FIRST ON FOX – Nikki Haley takes aim at President Biden for being “too old” and indirectly targets former President Trump over the “chaos and drama of the past” as she calls for a “new generation” of leadership in the latest spot of her massive early state ad blitz.
“I’ll just say it. Biden’s too old, and Congress is the most exclusive nursing home in America,” the former South Carolina governor who later served as ambassador to the United Nations during the Trump administration argues at the top of her commercial, which was shared first with Fox News on Monday.
Haley declared her candidacy for the White House in early February, but didn’t launch her first TV ads until the beginning of this month. The new spot is the third commercial in her ongoing $10 million ad blitz in Iowa and New Hampshire, the first two states to vote in the GOP presidential nominating calendar.
“We have to leave behind the chaos and drama of the past with a new generation and a new conservative president,” Haley said to the camera in the spot, swiping at the former president without mentioning his name.
HALEY’S MOMENTUM IN THE GOP PRESIDENTIAL RACE APPEARS TO BE PAYING OFF
Haley highlighted the need for a new generation of conservative leadership when she formally launched her presidential campaign in her hometown of Charleston, South Carolina, ten months ago.
She also reiterated her calls for mental competency tests for politicians age 75 and older – something she first did days into her White House bid.
DESANTIS TURNS UP THE HEAT ON TRUMP AND HALEY
Haley is 51 years old, a full generation younger than 81-year-old Biden and 77-year-old Trump.
Trump remains the commanding front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination in his third straight White House bid.
He made history earlier this year as the first former or current president to be indicted for a crime with his four indictments, including in federal court in Washington, D.C., and in Fulton County court in Georgia on charges he tried to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
WHERE TRUMP, DESANTIS, HALEY AND THE REST OF GOP 2024 FIELD STAND IN NEW FOX NEWS POLL
The indictments have only boosted Trump’s standing in GOP presidential nomination polls. He holds a massive 57-point lead over the rest of the remaining field of Republican rivals for the nomination in the latest Fox News national poll, which was released on Sunday. Trump’s margin jumped by seven points from the previous Fox News poll conducted a month ago.
Haley has enjoyed plenty of momentum in the polls in recent months, thanks in part to well-received performances in the first three GOP presidential primary debates. She leapfrogged Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for second place in New Hampshire, which holds the first primary and second overall contest in the Republican nominating calendar.
She also aims to make a fight of it in Iowa, where the polls indicate DeSantis is a distant second behind Trump.
Iowa’s Jan. 15 caucuses are followed eight days later by New Hampshire’s Jan. 23 primary. Haley landed the endorsement of New Hampshire’s popular Republican Gov. Chris Sununu last week.
A couple of weeks ago, she was endorsed by Americans for Prosperity Action, the political wing of the influential and deep-pocketed fiscally conservative network founded by the billionaire Koch Brothers. AFP Action has pledged to spend tens of millions of dollars and mobilize its formidable grassroots operation to boost Haley and help push the Republican Party past Trump.
