- Kevin McCallum ©️ Seven Days
- Nikki Haley
In South Burlington on Sunday, Republican presidential hopeful Nikki Haley pleaded with Vermonters to help her defeat Donald Trump in Tuesday's Republican primary, arguing that the nation needs to turn its back on a former president she called “unhinged.”
At a well-attended rally in advance of Super Tuesday primary voting, the former governor of South Carolina got a boost from Vermont Gov. Phil Scott. She managed to keep her cool as pro-Palestinian protesters repeatedly interrupted her speech.
“Something's got to give. We can't keep living in this chaos,” Haley said at the DoubleTree by Hilton hotel. “We won’t survive it.”
The event kicked off with Republican lawmakers welcoming Haley to the state, touting her credentials and temperament, and urging people to vote for her in Tuesday’s open primary. Rep. Ashley Bartley (R-Fairfax) said she felt that Republicans are only now regaining their voices after eight “looooong years” and urged them and others to make those voices heard.
“Vermont, let’s stand on the right side of history. Let’s make history,” she said. “Let’s reject chaos. Let’s reject hatred and embrace leadership and democracy in action.”
Scott, who has denounced Trump in increasingly stark terms over the years, again slammed the former president as primarily responsible for the toxic, polarizing state of national politics.
- Kevin McCallum ©️ Seven Days
- Gov. Phil Scott
“There is no one less equipped, no one more incapable of healing the huge divide that we have in this country, than Donald Trump,” he said.
Haley strode on stage to raucous applause and Joan Jett’s anthem “I Love Rock 'n' Roll.” She launched into a stump speech that blasted the federal government for putting the country “$34 trillion in debt.”
“We’re having to borrow money just to make our interest payments,” she said. She blamed much of that on unaccountable pandemic relief spending, $100 million of which she said she’d claw back from states before they could spend it.
Haley rattled off other bleak financial statistics, including 80 million people on Medicaid and 42 million on food stamps, to suggest that the nation needs someone who, as a governor and accountant for her family’s business, knows how to balance the books.
“Don’t you think it’s finally time we had an accountant in the White House?” she asked, to loud applause.
A young man near the edge of the room began screaming, “Blood is on your hands!” Police quickly muscled him out of the room. Several other protestors interrupted, shouting, “Free Palestine!”
Haley supporters tried to drown out protesters with chats of “Nikki! Nikki! Nikki!”
Several young people were escorted from the room, despite not having been disruptive. “We didn’t do anything!” a young woman exclaimed.
Haley segued from the disruption to state that her husband, a major in the South Carolina National Guard, is deployed overseas to protect the First Amendment rights that Americans enjoy.
“Anyone else?” she quipped after yet another protester's outburst.
- Kevin McCallum ©️ Seven Days
- Haley hung behind to autograph signs and be photographed with supporters.
Outside the venue, a few dozen people waved Palestinian flags and carried signs that read “No Genocide” and “Let Gaza Live.” Wafic Faour, a member of the group Vermonters for Justice in Palestine, noted that Haley has said Palestinians should leave Gaza to be resettled in “pro-Hamas countries.” Faour said that kind of remark shows she would do nothing to help end the war and the suffering that it has brought to Gaza.
“She is supportive of right-wing Israeli-Zionist mentality,” Faour said.
After Haley pointedly noted that Trump seems more willing to side with Russian President Vladimir Putin than with European allies who “stood with us after 9/11,” a supporter barked out “Dump the Trump!” to loud laughter.
Also helping keep the mood light were Gail Couillard and her Pomeranian support dog, Linden, who was wheeled around in a stroller with a Nikki Haley campaign sign on it. Couillard said she’s an independent Vermont voter and just wanted to hear Haley speak.
- Kevin McCallum ©️ Seven Days
- Gail Couillard and her dog, Linden
“I think her chances are probably not too good running against Trump, but that’s why I’m here — to wish her well,” Couillard said.
Haley has yet to score a win against Trump in any primary, losing to him in Iowa, New Hampshire, Michigan, Idaho, Nevada, Missouri, and, tellingly, her home state of South Carolina.
She made fun of President Joe Biden's mental fitness, saying she was in favor of a "mental capacity test" for leaders over 75 years old. She made similar quips about the age of U.S. lawmakers.
- Kevin McCallum ©️ Seven Days
- Haley mingling with attendees
"Congress has become the most privileged nursing home in the country," she said.
Some current and former Republican lawmakers were on hand for the speech, including former senator Joe Benning, Rep. Pattie McCoy (R-Poultney) and Rep. Jim Harrison (R-Chittenden). Several members of Scott’s administration attended as well, including Fish & Wildlife Department Commissioner Chris Herrick and Department of Finance and Management Commissioner Adam Greshin.
Paul Dame, chair of the Vermont GOP, attended. He has said he thinks the party needs a new direction post-Trump, but he declined to tell Seven Days whether Republicans should support Haley. His role is helping support Scott and whoever becomes the presidential nominee, he said.
The rally did bring out some faces he hadn’t seen in a while, Dame said. “Nikki coming to Vermont and staying in the race proves that there is still a place in the party for Republicans who haven't been fans of Trump,” he said.
Jim Dandeneau, executive director of the Vermont Democratic Party, cautioned Democrats and independents considering voting in the Republican primary. "Nikki Haley believes almost all of the same things as Trump — she’ll ban abortion, cut Medicare and Social Security, demonize LGBTQ folks. She just does it with complete sentences,” he told Seven Days.
- Kevin McCallum ©️ Seven Days
- Palestinian supporters outside the event
Former governor Jim Douglas told Seven Days that he’s supporting Haley in part because with her at the top of the ticket, Republican candidates for state offices are likely to do better than if Trump is the nominee.
With anti-Trump sentiment in the state high even among Republicans, Douglas said, he thinks Haley could win Vermont even without the help of Democrats and independents crossing over to vote for her. A win in Vermont could help her justify staying in the race a little longer, he said.
“She’s well funded. She can compete," he said. "And we don’t know what will happen to the front-runner in the coming months. The party may need an alternative.”