Takeaways from CNN’s New Hampshire town hall with Nikki Haley

CNN —

Nikki Haley’s goal in New Hampshire’s Republican presidential primary Tuesday is to “be strong,” she said at a CNN town hall Thursday night.

But the onetime South Carolina governor stopped short of saying she needs to defeat former President Donald Trump in the Granite State primary.

“What I want to do is be strong. We won’t know what strong looks like until those numbers come in,” she said at New England College in Henniker, New Hampshire.

Haley said her “personal goal is to do better than we did in Iowa,” where she finished in third place, 32 points behind Trump and 2 points behind Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, in the state’s caucuses on Monday.

Polls, however, show she is much closer to Trump in New Hampshire, where she is expected to benefit from a more moderate Republican primary electorate — with undeclared voters also able to participate in Tuesday’s contest.

Here are five takeaways from the CNN town hall, which was moderated by Jake Tapper:

Haley affirms her view that America has ‘never been a racist country’

Earlier this week, Haley was asked in a Fox News interview if she believes the Republican Party was racist, after an MSNBC host wondered whether Haley could win the GOP nomination as a woman of color. Haley answered the question more broadly, responding that America has “never been a racist country.”

During Thursday’s town hall, the former governor was asked if she stood by that answer, given the country’s history of legal racism, including slavery. Haley doubled down, saying that America was founded on the idea that all men are created equal.

Nikki Haley speaks during a caucus night watch party in West Des Moines, Iowa on January 15, 2024.

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