Tag: Monday afternoon

Witnesses describe scene near fire, explosion in Nashua, New Hampshire

People near a fire Monday afternoon at a commercial building in Nashua, New Hampshire, said the explosion was very loud and led the ground to shake.Fire officials said about 40 people were in the Greater Nashua Mental Health building when the gas leak was first reported at about 2:15 p.m. Fire Chief Steve Buxton said four people were unaccounted for as of Monday evening, but he believed officials would be able to make contact with them.Three firefighters were injured, one seriously. William Closs was working in the area when he felt the rumbling.”Real loud. It shook a lot,” Closs said. An emergency alert was issued in New Hampshire about a potential gas leak after the fire and explosion.The emergency alert urged anyone in the area of the building to extinguish burners or other flames and prepare to evacuate. People were told to stay away from the area.When he saw the emergency alert on his phone, Closs said he was already in the process of trying to evacuate the building he was in. “We were trying to figure out how to get people out, as it was the building right next to us,” Closs said.First responders assisted in the evacuation.”They were quick, efficient, thorough,” Closs said.Closs said he left the scene to walk down the road to meet friends and family, leaving his car at the scene. “Again, I didn’t know that if a roof had collapsed, or what was going on, but as soon as we saw the building next door was on fire, we were like, ‘What do we do now? Here we go,’” Closs said.>> Meanwhile, witness Peter Hernandez joined sister station WMUR live to describe what he saw:

People near a fire Monday afternoon at a commercial building in Nashua, New Hampshire, said the explosion was very loud and led the ground to shake.

Fire officials said about 40 people were in the Greater Nashua Mental Health building when the gas leak was first reported at about 2:15 p.m. Fire Chief Steve Buxton said four people were unaccounted for as of Monday evening, but he believed officials would be able to make contact with them.

Three firefighters were injured, one seriously.

William Closs was working in the area when he felt the rumbling.

“Real loud. It shook a lot,” Closs said.

An emergency alert was issued in New Hampshire about a potential gas leak after the fire and explosion.

The emergency alert urged anyone in the area of the building to extinguish burners or other flames and prepare to evacuate. People were told to stay away from the area.

When he saw the emergency alert on his phone, Closs said he was already in the process of trying to evacuate the building he was in.

“We were trying to figure out how to get people out, as it was the building right next to us,” Closs said.

First responders assisted in the evacuation.

“They were quick, efficient, thorough,” Closs said.

Closs said he left the scene to walk down the road to meet friends and family, leaving his car at the scene.

“Again, I didn’t know that if a roof had collapsed, or what was going on, but as soon as we saw the building next door was on fire, we were like, ‘What do we do now? Here we go,’” Closs said.

>> Meanwhile, witness Peter Hernandez joined sister station WMUR live to describe what he saw:

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February 2, 2026
Burbank Airport air traffic control tower unmanned, flights delayed amid government shutdown

The Hollywood Burbank Airport’s air traffic control tower is temporarily unmanned and flights are being delayed Monday afternoon due to staffing shortages amid the ongoing government shutdown, according to the Federal Aviation Authority.

The FAA anticipates that the airport’s air traffic control tower will be without staff until 10 p.m. Monday, according to spokesperson Kristen Alsop. The tower was without staff starting at 4:15 p.m.

Due to the government shutdown, air traffic controllers are working without pay. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Monday that the FAA was seeing a small uptick in air traffic control workers calling in sick during the shutdown.

As of 5 p.m., outgoing flights at Hollywood Burbank Airport were delayed an average of two hours and 31 minutes due to staffing shortages and runway construction, according to the FAA. At that time, the longest delay reported was three hours and 55 minutes.

Alsop said that staffing shortages were the main issue contributing to the delays.

Although the air control tower is unmanned, Southern California TRACON will control the air traffic in the airport’s airspace, Alsop said. That facility provides air traffic control for arriving and departing flights in the region.

Gov. Gavin Newsom was quick to point blame at President Trump for the staffing challenges.

“Thanks,@realDonaldTrump! Burbank Airport has ZERO air traffic controllers from 4:15pm to 10pm today because of YOUR government shutdown,” he said in a statement on X.

Clara Harter

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October 6, 2025
Stephen Miller leads GOP charge equating Democrats to ‘domestic terrorists’

WASHINGTON — President Trump rocked American politics at the outset of his first campaign when he first labeled his rivals as enemies of the American people. But the rhetoric of his top confidantes has grown more extreme in recent days.

Stephen Miller, the president’s deputy chief of staff, declared over the weekend that “a large and growing movement of leftwing terrorism in this country” is fueling an historic national schism, “shielded by far-left Democrat judges, prosecutors and attorneys general.”

“The only remedy,” Miller said, “is to use legitimate state power to dismantle terrorism and terror networks.”

It was a maxim from an unelected presidential advisor who is already unleashing the federal government in unprecedented ways, overseeing the federalization of police forces and a sweeping deportation campaign challenging basic tenets of civil liberty.

Miller’s rhetoric comes amid a federal crackdown on Portland, Ore., where he says the president has unchecked authority to protect federal lives and property — and as another controversial Trump advisor harnesses an ongoing government shutdown as pretext for the mass firing of federal workers.

Russ Vought, the president’s director of the Office of Management and Budget, plays the grim reaper in an AI video shared by the president, featuring him roving Washington for bureaucrats to cut from the deep state during the shutdown.

His goal, Trump has said, is to specifically target Democrats.

As of Monday afternoon, it was unclear exactly how many federal workers or what federal agencies would be targeted.

“We don’t want to see people laid off, but unfortunately, if this shutdown continues layoffs are going to be an unfortunate consequence of that,” White House press secretary Karoline Levitt said during a news briefing.

‘A nation of Constitutional law’

Karin Immergut, a federal judge appointed by Trump, said this weekend that the administration’s justification for deploying California National Guard troops in Portland was “simply untethered to the facts.”

“This country has a longstanding and foundational tradition of resistance to government overreach, especially in the form of military intrusion into civil affairs,” Immergut wrote, chiding the Trump administration for attempting to circumvent a prior order from her against a federal deployment to the city.

“This historical tradition boils down to a simple proposition,” she added: “This is a nation of Constitutional law, not martial law.”

The administration is expected to appeal the judge’s decision, Leavitt said, while calling the judge’s ruling “untethered in reality and in the law.”

“We’re very confident in the president’s legal authority to do this, and we are very confident we will win on the merits of the law,” Leavitt said.

If the courts were to side with the administration, Leavitt said local leaders — most of whom are Democrats — should not be concerned about the possibility of long-term plans to have their cities occupied by the military.

“Why should they be concerned about the federal government offering help to make their cities a safer place?” Leavitt said. “They should be concerned about the fact that people in their cities right now are being gunned down every single night and the president, all he is trying to do, is fix it.”

Moments later, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he does not believe it is necessary yet, he would be willing to invoke the Insurrection Act “if courts were holding us up or governors or mayors were holding us up.”

“Sure, I’d do that,” Trump said. “We have to make sure that our cities are safe.”

The Insurrection Act gives the president sweeping emergency power to deploy military forces within the United States if the president deems it is needed to quell civil unrest. The last time this occurred was in 1992, when California Gov. Pete Wilson asked President George H.W. Bush to send federal troops to help stop the Los Angeles riots that occurred after police officers were acquitted in the beating of Rodney King.

Subsequent posts from Miller on social media over the weekend escalated the stakes to existential heights, accusing Democrats of allying themselves with “domestic terrorists” seeking to overturn the will of the people reflected in Trump’s election win last year.

On Monday, in an interview with CNN, Miller suggested that the administration would continue working to sidestep Immergut’s orders.

“The administration will abide by the ruling insofar as it affects the covered parties,” he said, “but there are also many options the president has to deploy federal resources under the U.S. military to Portland.”

Other Republicans have used similar rhetoric since the slaying of Charlie Kirk, a conservative youth activist, in Utah last month.

Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) wrote that posts from California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office have reached “the threshold of domestic terrorism,” after the Democratic governor referred to Miller on social media as a fascist. And Rep. Randy Fine (R-Fla.) said Monday that Democrats demanding an extension of healthcare benefits as a condition for reopening the government were equivalent to terrorists.

“I don’t negotiate with terrorists,” Fine told Newsmax, “and what we’re learned in whether it’s dealing with Muslim terrorists or Democrats, you’ve gotta stand and you’ve gotta do the right thing.”

Investigating donor networks

Republicans’ keenness to label Democrats as terrorists comes two weeks after Trump signed an executive order declaring a left-wing antifascist movement, known as antifa, as a “domestic terrorist organization” — a designation that does not exist under U.S. law.

The order, which opened a new front in Trump’s battle against his political foes, also threatened to investigate and prosecute individuals who funded “any and all illegal operations — especially those involving terrorist actions — conducted by antifa or any person claiming to act on behalf of antifa.”

Leavitt told reporters Monday the administration is “aggressively” looking into who is financially backing these operations.

Trump has floated the possibility of going after people such as George Soros, a billionaire who has supported many left-leaning causes around the world.

“If you look at Soros, he is at the top of everything,” Trump said during an Oval Office appearance last month.

The White House has not yet made public any details about a formal investigation into a donors, but Leavitt said the administration’s efforts are under way.

“We will continue to get to the bottom of who is funding these organizations and this organized anarchy against our country and our government,” Leavitt said. “We are committed to uncovering it.”

Michael Wilner, Ana Ceballos

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October 6, 2025
Both sides dig in ahead of threatened government shutdown

WASHINGTON — Washington is barreling toward a government shutdown Tuesday night, with few signs of an off-ramp as Democrats and Republicans dig in for a fight over government spending.

Democratic leadership on Capitol Hill is insisting on an extension of Affordable Care Act tax credits as part of a package to fund the government. At least seven Democratic votes are needed in the Senate to pass a seven-week stopgap bill that cleared the House last week.

But Republican lawmakers and the White House have dismissed the proposal, with senior officials in the Trump administration threatening to use unique legal authorities granted during a government shutdown to conduct yet more mass firings of federal workers.

Bipartisan congressional leadership met with President Trump at the White House on Monday afternoon in a last-minute effort to avert the crisis. But neither side exited the meeting with expectations of a breakthrough. On the contrary, Republican leaders in the House told the GOP caucus to plan to return to work next week and said they would hold a news conference on Wednesday anticipating the government’s closure.

“We are not going to support a partisan Republican spending bill that continues to gut the healthcare of everyday Americans, period, full stop,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said Monday.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer talk to reporters outside the White House.

(Alex Brandon / Associated Press)

Vice President JD Vance said he thought the country was “headed to a shutdown,” labeling Democratic calls for healthcare tax credits an “absurd” demand that amounts to an “excuse for shutting down the people’s government.”

“You don’t use your policy disagreements as leverage to not pay our troops,” Vance said. “That’s exactly what they’re proposing out there.”

When the government shuts down, the law requires all nonessential government services to cease, requiring most federal workers to go on furlough or work without pay. Essential services — such as national security functions and air traffic control — are not affected.

Ahead of the meeting, Trump told reporters he hoped Democrats would agree to “keeping our country open,” before proceeding to criticize their proposals.

“They’re going to have to do some things, because their ideas are not very good ones,” Trump said. “They’re very bad for our country. So we’ll see how that works out.”

But Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said he thought his message was beginning to resonate with the president after their meeting Monday afternoon.

“We have very large differences, on healthcare, and on their ability to undo whatever budget we agree to, through rescissions and through impoundment,” Schumer said. “I think for the first time, the president heard our objections and heard why we needed a bipartisan bill. Their bill has not one iota of Democratic input. That is never how we’ve done this before.”

“We’ve made to the president some proposals,” Schumer added. “Ultimately, he’s a decision-maker.”

Schumer faced widespread ridicule from within his party in March after reversing course during the last showdown, choosing then to support the Trump administration’s continuing resolution to fund the government at the height of an aggressive purge of the federal workforce.

At that point, Schumer feared a shutdown could accelerate the firings. But Schumer is now defiant, despite the renewed threat of layoffs, after the White House Office of Management and Budget circulated a memo last week directing federal agencies to relieve workers on discretionary projects that lose funding after Oct. 1.

“This is an attempt at intimidation,” Schumer said in response to the memo. “Donald Trump has been firing federal workers since day one — not to govern, but to scare. This is nothing new and has nothing to do with funding the government.”

Vice President JD Vance talks to reporters as House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune listen.

(Alex Brandon / Associated Press)

Still, Schumer began gauging his caucus Monday afternoon on the prospects of a continuing resolution that would in effect delay a shutdown by a week, briefly extending government funding in order to continue negotiations.

Betting markets had chances of a shutdown soaring above 70% by the end of the day on Monday.

Speaking to Fox News on Monday, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said the president’s position was “the reasonable and commonsense thing to do,” calling on Democrats to continue funding to the military and its veterans.

“All we are asking for is a commonsense, clean funding resolution — a continuing resolution — to keep the government open,” Leavitt said. “This is a bill that keeps the government funded at the exact same levels as today, just adjusted for inflation.”

“So there is zero good reason for the Democrats to vote against this,” she added. “The president is giving Democrat leadership one last chance to be reasonable.”

But Jeffries dismissed Leavitt as “divorced from reality” in a podcast interview.

“In what world will any rational American conclude, after we’ve been lectured throughout the year about this so-called mandate that the Republican Party has in this country, and their complete control of government in Washington, that because Democrats are unwilling to gut the healthcare of the American people as part of the Republican healthcare crisis, that it’s us shutting the government down?” Jeffries said.

“Nobody’s buying that,” he continued, “outside of the parts of the MAGA base who basically, seemingly, will buy anything that Donald Trump has to peddle.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said he would call a vote on funding the government Tuesday afternoon.

“This is purely and simply hostage-taking,” Thune said Monday. Whether it passes or fails, he said, is “up to the Democrats.”

Michael Wilner

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September 29, 2025
Fire breaks out near El Dorado Hills, cameras show
A fire sparked Monday afternoon in El Dorado County, putting up black smoke.Cal Fire’s Amador-El Dorado Unit said the fire was burning in the area of Sweet Valley Road in Rescue near El Dorado Hills. AlertCalifornia cameras appear to have picked up smoke around 1:30 p.m. Aircraft can be seen in the area. As of 1:50 p.m., the fire continues to produce smoke.The El Dorado Hills Fire Department shared video on Facebook that showed the fire burning on a hillside near homes. The fire has burned at least 15 acres, the post said. This is a developing story. KCRA 3 is working to gather details on the fire. Stay with us for the latest.See news happening? Send us your photos or videos if it’s safe to do so at kcra.com/upload.| MORE | A 2025 guide for how to prepare for wildfires in California | Northern California wildfire resources by county: Find evacuation info, sign up for alertsCal Fire wildfire incidents: Cal Fire tracks its wildfire incidents here. You can sign up to receive text messages for Cal Fire updates on wildfires happening near your ZIP code here.Wildfires on federal land: Federal wildfire incidents are tracked here.Preparing for power outages: Ready.gov explains how to prepare for a power outage and what to do when returning from one here. Here is how to track and report PG&E power outages.Keeping informed when you’ve lost power and cellphone service: How to find a National Weather Service radio station near you.Be prepared for road closures: Download Caltrans’ QuickMap app or check the latest QuickMap road conditions here.
EL DORADO HILLS, Calif. —

A fire sparked Monday afternoon in El Dorado County, putting up black smoke.

Cal Fire’s Amador-El Dorado Unit said the fire was burning in the area of Sweet Valley Road in Rescue near El Dorado Hills.

AlertCalifornia cameras appear to have picked up smoke around 1:30 p.m. Aircraft can be seen in the area. As of 1:50 p.m., the fire continues to produce smoke.

The El Dorado Hills Fire Department shared video on Facebook that showed the fire burning on a hillside near homes.

The fire has burned at least 15 acres, the post said.

This is a developing story. KCRA 3 is working to gather details on the fire. Stay with us for the latest.

See news happening? Send us your photos or videos if it’s safe to do so at kcra.com/upload.

| MORE | A 2025 guide for how to prepare for wildfires in California | Northern California wildfire resources by county: Find evacuation info, sign up for alerts
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September 1, 2025
Neighbors fight flames as Edgehill fire levels homes in San Bernardino

A fast-moving wildfire burned through a hillside community in San Bernardino on Monday afternoon, sending residents running and engulfing homes with black smoke and rippling, sky-high flames.

The Edgehill fire erupted in the 3300 block of Beverly Drive on Little Mountain about 2:40 p.m., according to San Bernardino County fire officials, who called for 10 additional engines immediately when they arrived, and reported at the time that the fire had already burned five acres.

Early reports said the fire grew to at least 100 acres. By about 6 p.m., county officials said that the forward progress of the fire had been stopped, and that the blaze was holding at 54 acres with 25% contained.

“At this point the fire is very much under control,” according to a statement late Monday evening from the San Bernardino Police Department, which has been working closely with county fire officials.

Arson investigators are still assessing the scene to determine how the fire started. One person was detained for a few hours but has since been released, according to the police.

Dramatic videos from the scene show at least three homes consumed by fire, with residents rushing to leave their burning properties amid blackened, smoke-filled skies. One video circulating on social media shows a man hurrying as quickly as possible while cradling a large turkey that he had presumably saved from the raging fire.

Homeowner Martin Schneider uses a pail to throw water on the burning ground behind his house in San Bernardino on Monday.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Directly downwind of the burning homes, more than eight neighbors scrambled to help Martin and Sandra Schneider save their home from flying embers.

They could see the homes above them on the ridge completely aflame, and using whatever they could — garden hoses, rakes, buckets of water — they helped the Schneiders buy time while firefighters uphill called for additional backup.

“I’m grateful for the community coming together,” Sandra Schneider said. “They were true heroes until the Fire Department came.”

Temperatures in San Bernardino soared to more than 100 degrees on Monday. The National Weather Service issued an excessive heat warning for the area until 11 p.m. Tuesday, saying conditions would be dangerously hot, with the thermometer expected to reach 110 degrees.

Evacuation orders were issued to all residents south of Ridge Line Drive and north of Edgehill Road, west to and including Beverly Drive, and east to Circle Road. As of 9 p.m. Monday, authorities said the evacuation orders would remain in effect.

The Red Cross has set up an evacuation center and is providing overnight shelter at Cajon High School, at 1200 W. Hill Drive, for anyone affected by the fire.

A resident uses a garden hose to help save a house on West Edgehill Road in San Bernardino on Monday afternoon.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Gina Ferazzi, Rosanna Xia, Hannah Fry

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August 5, 2024
Serrano fire in Corona threatens homes, prompting road closures and evacuations

A brush fire erupted Monday afternoon in the city of Corona, threatening dozens of homes, closing streets and prompting some evacuations, according to the Corona Fire Department.

The brush fire, dubbed the Serrano fire, broke out around 2:42 p.m. in the 600 block of Corona Avenue, not far from Serrano Drive, according to Corona fire spokesman Daniel Yonan.

Late afternoon sunlight seeps through the brush as firefighters fight the Serrano fire from the ground and air in Corona on Monday.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

He said the fire started to move toward dozens of homes up on Mandevilla Way, prompting fire officials to call for two water helicopters and other reinforcements. Later in the afternoon, officials reported that the fire’s spread had been stopped and the blaze contained to less than 12 acres, although crews from 18 engines were on the scene and continuing to put out hot spots.

No official evacuation orders were issued, but law enforcement officers asked residents living along Mandevilla Way, Via Blairo and Tampico Circle to evacuate out of precaution. Those orders were to remain in place until 8 p.m. Monday.

Police also closed several major roads into the area, including Parkridge Avenue at Tesoro Way, Hidden Valley Parkway at Via Blairo and Corona Avenue at Gilmore Drive.

No homes had been lost and no injuries reported as of 5 p.m. Monday. The cause of the fire remains unknown and under investigation.

Fire officials plan to send more updates for residents on social media.

Ruben Vives

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June 24, 2024
Pro-Palestinian protesters shut down 101 Freeway in downtown L.A.

Dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters briefly shutdown the 101 Freeway in downtown Los Angeles on Monday afternoon.

The protesters blocked traffic as they held Palestinian flags and signs reading “Stop the Genocide” and “End the Occupation Now!” and chanted “Eyes on Rafah!” according to video posted to social media, including by journalist Ben Camacho.

The protest came a day after what appeared to be one of the deadliest attacks in Israel’s ongoing war with Hamas.

On Sunday, an Israeli strike on a tent camp housing displaced Palestinians in the southern Gaza city of Rafah killed dozens. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday described the strike as a “tragic mistake” that was under investigation.

Tens of thousands of people — many civilians — have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its war on Hamas after an assault by Hamas fighters in Israel in October. Large portions of Gaza have been destroyed and cut off from aid, spurring months of protests around the world and across the U.S., including on many college campuses.

The United Nations’ top court ordered Israel to halt its assault on Rafah last week.

A Los Angeles Police Department spokesman said Monday that officers were called to monitor a protest downtown about 3 p.m.

“We responded to some protesters walking through the immediate downtown area,” LAPD Officer Jeff Lee said. “Initially they started blocking traffic, but then they were up on the sidewalk obeying traffic laws — and that’s when they went down onto the freeway.”

California Highway Patrol Sgt. Alejandro Rubio said that LAPD alerted the CHP that about 50 protesters had moved onto the freeway near Alameda Street at 4:48 p.m.

However, by the time CHP officers arrived at the scene around 5 p.m., there were no longer any protesters on the freeway, Rubio said.

“They were all on the surface streets,” he said.

Lee said LAPD officers continued to monitor protesters in the downtown area afterward.

“We’re just going to ensure public safety and the well-being of all individuals,” he said.

Kevin Rector

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May 27, 2024
Now It’s Nikki Haley

Does Nikki Haley really have a shot at beating Donald Trump? Does any Republican?

On Monday afternoon, a basketball gym in Bluffton, South Carolina, was packed with people who had come to hear Haley’s latest sales pitch. Hundreds more were waiting outside. No Republican candidate besides Trump can reliably draw more than a thousand attendees, but about 2,500 showed up for Haley. (Granted, this speech was in Haley’s home state, where she formerly served as governor. Also, the gym was a stone’s throw from the Sun City retirement community, a place where, gently speaking, people may have had nothing better to do at 2 p.m. on a Monday.) One of Haley’s volunteers told me this weekday event had originally been booked at a nearby restaurant, but that, given the current excitement of the campaign, organizers pivoted to the gym, on the University of South Carolina at Beaufort campus. Everyone in Haley’s orbit is understandably riveted. She’s squarely challenging Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for second place in the Republican presidential primary, no matter how second that place may be.

While the former president still floats high above his dwindling field of competitors, Haley is the only person who keeps rising in the polls. Her climb is steady, not a blip. Haley’s campaign and super PAC are planning to spend $10 million on advertisements over the next eight weeks across Iowa and New Hampshire. On Tuesday, she received an endorsement from the Koch brothers’ network, Americans for Prosperity Action, and along with it an undisclosed amount of financial support. (It will be a lot.) But this year-end, all-in effort to stop Trump ignores the fact that he is a singular vortex, a once-in-a-century figure, a living martyr with a traveling Grateful Dead–like roadshow. His abhorrent behavior and legal woes do not matter. Three weeks ago, at his rally in South Florida, vendors told me that items with Trump’s mug shot are their biggest sellers. How does a mere generational figure, as her supporters hope Haley might be, compete with that?

Haley bounded up onstage in a light-blue blazer and jeans. “We’ve been through a lot together,” she told the crowd. She meandered back and forth—no lectern, no teleprompter. When you ask people what they like about her, many point to her presence, her poise. Haley delivers her stump speech in a singsong voice. A few words, a pause, a smile. Speaking to the Low Country crowd, she seemed to be thickening her southern accent and peppering in a few extra-emphatic finger points for good measure. She’s just a down-home, neighborly southerner whose most recent job happened to be in Manhattan, serving at the United Nations. The volunteer who had bragged to me about the venue change later pulled out his phone and showed me a photo of himself and Haley at a wedding reception. He pointed to her bare feet. She’s so real, he said.

Read: Nikki Haley offers an alternate reality

Several women in the audience were wearing pink shirts with a Margaret Thatcher quote on the back: If you want something said, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman. Sue Ruby, a 74-year-old attendee from nearby Savannah, Georgia, was wearing a WOMEN FOR NIKKI button on her sweater. “I feel like we’ve given men a lot of years to straighten our society out, and they haven’t done so great, so let’s try a woman,” she said. Ruby told me she’s a Republican who begrudgingly voted for Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden in the past two elections because she viewed Trump as a threat to democracy. A Sun City resident named Lorraine, age 79, told me that “it’s time for a woman,” but that she would nevertheless vote for Trump if he wins the nomination. “I don’t want to vote for the opposite,” she said, refusing to say Biden’s name. Carolyn Ballard, an 80-year-old woman from Hilton Head, South Carolina, told me she’s a lifelong Republican who voted for Trump twice, but that she believes he’s past his prime and that Haley is her candidate. “He just irritates people and he stirs up a lot of trouble,” she said of Trump. “Although he’s very smart, and he did a lot for the country. I mean, everybody was happy when he was president.”

Haley doesn’t lean as hard into gender dynamics as past female presidential candidates have. Nevertheless, she skillfully uses her womanhood and Indian heritage as setups for certain lines. “I have been underestimated in everything I’ve ever done,” she told the room. “And it’s a blessing, because it makes me scrappy. No one’s going to outwork me in this race. No one’s going to outsmart me in this race.” Or this: “Strong girls become strong women, and strong women become strong leaders,” which had a surprise left turn: “And none of that happens if we have biological boys playing in girls’ sports.” (Huge applause.)

Courting Never Trump voters, exhausted Trump voters, and, yes, even some likely Trump voters simultaneously is not an easy trick. She hardly ever criticizes her former boss. Here’s her most biting critique from Monday: “I believe President Trump was the right president at the right time … and I agree with a lot of his policies. But the truth is, rightly or wrongly, chaos follows him.” (Note the passivity; she won’t even say Trump catalyzes the chaos.) Having already served as his ambassador to the UN, she may be under consideration for vice president. Compared with his attacks on Ron DeSantis, Trump has gone relatively soft on her, opting for the mid-century misogynistic slight “birdbrain.” Like most of her competitors, Haley has said she would pardon him.

Whereas Trump has tacked authoritarian and apocalyptic, Haley has mostly kept her messaging grounded. At the rally, she bemoaned the price of groceries and gas. “Biden worries more about sagebrush lizards than he does about Americans being able to afford their energy,” she quipped. (She also called out her fellow Republicans for adding to the deficit.) She’s a military wife, and spoke about her husband’s PTSD and the persistent problem of homeless veterans. Though she lacks Trump’s innate knack for zingers, she landed one about how things might change if members of Congress got their health care through the VA: “It’ll be the best health care you’ve ever seen, guaranteed.”

Although many of her fellow Republicans have adopted a nativist view of the world, Haley waxes at length about America’s geopolitical role. (And subsequently gets tagged as a globalist.) “The world is literally on fire,” she said Monday. She affirmed her support for both Israel and Ukraine, and went long on the triple threat of Russia, China, and Iran, paying particular attention to China as a national-security issue. In doing so, knowingly or not, she began to sound quite Trumpy. “They’re already here. They’ve already infiltrated our country,” Haley said. “We’ve got to start looking at China the way they look at us.” She called for an end to normal trade relations with China until they stop “murdering” Americans with fentanyl. She chastened the audience with images of China’s 500 nuclear warheads and its rapidly expanding naval fleet. “Dictators are actually very transparent. They tell us exactly what they’re going to do,” she said.

Perhaps Haley’s biggest advantage right now is her relative youth. She’ll turn 52 three days before the New Hampshire primary. Trump has lately been making old-man gaffes, drawing comparisons to Biden, who was first elected to the Senate the year Haley was born. She speaks wistfully of “tomorrow,” of leaving certain things—unspecified baggage—in the past. “You have to go with a new generational leader,” Haley proclaimed. Onstage, she endorsed congressional term limits and the idea of mental-competency tests for public servants older than 75. The Senate, she joked, had become “the most privileged nursing home in the country.” Throwing shade at both Trump and Biden, she spoke of the need for leaders at “the top of their game.” Hundreds of gray-and-white-haired supporters before her nodded and murmured in approval.

Monday’s event took place roughly 90 miles south of Charleston, where, in 2015, Dylann Roof murdered nine Black parishioners at Emanuel AME Church, hoping to start a race war. At the time, Haley was governor of South Carolina, and Trump—who had descended the golden escalator and announced his candidacy for president just the day before—still seemed like a carnival act. Photos of Roof posing with a Confederate flag ricocheted across social media. Haley had the flag taken down from the South Carolina statehouse, a reversal from her earlier position on the flag. Five years later, after the murder of George Floyd, Haley tweeted that, “in order to heal,” Floyd’s death “needs to be personal and painful for everyone.” During Monday’s rally, though, she sounded much more like an old-school Republican: “America’s not racist; we’re blessed,” she said. “Our kids need to love America. They need to be saying the Pledge of Allegiance when they start school.”

As her audience grows, she continues to tiptoe along a very fine line: not MAGA, not anti-MAGA. In lieu of Trump-style airbrushed fireworks and bald eagles and Lee Greenwood, she’s going for something slightly classier (leaving the stage to Tom Petty’s “American Girl”) while still seizing every opportunity to own the libs. At the rally, she attacked the military’s gender-pronoun training and received substantial applause. “We’ve got to end this national self-loathing that’s taken over our country,” she said. Early in her speech, she promised that she would speak hard truths. As she approached her conclusion, one hard truth stuck out: “Republicans have lost the last seven out of eight popular votes for president. That is nothing to be proud of. We should want to win the majority of Americans.” It was the closest thing to a truly forward-thinking message that any serious Republican has offered this cycle.

In the most generous of interpretations, the race for the GOP nomination is now among three people: Haley, DeSantis, and Trump. Mike Pence is already out. Tim Scott, Haley’s fellow South Carolinian, dropped out two weeks ago. Vivek Ramaswamy, who has struggled to break out of single digits in the polls, recently rented an apartment in Des Moines and will almost certainly stay in the race through the Iowa caucuses. Ramaswamy has also unexpectedly become Haley’s punching bag: Her campaign said she pulled in $1 million in donations after calling him “scum” during the last debate.

At next week’s debate in Alabama, the stage will likely be winnowed to Ramaswamy, Haley, and DeSantis. (“When the stage gets smaller, our chances get bigger,” Haley told her rally crowd.) DeSantis seems to be betting his whole campaign on Iowa, and has secured the endorsement of Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds. This weekend, DeSantis will complete his 99-county tour of the state. Haley needs to beat DeSantis, but she also needs his voters if she has any serious shot of taking on Trump. If DeSantis drops out before Haley, his supporters are far more likely to flock to Trump. So maybe Haley needs a deus ex machina. In 2020, Biden’s campaign was viewed as all but cooked when, here in South Carolina, with the help of Representative Jim Clyburn, everything turned around, propelling him to Super Tuesday and the nomination.

Haley’s campaign declined to let her speak with me. A spokesperson, Olivia Perez-Cubas, instead emailed me the following statement: “Poll after poll show Nikki Haley is the best challenger to Donald Trump and Joe Biden. That’s why the largest conservative grassroots coalition in the country just got behind her. Nikki is second in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina and is the only candidate with the momentum to go the distance. Ron DeSantis has a short shelf life with his Iowa-or-bust strategy.”

David A. Graham: Nikki Haley is the new Ron DeSantis

As rally-goers made their way to the parking lot, I struck up conversation with a man in a T-shirt that read NOPE NOT AGAIN, with Trump’s hair and giant red necktie decorating the O. He wore a camouflage baseball hat with an American flag on the dome. The man, Mike Stevens, told me he was a 25-year Army veteran, and that he was disgusted with Trump.

“He’s a bully. He’s not good. He causes hate and discontent,” Stevens said. “I mean, he didn’t uphold the Constitution. And now we’ve had a judge say that. First time ever—no peaceful transfer of power? Even Al Gore did it. I’ve always been a Republican, but if it’s him and Biden, I’ll vote for Biden, I guess.”

He was excited about Haley, and had been texting his friends and family about her rally—trying to wean them off their Trump addiction. But he also told me he had written Haley a letter: He was dismayed by her promise to pardon Trump, and he needed her to know that.

John Hendrickson

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November 30, 2023