Second-placed GOP presidential hopeful Nikki Haley on Friday announced under no circumstances would she accept any offer from Donald Trump to become his vice presidential running mate, despite any chance of her being asked being extraordinarily slim.
Haley, currently battling what has become a lingering, three-week old damaging narrative about her views on racism, and the Civil War and slavery, told supporters in a New Hampshire diner ahead of the Granite State’s primary, “I don’t want to be anybody’s vice-president, that’s off the table.”
“I have said over and over and over again. I do not want to be vice president. Period. I don’t know how many more times I can say that,” Haley told voters, The Messenger reports. “I don’t play for second, I’ve never played for second.”
Despite her entreaties, barely weeks ago Haley, Trump’s former UN Ambassador, refused to rule out accepting an offer to be the ex-president’s VP pick.
“Haley has said she won’t officially rule out being Donald Trump’s running mate — claiming doing so would drive the news cycle ‘for days’ and rob her campaign of needed momentum,” The New York Post reported January 5.
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In early December The Hill labeled Haley “a less likely pick as Trump’s VP.”
And according to The New York Times’ Peter Baker, it’s unlikely she even was or is under consideration.
“Haley as running mate? When Trump was urged to make Haley his secretary of state replacing [Rex] Tillerson, he refused because of marks on her skin,” Baker noted Thursday, offering this quote from Trump: “She’s got that complexion problem. She’ll be here all the time. It doesn’t look good.”
Baker cited his own book, “The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021,” as the source, which he wrote with The New Yorker’s Susan Glasser.
See Baker’s social media post including an excerpt from the book below or at this link.
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