America's Talking - Haley Drops Out of Presidential Race, Does Not Endorse Trump

Episode Date: March 9, 2024

Former U.N. ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley dropped out of the Republican presidential primary Wednesday and declined to endorse former President Donald Trump. "I am filled with the gratitude for the outpouring of support we have received from all across our great country, but the time has now come to suspend my campaign," Haley said during her remarks. "I said I wanted Americans to have their voices heard. I have done that." Haley said she has no regrets. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/america-in-focus/support Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Greetings and welcome to America in Focus, powered by the Center Square. I'm Dan McAulb, Chief Content Officer at the Franklin News Foundation, publisher of the Center Square Newswire service. We are recording this Friday, March 8th. Primary elections in 15 Super Tuesday states this week all but assured a rematch between Democratic President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump in November. Trump's dominating performance, winning by huge margins in 14 of the 15 states. voting, forced his only real remaining challenger, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, to exit the race. Boring significant new questions about Biden's memory and age and a potential conviction

of Trump in the four separate criminal cases against him, a repeat of the 2020 presidential race is all but certain. Joining me today to discuss the presidential race is the Center Square's Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief Casey, Casey, you covered two per Tuesday for the Center Square and Haley's departure from the race the following day. What are your top end takeaways? Yeah, it's right. It's been a, I would say it's been a really good few days for former president Donald Trump. He had, you know, it may seem distant memory with the pace of this new cycle, but the Supreme Court kept him on the ballot in Colorado and other states, right? So he had a big

win there, the kind of insurgent effort to remove him, I mean insurgent, metaphorically. Now the way that insurrection tossed around, you have to clarify that. But, you know, this effort, within the states to remove Trump from the ballot failed with the U.S. Supreme Court, a major win for Trump. Then Super Tuesday comes around, as you said, really a shalacking for Haley, who is unable to hardly win any states except Vermont. Just before that, she lost South Carolina, which is a state she was governor of. And then she drops out, clearing the path for Trump, cementing his dominance over the party. And I think in a way, it was better for Trump to be. challenged and win because if everyone just kind of stepped out of his way, that would be fine for him

and he would be the nominee. But because people have challenged him and he's so dominantly just crushed them, it makes him seem like an inevitable front winner. It helped him build momentum and seem like the will of the people was behind him. Like he has this moral mandate. Like Trump is back, 2016 style. You know, Trump's whole mantra is you're going to be tired of winning. You're going to be winning so much, Dan. And so to see him win, win, win, win is good for Trump's brand. It's good, good for building momentum for him. And now it's a general election faceoff. And I think we've seen that in the rhetoric of both Biden and Trump. They have turned their attacks on one another. After Haley dropped out, you know, Trump turned on Biden. He called him the enemy. And then he,

in the state of the union address, Trump was basically live tweeting on his social media outlet, true social, just picking apart different moments of Biden's speech. Some of the attacks were kind of a sillier classic Trump move, making fun of Biden for coughing so much. But some of them were substantive critiques about the border, you know, about the vaccine. Biden was touting the vaccine, but Trump was pointing out that he's really the one who developed the vaccine in his last year in office. So Biden and Trump are at each other's throats. This is not going to be a gloves off campaign. The attacks have been fierce and fast. And now it looks like a one-on-one face-off. When Nikki Haley dropped out of the race on Wednesday of this week, Casey, she notably did not

endorse former President Trump. She actually worked for President Trump as the UN ambassador to the United Nations. What do you think is going to happen there? Yeah, I mean, I think Haley's thinking long term. She congratulated Trump. She said, I wish him well, but then gave the caveat of, as I would wish any president well. So just to be clear, I'm not specifically just wishing Trump well. I'm just, you know, wishing generally any president well. And then like you said, she didn't endorse him. I think that, you know, Trump is very old.

Biden is very, is very old. In four more years, we're going to be looking for a new set of candidates. And I think Haley has that in mind. And that's why she stayed in the race so long. she was able to get a lot of money as the anti-Trump candidate without just attacking him constantly. She attacked him, but in a kind of tactful way, she didn't attack him the way Democrats did. She attacked him saying it would be bad for the Republican Party because they're going to waste all their time on Trump's lawsuits. You know, she attacked him in strategic ways where she didn't just seem like a rabid anti-Trumper, although she did upset a lot of pro-Trump people.

I think she was trying to tow that line. She spent a ton of money on ads in very important primary states to build her name recognition. She established herself as a top-tier candidate. And so when this next election comes around, I would be shocked if it's Trump or Biden still trying to run. And so it's going to be who's around next? Is it DeSantis, Ramoswamy? Vivek Ramoswamy? I mean, he's kind of a new Trump.

But, oh, look, there's a Republican, a little bit more moderate woman named Nikki Haley. who can reach suburbid voters, she could be the, you know, the establishment pick as she seemingly already is. So I think she's thinking ahead. I don't think she's going to be in Trump's administration, but I don't think she is too worried about that either. But we got a little bit of time to focus on 2028, Casey. Let's focus on 2024 for the moment. Most recent polling shows Trump has a lead over Biden in this what was a potential matchup, but now a likely matchup in November. Trump also holds leads in several key swing states. But are Haley's voters going to be willing to switch their allegiance to Trump come November?

I would think that he needs a significant portion of Haley voters support to beat Biden in November. What are your thoughts on that? It would be great for Trump if he got the independent voters. But a lot of the polling shows that a lot of Haley's voters were Democrats. And it's unclear how many Democrats knew that the Democrat primary was pointless and that Biden was inevitable. And so they were meddling in the Republican primary. Some states, it's hard to do that. Some states, it's easy to vote in a different primary, you know.

So I think there is a real percentage of the Haley vote that was just straight up Democrats who would vote, would not vote for her in the general, which is hate Trump and we're hoping to supplant Trump. And, you know, and I think she does have some Democrat appeal. She has a real independent appeal. And the biggest thing, I'll hit it again, is the suburban voters, particularly women. Trump has struggled there to get those suburban women. They, in many ways, decide the modern national elections. And so I think, you know, Trump is going to probably be looking to get a female VP, if I can make a prediction, to replace Haley, to speak to those voters. I think that's why Alabama Senator Katie Britt gave the Republican response to Biden last

night. She's a 42-year-old woman who sat in her family kitchen and talked about kitchen table issues. That's what the Republican mindset is, is Trump has the base, Trump has enthusiasm. We need to reach the suburban voters, particularly women, and that's our coalition to be Biden. Interesting analysis there, Casey. We'll see in the weeks and months ahead when former President Trump does pick his VP co-runner. It's March, Casey. There are, it's March, Casey. There are still eight long months before the November election. You've got questions about Biden's cognitive abilities and age and memories.

Donald Trump, of course, is still facing nearly 100 criminal counts and four separate indictments, just very briefly. What do you expect over the next eight months? Chaos and true Trump style. That's all I can predict. A lot of uncertainty, a lot of legal rulings and things. And, you know, it's not just from Trump's side. I think Biden is very old.

And, you know, a health issue could pop up any day. And it wouldn't necessarily have to be fatal. It could just put him in the lurch. Or maybe he's in the hospital. I don't want to predict or wish that on anyone. But it's, you know, there's a lot of opportunity for chaos. And so, Dan, you have to read thecentersquare.com and listen to this podcast to stay informed. Casey, you just stole my ending.

Regardless, thank you for joining us. As Casey just said, listeners, can keep up with all things presidential election of the center square.com.