding victory in the Iowa caucuses last week, when he praised his opponents.
He suggested he was angered at the way Haley had handled the results, then added, "I don't get too angry, I get even."
The dueling remarks suggest where the primary race is headed next, with Haley, calling herself "scrappy" and a "fighter," insisting that her ability to lose by less to Trump in New Hampshire shows she can eventually manage to crack open his base of support by continuing to challenge him, first in South Carolina and then on Super Tuesday in March -- and beyond.
"This race is far from over," she contended on Tuesday night. "There are dozens of states left to go."
Trump, who retains a commanding lead in the polls and an increasing number of major Republican endorsements, didn't see it that way.
"She failed badly," he said in his own speech.
Indeed, New Hampshire had been seen by political experts as Haley's best battleground against Trump and she entered primary day with several advantages, including a key endorsement from the state's popular Gov. Chris Sununu, an open-primary format that allowed more favorable independent-leaning voters to cast ballots for her and an electorate that is more college educated.
The race had also finally narrowed down to just two major candidates -- Haley and Trump -- after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' departure from the race on Sunday.
Some polls leading up to the primary showed Haley within single digits of Trump, but his lead widened as the day got closer and closer and Haley's allies stopped predicting a "landslide" and instead began to argue that a strong second place would give her momentum.
As Haley's profile has risen as the main Trump alternative, he and his allies have targeted her more and more, including mispronouncing her name and falsely claiming she's not eligible to be president because her parents are immigrants. She has gotten more critical of him, too, including suggesting he's mentally unfit to be in the White House.
Two other former primary candidates, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, stood behind Trump on stage on Tuesday as he spoke after the polls closed, along with Trump's family members and more allies such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.
Trump invited both Ramaswamy and Scott to speak after the results as well as former acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Tom Homan.
Scott urged fellow conservatives to support Trump, indicating that the party must turn its focus toward November's general election.
"It's time for the Republican Party to coalesce around our nominee and the next president of the United States, Donald Trump," he said.
Ramaswamy said, "The general election begins tonight."
Trump's list of endorsements includes more than half of the GOP's Senate delegation and many Republicans in the House and grew longer this week, with Texas Sen. John Cornyn announcing in a statement on X on Tuesday that he had "seen enough."
As she did in Iowa, Haley at her New Hampshire headquarters projected confidence after news of Trump's expected win, and she thanked Gov. Sununu for his endorsement.
To a rowdy and excited crowd -- some of whom interrupted her remarks to call out in agreement or to slam Trump -- Haley made light of the expectations surrounding her in New Hampshire and reiterated her vow to remain in the race.
"Now, you've all heard the chatter among the political class. They're falling all over themselves saying this race is over," she said. "Well, I have news for all of them. New Hampshire is first in the nation. It is not the last in the nation."
Haley congratulated Trump and again tried to draw parallels between him and President Joe Biden.
"Most Americans do not want a rematch between Biden and Trump. The first party to retire its 80-year-old candidate is going to be the party that wins this election," Haley said. "And I think it should be the Republicans that win this election."
The South Carolinian again called out Trump's recent Jan. 6-related gaffe, when he appeared to confuse her for former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. And she challenged him to debate her, which he has declined so far to do given his lead in the polls.
Trump leads in South Carolina as well, with 538's average currently showing him ahead of Haley by more than 30 points with voting a month away. Haley said Tuesday that she was confident her former constituents would remember her positive impact due to her record as governor.
Speaking with ABC News Live anchor Linsey Davis earlier in the night, a Haley campaign spokeswoman acknowledged the challenges Haley has faced but maintained that, despite two defeats so far, there was still time.
"No one said that this was going to be easy. Donald Trump is Donald Trump," Olivia Perez-Cubas said.
"A month in politics is a lifetime. A lot can happen," she said.
Meanwhile, in the Democratic race for the primary, President Joe Biden was projected as the winner.
His win came after a successful write-in campaign to fend off two opponents, though he will receive zero delegates in New Hampshire as a result of a scheduling fight between state officials and national Democrats that also led Biden to decline to officially appear as a candidate.
Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips, who is running against Biden in the primary along with author and speaker Marianne Williamson, sought to claim a kind of victory after garnering about 20% of the vote as of late Tuesday, with many ballots still being counted. Biden's write-ins, by contrast, put him at about 67%.
"I want to say congratulations to President Biden, who absolutely won tonight but by no means in a way that a strong incumbent president should," Phillips argued.
"The fact that an unknown congressman from Minnesota two weeks before the election said, 'I'm going to come out here and run for president' just got 21%, that says something," he said.
The Biden campaign put out a statement before night's end showing where his focus is -- not on Phillips or Williamson but on Trump.
"I want to thank all those who wrote my name in this evening in New Hampshire," he said. "It was a historic demonstration of commitment to our democratic process. And I want to say to all those Independents and Republicans who share our commitment to core values of our nation -- our Democracy, our personal freedoms, an economy that gives everyone a fair shot -- to join us as Americans."
Democrats will hold their next primary, in South Carolina, on Feb. 3, in what is expected to be a show of enthusiasm for President Biden.
The next head-to-head contest for Haley and Trump won't be until Feb. 24, when both candidates are back on the same ballot in South Carolina.
While Trump is an option for Nevada's party-run Feb. 8 caucuses, Haley is separately an option for Nevada's state-run primary on Feb. 6, though no delegates will be awarded in that race -- Republicans are instead awarding them only through the caucuses.
