Haley brushes off quip that New Hampshire primary will ‘correct’ Iowa caucus

Former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley brushed off a quip she made Wednesday that the New Hampshire primary voters would “correct” the results of the Iowa caucuses.

“We have done 150 plus town halls, you got to have some fun, too. So we’re at this town hall, we had 700 people in New Hampshire, we’re cuttin’ up, and yes, I said that. But keep in mind, I’m from an early state,” she said during a CNN town hall in Des Moines, Iowa. “South Carolina always knew that Iowa’s going to be the first caucus, New Hampshire’s going to be first in the nation and South Carolina wanted to be first in the South. It was a pact.”

“We banter against each other on different things,” Haley said.

“New Hampshire makes fun of Iowa. I will make fun of South Carolina. It’s what we do. So I mean, I think the problem in politics now is it’s just like too serious and too dramatic. I don’t live, eat and breathe politics all the time. I like to have fun, too,” she added. 

Haley was responding to comments she made a day earlier in New Hampshire, in which she said the Granite State would “correct” Iowa. 

“We have an opportunity to get this right. And I know we’ll get it right, and I trust you. I trust every single one of you. You know how to do this. You know Iowa starts it. You know that you correct it,” Haley said at the time.  

Asked by CNN’s Erin Burnett whether her comments were signaling a lack of confidence over how she would perform in the Hawkeye State, where she largely trails former President Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the state, Haley dismissed the idea. 

“I would not sit here and in the cold ‘cause it’s cold here,” she quipped. “I have been coming here for months, going to every part of Iowa, shaking every hand, answering every question, being the last person to leave at every one of these town halls. You are going to see me fight until the very end on the last day in Iowa. And I’m not playing in one state. I’m fighting in every state because I think everybody’s worth fighting for.”