Barely hours before the Iowa Caucuses are set to begin, 2024 Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley could not bring herself to cross Donald Trump even though she just catapulted into second place nationally.
Haley, who served as Trump’s first Ambassador to the United Nations and promised to not run against him in 2020, did her best to not upset her former boss even during a Fox News hit on Monday.
“Most likely Republican Iowa caucusgoers say they’ll vote for former President Donald Trump in the general election if he’s the GOP nominee, regardless of the candidate they’re supporting on caucus night,” NBC News reported, citing the latest NBC News/Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll of Iowa.
But that factoid comes with a caveat: “That is, except supporters of former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, with nearly half of them — 43% — saying they’d vote for Democratic President Joe Biden over Trump.”
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That alone should be an important fact for Haley to tell Fox News viewers, but on Monday afternoon the former South Carolina governor failed to do so.
Instead, she “endorsed” Donald Trump, at least over President Joe Biden.
“Governor, I know you have a very busy schedule,” Fox News host Neil Cavuto said late Monday afternoon. “I talked to quite a few people in this room already governor who said that if it’s Donald Trump, they cannot pull the lever for him if he’s the nominee. How do you feel about that? How do you feel about the idea that many of your fans want you, or no one?”
“That’s what we’re gonna win,” Haley replied. “Because they want someone else, I mean, you go all across the state, people are tired.”
“But do you support that view, that if it isn’t you, and doesn’t work out, and it’s Donald Trump, that they’re gonna go elsewhere?”
“I mean, look, I would take Donald Trump over Joe Biden any day of the week,” Haley replied, rather than embracing the win, “but I’m going to make sure we don’t have that option.”
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“Everything we’ve done to get to this point. I mean, keep in mind, people have been saying things for months, back when there were 14 in the race and we were 2%. Now we are solid seconding Iowa, second in New Hampshire, second in South Carolina. We got one more fella to catch up to you and we’re gonna get it done. That’s our goal. That’s what we’re gonna get done.”
Watch Haley’s remarks below or at this link.