Amid 'Dueling Debates', Vivek Warns 'The System' Will Force Haley-DeSantis Ticket To Bring Down Trump

Given Donald Trump's absolute dominance over the current 2024 GOP field, Vivek Ramaswamy has a prediction:

Nikki Haley will become the establishment's 'puppet' candidate, and Ron DeSantis will be forced to join her ticket as VP.

"Here’s the plot: 1. Narrow this to a 2-horse race between Trump & a puppet they can control. 2. Eliminate Trump. 3. Trot their puppet into the White House. Prediction: next up, Ron DeSantis joins Nikki Haley’s ticket as VP. Ron may not know it yet, but he won’t have a say in the matter," Ramaswamy posted on X.

Of course, Chris Christie thinks Haley is 'gonna get smoked' because 'she's not up to this,' but we digress.

Haley and DeSantis take shots at Trump

On Wednesday, and we don't blame you if you missed it, Haley and DeSantis took shots at the former president (and each other) at a debate hosted by CNN in Des Moines, Iowa - after two other contenders, Gov. Asa Hutchinson and Vivek Ramaswamy, failed to meet the heightened requirements to participate.

At the start of the debate, Mr. DeSantis said—as he often has—that the former president is “running to pursue his issues.” Ms. Haley soon said that she doesn’t think the 45th president “is the right president to go forward,” touting herself as “a new generational leader.”

Mr. Tapper, one of CNN’s moderators, noted that President Trump had not accepted their invitation to take part in the pre-caucus debate. The former leader of the United States instead held a town hall elsewhere in Des Moines that aired on Fox News.

DeSantis tried to capitalize on his comments via X following the debate. 

Haley, meanwhile, is right on course to piss off the more than 1/3 of US adults who say the 2020 election was illegitimate.

"That election—Trump lost it [and] Biden won that election," said Haley, adding that Trump would "have to answer" for Jan. 6, without specifying what she meant.

Haley and DeSantis also slammed Trump's claim of presidential immunity in a DC federal appeals court considering his 2020 election case, with DeSantis saying: "I think the D.C. circuit is going to rule against Trump on that issue," and that "a stacked, left-wing D.C. jury of all Democrats" is going to give Trump the business.

Haley suggested Trump's immunity argument is "absolutely ridiculous."

"What has President Trump done? You look at the last few years, and our country is completely divided," Haley said, apparently unaware that Trump hasn't been president 'the last few years.'

For a deeper dive into the Haley - DeSantis slap fight, the Daily Caller has a good writeup here.

Trump, meanwhile...

While Haley and DeSantis traded barbs, Trump sat down with Fox News hosts Bret Baier and Martha MacCalllum for a live town hall event, also in Iowa.

When asked by Baier about his plans for "retribution and looking backwards" during a second term, Trump said: "Well, first of all, a lot of people would say that’s not so bad," adding "Look, what they did: Russia, Russia, Russia hoax; the FBI/Twitter hoax; the 51 intelligence agents hoax – all of these different hoaxes that they did. You know, a lot of people would say that’s probably quite normal."

"I’m not going to have time for retribution," the former president continued. "We’re going to make this country so successful again, I’m not going to have time for retribution. And remember this: our ultimate retribution is success."

Trump has taken flack for March comments at CPAC, in which he told the crowd: "In 2016, I declared, ‘I am your voice.’ Today I add: I am your warrior, I am your justice, and for those that have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution. I am your retribution."