Can Nikki Haley Persuade The Fat Cat Banksters And The Religionist Bigots To Back Her Against Trump?

Haley Hopes MAGAts Are Too Dumb To Notice She Talks Out Of Both Sides Of Her Mouth On Abortion

Yesterday, Cara Lombardo and AnnaMaria Andriotis reported that Wall Street fat cats “are lining up to support Nikki Haley’s long-shot bid to snatch the 2024 Republican presidential nomination from Donald Trump. ‘There’s a desperate, desperate hunt for anybody but Trump,’ said one of the roughly 30 senior executives the Wall Street Journal spoke with to gauge the mood of the finance set roughly a year ahead of the election.”

They soured on DeSantis over his attacks on Disney and they saw one of their own, former Carlyle Group CEO Glenn Youngkin, fade completely after his disaster in Virginia last week. So now they’re stuck with Nikki Haley if they want to imagine they can stop Trump.

“Former Trump adviser Gary Cohn and UBS banker Mike Santini,” co-hosted a Haley fundraiser Tuesday at Cohn’s Upper East Side apartment in Manhattan. Roughly 30 guests including Aryeh Bourkoff, the founder of investment bank LionTree, paid $10,000 apiece to attend. Haley fielded questions on topics including trade relations, economic policy and abortion. She won plaudits at last week’s Republican debate for finessing her stance on the abortion issue and calling for consensus. Other Haley events in New York are set for Dec. 3 and Dec. 4, with the latter being organized by Santini, litigator Eric Levine and others, some of whom have ties to Elliott Management, the $60 billion hedge fund founded by Republican donor Paul Singer. They include Campbell Brown, the Meta Platforms executive and wife of Elliott public affairs chief Dan Senor, and Terry Kassel, a longtime Haley supporter who is Elliott’s human-resources head and Singer’s girlfriend. (Singer himself is still entertaining supporting candidates including Haley, DeSantis and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.)”

Haley, 51 years old, who already has high-profile admirers including outgoing Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman, has been busy this week charming others including JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon and BlackRock’s Larry Fink. The conversation between Haley and Dimon was earlier reported by Axios.

Dimon, who leans Democratic, has told people Haley seems to understand the business world and could get things done. That tacit endorsement is rare for Wall Street’s elder statesman, as he doesn’t typically signal support for candidates. Fink saw Haley on Tuesday at a meet-and-greet with other executives.

Ken Griffin, the founder of investing giant Citadel and one of the biggest Republican donors, meanwhile, is flirting with throwing his support behind Haley, telling Bloomberg this week he was “actively contemplating” it. Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman is also still considering his options.

While Haley trails Trump by a wide margin and still sits behind DeSantis in the latest national polls, her supporters expect her numbers to rise by the Iowa presidential caucuses in January. An Iowa Poll released in late October showed Haley catching DeSantis for second place among Republicans in that state, and a new CNN survey of New Hampshire has her alone in second place there behind Trump.

“If she passes DeSantis, she’s the backup,” said one financier who supports her. Given Trump’s legal troubles, “it’s not completely crazy that she could ultimately win.”

He’s wrong; it is completely crazy. This primary is over... or not started. Trump is the Republican nominee, regardless of what some entitled fat cats think they can make happen. And in the end, they'll give him millions of dollars.

Conservative banksters would like to replace Biden with a right-of-center more business-friendly Democrat like Arizona Senator Mark Kelly (barely a Democrat) and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. “Meanwhile,” they wrote, “No Labels, a political group supporting centrist candidates, threatens to throw both Republicans and Democrats off-balance by adding another candidate to the mix.” Founder Nancy Jacobson, one of the most notorious grifters in American politics, along with husband Mark Penn, has been in New York drumming up support… “No Labels has recently made clear it was more likely to select a Republican— if it runs anyone. The private-equity executive said his hope is that No Labels gets on every state’s ballot to pressure both parties to be more moderate, then drops out at the last minute.”

And speaking about the “moderate” Nikki Haley, when she was pressed on abortion Friday by crackpot Iowa evangelist Bob Vander Plaats, she said that she would sign a six-week abortion ban in her home state of South Carolina if she were still governor. Hannah Knowles reported that “Haley has tried to strike a more nuanced tone on abortion than some of her fellow Republican hopefuls by calling for legislators to seek areas of ‘consensus’ at the federal level. She has also said that while she opposes abortion, she ‘doesn’t judge anyone for being pro-choice.’ At the same time, she has previously said she would support any restriction on the procedure that can pass while sidestepping calls for a particular limit. At a forum on Friday for 2024 candidates hosted by evangelical organization the Family Leader, Haley was asked to be more specific about which types of laws she supports. The fine line she has tried to walk has drawn approval from some Republicans and independents wary of abortion restrictions— or just eager to move on from the divisive issue. But it’s also brought criticism from both ends of the political spectrum, with some antiabortion activists skeptical of her answers and Democrats attacking Haley as extreme despite her talk of compromise.”

Haley’s latest comments further muddle the GOP candidates’ differences on abortion. Trump has been harshly critical of six-week bans— even though he worked to overturn Roe v. Wade by remaking the Supreme Court and touts that achievement to conservative voters. Haley has appealed to voters uncomfortable with abortion restrictions, but her latest comments put her to the right of Trump in some respects— and in line with her rival DeSantis, who faced blowback from some top supporters for signing a six-week ban in Florida.

…Earlier this year, asked if she would sign a six-week abortion ban as president, Haley deflected, telling CNN’s Jake Tapper, “I will answer that when you ask Kamala [Harris] and Biden if they would agree to 37 weeks, 38 weeks, 39 weeks. Then I’ll answer your question.”

Vander Plaats on Friday told the candidates assembled for the forum that “it’s only fair to address what I believe is your highest hurdle, from what I’m hearing.” Then he pushed Haley to explain her attention-grabbing answers on abortion during the GOP debates.

“I had some pro-lifers say, that sounded like a pro-choice answer,” Vander Plaats said. “Can you assure them why that’s not a pro-choice answer?”

Haley cited her support for antiabortion measures when she was governor of South Carolina, before the Supreme Court ended a nationwide, constitutional right to abortion. She helped pass a 20-week abortion ban there and supported mandatory waiting periods and ultrasound tests before the procedure.

Then she reiterated her message on consensus from the debates. “I’m trying to bring more people to us to have the conversation of how do we save as many babies as possible and support as many moms as possible,” Haley told the hundreds who turned out for the Family Leader’s forum at the Des Moines Marriott Downtown.