The 2024 Election cycle is in full swing with primaries in New Hampshire and South Carolina in the rearview mirror, and Michigan happening today. Super Tuesday, where the majority of primaries around the United States take place, is coming up March 5.
That includes Minnesota, where GOP hopeful, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley visited on Monday in her quest to pull the Republican Party away from Donald Trump. Trump has easily won in the Iowa Caucus, along with the primaries in New Hampshire and Haley's home state of South Carolina.
But Haley vows that the race for the Republican nomination is not over, and she is staying in the race, something she underscored in an exclusive one-on-one with WCCO Radio's Jason DeRusha.
Certainly, Donald Trump's legal issues play a role in her decision to stay in the race. He faces multiple criminal charges which could derail he run for a second term in the White House. But Haley also believes she can still win.
Following are excerpts from her talk with Jason DeRusha where she focused on some of the biggest issues facing the country, her motivation for staying in the race, what's shaping today's GOP and more.
Jason DeRusha: I know a lot of the media is fixated with this question of whether you're going to stay in or why are you still in? I got to be honest, I don't really care. If you want to be in I think it's great to have a discussion about issues. Why do you think such the fixation on this?
Nikki Haley: Well, I think that people just don't understand why I would continue to go through this process. And, you know, they at first said, ‘Oh, it's all about her being vice president.’ I think I've pretty much, you know, gotten rid of that argument. And then they were saying, ‘Oh, it's all about 2028.’ Well, they realize if it was about 2028, I would have been out a long time ago. They can't wrap their arms around the fact that this is about me really putting the red flag up, saying, look, this is about the Republican Party and this is about our country. And here you have a candidate, that if I get out, is going to be a candidate that cannot win a general election. And you can look at it from the general election polls. The Marquette poll came out last week – if it's an election, he's typically losing by five, seven on his best day, it's margin of error. In that same Marquette poll, I defeat Joe Biden by 18 points. You win by 18 points. That's a mandate that would immediately help us on governorships, House, Senate. But it would be a mandate going into D.C. to stop the wasteful spending and get our economy back on track. It would be a mandate to get our kids reading again and go back to the basics in education. A mandate to finally secure our borders with no more excuses. A mandate for law and order back in our cities, and a mandate for a strong America that prevents wars that we can all be proud of. That's the goal. But instead, what do we have? We have Donald Trump, who is creating more chaos and continues to go down this path that is pushing people out of the Republican Party instead of bringing them in. And you have to look at the fact in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, he did not get 40% of the vote. You don't get 40% of the vote, then you're not going to win a general election. And instead of realizing he needs to bring people into the fold, he said anyone that supports Nikki Haley will be barred permanently from MAGA. That's not what a candidate says when you're running for president.
DeRusha: How do you appeal to those MAGA voters, those Trump voters, though? Because what the message that I'm hearing is a general election message, but right now, you're not winning in any of these primary races, because you have to get some of those MAGA voters to come over to you.
Haley: What we are telling them is, look, you want to see a change in our country. I want to see a change in our country. We are not going to see a change in our country if we have a candidate that can't win. The Democrats are salivating at the thought of it being Donald Trump. They are salivating because they know they can defeat him. They defeated him in 2018. They defeated him in 2020. They defeated him in 2022. And they know that they're going to defeat him again in 2024. What I'm saying is, it's not just that. Look at how Donald Trump has taken us away from the very principles of the Republican Party. The Republican Party used to be about fiscal responsibility. Yet Donald Trump put us $8 trillion in debt in just four years, more than any other president. And he's not talking about smaller government. He's not talking about reining in the wasteful spending that Republicans and Democrats are doing. He's not talking about it at all. And then when it comes to national security, he's abandoned the peace through strength. He actually, instead, in South Carolina, said that he would encourage Putin to invade our allies.
DeRusha: Is Russia our largest external threat to our security right now? What do you think the largest threat is?
Haley: I think China is our number one national security threat. But the problem is, if you look at what Trump did by partnering, by saying he would encourage Putin to invade our allies, I mean you're siding with a thug where half a million people have died or been wounded because Putin invaded Ukraine. You're siding with a dictator that kills his political opponents. You're siding with a madman who arrests American journalists and holds them hostage. He's made no bones about wanting to destroy America, and you're going to choose to partner with him over the allies that stood with us after 9/11? And then look at what Donald Trump's doing to the Republican National Committee. This is a committee that's always supposed to be about winning races up and down the ticket. Yet before the primaries over, he's putting his daughter-in-law as chair. He's putting his campaign manager as operative, and they have made it very clear that the RNC now is only about Donald Trump. That’s to create a legal slush fund for him.
DeRusha: Don't Trump voters know all of this stuff about Donald Trump? Like they've seen all of the things, they've seen all of the things you're talking about, and yet they're still going back for another helping.
Haley: But you can't deny that 40% of Republican primary voters are saying we don't want Donald Trump.
DeRusha: No, I agree with you that 60% seem to want another serving. 40% doesn't get you across the finish line out of the primary.
Haley: Well, the goal is that's why we're doing all these Super Tuesday states. There’s going to be 21 states and territories that are going to vote over the next ten days. We want millions of people's voices to be heard. Even though Donald Trump wanted to be named the presumptive nominee and tried to get the RNC to do it, this is not Russia. We don't anoint people in our country, we have elections, and we want people's voices to be heard. And I'm telling you, the party that gets rid of their 80-year-old candidate is going to be the party that wins. Joe Biden is not going to be the candidate. You're going to find the Democrats go put someone younger in, and we're going to be stuck with another loss and a President Kamala Harris. That is what will happen if Donald Trump is the nominee. We have a chance to do this. But this isn't even about even that, this is about our kids and people's grandkids. I mean, look at the life they have. They've been through COVID. They don't know how they're going to have to deal with the $34 trillion in debt. They don't know where they're going to get a job, they don't know what they're going to be able to afford at home, they don't know how they're going to make ends meet and are worried about war breaking out. And then we wonder why there's so much stress, anxiety, and depression. It's because they're living in a tent of a country that is completely divided, that's full of anger and hatred. You've got Joe Biden calling his opponent fascist, and you've got Donald Trump calling his opponents vermin. It's wrong.
DeRusha: How much of the hate and divisiveness in the country right now do you think is because of the tone that was set when Donald Trump was the president and the tone that continues today?
Haley: Completely. I mean, look at it. I mean, you look at not only that, I came from Michigan – completely divided Republican Party, completely all the anger, all the hatred, and because of that, they've lost the governor's mansion, the State House, the State Senate, and everything that they had when in 2012 they were a beacon of light. You look here in Minnesota, the same thing – suburban voters have decided that they are not going to vote for Donald Trump, so Democrats have started to win everything here in Minnesota. I mean, it is continuing to be a toxic situation for Republicans, and all that's doing is helping the Democrats.
DeRusha: You know, Dean Phillips is our congressman here in Minnesota. He, on this radio station, floated the idea of saying, ‘Hey, I would have a conversation with Nikki Haley about a third-party run.’ He's saying he's that serious about stopping Donald Trump. How do you respond to that? Would you consider teaming up with Dean Phillips doing a No Labels type candidacy?
Haley: I appreciate him saying that, but I'm a Republican, and my focus is on the Republican primary. This is about trying to make sure that the Republican Party doesn't go down in flames, and that we are able to save it, and that we're able to save our country in the process. So, no, I am not looking at any independent run. I'm looking at trying to make sure that we can get the Republican Party to realize we have one chance to get this right, or else we're going to be handing it off to the Socialist left.
DeRusha: The Supreme Court today talked about social media companies, and you've talked a bit about the negative influence they can have on young people. How do you regulate social media but still support and respect and defend the First Amendment?
Haley: Well, I think people need to have the freedom of speech. The issues I have with social media is, I think they need to make their algorithms transparent, so we can see why things are pushed, why things are seeing what happens. I think the American people deserve to see those algorithms. The second thing is, I think we have got to get rid of the foreign bots. These are bots put in by Russia, by China, by Iran that go in and basically change the messaging, whether it's for elections or whether it causes division in our country. They're emphasizing that. I saw at the U.N., they said it was the cheapest form of warfare, and social media companies aren't doing enough to get rid of these foreign bots. There's no people behind this. These are just computer-generated messages to divide our country. India just got rid of TikTok because of the social disruption it was causing. We've got to start focusing on getting rid of TikTok.
DeRusha: Would you get rid of TikTok if you were president?
Haley: Absolutely. And Donald Trump said he would do and he never did it. It's incredibly dangerous. It's managed and run by the Chinese Communist Party. We should not have that in anybody's phone. Because if you have TikTok on your phone, just by having that app, they have access to your contacts, to your financial information. They can see what you click on, what you see, everything about it. It is incredibly dangerous. And with social media, we've got to get the foreign bots out of that. That's the focus. I don't think government needs to regulate what Americans see and what they say on social media. I mean, do I think it would be more, it would help everybody if everybody had to put their name next to it? Yeah. I'd love to see that as a parent. I'd love to see that. But from a government perspective, we don't want government telling people what they can and can't say. But we do want social media companies to get rid of the foreign bots.
DeRusha: Should government be involved in discussions about embryos, in vitro fertilization? Obviously, that has been a big topic in the news as this state court case has played out. But do you believe that a frozen embryo is a human being? Do you support in vitro fertilization?
Haley: So I had both of my children through fertility processes, so I am a big supporter of IVF and fertility practices. I do think an embryo is a baby, but I think other people may not see it that way. And that's why I think it's very important that, yes, we should make sure embryos are respected and protected. But that conversation, it should be completely with the physician and the parent. No one else. It's a very sensitive personal subject, and it needs to be handled just between the physician and the parent.
DeRusha: Boy, that's so interesting because I've talked a lot about this idea that you can have personal beliefs on these issues – they're very emotional, they're very personal – but your personal beliefs don't necessarily have to become governmental policy.
Haley: Exactly, exactly. Especially on something like this. These parents are going through a lot as it is. The last thing they need to worry about is what government's going to think about the decisions that they make.
DeRusha: This has been a really substantial conversation. I really appreciate you taking the time. Nikki Haley, can I just ask you one last question about climate change? It's a big issue that Minnesotans are concerned about. To a certain degree, we have some people moving from states like California to Minnesota to feel insulated from some of the, you know, here it's so dang cold, we like a little climate change. Some people say, 'well, it won't be as severe as some other parts of the country'. Do you believe the planet is warming? Do you believe that humans are partially driving the climate change that we're seeing?
Haley: I think climate change is real. What I think is wrong is how Joe Biden is forcing certain things to happen. You know, when he goes and does half a billion dollars worth of these, or half a trillion dollars worth of green subsidies, forcing everybody to have to drive electric cars by 2033, that's not the way you go. To acknowledge that it's real, you focus on a transition. You partner with your producers to come up with innovations that actually help you with it. They're doing that now with nuclear fusion. There are processes we can do. The second thing is we need to hold China and India to account. They're increasing their emissions rather than reducing their emissions. We can't do anything with the environment if India and China don't stop what they're doing. And so there are ways that we can address it. But you do it in a transitional way. You don't do it in a harsh, extreme way. And I think that's the problem that we've had with Joe Biden.