Welcome back. Well, Nikki Haley says she will not drop
out after losing big time
to former President Trump in her home state of South
Carolina last night,
where the primary historically is a reliable tell for who
will move on to the general election.
So is it time for Nikki Haley to call it
quits,
or does she still have some sort of a path?
We don't know where it leads,
but a path? South Carolina GOP Chair Drew Mckissick joins
us now.
Drew, you're also involved in the national Republican Party.
I'd like to ask you about that at some point.
But you know the state.
You saw the margin last night.
There was a moment where Will and I were watching
and Rachel and I were watching.
We thought she's going to drop out.
It almost sounded like a concession speech.
She didn't. Why not? Good question.
I mean, what we saw last night was a blowout,
you know, no two ways to to parse it.
20 points is a blowout.
Not only that, but you saw Donald Trump get the
most votes anybody has ever received in a statewide primary.
Is that what it was?
That was the most votes anybody's ever received.
And we're just 10,000 votes shy of a record.
The last time the record was in 16,
we had
765,000. We had 755 yesterday.
But you know, back then we had 17 candidates.
Well, that's an interesting demonstration of enthusiasm too.
Totally. Well, compare that to the Democrat side of the
street.
So they only had 132,000 people turn out in their
entire primary.
And that's after Jim Clyburn and Joe Biden gave them
the first in the nation primary.
So we turned out six times more than they did
with an incumbent president with the first in the nation
primary.
The enthusiasm on our side of the street,
no doubt about it. They've got an enthusiasm problem.
We tried to figure this out last night.
It's $1,000,000 question, why is she still in it?
It almost, it looks like sabotage at this point.
What is it? Well, that's a very good question.
Let me. South Carolina has a tradition
of being what I like to call the graveyard of
presidential campaigns.
You know, so we are the last opportunity for one
state at a time.
Focus before you move on to Super Tuesday or you
know,
it is cost prohibitive, manpower prohibitive,
time prohibitive. You got to do well here to get
that bounce.
That's why it's important and you have so many campaigns.
When they don't get that here,
they know it's over and they're done.
They can't raise the money,
etcetera.
You know, when you're O and four coming out of
the gate and you've gone through all these primaries,
you haven't won anywhere. You look forward and all the
other primaries and every one of them has a 30
to a 50 point margin for Donald Trump.
You got to wonder why you're hanging in.
I mean, at some point,
campaign, the candidates have to do some soul searching.
Is this good for me?
Is this good for the party?
Is this good for us to win?
Why am I involved in this?
Absolutely. Let me ask the national Republican Party because I
believe you're one of the Co chairs of the RNC,
is that correct? So you've got a seat at the
table.
I know the RNC is meeting in a in a
couple of weeks.
Will the party step in and say this is over?
Well, you know the problem is the the the delegate
election and selection process has to take place anyway.
So I mean even if every candidate said I'm done
right now,
I endorse Donald Trump. We still have to still have
to go through it.
You have to elect delegates,
bind delegates for our National Convention.
OK. Any prediction on when this wraps up?
Let's say it doesn't continue mathematically.
Mathematically, mathematically, it'll be over by the middle of March,
no doubt about it. We elect 70%
of our delegates by the end of March,
by March 15th. Mathematically, I don't see how we haven't
reached the 50%
tipping point. Well, Drew Mckissick,
thank you very much for your time.
And yes, Sir, here we go.