Nikki Haley Confirms She Targeted Donald Trump in SOTU Response

Governor Nikki Haley (R-SC), who delivered the official Republican response to President Obama’s final State of the Union Address, told CNN’s Don Lemon that she had ‘partially’ targeted Donald Trump in her address.

The Governor seemed to compare Donald Trump with the protesters in Ferguson and Baltimore. She said that while it was aimed at him, it was also aimed ‘at a lot of people.’

LEMON: “I think I want to start with that soundbite. You said the ‘loudest voices in the room.’ Was that comment directed at Donald Trump?”

HALEY: “Partially him, but a lot of people. You know, a lot of what I was talking about is that we’ve seen across our country — if you look at Ferguson and Baltimore we are seeing that people have to be loud, they have to be angry to have their voices heard.”

Haley also said that she was ‘thankful Speaker Ryan and Senator McConnell let me give the speech I wanted to give,’ confirming her speech was approved by GOP leaders, she said she it was.

She later told Matt Lauer on NBC’s ‘Today Show’,”Mr. Trump has definitely contributed to what I think is just irresponsible talk.’

It appears this is unprecedented, at least according to John Nolte of Breitbart News. He writes,”If Haley wants to endorse a GOP presidential candidate, hit the stump for that candidate, and rip into Donald Trump, no one is going to begrudge her that. But to use the State of the Union response to publicly attack her own frontrunner must be unprecedented, and certainly serves as more proof to Trump’s supporters that the Republican Establishment is much more interested in DC Media love than winning elections and advancing their legislative agenda.”

While I disagree with him on Donald Trump, he does have a point. The harder the GOP establishment and other candidates hit Donald Trump, the more fanatical his supporters become. A prominent pollster, Frank Luntz, said that he had ‘never seen anything like this.’ The GOP needs to rally around a candidate and if Donald Trump is the nominee come November, that might not be possible and the GOP may lose.