The Excerpt podcast: Haley braces for home-state dirty tricks in Trump fight

On today's episode of The Excerpt podcast: Nikki Haley is bracing for home-state dirty tricks in South Carolina. USA TODAY Washington Editor Dan Morrison reports. Donald Trump erupted in an appearance at the E. Jean Carroll defamation trial. USA TODAY Investigative Reporter Gina Barton talks about a group of rape survivors using writing to heal. The RAINN writers’ group, Write Where We Belong, will present an online book launch event featuring readings from their anthology 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. EST Monday on Zoom. To attend, register in advance here. A historic trial of a school shooter's mother begins. The economy returned better than expected results at the end of 2023, though layoffs continue. Plus, layoffs after 50 are tough. Here are some steps to take.

Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it.  This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

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Taylor Wilson:

Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson, and today is Friday, January 26th, 2024. This is The Excerpt. Today, how things could get nastier on the campaign trail ahead of South Carolina, plus, Trump erupts in court, and we look at how a group of rape survivors has used writing to heal.

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And then there were two. Nikki Haley is GOP frontrunner Donald Trump's last viable challenger in the Republican presidential field. And all eyes now shift to Haley's home state of South Carolina for the Republican primary set for February 24th. As USA TODAY Washington Editor Dan Morrison told me, things are about to get a whole lot nastier. Dan, thanks for hopping on The Excerpt today.

Dan Morrison:

Thanks for having me.

Taylor Wilson:

So Dan, we're shifting gears to South Carolina, but I want to first just look back at New Hampshire briefly. How nasty did that Republican race get, and what did Donald Trump say about Nikki Haley in his victory speech there?

Dan Morrison:

During his victory speech, Donald Trump made fun of Nikki Haley's appearance, took on her character, called her an imposter, and he insinuated that she was ripe for a criminal investigation of some kind. This coming from a man facing felony indictments in four different jurisdictions.

Taylor Wilson:

And moving to the Palmetto State, how does South Carolina have this long history of sort of dirty political tricks on the campaign trail?

Dan Morrison:

So experts say that the importance of the South Carolina primary as a bellwether for the American South adds a lot of pressure to those campaigns, and might be a factor in why so many of them have featured dirty tricks and political sliming. So the most famous recent incident, I mean using recent rather broadly, is the 2000 presidential campaign. In that Republican primary Senator John McCain, who was a very standard and very popular sort of maverick Republican who had been a prisoner of war in Vietnam, during his campaign in South Carolina, voters received telephone push polls asking them if they would be more or less likely to vote for John McCain if they knew he had fathered an illegitimate Black child. This was just one of several tactics that were used against him. He lost that primary to George W. Bush. McCain and his wife had adopted a daughter from Bangladesh, and this act was used as a pretense to attack him.

Taylor Wilson:

So in terms of this year, we mentioned Trump's comments from New Hampshire, just how nasty do we expect him to get in his attacks on Haley leading up to South Carolina? And Dan, it's not just Trump. Haley has gone after Trump too, recently mentioning his cognitive abilities, for instance. What can we expect from her as well, in the coming weeks?

Dan Morrison:

The former president has shared social media posts questioning whether Haley, whose parents are immigrants from India, whether she's even eligible to run for president. She absolutely is. He's mangled her full Indian name, which is Nimarata Nikki Haley, he calls her Nimbra. Bret Baier of Fox News asked him why was he doing this? He said it's a little bit of a takeoff on her name. Her name. Wherever she may come from. That's the former President of the United States, the steamrolling leader for the 2024 nomination, questioning the citizenship of a former governor who was clearly born in the United States. Nikki Haley is no stranger to the South Carolina politics. During her first run for the state house, her district was carpeted with flyers describing her as an Indian Buddhist housekeeper when she was an American Christian, certified public accountant for some of the biggest businesses in the state.

When she ran for governor as an underdog, she was again hit with a lot of unfair attacks. So there's an expectation among observers and analysts and veterans of politics in the state that she's ripe for more. Haley has been a very cautious and conservative campaigner, but in the days leading up to the New Hampshire primary, she's gone after Trump, particularly for his cognitive slips. There was a sort of rant he went on over the weekend discussing the January 6th riot at the Capitol where he clearly mistook Haley for former speaker Nancy Pelosi, and just repeated her name again and again while talking about security at the Capitol. Haley has sought to capitalize on this by referring to his age and referring to what she sees as his impending senility. Observers say, number one, it's too little, too late, for her to begin attacking Trump so strongly head on like this. And then number two, she's making an enemy of Trump when most Republican voters see Joe Biden as their true enemy.

Taylor Wilson:

All right, interesting insight. Dan Morrison is an editor from the Washington Bureau. Thanks so much, Dan.

Dan Morrison:

Thank you. Have a great day.

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Taylor Wilson:

As for Trump, he continues to appear in court amid his various legal issues. And the former president erupted in a Manhattan courtroom yesterday as a judge sought to restrict his testimony in a case over the damages he could face for defaming E. Jean Carroll when he denied her sexual assault allegations in 2019. Trump said, out of turn, while the judge was speaking with a lawyer, quote, "I don't know who the woman is. I wasn't at the trial." Unquote. He was referring to an earlier civil trial which Trump chose not to attend, where a jury found him liable for sexually abusing Carroll. Judge Lewis Kaplan admonished Trump and said he was interrupting proceedings.

A jury will determine what, if any monetary damages Trump might owe Carroll for two statements made denying her allegations that he sexually assaulted her in a department store changing room in the 1990s. A different civil court jury previously found Trump liable for sexually abusing the author and for defaming her with the denial he made in 2022. Trump yesterday also joined the legal effort to have Fulton County District Attorney Fanni Willis, her office and her top prosecutor tossed from the election fraud case against him. He alleges that Willis engaged in misconduct by hiring an unqualified friend, an alleged romantic partner to lead the prosecution. She said he's a friend and also an experienced and well-respected lawyer.

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The historic trial of Jennifer Crumbley began yesterday. She's the first parent in America to be charged and tried in a mass shooting. Jennifer and her husband, James Crumbley, who goes on trial in March, are both charged with involuntary manslaughter in their son's rampage at Oxford High School in Michigan in 2021. Ethan Crumbley pleaded guilty to killing four students and injuring seven other people and was sentenced to life in prison. The trial got off to a dramatic start when the shooter's mother broke down crying in the courtroom, and later when tensions flared between the prosecutor and defense attorney. The case brings a spotlight to the question of who can be held responsible when a minor accesses a gun and carries out gun violence? You can follow along with the case in the coming weeks and months on USAToday.com.

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A group of rape survivors have compiled poetry and other writing as part of their recovery from sexual violence. I spoke with USA TODAY investigative reporter, Gina Barton to learn more. Gina, thanks for coming on The Excerpt today.

Gina Barton:

Thanks for having me.

Taylor Wilson:

So Gina, can you start by just telling us about Mary Simmerling and her experience with sexual assault?

Gina Barton:

Mary is this amazing woman, poet, survivor. And right before she was starting college, she was sexually assaulted after a party. Her friend didn't want to leave and so she was sleeping in a downstairs bedroom when she was assaulted.

Taylor Wilson:

And would you tell us about this book she was a part of from fellow rape survivors? How did this group come together?

Gina Barton:

One of the really wonderful things about Mary is that she has never been one to dwell on her experience as a negative experience or be bitter about it. She has always been trying to learn from it and to help other people. So that started out with her first poem that she wrote about the experience, and it's called, What I Was Wearing. And it's a poem that tries to stop the pervasive attitude of victim blaming. She shared that poem with a friend of hers and they turned it into an art exhibit that has now been put up on six continents. So after that, Mary realized that sharing poetry and sharing writing and sharing your words can help not only you, but also other survivors. And so she had been a long-term volunteer with RAINN, the nonprofit that helps survivors of sexual abuse. And she approached their president and suggested a writers group for survivors.

Taylor Wilson:

Wow. So we've heard some about Mary's writing. I want to hear more about this book. What does this writing consist of? Would it be fair to classify this as a poetry book or what's actually in it?

Gina Barton:

I read this book last weekend and I just burned right through it. It's so compelling. There's poetry, there's narrative, there's essay, there's stream of consciousness kind of writing, and not all of the writing is about these women's experience with sexual assault, but a lot of it you can sense the theme of trauma and healing from trauma. And there were a couple of times where some of this writing just brought me to tears. It's really powerful.

Taylor Wilson:

Yeah. What do these women say, Gina, about how this project has helped them really heal after such brutal trauma?

Gina Barton:

I've talked to lots of the contributors to this book, and no matter where they were in their healing process, they all found this group and this process of writing together to be so helpful. Some women said it was helpful in their healing journey and it really kind of added to the help they were already getting from therapy and other things like that. Some people who are a little bit more far removed from the trauma of their sexual assaults really appreciated the comradery and knowing they weren't alone, and knowing that they were able to talk about that experience with a group of people who would understand it and empathize.

Taylor Wilson:

Must just be so powerful. And what are they hoping this writing can do for others?

Gina Barton:

They're hoping that this anthology that they've published can do two things. One is, they want to introduce to other survivors just how powerful writing can be in terms of tapping into that creativity in order to help heal trauma. And then the other thing that they want to do is spark more conversations in the public about sexual assault, and try to remove some of that stigma that still exists around being a victim of a sexual assault or rape.

Taylor Wilson:

All right. Gina Barton is an investigative reporter for USA TODAY. Gina, thanks so much.

Gina Barton:

You're so welcome.

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Taylor Wilson:

The US economy slowed down during the final quarter of 2023, but it still had a surprisingly strong showing as a rise in consumer spending offset a more modest gain in business investment. The nation's gross domestic product, which measures the value of all goods and services produced in the country, expanded at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.3% in the October through December period according to Commerce Department data out this week. That's down from 4.9% growth in the third quarter, but well above the 2% growth predicted by economists in a Bloomberg survey. A pullback is likely in 2024 as high interest rates and inflation take a bigger toll on growth, and a surge of post-pandemic consumption runs dry. Meanwhile, Business Insider is laying off around 8% of its staff following other media companies with layoffs, including Sports Illustrated and the Los Angeles Times. Some tech companies are also laying off workers. EBay, for instance, plans to lay off around 9% of its staff.

For listeners in their 50s and beyond, the future can seem especially bleak when it comes to layoffs, but there are some things you can do to get back on your feet. We've included a link in today's show notes.

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Thanks for listening to The Excerpt. We're produced by Shannon Rae Green and our executive producer is Laura Beatty. You can get the podcast wherever you get your audio, and if you're on a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson, back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from USA TODAY.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: The Excerpt: Haley braces for home-state dirty tricks in Trump fight