[guest post by Dana]

If you were hoping that Nikki Haley would throw her hat in the ring in 2024 (I didn’t), then you can blame Trump if she doesn’t. Maybe…

This was Haley today:

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said Monday that she would not run for the presidency in 2024 if former President Donald Trump mounts another campaign for the White House.

…She is considered a potential contender for the GOP’s presidential nomination in 2024. When asked if she would support Trump if he runs again, Haley responded, “Yes.”

“I would not run if President Trump ran and I would talk to him about it,” Haley told the Associated Press. “That’s something that we will have a conversation about at some point, if that decision is something that has to be made. But yeah, I would, absolutely.”

I asked @NikkiHaley if she would support Donald Trump if he runs again in 2024.

“Yes,” she told me.

“I would not run if President Trump ran, and I would talk to him about it,” she added. “That’s something that we will have a conversation about, at some point.”

Story upcoming pic.twitter.com/8uGwxk2s84

— Meg Kinnard (@MegKinnardAP) April 12, 2021

While Haley said that impeaching Trump after the insurrection of Jan. 6 was “a waste of time,” she also told a different story about her reaction to Trump and the insurrection in an interview back in February 2021:

“I think he’s going to find himself further and further isolated,” Haley said. “I think his business is suffering at this point. I think he’s lost any sort of political viability he was going to have. I think he’s lost his social media, which meant the world to him. I mean, I think he’s lost the things that really could have kept him moving.”

I reminded her that Trump has been left for dead before; that the base always rallied behind him. I also reminded her that the argument for impeachment—and conviction—is that he would be barred from holding federal office again.

“He’s not going to run for federal office again,” Haley said.

But what if he does? Or at least, what if he spends the next four years threatening to? Can the Republican Party heal with Trump in the picture?

“I don’t think he’s going to be in the picture,” she said, matter-of-factly. “I don’t think he can. He’s fallen so far.”

This was the most certainty I’d heard from any Republican in the aftermath of January 6. And Haley wasn’t done.

“We need to acknowledge he let us down,” she said. “He went down a path he shouldn’t have, and we shouldn’t have followed him, and we shouldn’t have listened to him. And we can’t let that ever happen again.”

Wll the real Nikki Haley please stand up. Do you really think he will be a different man in 2024 and not lead you astray down the same path? Are you kidding! Because what you said in February sure isn’t consistent with what you are saying today. With flip-flopping like this, I don’t see why you should be trusted with the presidency. Clearly, you are most still loyal to Trump and are willing to sacrifice your integrity on his behalf.

–Dana

Sohrab “Against Frenchism” Ahmari and Matthew Schmitz have a piece at the New York Post titled: Never Trump conservatives are complicit with Team Biden’s moral outrages and norm-breaking:

Again, judging by the standard they themselves set during the Trump era, the Never Trumpers are enablers of the Biden presidency. By their own lights, they must share in the guilt of every bad act committed by Biden and his administration.

Start with “norms.” One of Never Trump’s most common complaints was that Trump broke the norms associated with his office, thus imperiling the ­republic. It’s true that Trump did some uncouth things like getting into Twitter spats with random citizens. Yet counter to the dark warnings, Trump didn’t change our political structure. Compare that with Biden and the newly empowered Democrats, who are pushing to create two new states, end the filibuster and pack the Supreme Court.

Will Never Trump be held ­accountable for these attacks on settled norms?

Apparently I dreamed the bit about Trump trying to steal the election and inciting an insurrection. Turns out the worst thing he did was get into Twitter spats.

Go figure.

The notion that someone who voted for a candidate “owns” every bad thing that candidate does (or every bad thing some of supporters propose, which is even further afield) is stupid. If you are a Trump supporter and you think I “own” the bad stuff Biden is doing — like racial demagoguery over the Georgia law, an irresponsible lack of preparedness at the border, or frighteningly huge spending proposals — then great. By that logic, you own an attempt to steal an election, the death of cops at the Capitol, an endless stream of financial chicanery and exploitation, and about 10,000 other Really Bad Things I have been discussing here for five years.

It’s a dumb argument and a dumb road to go down. But hyperpartisans gonna hyperpartisan.