CNN Iowa town hall: Haley calls for GOP to move past Trump and boasts leads over Biden

Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley bragged about polls showing her beating President Joe Biden and called for the GOP to move past former President Donald Trump during a CNN town hall in Iowa on Thursday night.

“Americans don’t want another nail-biter of an election, and that’s what we’ll get. Look at any of the polls head to head against Joe Biden,” Haley said during the event moderated by CNN host Erin Burnett. “Ron doesn’t beat Biden. Trump head to head with Biden on a good day, he might be up by 2. The Wall Street Journal had him up by 4. I’m in every one of those same polls. I defeat Biden by 17 points.”

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A Wall Street Journal poll released last month showed Haley defeating Biden 51% to 34%, a 17 percentage point difference that Haley and her allies have touted in campaign ads and while barnstorming Iowa and New Hampshire, the first two nominating states in the GOP primary. The poll also showed Trump beating Biden 47% to 43%.

However, a YouGov poll released on Wednesday showed Biden beating Haley by 5 percentage points, 41% to 36%, threatening her argument that she is guaranteed to win next year’s election if she were the GOP nominee.

The former South Carolina governor and U.N. ambassador once again repeated that she had supported Trump’s 2016 presidency but that “chaos” follows the former president.

“It is time to move past President Trump, and it is time to start focusing on how to strengthen America and do this for our kids and our grandkids,” Haley said in her argument for a new generation of Republican leadership as the audience clapped in support.

“We need to have a new generational leader, one that’s going to leave the negativity and the baggage behind and start focusing on the real issues that we have in the future,” she also claimed.

CNN is hosting back-to-back town halls featuring Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) and Haley on Thursday night 11 days out from the Iowa caucuses. DeSantis’s one-hour town hall was held first at 9 p.m. EST, followed by Haley’s 10 p.m. event.

The two candidates have fiercely battled for second place as Trump continues to dominate the primary field. The former president steamrolled his opponents at 62.7%, according to a RealClearPolitics poll average. Haley surpassed DeSantis for second place this week at 11%, while the governor is polling at 10.9%.

The former ambassador’s campaign also announced this week that it had raised $24 million in the fourth quarter of 2023, more than double her third-quarter fundraising efforts, a sign of her growing prowess in the primary.

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DeSantis often criticizes the former ambassador as lacking conservative enough principles in a party now dominated by Trump. Yet Haley has sought to counterattack that narrative, even releasing “A True Conservative Warrior” video on the day of the CNN town hall featuring positive comments from former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Republican Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

DeSantis and Haley will square off on Jan. 10 during a CNN primary debate five days before the Hawkeye State nominating contest in what will likely be their last chance on a national stage to convince Iowans to support their presidential bids on Jan. 15.