Former President Donald Trump knocked New Hampshire‘s open primary system and claimed Democrats would show up in droves for former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. The comments came days before the state’s first-in-the-nation primary contest that will serve as a precursor to the rest of the Republican presidential nomination race.
Trump said in an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity on Thursday that Democrats will take advantage of the open primary and will likely vote for Haley. Hannity said thousands of Democrats have switched their affiliations to Republican or undeclared to vote in the primary on Jan. 23.
“The governor should have done something about it instead of talking, wasting his time with Nikki because she’s not going to make it. She has no chance,” Trump said.
“The Democrats want [Haley] to run desperately. So they have a lot of Democrats signing up in New Hampshire, but I don’t think it’s gonna matter,” the former president continued. “I saw one where we’re at 50 or 51 and she was at 34, I believe, and I think we’re gonna be in very good shape, like we were in, if you look at Iowa, nobody knew we were gonna blow it out like that.”
Trump’s appearance on Fox News comes after a sweeping victory in the Iowa caucuses on Monday. The former president now has set his sights on New Hampshire, where he also holds a sizable lead ahead of most of the candidates.
His biggest rival in the Granite State is Haley, whose polling numbers show her just behind or neck-and-neck with Trump regarding voter support.
A survey from American Research Group released on Tuesday found that Trump and Haley were tied with 40% of support each from the state’s likely Republican primary voters. A Boston Globe-Suffolk University-NBC-10 Boston poll released on Wednesday showed Trump with 50% support while Haley came in second place with 34%.
Haley and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) are Trump’s remaining top competitors after former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy suspended their campaigns after poor performances in the Iowa caucuses and a majority of surveys.
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Trump attributed his win in Iowa to President Joe Biden showing voters a “stark” contrast between the current administration and Trump’s presidency.
“The Biden administration is so bad, and we now have a contrast,” Trump said. “You didn’t have a contrast so much before, and now you have a contrast. Why? What happened? You know, we get the most votes of any sitting president in history, and then somebody else takes over, and they take a look at what we had versus what they have now. And the difference is so stark. It’s so massive; it’s so different. The country is a different place.”