CNN panelist crushes GOP hope of Nikki Haley beating Trump: 'Polling at 18 percent in her own state!'

Former President Donald Trump, despite his avalanche of legal problems and criminal charges, looks better positioned than ever to win the GOP nomination for president for the third time in a row.

And there is little that Republican rivals like former U.N. Ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley can do to change that situation, said a CNN panel on Monday.

"If I were a Nikki Haley, I would pretty much put Iowa aside, which hasn't actually elected a Republican president since 2000," said former Trump White House official Alyssa Farah Griffin. "Focus all your energy on New Hampshire, where it's an open primary where you can turn out independents ... and then South Carolina, where she's a former governor and popular."

POLL: Should Trump be allowed to run for office?

"The problem is, she's polling at 18 percent in her own state, right?" said political analyst Errol Lewis. "And Donald Trump is at like something like 46 percent in her state. With all of the non-Trump candidates, the problem is, you can't find a state that they win before Super Tuesday. And, you know, I mean, it is lovely to talk about the rules that we wish we had, but politics is about the rules that we do have. And in this primary process, Donald Trump has got a sort of a fortress that nobody has demonstrated that they have the ability to—"

"He's a fortress in the Republican Party," cut in reporter John Avlon. "Once the electability argument starts coming in, that's a real problem. You're right about one point. The RNC has not actually done a good job about making sure they have proportional representation to delegates. A lot of these states are winner-take-all. If it's a crowded field, you take all the delegates. That's a problem with a solution that no one seems to have taken seriously."

"And by the way, the RNC is rigging this for Trump," added Griffin. "There are people like Congressman Will Hurd, who was turned away from the previous debate, because likely Republican voters and independents factored into his poll numbers. I would think if you want to win a general election, you want somebody who brings those voters. That's also going to be a problem for the other candidates."

Watch the video below or at this link.

CNN panel on Nikki Haley's chances www.youtube.com