Nikki Haley says she staying in the race for president
GREENVILLE, S.C. - Nikki Haley said Tuesday that despite the odds, she’s not bowing out of the presidential race.
The former South Carolina governor made her statement during a noon “State of the Race” address, a day ahead of her second visit to the CSRA in a little over a week.
“I refuse to quit,” she said in the emotional address.
She’s the last major opposition to Donald Trump in the battle to win the presidential nomination.
And with the South Carolina primary on Saturday and early voting underway, the Palmetto State is her next hurdle.
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She’ll visit North Augusta on Wednesday as part of her bus tour, speaking at 1 p.m. at the Palmetto Terrace of the North Augusta Municipal Building, 100 Georgia Ave.
It’ll come a little over a week after she visited her hometown of Bamberg on Feb. 13.
As Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement presses for her exit, a defiant Haley on Tuesday repeatedly likened Trump to Democratic President Joe Biden —and both as too old, too divisive and too unpopular to be the only options for voters this fall.
She also pushed back when asked if there is any primary state where she can defeat Trump.
ALSO IN GREENVILLE:
- Donald Trump arrived Greenville on Tuesday afternoon for a town hall event with Fox News. Laura Ingraham for the Fox News Channel was presenting a town hall in Greenville with Trump at 7 p.m. on her show. The pre-taped event was taking place at the Greenville Convention Center in front of an audience allowed to ask questions.
“Instead of asking me what states I’m gonna win, why don’t we ask how he’s gonna win a general election after spending a full year in a courtroom?” she said.
Trump, in recent days, has shown flashes of fury in response to Haley’s refusal to cede the nomination.
He called her “stupid” and “birdbrain” in a social media post over the weekend, and his campaign released a memo ahead of her speech on Tuesday predicting that she would be forced out of the race after losing her home state on Saturday.
“The true ‘State’ of Nikki Haley’s campaign?” Trump’s campaign chiefs wrote. “Broken down, out of ideas, out of gas, and completely outperformed by every measure, by Donald Trump.”
In a rare show of emotion, Haley acknowledged the personal toll on her family.
“It was hard for us to say goodbye to him the first time when he deployed to Afghanistan. It was even harder last summer when he deployed to Africa,” she said with glassy eyes, her voice cracking.
Speaking in South Carolina on Tuesday, Haley said she has “no fear of Trump’s retribution.”
“I feel no need to kiss the ring,” she said. “My own political future is of zero concern.”
Haley, in the interview, also warned her party against letting Trump raid the RNC’s coffers to pay for his legal fees while taking a short-term view of Trump’s political prospects.
Trump’s standing will fundamentally change if he is a convicted felon before Election Day, Haley said, acknowledging that such an outcome is a very real possibility as Trump navigates 91 felony charges across four separate criminal cases.
“People are not looking six months down the road when these court cases have taken place,” Haley said. “He’s going to be in a courtroom all of March, April, May and June. How in the world do you win a general election when these cases keep going and the judgments keep coming?”
Meanwhile, Biden was asked as he departed the White House on Tuesday whether he preferred to go up against Haley or Trump this fall.
“Oh, I don’t care,” the president said.
Lest anyone question her commitment, Haley’s campaign is spending more than $500,000 on a new television advertising campaign set to begin running Wednesday in Michigan ahead of the state’s Feb. 27 primary, according to spokesperson Olivia Perez-Cubas.
At the same time, the AP has obtained Haley’s post-South Carolina travel schedule that features 11 separate stops in seven days across Michigan, Minnesota, Colorado, Utah, Virginia, Washington, D.C., North Carolina and Massachusetts.
The schedule also includes at least 10 high-dollar private fundraising events.
Indeed, Haley’s expansive base of big- and small-dollar donors is donating at an extraordinary pace despite her underwhelming performance at the polls. That’s a reflection of persistent Republican fears about Trump’s ability to win over independents and moderate voters in the general election and serious concerns about his turbulent leadership should he return to the White House.
“I’m going to her up to the convention,” said Republican donor Eric Levine, who co-hosted a New York fundraiser for Haley earlier this month. “We’re not prepared to fold our tents and pray at the alter of Donald Trump.”
“There’s value in her ticking in and gathering delegates, because if and when he stumbles,” Levine continued, “who knows what happens.”
As for her path forward, Haley said she’s focused only on her plans through Super Tuesday. As for staying in the race through the July convention, she said she hasn’t thought that far ahead.
Some voters wish she would.
Gil White, a 75-year-old Republican veteran from James Island, South Carolina, said he was a Trump loyalist until the former president criticized Haley’s husband, a military serviceman, last week.
“For him to disparage a military man in deployment is just too much,” White said while attending a Haley rally in Kiawah Island over the weekend.
He acknowledged concerns about Haley’s chances against Trump, but said he wants her to stay in the race even if she continues to lose.
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