Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley joined the long line of Donald Trump foes planning to vote for him despite a deep, fraught personal history and the former president’s habit of calling her “bird brain” while she ran against him.
With Haley now on board with Trump, the question is whether her loyal supporters will follow.
In her first public appearance since she quit her presidential race, Haley delivered a speech at the Hudson Institute in Washington that criticized President Joe Biden but made no mention of Trump.
But shortly after she finished, she told the moderator of a fireside chat that she must support a president who has the “backs of our allies and holds our enemies to account.
“Trump has not been perfect on these policies. I’ve made that clear many, many times,” she said. “But Biden has been a catastrophe. So, I will be voting for Trump.”
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
With that, she joined the likes of Gov. Brian Kemp, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu and plenty of other Trump skeptics who have said they will vote for him.
What’s less clear is where Haley’s supporters will go. She captured 77,000 votes in Georgia’s March 12 primary, most of them after she abandoned her campaign, including several influential power brokers.
Among them is state Rep. Scott Hilton, a Peachtree Corners Republican, who is locked in a tough reelection battle. He told us he’s “laser-focused” on his own race.
And then there’s Eric Tanenblatt, a well-connected GOP donor who was Haley’s campaign co-chair in Georgia. He cited a few other lines in Haley’s speech to signal he’s in wait-and-see mode, such as:
“Trump would be smart to reach out to the millions of people who voted for me and continue to support me, and not assume that they're just going to be with him. And I genuinely hope he does that."
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Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
DIRTY BUSINESS. It comes as no surprise to Politically Georgia readers that politics can be a rough road. But state Rep. Lauren Daniel’s primary loss this week left the freshman lawmaker from Locust Grove saying she now understands “why good people don’t go into politics.”
From insider Greg Bluestein’s post-election analysis:
Daniel lost to Noelle Kahaian, a paralegal who helped orchestrate a 2021 effort to push a Black educator from Maryland out of her Cherokee County job over unfounded claims she was peddling critical race theory.
Kahaian emphasized her fight against the “woke agenda" and other buzzy conservative promises while painting Daniel as a faux conservative. In the hours after her defeat, Daniel was unsparing in her criticism, calling Kahaian the “darling" of the far right.
“I was a target. And ugly seemed to win this time. You name it, I was called it. If I could sum it up, politics defeated a proven record. It didn't matter compared to the narrative that I wasn't a real Republican. The lies prevailed."
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Credit: Zachary Hansen/ACJ
Credit: Zachary Hansen/ACJ
SUPER CHARGE. A South Korean company with technology developed in partnership with Georgia Tech will receive up to $75 million in federal funding for a new semiconductor materials factory east of Atlanta.
That’s according to U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, the Georgia Democrat who said Thursday the incentives were fueled by the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act. The legislation, passed in 2022, aims to boost domestic semiconductor production.
Absolics, a subsidiary of Korean conglomerate SK Group, touts its glass substrate material as a breakthrough in computer chip technology.
The Covington plant is expected to employ 410 workers and represents a $600 million investment, both increases from figures touted in 2021 when the project was announced.
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Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
LISTEN UP. Today on “Politically Georgia,” state Rep. Teri Anulewicz, D-Smyrna, talks about being upset in Tuesday’s primary by Democratic Socialists-backed Gabriel Sanchez.
AJC senior economics reporter Michael E. Kanell and business editor Scott Trubey also join the show to discuss the effects of inflation on Georgia voters on everything from gas to groceries to housing prices.
Listen live at 10 a.m. on WABE 90.1 or follow “Politically Georgia” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
In case you missed it, Wednesday’s episode featured Georgia Supreme Court Justice Andrew Pinson reacting to his election night victory. Republican strategist Stephen Lawson and Emory professor Andra Gillespie also joined the show to discuss primary voting results.
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CONSPIRACY THEORY. No, the Justice Department and FBI were not trying to assassinate former President Donald Trump during a 2022 search of his Florida home. But that was the baseless conspiracy theory spread by Trump, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Rome, and other far-right Republicans and addressed by the FBI in a statement issued Tuesday.
Trump loyalists were misconstruing standard FBI operating procedures that were carried out during the search of Trump’s home as part of the investigation into his possession of classified documents. The loyalists also seemed not to take into account the fact that the raid was planned to take place when Trump was not at home.
Still, after Trump posted on social media that court filings showed a plan to use deadly force during the raid, Greene expressed outrage on her own X account. “The Biden DOJ and FBI were planning to assassinate Pres Trump and gave the green light,” she wrote.
Other X users fact-checked Greene’s post and the website published information adding context to clarify her claim.
“This is a standard boilerplate form used for all operational activities from arrests, searches and other operations,” the note said. “The DOJ use of force policy is listed for agents to have a full understanding of the limitations of the use of such force.”
The FBI denied there were plans to bring harm to Trump and insisted the language was just standard policy giving officers directives in the rare instance that deadly force was deemed necessary.
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GIULIANI MUZZLED. Rudy Giuliani has agreed to stop accusing a mother-daughter duo of Fulton County election workers of voting fraud in order to settle a federal defamation case.
As a lawyer for former President Donald Trump, Giuliani launched a campaign following the 2020 election claiming Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss were ballot stuffing for Joe Biden. The AJC’s David Wickert reports that if approved by a federal judge in Washington, the agreement would essentially settle the second of two defamation lawsuits the election workers brought against Giuliani.
In the first case, a federal jury awarded Freeman and Moss more than $148 million in damages.
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BORDER WARNING. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is bringing a bipartisan border security measure to the floor again today, but it is expected to fail to receive the 60 votes needed to advance.
In fact, there is a chance the bill will receive fewer votes than it did in the first attempt in February. Not only do former President Donald Trump and House Republicans oppose the measure, now several GOP senators are crying foul at what they see as a political stunt by Schumer.
Still, U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff has made several statements supporting the bill. He delivered a speech on the Senate floor Wednesday describing the “grave national security risk” if the border measure does not become law.
“The threat of terrorism associated with unlawful entry at the southern border is real. It is pressing,” the Atlanta Democrat said.
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Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
BIDEN’S BID. President Joe Biden offered a preview of the messaging he’ll trumpet in the run-up to the November election during his visit to Atlanta last weekend. Biden focused heavily on then-President Donald Trump’s actions on Jan. 6, 2021, the day thousands of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol and interrupted lawmakers’ efforts to certify Biden’s 2020 election victory.
Insider Patricia Murphy unpacks Biden’s “defend democracy” approach in a column published Wednesday and how it isn’t meant to appeal solely to Democratic and Independent voters. She references Republican leaders horrified by the Jan. 6 events but who refuse to condemn Trump in public.
From the column:
But Biden is hoping they also don't want a repeat of the Capitol attack any more than he does. And that, in the privacy of the voting booth, they and others will choose four more years of Biden over one more day in America like Jan. 6.
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Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
TODAY IN WASHINGTON:
- President Joe Biden hosts a joint news conference at the White House with Kenyan President William Ruto. In the evening, the president and the first lady Jill Biden hosts Ruto and first lady Rachel Ruto for a state dinner.
- The House votes on a bill that would reverse District of Columbia laws allowing non-citizens to vote in local elections and a cryptocurrency regulation bill.
- In the Senate, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., tries again to move forward a bipartisan border security measure.
- U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams, D-Atlanta, hosts a news conference regarding the reintroduction of legislation providing for endometriosis research and treatment.
- The presidents of Northwestern University, Rutgers, and the University of California Los Angeles testify about the pro-Palestinian protests on their campuses during a hearing of the House Education and Workforce Committee.
***
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
PICTURE OF THE DAY. It turns out retail therapy works for mayors and neighborhoods alike. The AJC’s Miguel Martinez caught this snap of Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens cruising the banana aisle of the newly opened Walmart Neighborhood Market this week in Vine City.
Zachary Hansen has the back story of how the former Walmart Supercenter closed after arson destroyed the neighborhood’s only source of fresh food. Sixteen months later, it has been reinvisioned as a first-of-its-kind neighborhood market, bananas and all.
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AS ALWAYS, Politically Georgia readers are some of our favorite tipsters. Send your best scoop, gossip and insider info to greg.bluestein@ajc.com, tia.mitchell@ajc.com, patricia.murphy@ajc.com and adam.vanbrimmer@ajc.com.
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