Nikki Haley CNN Town Hall: Five Key Takeaways

Presidential hopeful Nikki Haley pitched her policies to America on Sunday night in a bid to win over voters with her televised Town Hall appearance.

The Republican, who must take on her party's current favorites Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis as well as face-off against Democrat President Joe Biden to ensure victory, was addressing an audience in Des Moines, Iowa, that was broadcast by CNN.

It was an important night for Haley, who needed to hit the ground running in what is becoming an increasingly crowded field of Republicans vying for the top job. The number of candidates entering the race is expected to reach double digits this week, according to Reuters, with even more contenders due to throw their hat into the ring, including former Vice President Mike Pence.

Trump is currently showing 49 percent support among Republican primary voters, with DeSantis receiving 19 percent, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll conducted in May. Haley's support in contrast sat at 4 percent before the town hall.

Haley worked hard to play-up her credentials, both domestically and internationally, and frequently referenced her time as governor of South Carolina and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. She was also determined to capitalize on her relative youth. At 51, Haley is keen to position herself as a younger-generation candidate compared to 80-year-old Biden, whose frailty has sparked concern about his mental and physical health following another public fall last week.

"It is time for a new generational leader," Haley told the audience. "It is time for us to leave the baggage of the past."

Haley also pointed out she would be she would be the first woman, and the first woman of color (her parents immigrated to the U.S. from India), to be president, joking that "it'll be nice to have that out of the way." She added: "We've let guys do it for a while. It might be time for a woman to get it done."

Other takeaways from Haley's Town Hall included:

Attacking DeSantis over Disney battle

Haley criticized Florida Governor DeSantis over his state's messy legal spat with Disney, which was sparked by the Parental Rights in Education Act or the "Don't Say Gay" law. Disney is suing DeSantis over allegations the governor is "weaponizing" the government to punish the company after it publicly objected to the bill, which bans the discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in certain grades at Florida schools.

Haley said her rival should fix his issues with such a large employer in his state, which she said was a notoriously "woke company" and always had been.

Haley also castigated DeSantis for wasting resrouces on what she claimed was simply a private grudge, dismissing it as "vendetta stuff." She said: "Because they [Disney] went and criticized him, now he's going to spend taxpayer dollars on a lawsuit."

Apparently Shying Away From Attacking Trump

Some commentators suggested Haley tried to avoid directly criticizing Trump during the Town Hall.

CNN moderator Jake Tapper tried to push Haley to comment on the former president and his politics. At one point, he asked her: "Were you uncomfortable with how Mr. Trump dealt with, and how his attitude was toward, Kim Jong Un when you were at the U.N.?" Haley replied, "Kim Jong Un is a thug," and proceeded to lambast the North Korea dictator.

Some viewers and analysts felt she had avoided the real question. Freelance Journalist Aaron Rupar tweeted the clip to his 883,000 followers with the caption: "notice how Nikki Haley doesn't really answer the question about Trump here"

Although she didn't mention Trump's name, Haley did subtly criticize him by revealing her different stance on the issue, such as her disgust at Kim Jong Un's human rights abuses. In contrast, Trump recently publicly praised the North Korean despot.

She also differentiated herself from Trump by reiterating her strong support for Ukraine, while Trump has appeared to question U.S. aid to Ukraine and suggest Ukraine cannot win the war.

Although Haley appeared reluctant to attack Trump directly, when pushed by Tapper she did make it clear that she disagreed with the former president about the Jan. 6 insurrection, she replied: "He [Trump] thinks it was a beautiful day; I think it was a terrible day. I'll always stand by that."

Calling To End 'Gun-Free Zones'

In response to a question about mass shootings, she replied: "The reason a lot of these [shootings] happen, and you mention shooting at the schools, is: You need to end gun-free zones...Killers always look for a place that's a gun-free zone, because guess what? Nobody else is going to be able to protect themselves.

"I'm a concealed weapons permit-holder myself. We don't want to take away the constitutional right for someone to protect and defend their families in America. And when you've got crime at all-time highs, you've got illegal immigrants crossing the border, you've got mental health crisis as much as it is, the last thing I'm going to do is take away the ability for somebody to protect themselves and their family."

She also came out against 'red flag' gun laws, which have been implemented in some Democratic-run states, such as Michigan, and allow officials to temporarily remove firearms from people that a judge deems to be a threat to themselves or others.

"I don't trust the government to deal with red flag laws. I don't trust that they won't take them away from people who rightfully deserve to have them," Haley said. "Because you've got someone else judging whether someone else should have a gun or not."

Responding to Debunked Fears the Election Was 'Stolen' in 2020

Haley described the insurrection of Jan. 6 as "a terrible day." And she stressed that "we know that President Biden is the president."

Tapper reminded her of her previous statements about how Trump had "let us down; he went down a path he shouldn't have and we shouldn't have followed him," while she had also gone on record about how suspicious voters had been "lied to by everybody." She said she stood by her previous comments.

However, she went on to say that the electoral process in some states remains a key issue and slammed what she described as flaws with the system. "I think it's important that voters want to have election integrity," she said. "That's the biggest thing...There's nothing worse than when a country and their citizens don't trust the election system.

"So when you look at what happened, you had mail-out balloting that we know was happening. We know that there was harvesting that was happening. And then you had secretaries of state that did things without approval from their legislature. Those are pretty serious....None of that would have changed the result of the election. We know that President Biden is the president, but I do think it goes to say we need to continue to have election integrity laws."

Joining Republican Culture War Against LGBTQ+ Discussion in Schools

Although Haley decried DeSantis's Disney lawsuit as a pointless waste of resources, she did not criticise Florida's so-called "Don't Say Gay" law which led to the dispute in the first place.

She said she thinks the legislation—which stated at the time it was designed to ban "classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity (for young students)"—did not go far enough.

"They should not be talking to our kids about gender, period—that's what parents talk to our kids about," she said to applause.

Newsweek has reached out to Haley's office by email for further information and comment about the above five takeaways from her Town Hall.