Month: January 2024

A report published Friday suggests more corporate news staffers than voters are attending Nimrata ‘Nikki’ Haley’s events in New Hampshire, just three days before the Granite State’s primary.

Filing for the Spectator, the anonymized ‘Cockburn’ claims:

Cockburn found a strange scene as he pulled up at Robie’s Country Store in Hooksett Thursday: sure enough, there Haley was, stood outside giving a TV interview alongside her biggest endorser, Governor Chris Sununu, ten minutes ahead of the scheduled start time. After finding parking, Cockburn attempted to enter the store, as Haley and Sununu had just done. But the entrance was blocked by people trying get in: was demand on the ground for Haley in the Granite State really so high? Should we expect an upset that will change the Republican race?

Those questions were answered as soon as Cockburn managed to sidle into the store: it was full alright… of reporters and cameramen, with bulky equipment. There were a smattering of voters in attendance, sitting down or pressed against the walls — but to Cockburn’s eye, it was the media occupying most of the space.

Haley spent all of ten minutes in the store — the schedule said she’d be there an hour — before heading out. “Are you scared of Donald Trump?” a reporter asked her on the way out. “Are you kidding me?” she slyly responded.

Sununu stayed around for a little longer than his candidate of choice, shaking hands with his state’s constituents. He was wearing a “Ski NH” quarterzip — so Cockburn asked him whether any of the presidential hopefuls had hit the slopes in his state. Sununu said that he wasn’t aware that any had — “I don’t know if I could see Donald Trump on a snowboard although I’d love to give him a good push…”

It was a similar story in Amherst this morning at Mary Ann’s Diner, where Cockburn arrived twenty minutes early. The raised area overlooking the front of the restaurant was crammed full of TV cameras; News Nation’s Leland Vittert, CNN’s David Chalian and Newsmax’s Mark Halperin were loitering.

“There are empty tables and I have her just about to arrive,” a Haley staffer said, as other acolytes worked to move diners from the back of the restaurant to the front, to compose a fuller shot for the cameras. Haley breezed in and did the rounds, taking time to speak to every diner, fielding questions on foreign policy, January 6 and her VP pick. She was escorted around by a female aide dressed almost exactly like her, who’d brought in coffee from a more upmarket café in Manchester.