The Media Research Center’s relatively limited defense of Nikki Haley during her presidential run actually started with complaints that non-right-wing media was too nice to her, relative to other Republican candidates. An Aug. 26 post by Mark Finkelstein noted that an MSNBC commentator called fellow candidate Vivek Ramaswamy “‘a charismatic charlatan,’ a smaller-scale Trump clone,” then groused that “the show showered praise on Nikki Haley”:
Of course, it was necessary for both [Katie] Phang and [Molly] Jong-Fast to preserve their liberal street cred by prefacing their praise by making clear that they disagree with Haley on the issues and wouldn’t vote for her. But that said, they did go on to praise what they saw as her being “sane,” and as they put it, for “occupying Earth One.” (And not an alternative universe.)
As might be expected on the liberal network, the issue on which Haley was singled out for particular praise was that of abortion. During the debate, Haley told Pence that the candidates need to be honest with voters, and that there is no realistic way in which a national abortion ban could be passed since it lacks the necessary support in the Senate.
[…]Phang accused both Ramaswamy and [Mike] Pence of “mansplaining” to Haley. In fact, all they did was disagree with her. Phang was the one who actually insulted Haley, by suggesting that because of her sex, she needs to be treated with kid gloves.
The same day, a post by Clay Waters similarly complained that non-right-wing commentators were being too nice to Haley for pointing out that Republicans shouldn’t be too extreme on abortion:
It’s clear who would win PBS’s vote for the Republican Party nomination: Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who in the first GOP presidential debate bowed to “reality” by declaring a federal law against abortion a non-starter.
On Friday’s edition of the channel’s political roundtable Washington Week with The Atlantic, guest host (and slanted White House correspondent for the PBS NewsHour) Laura Barron-Lopez jumped off a snide point made by Todd Zwillich of Vice News about Trump fans’ attitude toward their “dear leader,” saying Trump’s supporters at the Republican debate in Milwaukee were in denial about how much a criminal conviction would hurt his election chances –“that’s a crowd that’s not contending with that reality, at all.”
Barron-Lopez seized the word.
Barron-Lopez: Speaking of someone who’s trying to get Republicans to contend with reality, for the first 50 minutes of the debate, there was policy discussion about climate change and on abortion. Former Ambassador Nikki Haley took a different position than most of the people in her party.
Politico’s Daniella Diaz agreed:
Diaz: I thought she really won the debate on Wednesday. She was the one that was being very rational….
But the MRC also didn’t like it when Haley was criticized. Nicholas Fondacaro was upset in an Aug. 28 post when commentators pointed out that candidates of color like Haley and Tim Scott face difficulties in a Republican Party that’s increasingly hostile to non-white people:
During Monday’s Morning Joe, white liberal Lauren Leader, the founder of All In Together, implicitly accused Republican presidential candidates former U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley and Senator Tim Scott (SC) of being race traitors and trying to appeal to the racist Republican Party. She also had snide remarks for Haley about using her gender during the first Republican primary debate.
Leader was teed up by Way Too Early host Jonathan Lemire, who began by taking issue with Haley and Republicans for questioning President Biden’s advanced age and mental acuity (with NBC having found 68 percent of voters share that concern).
“It’s invoking President Biden’s age, suggesting that really this next election is about his vice president, Kamala Harris. You’d be putting her in charge. But Haley has been doing this by far the most explicitly. What is your read of the strategy?” he asked her.
As if it was a bad thing, Leader huffed that Haley was “certainly trying to play on the low approval ratings” Harris earned and accused her of using sexist “tropes” against women:
[…]Leader continued by falsely suggesting “you see Nikki Haley doing some of the same things” when it comes to race. She went on to argue that Haley was walking “a really tight line” and trying to pull off “a complicated act” to appeal to those racist Republicans as a person of color herself.
Fondacaro didn’t actually disprove anything the commentators said.
Jorge Bonilla spent a Dec. 17 post insisting it was a good thing for Haley to whine about having to be asked about her primary competition in the Republican primaries:
ABC’s Jon Karl sat down with former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, fresh off her endorsement by New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu for that state’s presidential primary. But although the venue was New Hampshire, the tone and tenor of the questions were pure Acela, and Haley made sure to communicate that to Karl.
Watch as Haley lets Karl know that his obsessions with Donald Trump are, in fact, exhausting:
[…]The questions distill down to Trump and abortion, the Acela Media’s other obsession, with a bare minimum of questions on New Hampshire. This was not a serious, substantive interview of a candidate based on policy, but more of the same pointlessness from the Acela Media.
Haley was right to call Karl out, and she was right on the substance. The interview was exhausting.
Bonilla didn’t explain why Haley shouldn’t take questions about Trump. (And, yes, he’s still trying to make “Acela media” happen.)
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