MRC’s contributing writer Stephanie Hamill was a guest on Fox News’ “Democracy 2024: Iowa Caucuses” special coverage on Tuesday morning with host Mike Emanuel where they discussed the state's caucus results and former President Donald Trump’s historic win. 
Many in the mainstream media and the Democratic party appear to be in a tizzy after witnessing the former president win 98 of 99 counties in the state.
Clearly the overwhelming negative news coverage of him, the weaponization of government and legal system against him so far aren’t working — in fact it appears to be doing the exact opposite.
Hamill weighs in on the results and what it could possibly mean going forward as the candidates head to New Hampshire in the next crucial campaign test.
Watch:
Mike: Behind Nikki Haley setting her sights on next week's New Hampshire primary. A critical state for her campaign and recent poll numbers the South Carolina governor has reason to be hopeful she can outshine former president trump. Haley wrapped up in Iowa attacking both trump and President Biden.
[Nikki Haley Video]: You know what I'm talking about. [Cheers and applause] It is both Donald Trump and Joe Biden. They have more in common than you think. 70% of Americans don't want another Trump/Biden rematch. [Cheers and applause]
Mike: Joining us now Stephanie Hamill with media research TV. Stephanie, welcome.
Stephanie: Thank you.
Mike: How do you assess the G.O.P. Race in New Hampshire?
Stephanie: Well, everything is on the line in New Hampshire, right? Tonight, there were some surprises. Many people believed Nikki Haley would come in second place and she did not. During her speech, she reiterated that this is a two-person race between her and Donald Trump. But she came in third place. So yes, everything is on the line for the Haley campaign when it comes to New Hampshire. There have been different polls showing her within a few percentage points of Donald Trum and other polls showing over 10% difference. So, you know, Nikki Haley has some serious work to do. She has to convince a lot of voters that she is the person they should support. She is talking about how Donald Trump and Joe Biden, 70% of Americans don't want to support either candidate. She can say that but at the end of the day, she has to count on Republican voters to get her over the edge. Right now, national polling is not leading that direction. Donald Trump is dominating in all of the national polls. What we saw tonight was historic win for Donald Trump. He won all 99 counties, precincts. That is just incredible. A lot of people were not expecting that. If you look at Governor Ron DeSantis and his groundwork he put into Iowa, he went to all of those areas, all 99. Yet, he was not able to pull ahead of Donald Trump.
Mike: There were some stories about the Desantis campaign going into caucus night. He finished 30 points behind the former president with Haley finishing third. There were stories about his campaign suggesting maybe he was out of money and that if he had a poor showing in Iowa, it could be curtains for him. Second-place finish. What does it mean for him going forward?
Stephanie: This is extra momentum he needed for his campaign. He originally said what happened in Iowa didn’t matter as he would not call it quits but regardless he would go straight to a South Carolina after. It is interesting he’s planning to skip New Hampshire, possibly based on the polling that he saw there where he wasn't doing as well as his competitors. But we will have to see how he doesn't South Carolina because, again, former president Donald Trump is dominating in Nikki Haley's home state. And Donald Trump is also dominating in Florida. Floridians love Governor Ron DeSantis, but they still love Donald Trump more at this point in the race.
Mike: Vivek Ramaswamy dropping out with his fourth-place finish, not surprising, that only helps the former president, right?
Stephanie: That’s correct because a lot of people believe the supporters of Vivek Ramaswamy will go back to the trump campaign and support former President Trump. I was not expecting him to actually drop out tonight. That was kind of a surprise. But he said he wanted to put all of his support behind Donald Trump. There have been several prominent Republicans who came out tonight and said basically, this is it. This is the end. Donald Trump is our guy and everybody needs to get behind him if we want to beat Joe Biden. A lot of money has been spent on the campaign trail. If you look at Iowa, $100 million spent on vicious campaign ads against each other. This is not helpful for the party if they want to take on Biden.
Mike: Good time to own a TV station in Iowa after all that ad campaign money was spent. Your thoughts after Nikki Haley basically taking their argument to both President Trump and President Biden suggesting the American people don't want Trump/Biden 2.0.
Stephanie: She can say that and maybe people aren't necessarily happy with either candidate. But at the end of the day, the voters will have their voices heard. This is a democracy. People have the right to vote. They will vote and support the candidates they want. Whether that be Haley or Desantis or Trump, we will see. But overall Donald Trump is leading at this point in time. She did make a remark about the ages of both Biden and Trump during her speech. But at this point, I don't think that is a major issue on the Trump side. If you watched Donald Trump he has a lot of energy and he is with it. On the contrary, when it comes to Biden, a lot of people are concerned about him and they are wondering if he can actually handle another four years.
Mike: I wonder if folks in New Hampshire who may be Democrats or independents jumping in to create mayhem on the Republican side. What about that?
Stephanie: Yeah, there has been a lot of chatter about that. We will have to see where the support will end up. A lot of the polling was done when Chris Christie was in the race. Now that he has dropped out of the race, a lot of people suspect that his voters will trickle into the Haley camp. Will that be enough to make a difference? If Haley actually does come in second place as some are expecting, does it really make a difference overall? Which is what some of the pundits and Republicans that I referenced were saying, it doesn't make a difference at all. But we will have to wait and see. Ultimately, it depends on the donors, right? The campaigns can't keep going if they don't have money. It all depends on the confidence of the donors. Based on Donald Trump’s speech, he is feeling confident so much so, he even had nice things to say about his opponents, which some people suspect that he's not worried at all.
Mike: Fascinating, Stephanie Hamill, thank you for your time and analysis tonight.
Stephanie: Thank you.
