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Speaker 2: Let's go right now down to Charleston, South Carolina. Republican
Speaker 2: presidential candidate Nikki Haley.
Speaker 1: Let's stick a listen.
Speaker 3: I said the campaign was grounded in my love for
Speaker 3: our country. Just last week, my mother, a first generation immigrant,
Speaker 3: got to vote for her daughter for president only in America.
Speaker 3: I am filled with the gratitude for the outpouring of
Speaker 3: support we've received from all across our great country. But
Speaker 3: the time has now come to suspend my campaign. I said,
Speaker 3: I wanted Americans to have their voices heard. I have
Speaker 3: done that. I have no regrets, and although I will
Speaker 3: no longer be a candidate, I will not stop using
Speaker 3: my voice for the things I believe in. Our national
Speaker 3: debt will eventually crush our economy. A smaller federal government
Speaker 3: is not only necessary for our freedom, it is necessary
Speaker 3: for our survival. The road to socialism is the road
Speaker 3: to ruin for America. Our Congress is dysfunctional and only
Speaker 3: getting worse. It is filled with followers, not leaders. Term
Speaker 3: limits for Washington politicians are needed now more than ever.
Speaker 3: Our world is on fire because of America's retreat. Standing
Speaker 3: by our allies in Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan is a
Speaker 3: moral imperative. But it's also more than that. If we
Speaker 3: retreat further, there will be more war, not less. As important,
Speaker 3: while we stand strong for the cause of freedom, we
Speaker 3: must bind together as Americans. We must turn away from
Speaker 3: the darkness of hatred and division. I will continue to
Speaker 3: promote all those values, as is the right of every American.
Speaker 3: I sought the honor of being your president, but in
Speaker 3: our great country, being a private citizen is privilege enough
Speaker 3: in itself, and that's a privilege I very much look
Speaker 3: forward to enjoy. In all likelihood, Donald Trump will be
Speaker 3: the Republican nominee when our party convention meets in July.
Speaker 3: I congratulate him and wish him well. I wish anyone
Speaker 3: well who would be America's president. Our country is too
Speaker 3: precious to let our differences divide us. I have always
Speaker 3: been a conservative Republican and always supported the Republican nominee.
Speaker 3: But on this question, as she did on so many others,
Speaker 3: Margaret Thatcher provided some good advice when she said, quote,
Speaker 3: never just follow the crowd, always make up your own mind.
Speaker 3: It is now up to Donald Trump to earn the
Speaker 3: votes of those in our party and beyond it who
Speaker 3: did not support him, and I hope he does that.
Speaker 3: At its best, politics is about bringing people into your cause,
Speaker 3: not turning them away, and our conservative cause badly needs
Speaker 3: more people. This is now his time for choosing. I
Speaker 3: end my campaign with the same words I began it
Speaker 3: from the Book of Joshua. I direct them to all Americans,
Speaker 3: but especially to so many of the women and girls
Speaker 3: out there who put their faith in our campaign. Be
Speaker 3: strong and courageous. Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged,
Speaker 3: for God will be with you wherever you go. In
Speaker 3: this campaign, I have seen our country's greatness. From the
Speaker 3: bottom of my heart, Thank you America, God bless you.
Speaker 2: That was I guess we call former Republican presidential kendidate
Speaker 2: NICKI Halley, delivering remarks in Charleston, South Carolina, formerly withdrawing
Speaker 2: from this presidential election and.
Speaker 4: Made it very clear that no one's to ask her
Speaker 4: who she's voting for, right, basically saying that that's a
Speaker 4: private citizen's right to vote for who she's voting for
Speaker 4: and what no endorsement and clearly not endorsing President Trump,
Speaker 4: And I really wonder what that means. Is that a
Speaker 4: twenty twenty eight thing or is it a convention thing?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know. All I know is I think
Speaker 2: we're going to have to really pay attention is to
Speaker 2: these conventions, particularly yes, the Republican Convention this summer. In
Speaker 2: the past, you can kind of just kind of blow
Speaker 2: by them and go to the you know, the baseball
Speaker 2: game on, but I think you might have to focus
Speaker 2: a little bit this time. Let's check in with Josh
Speaker 2: wind Grow if he's Bloomberg White House reporter. Josh, you
Speaker 2: heard former Governor Nikki Halley's comments here, Any takeaways for
Speaker 2: you today?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think that was a sort of a polite
Speaker 5: sounding of the alarm or comment on it being up
Speaker 5: to Trump to earn support inside and outside the party
Speaker 5: is essentially a nicer version of what she's been saying
Speaker 5: on the stump that Trump is, in her view as
Speaker 5: now headed for a loss. Of course, the polls show
Speaker 5: he's winning right now. But the big question throughout this
Speaker 5: primary is what happens to the twenty thirty forty percent
Speaker 5: of state primary voters who've been voting for Haley. Do
Speaker 5: they vote for Donald Trump? Did they stay in the fold,
Speaker 5: did they stay home? Do they back to third party candidate?
Speaker 5: Some of them are saying the vote for Joe Biden.
Speaker 5: So I think that she's sort of sounding the alarm
Speaker 5: a little bit. I wouldn't pay so much attention to
Speaker 5: the convention personally. I suppose it's a guess in any
Speaker 5: sense of the word here. I think Nicky Haley is
Speaker 5: staking out I told you so ground and that if
Speaker 5: and when or if Donald Trump wins in the VAUL,
Speaker 5: then Haley's playing the party wasn't going to be all
Speaker 5: that high anyway. If you lose it in the vall,
Speaker 5: then she's the one that can say that she was
Speaker 5: loudly warning of that, and that sort of her inside
Speaker 5: track for at least a certain segment of the party
Speaker 5: in twenty twenty eight.
Speaker 4: Okay, So Josh, that may seem like it is a
Speaker 4: twenty twenty eight sort of thing, because there was a
Speaker 4: narrative for a second about the convention and trying to
Speaker 4: get delegates, and she just like kind of show up
Speaker 4: and see what happens. You don't think that's a real thing.
Speaker 5: I don't. I don't know, though. I'm curious whether she'll
Speaker 5: speak at the convention. I think a lot of us
Speaker 5: will be spending our times combing through the vagaries of
Speaker 5: the rules of the R and C to see whether
Speaker 5: she president would either sort of suggest she gets the
Speaker 5: speaking spot or not. This is going to be a
Speaker 5: tricky one for her. She's been pretty vocal in sort
Speaker 5: of reviews of where Trump is going, and so you know,
Speaker 5: to the extent that she is, if she's there and
Speaker 5: sort of in the fold and speaking to suburban communities,
Speaker 5: you know, that sort of those sort of voters that
Speaker 5: a Trump has been losing, then that's probably good for
Speaker 5: Donald Trump. But if she's there sort of reminding everyone
Speaker 5: that there's a in her view, sort of a five
Speaker 5: alarm fire going on, then then that's bad for Donald Trump.
Speaker 5: But you know, we look at where she has performed
Speaker 5: well in the primaries, is the types of areas where
Speaker 5: Joe Biden wants to perform well in the general election.
Speaker 5: It is suburbs, It is cities, and so the Biden
Speaker 5: people have been, you know, Nicki Haley fans essentially a
Speaker 5: because she's out there prosecuting a case against Donald Trump
Speaker 5: htorically on the election circuit, but b because they think
Speaker 5: that her very candidacy was sort of reminding voters that
Speaker 5: they might not be Donald Trump voters.
Speaker 2: All right, Josh, thank you so much. We appreciate getting
Speaker 2: some thoughts there, Josh Win Grove Bloomberg, White House reporter. Again,
Speaker 2: Nicki Haley withdrawing from the race, as I think a
Speaker 2: lot of folks thought she would after Super Tuesday.
Speaker 4: Right, but it does really open up that twenty twenty
Speaker 4: eight and sort of I'm really interested in what those
Speaker 4: voters do. And if you don't have her at the convention,
Speaker 4: what's in it for those voters at the convention? Like
Speaker 4: who's talking for them?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know. I think it's again, I believe
Speaker 2: we're talking earlier with Tom Keen that this is this
Speaker 2: is Donald Trump's Republican party now in every shape. I
Speaker 2: choked to John Tucker that if my father alive, he'd
Speaker 2: vote for Richard Nixon. I don't think my father would
Speaker 2: recognize his Republican party. But it is in fact changed
Speaker 2: and it is behind President Trump, so will see how
Speaker 2: that plays out.
Speaker 5: Again.
Speaker 2: I'm going to pay attention to the you know, the
Speaker 2: when they have these meetings this summer, these conventions.
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