GOP Seeks to Sideline Trump in State of the Union Response

GOP Seeks to Sideline Trump in State of the Union Response

Zeke J Miller @ZekeJMiller

Jan. 12, 2016 Updated: Jan. 13, 2016 12:04 AM ET

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley sought to respond to Americans’ frustrations with Washington in her response to President Obama’s final State of the Union address, while seeking to mitigate the damage done to the Republican brand by the candidacy of Donald Trump.

Selected by Speaker Paul Ryan last month, Haley represents a new face for the GOP—the first woman and the first minority governor of her state—who saw her star rise in the aftermath of the Charleston shooting last year and overseeing the removal of the Confederate Battle Flag from the South Carolina state capital.

The pick reflects Ryan’s desire to offer a positive counterbalance to the divisive Republican primary, while reflecting the frustration with the nation’s capital with the choice of someone from outside of Washington.

“During anxious times, it can be tempting to follow the siren call of the angriest voices,” Haley, 43, said, alluding to the bombastic Republican front-runner. “We must resist that temptation. No one who is willing to work hard, abide by our laws, and love our traditions should ever feel unwelcome in this country.”

Listing many of the same themes that Trump is feeding off, Haley, the daughter of Indian immigrants, argued that the GOP could take a more constructive course.

“The President’s record has often fallen far short of his soaring words,” she said. “As he enters his final year in office, many Americans are still feeling the squeeze of an economy too weak to raise income levels. We’re feeling a crushing national debt, a health care plan that has made insurance less affordable and doctors less available, and chaotic unrest in many of our cities. Even worse, we are facing the most dangerous terrorist threat our nation has seen since September 11th, and this president appears either unwilling or unable to deal with it. Soon, the Obama presidency will end, and America will have the chance to turn in a new direction.”

Haley laid blame on both parties, pledging that the GOP, with Ryan now at the helm and with the prospect of a new president, would seek to restore trust.

“We as Republicans need to own that truth,” she said. We need to recognize our contributions to the erosion of the public trust in America’s leadership. We need to accept that we’ve played a role in how and why our government is broken. And then we need to fix it.”

“There’s an important lesson in this. In many parts of society today, whether in popular culture, academia, the media, or politics, there’s a tendency to falsely equate noise with results,” she added.

Haley retold the story of the Charleston shooting, in which nine black churchgoers were killed by a white man at Bible study at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church.

“Our people would not allow hate to win. We didn’t have violence, we had vigils. We didn’t have riots, we had hugs,” she said. “We removed a symbol that was being used to divide us, and we found a strength that united us against a domestic terrorist and the hate that filled him.”

Summarizing the Republican agenda of lower taxes, reforming education, and repealing Obamacare, Haley said the country has “big decisions to make” in the coming election. Seeking to put a softer tone on GOP opposition to same-sex marriage, Haley called for respect on all sides of the issue.

“We would respect differences in modern families,” she said, “but we would also insist on respect for religious liberty as a cornerstone of our democracy.”

http://time.com/4178364/state-union-...e-nikki-haley/

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Summarizing the Republican agenda of lower taxes, reforming education, and repealing Obamacare, the country has big decisions to make.

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Taxes, education and healthcare ..... this is what Socialist Democrats talk about.

Republicans talk about stopping illegal immigration, a moratorium on new immigration, deporting illegal aliens, building a wall on the southern border, stopping free trade treason, bringing our industry back home, and creating good jobs with company benefits that include health insurance and retirement plans or high enough wages that you can buy your own and still put food on the table.

Our party is in a crisis because of the disconnect between Party "Leaders" and the American People, and Nikki Haley exemplified that as well as anyone could in her speech.

Donald Trump: State of the Union punching bag

By Stephen Collinson, CNN

Updated 1:16 AM ET, Wed January 13, 2016

Washington (CNN)Donald Trump's ears must have been burning.

The political establishment that the billionaire outsider's army so despises united in a rare moment of bipartisan unity on Tuesday night -- against him.

President Barack Obama turned his valedictory State of the Union address into a repudiation of the partisanship, intolerance, and alienating rhetoric for which he believes that the GOP front-runner stands.

Then, Nikki Haley, the Indian-American governor of South Carolina who pulled down the Confederate flag last year, used the Republican Party's televised rebuttal to urge Americans to defy the "angriest voices" tearing at her party during a fractious 2016 primary.

"Some people think that you have to be the loudest voice in the room to make a difference," Haley said. "That's just not true."

Neither Obama, the lame duck president edging off the stage, nor Haley, a rising Republican star with a possible national future mentioned Trump by name. They didn't have to. Trump has dominated the political discussion since he entered the presidential race last year. And in a way, their added focus on Trump represented a backhanded compliment to The Donald, who no one took seriously at first.

After watching the political intrigue unfold in Washington and Columbia, South Carolina, from his lavish private jet, Trump delivered a characteristic verdict on Twitter.

"The #SOTU speech is really boring, slow, lethargic - very hard to watch!"

It's too early to speculate on how the flamboyant former reality show star would reinvent the State of the Union address as president.

Both Obama and Haley, of course, didn't shy away from political shots while decrying the type of rhetoric the see in the Trump-ian corner of American politics.

The President decried the GOP's "World War III" foreign policy and most strands of the party's platform. Haley responded with faint praise, saying his presidency had "fallen far short of his soaring words."

Hope and change, 2016 style

There was no mistaking the seriousness with which Obama is now taking the restive political mood that is producing one of the most angry, volatile and unpredictable presidential election races in memory.

For Obama, the antidote to Trump is clear -- it's the politics of 2008.

Despite everything -- the gridlock, the acidic politics, the stubborn hard-to-end wars, the battle over health care and the expectations he set for himself and struggled to meet, Obama still believes in the politics of hope.

"I believe in change because I believe in you!" Obama declared at the end of his speech, echoing the rallying call: "we are the change we seek," from his first White House campaign to bookend a presidency now in its final stretch.

In some ways, the politics of Trump is the exact inverse of the politics of Obama.

While the President believes the United States is at its greatest when it is pushing the barriers of progressive change, Trump speaks effectively for those Americans who believe his transformative rhetoric threatens long-held national truths they hold dear.

At one point, Obama employed a familiar trope to counter the politics of division. He transitioned for a moment back to the compelling young speaker who announced himself to the world at the Democratic convention in 2004 in Boston, with his theme that "there is not a black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America - there's the United States of America."

On this night, Obama took on the tone of a preacher when he urged Americans to listen to voices that "help us see ourselves not first and foremost as black or white or Asian or Latino, not as gay or straight, immigrant or native born; not as Democrats or Republicans -- but as Americans first."

Deep in his speech, Obama tried to rationalize Trump's appeal.

He acknowledged that technological change, automation, globalization, and competition from developing states threatened "our uniquely American belief that everybody who works hard should get a fair shot."

But the proper response was through national unity, by celebrating the nation's diversity and by doubling down on "our optimism, our work ethic, our spirit of discovery and innovation," he said.

"How do we make our politics reflect what's best in us, and not what's worse?" he asked in an apparent repudiation of what a progressive would decry as Trump's capacity to give voice to the grievances splitting American society.

Beseeching Americans to listen to the better angels of their nature, Obama warned of those "who told us to fear the future, who claimed we could slam the breaks on change."

Obama, the first African-American President, who early in his first term traveled to Cairo to seek a "new beginning" with the Muslim world, appeared pre-occupied that his administration will end amid a torrent calls for a new civilizational struggle against radical elements of Islam following the march of ISIS across the Middle East and attacks it plotted or inspired in Paris and California.

"We need to reject any politics that targets people because of race or religion," he warned, citing Pope Francis's call for tolerance last year from the same spot in the House of Representatives.

In a comment that seemed directly aimed at Trump's brand of unfettered straight talk and calls for an entry ban on Muslims, Obama said "that's not telling it like it is. It's just wrong. It diminishes us in the eyes of the world ... it betrays who we are as a country."

Haley's direct message

Haley is far to the right of Obama on the political spectrum. But her message was eerily familiar. And her selection as the official respondent to Obama was no mistake by Speaker Paul Ryan, a former GOP 'young gun' who is deeply conservative but wants to turn his party towards fighting for the poor and criminal justice reform.

With her South Asian heritage but Southern roots, Haley is exactly the kind of face the GOP had hoped to project -- more inclusive, more attractive to minorities -- and to women -- before the insurgent, anti-elite tornado named Trump arrived.

Haley recalled the terrible days last year when an armed man bent on inciting a race war gunned down black worshipers in Charleston church but noted her state "would not allow hate to win" and resolved to remove the Confederate flag, a sign of racial division for the African American community from government buildings.

She said the lesson was that it would be wrong to equate "noise with results."

"Some people think that you have to be the loudest voice in the room to make a difference. That's just not true. Often, the best thing we can do is turn down the volume. When the sound is quieter, you can actually hear what someone else is saying. And that can make a world of difference."

If Haley was making a point about the presidential race, as she surely was, it does not take a genius to identify the noisiest candidate in the room.

But Haley had to walk a fine line, reflecting the tensions hammering the Republican Party just three weeks before the first votes are cast in the presidential race.

She asked Americans not to follow that "siren call of the angriest voices" in an anxious time, and appeared to reject Trump's call for a temporary ban on Muslims coming to the United States.

"No one who is willing to work hard, abide by our laws and love our traditions should ever feel unwelcome in this country," she said.

"At the same time, that does not mean we just flat out open our borders," she added. "We cannot continue to allow immigrants to come here illegally, and in this age of terrorism, we must not let in refugees whose intentions cannot be determined."

Will the attacks stick?

Haley and Obama were both clearly making the bet that there are more Americans that disdain Trump's political style than feel validated by it.

Former Obama adviser David Axelrod, who is now a CNN analyst, predicted that his former boss would drive home Tuesday night's argument for the rest of this election year.

"He is a guy who believes we are an American community and we shouldn't turn on each other," said Axelrod.

But there is no denying that Trump has managed to speak for a particularly anxious, disillusioned and vocal sector of the Republican Party electorate -- and perhaps beyond -- who believe finally someone is talking for them.

So it's likely that Trump will embrace the disdain of party elites on display on Tuesday night as a badge of honor.

CNN analyst and Hillary Clinton supporter Paul Begala said it was a good night for Trump because he was singled out by both Obama and Haley.

Given the attacks, Begala said Trump's likely response will continue to resonate: "See, the establishment is out to get me."

http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/13/politi...016/index.html

GOP’s Official SOTU Response Helps Obama Undermine Trump
By Ed Kilgore

January 12, 2016 11:14 p.m.

Nikki Haley gave a forceful response to Donald Trump disguised as a response to Barack Obama.

At the beginning of her pre-recorded "response" to the State of the Union Address, Nikki Haley echoed the president's evocation of his 2008 campaign themes by taking up the old 2008 Republican theme of Obama being just a good speechmaker with no substance. Near the end she briskly went through the Republican critique of Obama and the standard GOP agenda of tax-cutting and Obamacare repealing and defense spending increases, etc. But in between these bookends, she did something very different.

The emotional and structural heart of Haley's speech was a not-very-subtle attack on Donald Trump as a "siren voice" of intolerance:

During anxious times, it can be tempting to follow the siren call of the angriest voices. We must resist that temptation.

No one who is willing to work hard, abide by our laws, and love our traditions should ever feel unwelcome in this country.

That was clear enough. But Haley doubled down by making the saga of the Charleston massacre earlier this year – not coincidentally the beginning of her best moment in office when she squashed conservative resistance to the removal of the Confederate flag from state property – an allegory of the kind of tensions Trump is exploiting.

What happened after the tragedy is worth pausing to think about.

"Our state was struck with shock, pain, and fear. But our people would not allow hate to win. We didn't have violence, we had vigils. We didn't have riots, we had hugs.

"We didn't turn against each other's race or religion. We turned toward God, and to the values that have long made our country the freest and greatest in the world.

"We removed a symbol that was being used to divide us, and we found a strength that united us against a domestic terrorist and the hate that filled him.

"There's an important lesson in this. In many parts of society today, whether in popular culture, academia, the media, or politics, there's a tendency to falsely equate noise with results.

"Some people think that you have to be the loudest voice in the room to make a difference. That is just not true. Often, the best thing we can do is turn down the volume. When the sound is quieter, you can actually hear what someone else is saying. And that can make a world of difference.

Not much doubt who she was talking about.

So Haley delivered the Republican Establishment's message to and about Trump as much as any message to and about Obama. By doing so, she is presumably doing their will, and will store up treasure in heaven politically. But will it make her more or less viable as a possible vice presidential nominee in 2016? That obviously depends on the identity of the person at the top of the ticket. But if I were Donald Trump and had any leverage over the GOP at the end of this nominating contest, I'd make sure Nikki Haley is buried at the Republican Convention in some pre-prime-time five minute speech slot, preferably confined to talking about the Tenth Amendment or something. She's only 43, so maybe she's shooting for a spot on the ticket – perhaps even the top spot – in 2024 or 2028.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer...ne-trump.html#

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So Haley delivered the Republican Establishment's message to and about Trump as much as any message to and about Obama. By doing so, she is presumably doing their will, and will store up treasure in heaven politically. But will it make her more or less viable as a possible vice presidential nominee in 2016? That obviously depends on the identity of the person at the top of the ticket. But if I were Donald Trump and had any leverage over the GOP at the end of this nominating contest, I'd make sure Nikki Haley is buried at the Republican Convention in some pre-prime-time five minute speech slot, preferably confined to talking about the Tenth Amendment or something. She's only 43, so maybe she's shooting for a spot on the ticket –

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perhaps even the top spot – in 2024 or 2028

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Nikki Haley like Rubio, Cruz and Jindal are not natural born citizens, which is born in the US with 2 US citizen parents, and is not eligible to be Vice President or hold any other "top spot" in 2016 or any time thereafter.

So, it looks to me like she sold her soul for nothing but the disgrace of using the GOP response to the SOTU to play personal politics against the current front-runner of the Republican primary race for President and expose her lack of knowledge concerning the qualifications to hold the offices of President or Vice President of the United States.

Haley swipes at Trump in State of the Union response

By Rachael Bade
01/12/16 07:44 PM EST
Updated 01/12/16 11:22 PM EST

South Carolina Republican Gov. Nikki Haley offered a not-so-subtle rebuke of Donald Trump's fiery immigration rhetoric as part of her response to President Barack Obama's Tuesday State of the Union speech — winning widespread praise for gracefully taking on the GOP frontrunner.

While a good chunk of her rebuttal covered the usual Republican objections to Obama's policies, from national security to Obamacare to economic policy, Haley's response seemed aimed directly at Trump as she tried to distance Republicans from some of his comments without naming him directly.

“Today, we live in a time of threats like few others in recent memory. During anxious times, it can be tempting to follow the siren call of the angriest voices,” Haley said on Tuesday, adding that she is "the proud daughter of Indian immigrants who reminded my brothers, my sister and me every day how blessed we were to live in this country.”

Trump has rocketed to the top of the polls despite a series of controversial immigration statements, including a call to ban Muslim immigrants from entering the U.S. that's been criticized by mainstream Republicans. It's the kind of rhetoric that's made many Republicans nervous about the future of the party as they strive to diversify.

“We must resist that temptation," Haley said. "No one who is willing to work hard, abide by our laws, and love our traditions should ever feel unwelcome in this country."

Republicans chose Haley, a potential 2016 vice presidential running-mate for the GOP nominee, to deliver their message to the public following Obama’s last State of the Union address to Congress, putting her in the spotlight just as veepstates speculation heats up. Some believe she could be the running mate for candidates Chris Christie, Marco Rubio or Jeb Bush, should any of them win the nomination.

And while the GOP rebuttal traditionally blasts the sitting president for his proposed policies, Haley also echoed, at least broadly, some of Obama's own comments about the risks of fear-mongering. Observers on both sides of the aisle immediately praised Haley for her poised delivery and nuanced message.

“Great job @nikkihaley ! Fantastic balance and substance. Our party is the new, young and diverse party,” tweeted RNC Chairman Reince Priebus.

Haley made headlines this summer for backing an effort to remove the Confederate flag from statehouse grounds following the racially-motivated massacre of several blacks in an African American church. Since then, she’s only risen in prominence.

She brought up the tragedy in her speech Tuesday, citing her state's reaction to the shooting as an example of how to react to a tough and ugly situation.

“We didn’t have violence, we had vigils. We didn’t have riots, we had hugs. We didn’t turn against each other’s race or religion; we turned toward God,” she said. “We removed a symbol that was being used to divide us, and we found a strength that united us against a domestic terrorist and the hate that filled him.”

She continued, again seeming to hit at Trump for his reactionary responses to difficult predicaments: "There’s a tendency to falsely equate noise with results. Some people think that you have to be the loudest voice in the room to make a difference. That is just not true. Often, the best thing we can do is turn down the volume."

The GOP rebuttal has been a stumbling block for some Republicans, most recently for GOP candidate Marco Rubio, who three years ago was widely mocked for chugging water in the middle of his speech. When Haley got the nod for rebuttal, he texted her: “Make sure you drink water beforehand.”

Haley's speech aimed to strike a delicate balance, cheer leading for conservative policies but also distancing the party from Trump.

Speaking from Columbia, the South Carolina capital city, she praised Obama’s election as one that “broke historic barriers and inspired millions of Americans,” before quickly transitioning to a criticism, saying he “has often fallen far short of his soaring words.” She also flicked at the anti-Washington sentiment, what she called the “frustrations” with “promises made and never kept” — even pointing a finger at unnamed fellow Republicans.

The Wrongometer

“We need to be honest with each other, and with ourselves: while Democrats in Washington bear much responsibility for the problems facing America today, they do not bear it alone. There is more than enough blame to go around,” she said. "We as Republicans need to own that truth…. recognize our contributions to the erosion of the public trust in America’s leadership. We need to accept that we’ve played a role in how and why our government is broken.”

Her retort made it clear that Republicans want to take the nation in a different direction, just as the 2016 presidential campaign heats up and caucus-goers prepare to cast the first votes in a few weeks. While the GOP nominee is still a big question mark, Republicans on the Hill have tried to rally the party around a host of conservative ideas they hope will bolster their party’s bid to win back the White House in the fall. Haley touched on many of those.

There was plenty of red meat for the right sprinkled in, too, of course. She knocked high taxes saying “if we held the White House, taxes would be lower for working families." She dug at Obamacare as a "disastrous health care program" that the GOP would replace.

And she threw a bone to gun-rights advocates and conservatives, just a few days after Obama announced new gun regulations. Republicans, she said, “would recognize the importance of the separation of powers and honor the Constitution in its entirety. And yes, that includes the Second and Tenth Amendments.”

Haley also knocked Obama for not protecting the nation from terror and feeding the national debt.

“We’re feeling a crushing national debt, a health care plan that has made insurance less affordable and doctors less available, and chaotic unrest in many of our cities,” Haley said. “Even worse, we are facing the most dangerous terrorist threat our nation has seen since September 11th, and this president appears either unwilling or unable to deal with it.”
State of the Union 2016 full Republican response

She also added a caveat after her comments about welcoming immigrants, saying “at the same time, that does not mean we just flat out open our borders.”

“We cannot continue to allow immigrants to come here illegally, and in this age of terrorism, we must not let in refugees whose intentions cannot be determined,” she said. “That means stopping illegal immigration. And it means welcoming properly vetted legal immigrants, regardless of their race or religion.”

She said Republicans would strengthen the military, too, "so both our friends and our enemies would know that America seeks peace, but when we fight wars we win them.”
Authors:

Read more: http://www.politico.com/blogs/state-...#ixzz3x7xcTNtx

Nikki Haley Will Be Responding to Trump, not Obama
The South Carolina governor is the GOP's answer to Trumpism—but it's not enough.
By Jeet Heer
January 12, 2016

South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley has been tagged to respond to President Obama’s State of the Union response tonight, yet it is hard not to see her as the Republicans party’s response not to an outgoing president so much as an internal threat. Although as stalwart a conservative as needed to please the GOP base, Haley is personally and politically the antithesis of Donald Trump. By giving the prominent role of responding to Obama to Haley, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan is sending a strong signal that Trumpism is not where the future of the party should be. Yet Haley, despite her considerable reputation, won’t be enough to quell the rising support for Trump within the party—or to put a more reasonable face on the ascendant politics he represents.

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Signal

There’s every reason to think that the selection of Haley is a futile gesture, and that the national party’s heart is closer to Trump than to the South Carolina governor.

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It’s easy to run down the list of differences between Trump and Haley. He’s a boorish sexist; she’s an accomplished female politician who has overcome misogynist allegations (including rumors of marital infidelity). He’s the avatar of white nationalism and xenophobia; she’s the daughter of Sikh immigrants from India. He’s the anti-politician with no record in office; she’s been governor of South Carolina since 2010. He inflames culture-war issues; she pushed for the removal of the Confederate flag from the state capital after the Charleston massacre.

Haley is no moderate. She takes the standard conservative line on a host of issues. She’s anti-union, anti-gun control, anti-abortion, anti-Obamacare, and favors the strict enforcement of immigration laws. She’s done nothing to make state government more racially diverse in South Carolina.

But as right-wing as she is, Haley also draws the line at Trump-style demonization of racial and religious minorities. Asked about Trump’s hostile comments about undocumented immigrants last July on Meet the Press, she said, “We need to make sure that we’re always communicating in a way that’s got respect and dignity, and that’s what so much was about with South Carolina was, when we saw all of this happen, people respected each other. They may have disagreed, but they respected each other. That tone is important for the country.”

To subtly underscore the differences between Haley and Trump, Ryan said, “If you want to hear an inclusive leader who’s visionary, who’s got a path for the future, who’s brought people together, who’s unified, it’s Nikki Haley.”

Yet there’s every reason to think that the selection of Haley is a futile gesture, and that the national party’s heart is closer to Trump than to the South Carolina governor. After all, elements of Haley’s resume are evident in candidates who are already campaigning unsuccessfully against Trump (or have already given up). Jeb Bush, John Kasich, Chris Christie, Bobby Jindal, George Pataki, and Rick Perry all have creditable experience as governors, yet they either trail Trump badly or have dropped out. Jindal and Marco Rubio both have inspiring up-from-the-bootstraps immigrant stories, but GOP voters seem to prefer the white son born into wealth. Some of the other candidates, notably Bush and Kasich, occasionally decry Trump’s xenophobia in terms similar to Haley’s—but they lag well behind Trump, while Ted Cruz gains traction by echoing the frontrunner.

For voters at large, Haley might represent a much more welcoming face of the Republican Party than Trump. But simply having Haley give the response to the State of the Union seems an irrelevant public-relations stunt in an election year when Donald Trump is setting the pace for the national party.

Jeet Heer is a senior editor at the New Republic.

https://newrepublic.com/article/1274...rump-not-obama

The truth be told, it was actually several major corporations who insisted the flag come down and based this decision to locate in South Carolina on that happening. This came out in the fabulous speech by the female member of the SC House of Representatives, Jenny Horne. Those are the people who actually caused the vote. Haley was there saying she would sign it and would like to see it happen, but it was that speech by Jenny Horne with the power of American Industry behind her that got it done.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/09/us/sou...-horne-speech/

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enny Horne's tearful Confederate flag speech shakes S.C. State House
Ben Brumfield-Profile-Image

By Ben Brumfield, CNN

Updated 7:04 PM ET, Thu July 9, 2015

(CNN)When Jenny Horne stepped up to the podium to address South Carolina's House of Representatives, her first words let on that she was fed up. Just not how fed up.

Of the words stirred by passion in the debate that eventually led lawmakers to vote to remove the Confederate battle flag from the State House grounds, hers would burn themselves into memory.

Horne started out with a calm complaint.

"We are going to be doing this all summer long," she said after stepping up to the microphone, referring to a stream of amendments that the flag's supporters were adding to the bill and effectively delaying a vote.
Lawmaker gets emotional after Confederate flag decision

Lawmaker gets emotional after Confederate flag decision 01:56

But eventually Horne, a white Republican representative from a town near Charleston, looked over to her black legislative friends. Then she really, tearfully, got going.

"I cannot believe that we do not have the heart in this body," she said, pausing to swallow her sobs, then raising her voice to shout, "to do something meaningful, such as take a symbol of hate off these grounds on Friday."

She thrust her finger at the floor with every word of her demand.

"And if any of you vote to amend, you are ensuring that this flag will fly beyond Friday. And for the widow of Sen. (Clementa) Pinckney and his two young daughters, that would be adding insult to injury, and I will not be a part of it."

'Enough about heritage'

She was referring to the tragedy that had brought lawmakers to this debate: the June 17 killings, allegedly by a white shooter, of nine black members of a Bible study at a Charleston church, including the pastor, state Sen. Clementa Pinckney.

Horne, who attended Pinckney's funeral, wanted the flag down badly, believing it to be a symbol of hate and racism.

But before her speech, she listened as a handful of the flag's supporters introduced one amendment after another.

They introduced nit-picking stipulations: Add a new flagpole; dig up flower beds; get budget approval from a museum first; wait a year, then hold a referendum; just go home and think it over some more.

They threatened to create new committee meetings and new legislative sessions to deal with them. If that happened, the flag would keep flapping -- for weeks, months, maybe longer.

By the time Horne got up to speak, fresh grief was simmering under her skin.

She told her colleagues that the suspected shooter, allegedly motivated by racism, had revered the flag for all the wrong reasons and that she was sick of arguments that have kept it aloft for decades.

"I'm sorry, I have heard enough about heritage," she said.

The heritage of the Confederacy is personal for Horne, 42. She says she is a descendant of Jefferson Davis, the Confederate president. But the flag, she said, had to go.

"Remove this flag and do it today. Because this issue is not getting any better with age."

She walked away from the podium and into bear hugs from her African-American colleagues.

In the State House, the proposed amendments kept on coming, but lawmakers kept voting them down.

Finally, early Thursday, the House voted 94-20 to pass the bill to remove the flag.

Confederate flag debate: A state-by-state roundup

Horne tweeted out her joy. "It wasn't easy. It wasn't without emotion. But I'm so proud of my colleagues for doing the right thing. The Confederate flag is coming down."

'It took a tragedy to bring this body to this decision'

Gov. Nikki Haley signed the bill Thursday afternoon. At 10 a.m. Friday, the flag will be taken down from a flagpole next to a soldiers' monument, where it has been since early last decade, when legislators compromised to move it from the pole atop the State House dome.

The flag will be taken to the state's Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum for display.

Horne said Thursday morning she felt "like we have a new day."

"It's bittersweet, because it took a tragedy to bring this body to this decision," Horne told CNN's "New Day." Referring to the Charleston shootings, she said she felt the General Assembly met "tragedy with triumph and defeat with purpose."

"I am so proud to be a South Carolinian and proud of what South Carolina has done to move this state forward."

Former Georgia governor: How we got Confederate emblem off Georgia's flag

Her speech had been heard across the country and found resonance in social media in South Carolina and as far away as California.

"If you're looking for who to thank for getting #ConfederateFlag down: @JennyHorne, @GCobbHunter who kept up the fight. Thank you SC," Shawn Drury, who says he's from South Carolina, posted to Twitter.

If you're looking for who to thank for getting #ConfederateFlag down: @JennyHorne, @GCobbHunter who kept up the fight. Thank you SC.
— Shawn Drury (@ShawnDrurySC) July 9, 2015

"Your speech was beautiful. Thank you for being such a warrior for peace," posted Kelly Carlin from California.

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http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/09/us/sou...-horne-speech/

Click on the link for the speech.

THAT is the speech that brought the flag down in South Carolina, and that is a woman who needs to be elevated to a higher office on the earliest possible date.

Judy wrote:

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Nikki Haley like Rubio, Cruz and Jindal are not natural born citizens, which is born in the US with 2 US citizen parents, and is not eligible to be Vice President or hold any other "top spot" in 2016 or any time thereafter.

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While I've currently got no vested interest in defending Rubio, Jindal, or Haley, I will say that most constitutional scholars do not agree with your claim that Ted Cruz is not a natural born citizen. Of course you already know that because he has been brought to your attention on numerous occasions with documented evidence. Yes, as things stand, minus a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Sen. Ted Cruz is eligible to be President of the United States. Furthermore, the experts agree that a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court on the subject is extremely unlikely.