Nikki Haley suggested Sunday that she may no longer feel bound by a promise she made last year to attend the Republican primary debates and support the party’s eventual nominee – raising the possibility that she will former President Donald J. would not support. Trump, if he wins the nomination, which is increasingly likely.
At the same time, she reiterated her previous claims that President Biden was a worse option than Mr. Trump and said she did not want to engage in “what ifs” or “hypotheses” that assume she would lose the primary. She never ruled out supporting Mr. Trump, even as she said he allowed “lawlessness” on Jan. 6 and that she didn’t know whether he would abide by the Constitution as president.
The exchange on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” began when host Kristen Welker asked whether Ms. Haley had taken the prospect of supporting Mr. Trump “off the table.”
Ms. Haley paused, saying, “It’s not something I think about,” adding, “When you’re talking about a support, you’re talking about a loss. I don’t think like that.”
After much back and forth, she described the Republican National Committee pledge she signed last year and, referring to Mr. Trump’s support of Lara Trump, who is married to his son Eric, as party co-chair, said: replacing the outgoing one Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel: “The RNC is not the same RNC now. Now he’s Trump’s daughter-in-law.”
“I think I’ll make the decision I want to make,” she added. “But I don’t think about that. And I think as you all think about that, I’m looking at the fact that we had thousands of people in Virginia, we’re going to North Carolina, we’re going to continue to go to Vermont and Maine and so on. These states are meant to show people, that there is a way forward.”
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2024-03-03 16:21:55
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