Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley on Sunday refused to pledge support for former President Donald Trump should he become the Republican Party’s presidential nominee after doubting whether he would follow the Constitution if he gets elected president again.
Haley questions whether Trump will follow Constitution, backtracks on pledge to support GOP nominee https://t.co/J5ZOykdBvg
— Fox News (@FoxNews) March 3, 2024
Asked if she believed Trump would keep to the Constitution as president during an appearance on NBCs “Meet the Press,” she stated, “I don’t know.”
“When you go and you talk about revenge. When you go and you talk about, you know, vindication. … I don’t know what that means and only he can answer for that,” she added.
She was then asked if she would support Trump if he secures the GOP nomination which would likely go to him, she fell short of committing to backing the former president.
“If you talk about an endorsement, you’re talking about a loss. I don’t think like that. When you’re in a race, you don’t think about losing,” she said. “What I can tell you is I don’t think Donald Trump or Joe Biden should be president. I don’t think we need two candidates in their 80s. … I think people want a new generational leader that is going to go back to what the American dream is, what we want for our kids, and a place that’s something that we can be proud of again.”
When confronted with the fact that she made a promise to back whoever becomes the party’s nominee, she said that she will “make what decision I want to make,” as she argued that “the RNC now is not the same RNC.”
“I don’t look at what ifs. I look at how do we continue the conversation,” she said.
Haley’s remarks come before she secured her first Republican primary win in the District of Columbia, securing all the 19 delegates at stake.
Not knowing what would happen for her later in the day, the former U.N. ambassador told anchor Kristen Welker that she was going to stay focused on March 5’s Super Tuesday when 16 states will go to the polls.
“While you all think about that, I’m looking at the fact that we had thousands of people in Virginia. We’re headed to North Carolina, we’re going to continue to go to Vermont and Maine, and all these states to go and show people that there is a path forward,” she stated.