CNN anchor Jake Tapper admitted during a Tuesday broadcast that former Governor Nikki Haley (R-SC) brought out a “very ugly side of the Left” after announcing her run for office.
Tapper discussed the issue with Democratic strategist Paul Begala and National Review’s Ramesh Ponnuru — focusing on a number of racially charged attacks that have been aimed at the former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations since she declared her run for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
WATCH:
Trump embraces Nikki Haley's call for "mental competency tests" for presidential candidates @RameshPonnuru, @PaulBegala, @HeidiReports and @alaynatreene discuss with @jaketapper pic.twitter.com/I8OdJ5z5qd
— The Lead CNN (@TheLeadCNN) February 22, 2023
Tapper shared video of MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan and guest Wajahat Ali, who discussed Haley’s bid for the White House over the weekend — and honed in on the segment in which Ali had called Haley an “alpha-Karen with brown skin” and had accused her of using her race to “to launder white supremacist talking points.”
“The reason why I feel sad is because no matter what she does, Mehdi, it will never be enough. They’ll never love her,” Ali continued, suggesting that the rest of the Republican Party was too racist to ever accept her.
Ponnuru responded to the clip by saying that such attacks would probably help to boost Haley in Republican circles, and Begala complained that Democrats should not be stooping to that kind of rhetoric.
“I think the fact she got to be the governor of South Carolina with brown skin is a very impressive accomplishment,” Begala remarked. “I don’t think it’s something people should be ridiculing her about. I think it’s a terrible thing to say about her.”
“There is a very ugly side of the Left that comes out when Nikki Haley runs for office,” Tapper agreed, noting that a number of critics had pointed out the fact that Haley goes by her middle name rather than her first name — Nimarata — and had falsely accused her of doing so in an effort to shed her ethnicity when it was convenient.
“It’s been a pretty good week for her, I have to say,” Tapper concluded, noting that Haley’s campaign had done a good job of staying on top of the attacks and delivering quick responses. “In terms of the attacks on her and in terms of, like, she’s been in the press a lot.”
The attack that went unmentioned during the panel discussion came from Tapper’s own colleague, “CNN This Morning” host Don Lemon, 56 — who sparked outrage when he claimed during a recent broadcast that Haley, 51, was “past her prime.”