And joining me now is Ambassador Nikki Haley.
Ambassador Haley, welcome back to Meet the Press.
Thanks so much, Kristen, for having me.
Well, we really appreciate your being here.
As you know, former President
Donald Trump has called on you to get out of
this race.
The RNC says it's time for Republicans to unify around
Mister Trump.
What is your response to this apparent pressure campaign against
you?
Look, I mean, he can't bully his way through the
nomination.
I think that, you know,
it's not surprising that he is surrounded by the political
elite.
But let's keep in mind the political elite has gotten
nothing done for us in stopping the wasteful spending,
has gotten nothing done to secure the border,
has gotten nothing done to keep us more safe as
we see wars around the world.
And so look, that's exactly what we don't want.
I mean, the reason the political elite are upset and
the members of Congress are upset is because I've pushed
for term limits.
I've pushed for a mental competency test.
I've said if they don't get a budget out on
time,
they shouldn't get paid. So look,
I have fought this political class
my entire life and it's,
it's, I'd much rather be fighting for the people than
fighting for the elected officials in DC Ambassador,
Do you think just going back to the RNC
calling for the party to unify around Trump,
which happened, by the way,
during the New Hampshire primary before the polls had even
closed,
do you think the RNC has been an honest broker
in this case?
I mean, clearly not. If you're going to go and
and basically tell
the American people that you're going to go and decide
who the nominee is after only two states have voted,
I mean 48 states out there.
This is a democracy. The American people want to have
their say in who is going to be their nominee.
We need to give them that.
I mean, you can't do that based on just two
States and not only that,
it's 12115 delegates to reach the nomination.
Donald Trump has 32. I have 17.
So let's let this play out.
Let's do what we need to.
I mean, we saw S Carolinians,
we had 1500 people last night in Greenville County.
And I think that Americans want to be able to
make this decision themselves.
I don't think this is the place of the RNC
to do it.
I think that Trump overstepped when he pushed them to
do it.
And I think that's why he's had to back down.
And that was the right thing to do was to
back down
and and just do you have actual knowledge and awareness
that he pushed the RNC to do that and then
pulled back.
I mean, we know exactly the people that pushed it
are his people and I know that during the debates.
I mean, he was pushing Ronna McDaniel to stop the
debates.
He was calling her every other day.
He's been pushing them to pay for his lawsuits and
all of these other things.
But at the end of the day,
this is not about the RNC.
This is about the American people.
This is not about a,
you know, a political party deciding who they want to
be the nominee.
You know, when I ran for governor,
there were five candidates. I was far from the nominee.
I was the one I,
you know, I ran against the Lieutenant governor and attorney
general,
a congressman and a state senator.
They did the same thing to me.
Then I won, Then I'm going to win.
Now. Let's talk about your path forward.
As you know, Trump has a double digit lead in
the polls.
He secured the endorsement of a lot of the top
officials in your state.
Do you need to win South Carolina,
your home state, in order to win the nomination?
Well, let's first talk about the people that he surrounded
himself in South Carolina.
Yes, he got the the endorsement of the governor,
but that's the same governor that I defeated when I
ran for governor.
Yes, he got the endorsement of the political class in
South Carolina,
but that's the same group that I forced to have
to show their votes on the record.
It's the same group that I forced to pass
ethics reform where they had to disclose their income.
It's the same group where I vetoed half a billion
dollars of pet projects that I didn't think taxpayer dollars
should go to.
So there's no surprise there that the political leader surrounding
him there,
he has become, Trump, has become an insider.
That's what it comes down to is he's more interested
in satisfying the elected class and he isn't satisfying the
people.
When it comes to South Carolina,
look, we wanted to be strong and I think you
look,
we started with 2% in Iowa.
We ended up with 20%.
We got to New Hampshire.
We needed to do better than that,
and we did. We got
43% of the vote. Now we're going into South Carolina.
We need to be stronger than what we did in
New Hampshire.
And so that's certainly what we need to do.
But it's not just that we need to be stronger.
Kristen Trump needs to be stronger.
He's not getting the independent vote.
He's not getting a segment of the Republicans.
And so he's got some work to do as well.
Let me just make sure we get an answer though,
Ambassador Haley, because this is your home state.
You were governor in the state of South Carolina.
Do you need to win your home state in order
to stay in this race?
Is it do or die?
I think I need to do better than I did
in New Hampshire.
So this is a building situation.
Do you need to win state?
You bet. In which state?
You don't. You need to.
Actually, I think I need to say you need to
do better,
but don't you need to win your home state to
show that you can win a state,
win your home state and really put some delegates on
the map for yourself?
Well, we've got 17 delegates.
He's got 32. I'd say that's pretty good to start.
What I do think I need to do is I
need to show that I'm building momentum.
I need to show that I'm stronger in South Carolina
than New Hampshire.
Does that have to be a win?
I don't think that necessarily has to be a win,
but it certainly has to be better than what I
did in New Hampshire and it certainly has to be
close.
And so that's what we're focusing on.
If we win, great. If not,
we've got to show that we're continuing to narrow that
margin along the way.
So I give people in Super Tuesday states a reason
to know that they can continue to see and and
and have us fight on.
So I hear you saying you are in this.
Regardless of the results in South Carolina through Super Tuesday,
it sounds like here's how the Wall Street Journal editorial
board is thinking about your campaign,
they write if she can remain competitive,
there's an argument for Miss Haley to stay in the
race through the July convention.
Mr. Trump faces a treacherous legal road,
and one of the cases against him could go to
trial if he's convicted of a felony.
42% of voters in New Hampshire and nearly 1/3 of
Iowa's GOP caucus goers said Mr.
Trump would be unfit for the presidency.
Are you staying in this race in case Donald Trump
is convicted of a crime ambassador?
I've never stayed in this race because of court cases,
you know? Really. I don't know what all the court
cases are.
I haven't paid attention to what he's won,
what he's lost, what he's fighting for,
any of that. What I know is,
you know, the first one came down and he spent
a lot of time ranting about how he lost that
court case.
But the reality is, every time he's talking about defending
himself in court,
he's not talking about getting our economy back on track.
He's not talking about closing the border.
He's not talking about how we're going to get our
kids reading again and getting us focused again.
He's not talking about law and order.
That's the problem, is he's not talking about what the
American people want.
Kristen, look at what happened just in the 48 hours
after the election.
Here he went on a He was totally unhinged.
Went on a rampage election night talking about revenge.
Then the next day he goes and says anybody who
supports me is not going to be allowed to be
part of MAGA.
Well, that means those people that voted for me in
Iowa and New Hampshire and those people who've donated to
me,
Really, you're going to go and say they're not in
your club,
you're supposed to be president representing everyone.
Then he goes and pushes the Republican Party to make
him the nominee.
I mean, look, he's insecure.
He's threatened, He sees what's happening,
and he knows these court cases are going to take
him further and further away from the campaign trail.
And that's what he's worried about.
And you bring up the court cases.
I want to get to them.
But just yes or no.
Are you in this race through the convention beyond Super
Tuesday?
Yes or no?
As long as I keep growing per state,
I am in this race,
I have every intention of going to Super Tuesday
through through Super Tuesday. We're going to keep on going
and see where this gets us.
That's what we know we're going to do right now.
I take it one state at a time.
I don't think too far ahead.
Let's talk about going anywhere.
All right. Let's talk about the court cases.
On Friday, a jury ordered Donald Trump to pay writer
E Jean Carroll $83 million in damages for defamation.
As you know, this was a year after a different
jury found him liable for sexual abuse.
You have said and you repeated here,
Maybe it's fair, maybe it's not.
But let me just ask you,
on the substance of the jury's ruling,
should that be disqualifying to be president?
I think the American people decide who should be disqualifying.
I've always thought it's the same thing with the RNC
picking the nominee.
We don't need to take over anything that the American
people have the right to do.
I think that I've always said I think Donald Trump
has the right to be on the ballot.
I've always said I trust the American people.
They know how to make good decisions.
And so I think that they're going to see this
for what it is.
They see that he's completely distracted.
They see that he's going on these rants about how
he's the victim.
And I think that's exactly what they We don't need
a strong leader to be.
And so, you know, these court cases are going to
keep happening one by one.
We're going to keep seeing him in a courtroom,
and we're going to see him come out and do
a press conference.
That's not what you want a president to be.
But more than that, that's not what we want Russia
to see.
That's not what we want China to see,
and that's not what we want Iran to see.
And what is unique about this case is that the
jury has now ruled they have found him liable of
sexual abuse.
Do you not trust the jury and their findings,
Ambassador?
I absolutely trust the jury.
And I think that they made their decision based on
the evidence.
I just don't think that should take him off the
ballot.
I think the American people will take him off the
ballot.
I think that's the best way to go forward,
is not let him play the victim,
let him play the loser.
That's what we want him to do at the end
of the day,
just to be clear, do you think it's disqualifying,
Ambassador?
I don't think he should be taken off the ballot.
I think the American people will decide if he's disqualifying
or not.
We don't do that, Kristen.
In America, anybody that wants to run can run.
And I think that's really important.
We've seen a lot of people trying to infringe on
our freedoms and our democracy.
We can never let that happen.
I don't want a political party deciding who's right and
wrong.
I don't want, you know,
any judges to decide who deserves to be on the
ballot and who doesn't.
I want the American people to decide it.
That's what the heartbeat of America is,
our democracy. Let's let the American people decide who they
want to lead this country.
Ambassador, just one more time before we move on.
And we are going to move on to another topic.
But you have said his advanced age makes him unfit.
You have just now called him unhinged.
Why give him a pass on this issue where a
jury has found him liable for sexual abuse?
I'm not giving him a pass on anything.
I mean, I have said,
you know, he went on for for three or 4
minutes talking about how I didn't secure the capital on
January 6th.
I mean, clearly he was confused,
thinking that I was Nancy Pelosi.
But look, that's exactly why we don't need two people
in their 80s running for president.
We need someone who can serve a strong eight years
to get our country back on track.
You can't do that with him.
And I think it's not being disrespectful.
It's the fact that when you're 80,
you are declining. That's just a fact.
And so, look, there are multiple things that I think
are the reason he should not be president.
That's the whole reason I'm running.
I do think that he is in decline,
and I think that he needs to know to step
away.
I do think that he surrounds himself in chaos,
and we can't be a country in disarray and have
a world on fire and be in chaos.
I do think that these court cases are distracting,
not just to the American people,
but to him himself, which is keeping him from talking
about what really matters.
That's exactly why I don't think he should be president.
Ambassador, you bring up his attacks.
I want to ask you about his attacks against you.
He has mocked your birth name.
He has suggested you're not eligible to be president because
your parents weren't born here.
Of course you are eligible.
You were born here. But I'm curious,
just big picture. What do you make of him bringing
back this birther playbook against you?
Do you think it will work in South Carolina and
win over voters there?
I mean, honestly, Kristen, I laugh every time I see
one of his tweets,
every time I see him
throw a temper tantrum. Because I know Donald Trump very
well.
When he feels insecure, he starts to rail.
He starts to rant, he starts to flail his arms
and he starts to get upset.
When he gets feels threatened,
he starts to throw all kinds of things out there.
I would always tell him he was his own worst
enemy.
He's proving that right now.
He's proved it in the fact that he continues to
be chaotic.
Those things don't hurt my feelings.
This isn't not personal for me.
What is personal for me is getting America back on
track.
Would you go so far as to call those attacks
racist,
ambassador?
I think that's for everybody else to decide.
I think that they, you know,
the fact that he continues to go down these paths
of saying things.
You know, is this who we want as a president?
Is this who we want our kids to see?
I don't think so. And look,
he's just going to become more unhinged.
Kristen, hold on. It's going to get worse because that's
what he does when he feels like he's not in
control.
I do want to ask you about this border deal.
There have been talks for weeks now,
a group of senators working on this deal.
They seem to be close to the finish line,
but now Donald Trump is trying to torpedo any deal,
he wrote this weekend. Quote A bad border deal is
far worse than no border deal.
What is your message right now to Republicans on Capitol
Hill should they get this deal done?
My message to Republicans is do not leave DC until
you finish the job it.
We have waited for so long for Congress to do
something about the border.
First, Joe Biden should be securing the border.
This is a national security threat.
The idea that he is actually suing Governor Abbott for
trying to protect the people of Texas is wrong.
America's acting like it's September 10th,
and we better remember what September 12th felt like because
it only takes one person to cause a 9/11 moment.
The second thing is Republicans and Democrats need to get
into a room.
They don't need to leave until they figure this out
because the American people are not safe at this point.
And Donald Trump, the last thing he needs to do
is tell them to wait to pass a border deal
until the election.
We can't wait one more day,
but they do need to get this right.
I don't know exactly the details in the bill,
but one of the things I saw is that they
didn't have the remain in Mexico policy.
You have to have the remain in Mexico policy because
people need,
don't even need to step foot on US soil.
That's the first place we need to start.
Ambassador Haley, the Biden administration has said they're taking action
against Governor Abbott because they see some of his policies
as inhumane.
But let me ask you big picture.
We heard President Biden say he's prepared to shut down
the border if this deal passes.
If you are president, if you were in the White
House right now,
and I know that you are saying Republicans should get
a deal,
but you're also saying you don't see everything in it
you want.
Would you sign this bill?
Would you sign this into law?
Well, I haven't seen the details of the bill,
so I can't comment on whether I would sign it.
What I can tell you is I've seen things that
are not in it that should be in it.
And let's let's keep in mind,
I appreciate that that President Biden saying he wants to
be
humane in this process. But look,
I dealt with the border when I was in the
United Nations while President Trump was dealing with it in
DCI,
was on the ground in Honduras and Guatemala.
With those people go through and that trek to America
is horrific and it's dangerous and it's unsafe.
We need to make sure they never even think there's
an opening for them.
They shouldn't even make that trek in the 1st place.
And what's happened is they see all their family members
coming over.
They see all their friends coming over.
He gave President Biden gave half a million Venezuelans temporary
protective status,
which is Social Security numbers and driver's license is the
first thing they do.
I saw this at the UN.
They pick up the phone and call their relatives and
say come on over,
we need to stop what's happening.
But Ambassador, when you need to get this done,
when you hear President Biden say he's prepared to shut
down the border,
what say you about that?
You you agree with that assessment?
I say to President Biden,
prove it. Get into a room and get this done
and prove it because the American people are waiting.
I put this on Republicans and Democrats.
I'm not picking favorites in this.
I'm telling you, they have all not done a good
job from the very beginning.
And it is time that we get this
country safe again. Let's talk about what's happening in the
Middle East.
There are reports the US is getting closer to negotiating
a deal that would effectively mean Israel would suspend its
military operations in Gaza for about two months in exchange
for a release of the remaining hostages.
The CIA director is in Paris negotiating these talks right
now.
If you were president, if you were in the White
House right now,
is this the type of deal you would get behind?
Would you be supporting this and urging Israel to accept
this compromise?
We want to do everything we can to get the
hostages home.
But I also know what this means.
This means that during those two months,
Hamas is going to refuel.
They're going to rebuild their ammunition.
They're going to replan. They're going to plan all of
the things that they're going to do.
They have said they're going to do another attack,
and Israel has to keep themselves safe.
So this is a fine line that we need to
see them walk.
First of all, we need to make sure Israel has
whatever they need when they need it.
We need to make sure that we eliminate Hamas and
never take our so you think this
is a bad deal and
we need to get the hostages home.
But do you think it's a bad deal to pause
the I think for two months?
I think if Israel is willing to pause,
then we should. If Israel is not willing to pause,
then we shouldn't. They are driving this train.
When they saw so many people die on October 7th
and they hear Hamas saying they're going to do this
again.
Kristen, when I was at the United Nations,
I gave a speech five years ago
and it showed. It told the world that there were
maps.
These maps were held by Hamas.
And it showed that if they could breakthrough the barrier,
this is how they were going to kill as many
Jewish people as fast as they could.
That happened. I know there would be no Hamas without
Iran.
I know that they want to eliminate Israel.
We've got to find a way to protect Israelis and
get those hostages home.
This may work. We have to see.
But what we also have to do is not take
our eyes off of Hamas because they're going to use
this time to kill more people and do more things
to build up their their military.
Ambassador, I'm going to ask you about something that happened
at your home in South Carolina last month.
We're just learning about it right now.
Authorities responded to a swatting call
just for our audience. That's when a fake emergency call
is called in,
creating the possibility of a really dangerous situation.
You were not home at the time,
but but what was your reaction?
What are the implications of this happening,
ambassador?
Well, Kristen, I was not home,
but but Michael and I take care of my parents.
They are 87 and 90 and we take care of
them and they were at home and with their caregiver.
And so I will tell you that the last thing
you want is to see multiple law enforcement officials with
guns drawn,
pointing at my parents and and thinking that something happened.
It is a, it is an awful situation.
It put the law enforcement officers in danger.
It put my family in danger.
And you know, it, it was not a safe situation.
And that goes to show the the chaos that's surrounding
our country right now and the fact that these things
are happening.
And so, look, I'm not the only one that's happened
to.
It wasn't the first time.
I think we've had it happen twice.
But I will tell you this that I think that
what's really important is
we have lived in a country of chaos for quite
a while now.
It is time that we remember what normal felt like.
It is time that we remember what healing feels like.
It is time that we remember what it's like not
to have division,
not to have hate. Ambassador,
you're Americans, and we need to remember how blessed we
are,
just very quickly. And we have two more topics I
want to get to.
How concerned are you about political violence right now,
overall, given what happened?
I mean, I think, look,
I feel it, we've been
to town halls, 150 something,
town halls. There are things that have happened.
I've had threats made. It's what happens when you run
for president.
I can handle that. That is not the problem.
What I don't want is for my kids to live
like this.
That's the reason I'm doing this is to have this
division and not my husband is deployed right now sacrificing
for America with his military brothers and sisters.
They are doing that because they love this country,
because they still believe in this amazing experiment that is
America.
We have to go back to remember what it's like
to be Americans first.
That's the biggest thing that's heartbreaking for me is we're
better than this.
Our country is better than this.
And the rest of the world is looking at us
wondering what happened.
We've got to write this ship.
We've got to get it back.
And I know we can do it.
America has an amazing ability to self correct.
Sometimes we have to hit rock bottom to know where
up is.
We're there. We need to start looking up.
Well, Ambassador Haley, let me just ask you,
looking forward, if you do fall short,
if you you don't get the nomination.
You have said before that being on a ticket with
Donald Trump is quote,
off the table. Let me just ask you to put
a fine point on it.
Have you completely ruled out being Donald Trump's running mate?
I have said I don't want to be
anyone's vice president. I don't know how more clear I
can be
anyone's vice president. So you've ruled it out,
Ambassador. You've ruled it out.
I am. I don't. I mean I think that's what
I'm saying.
If I say I don't want to be anyones vice
president,
I think that's pretty clear.
What I'm telling you is I am going to run
and I am running to win.
And I think the American people deserve better.
And I think this is a time where the American
people need a lot of courage.
We have seen every general election poll.
Trump does not beat Biden in a general election.
We have seen that I defeat Biden by double digits.
When you look at that,
that's a mandate, Kristen, to go get the wasteful spending
out of control to secure our border with.
No more excuses to get our kids reading again.
That's what we need to be doing.
Would you rule out endorsing him as a nominee?
You have said before that you would support him given
your stepped up language.
You're calling him unhinged. Would you rule out endorsing him
as a nominee?
I'm not even thinking about endorsements,
Kristen. I know that y'all want to talk about what
happens if
I'm focused on defeating Donald Trump.
Period. That's it. I don't think past that.
I'm not thinking past South Carolina or Super Tuesday.
What I want to do is go and save this
country.
We have a country to save.
I'm determined to do it.
Y'all can think forward. I'm focused on the sweet people
of South Carolina and making sure that we get them
their voices heard.
And we're going to work this state as hard and
as fast as we ever have.
All right, Ambassador. Nikki Haley,
thank you so much. Good luck out on the campaign
trail.
Stay safe. We really appreciate your joining us.