Haley had taken it directly to Trump from the start, would the results have been different?

People scoff at this, but I believe Trump's ascension largely benefited from the media not playing his "pussy" grabbing comment in full, and here is why: by not doing so, it allowed the Trump campaign to turn it into a "locker room" and harmless boys will be boys-masculine sort of thing instead of the vile, disturbing hateful comment it advocating sexual assault.  Our country needed that graphic misogyny to be thrown in our faces like a bucket of acid, instead, to the MAGA crowd it was like a warm compress and nothing more.

And again, I think the mistake all the other candidates made was to not take it directly to Trump and we all know why - they were afraid of offending MAGA, when instead, they should have turned Trump into their own Sister Souljah moment.   And as I stated earlier, it's almost like everyone at the start of the Republican race really didn't want to win the nomination anyway.  Or at least, that is how they conducted themselves, rather than opposing Trump.