Morning Wire - Nikki Haley 2024 Presidential Candidate | Sunday Extra | 5.14.23

Episode Date: May 14, 2023

Nikki Haley is the only female Republican who has announced her candidacy for president. The two term Governor of South Carolina and U.N. ambassador makes the case for why she should be the next president of the United States.   Black Rifle Coffee Get 10% off your Coffee Club subscription! BlackRifleCoffee.com promo code ‘WIRE’ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nikki Haley is the only female Republican who has announced her bid for the presidency thus far. The two-term governor of South Carolina and UN ambassador under President Trump touts her domestic and international experience. In this episode of Morning Wire, we speak to candidate Haley on why she wants to be president of the United States and the unique strength she believes she brings to the table. It's Sunday, May 14th, and this is an extra edition of Morning Wire. Nikki Haley was one of the first candidates to throw her hat into the presidential ring. She joins me now to lay out her priorities.

Ambassador Haley, thanks so much for joining us. Thank you for taking the time to talk. Now, you've announced that you're running for president. That's obviously a massive undertaking. What makes you want to take that on? Well, I think, you know, a few things. I think it's hard to watch what's happening with the economy. I don't think our kids are going to forgive us for that.

I think you look at the fact that the education system is continuing to be. out of control. I think crime is at an all-time high. You look at the illegal immigration situation. You look at our foreign policy situation. And it's hard to find anything good that's happening right now. And I have always been a problem solver. And I am a two-term governor that took a double-digit unemployment state and turned it into an economic powerhouse. I was at the United Nations, and I didn't deal with one country. I dealt with 193 and took the kick-me sign off of our bags. And so now I see a country that is not what my parents came to 50 years ago that was strong and proud and full of opportunities. And I want to do everything I can to make it a country that our children

can be proud of. Now, you mentioned that you were the UN ambassador under President Trump. He's obviously running again. And despite his legal challenges, he's doing pretty well in the polls. Why should voters pick you over Trump or even Governor DeSantis, who we anticipate is going to jump into the race shortly? I think that it's time for a new generation. I mean, we've got to leave the baggage and the drama behind. We've got new generational problems, and I think we need new generational solutions. And if you look at what we have in D.C., we've had people who've been there way too long.

There's been a lot of constant drama and negativity, and I think we need to kind of put all that to the wayside. I mean, you look at what Russia and China are looking at, and they see in America that's completely distracted. And when America's distracted, the world is less safe. I've said that the reason I want to do this is my parents came here 50 years ago. They came to a country that was strong and proud and full of opportunities. So I want them to feel that country again. I'm doing this for my husband and as military brothers and sisters because they need to know their sacrifice meant something and that we do love our country. I'm doing this for my daughter who just got married and I see how hard it is for her and her husband to own a home.

And I'm doing it for my son who's a junior in college. and I see him writing papers of things he doesn't believe in just to get an A. And, you know, for the first time in history, 78% of Americans don't think that their children are going to live as good of a life as they did. That's not okay. I'm not okay with that. And I think it's time that we do something and start writing the shit. Now, you've mentioned a few issues already, but what would be your administration's top priorities? What do you think you're uniquely qualified to champion in your campaign? Well, I'm an accountant. I'm not a lawyer. And I think you look at the fact that we're $31 trillion in debt. We're having to borrow money just to make our interest payments. And the reality is it's easy to hit Biden on that. But our Republicans did that to us as well. You know, when they passed the $2.2 trillion COVID stimulus bill, 419 to 6 in the House and 96 to zero in the Senate, they expanded welfare. We now have 90 million Americans on Medicaid. We've got 42 million Americans on Medicaid. We've got 42 million Americans on. food stamps, and I think we need to start getting the spending and the debt under control and

start working on issues that will pay that down. My goal will be to focus on the spending and the debt, but also make sure that I veto any spending bill that doesn't take us back to pre-COVID levels. You know, as a mom, I look at what's happening in our education system, and you look at 70% of eighth graders are not proficient in reading. You've got 67% of eighth graders that aren't proficient in math. Those numbers are worse when it comes to history in civics. We've got 90% of our American children still under critical race theory, where if a little girl goes into kindergarten, if she's white, they're telling her she's bad. And if she's brown or black, they're telling her she's never going to be good enough or she's always going to be a victim. We've got biological boys playing in girls' sports.

It's the women's issue of our time. I mean, the idea that my daughter ran track, I wouldn't even know how to have that conversation with her. We should not have biological boys in our girls' locker rooms. And you look at the fact that a third of our girls a year ago contemplated suicide. That's because we have all of these things happening around them when we should be focusing on their confidence. And I want to get that back on track. We need to have school choice. We need to make sure parents know exactly what's happening in the classroom.

You look at the crime on our streets and it's in an all-time high. We need to bring law and order back. We need to make sure that we have the backs of our law enforcement. We take the numbers of our criminals and we start getting our district attorneys to prosecute according to the law. And then with illegal immigration, I mean, five million people have crossed the border. I'm the only candidate that actually went to the border. I went to 400 miles of the border. And you look at all the lawlessness that's happening. And now you look at Title 42 listing. And that's not our country. We need to go back and do what I did as governor and

make sure we have a mandatory e-verify program across our country. We need to make sure we defund sanctuary cities. We need to go back to remain in Mexico, because we're going to be a mandatory e-verify program, nobody wants to remain in Mexico. We need to keep Title 42, and instead of catch and release, we need to go to catch and deport and focus on letting Border Patrol do their jobs. Instead of the 87,000 IRS agents, we need to fire them and add 25,000 Border Patrol and ice agents on the ground. And from foreign policy, we need to make sure that countries know what we expect of them, instead of being reactionary. So there's no shortage of issues, but there's no shortage of solutions to this, too. This isn't rocket science.

It's common sense. And, you know, I have no problem with taking care of all of those. You already touched a little bit on some of the culture war issues. Do you think 2024 is going to be won by a candidate who leans into the culture war and stakes out firm positions on things like trans kids, the border, abortion? Or do you think it's going to be won by someone who taxed the middle on social issues? The cultural issues have been a terrible distraction, but they've also been harmful to our kids in our society. When you look at someone like Dylan Mulvaney, I mean, that is a guy dressed up like a girl making fun of women.

We have to see that for what it is. And we've got companies glorifying that. That's not okay. And when you look at the number of girls that have contemplated suicide, I mean, a third of our teenage girls, it's because of things like that. So we have to address those issues. Those are the women's issues of our time. But those aren't the only issues we address. You know, we should be addressing the debt in the economy.

should be addressing education. We should be addressing immigration. I mean, all those issues are important, and I think we should be able to balance multiple balls at the same time. Now, recently CNN's Don Lemon, obviously no longer at CNN, made an infamous comment about you being past your prime as a woman. So far, you're the only woman running as a Republican. Do you think that being female is going to be a liability for you as a candidate, a strength, or neutral? Well, I don't worry about it ever being a liability, because I am. proud of the fact that I'm a woman. I'm a big fan of women. I think we balance. I think we prioritize. I think we're very focused on results. And so, you know, I want to go and not only make

women, but everyone proud in that process. You know, God bless Don Lemon, you're going to have comments like that. You're going to have people focused more on my clothes than things that I say, but that doesn't deter me. If anything, that makes me double down and say, we've got to do this stronger and better so that we can move past all of these ridiculous comments that come from, you know, the liberal media and start focusing on what's going to really lift up all Americans in the process. Last question. Now that Roe v. Wade has been struck down, there's going to be pressure to lay out a more defined position on abortion. Do you believe there is a role for the federal government on abortion, or should it be a state's issue? Well, looking back at the issue,

if you go back prior to 1973, the states had decided exactly what the state's, you know, what the people if their state wanted. They had found consensus and you had different laws in different states. What happened with Roe v. Wade is it basically threw out 46 state laws and said, we are going to mandate over the entire country that abortion is going to be allowed anytime, anywhere, in any circumstance. And I think that that was a law that was pushed on people that wasn't warranted or wanted at the time. Now you've got the fact that there's been a correction where we're not putting something so personal on the table in the hands of unelected justices. I am pro-life. I'm not pro-life because the Republican Party tells me to be. I'm pro-life because my husband was adopted. I live

with that blessing every day. I'm pro-life because I had trouble conceiving both of my children, and so they're a blessing to me. Having said that, I don't judge anyone for being pro-choice any more than I want them to judge me for being pro-life. So I think going back to the states and allowing the states to decide what's closest to the people and the people's voices to be heard is hugely important because it's personal for everyone. And I think that, you know, we can all agree that we shouldn't have late-term abortions. I think we can all agree that doctors and nurses who don't believe in abortion shouldn't have to perform them. I think we should all agree that we should want more adoptions, not less, and children should feel more love.

and not less as they go through that process. I think we should all agree that contraception should be accessible. And I think we should agree that women should not go to jail or get the death penalty. Should they get an abortion? I think if we started on those things, that is where you can get a national consensus, where our number one goal should always be how do we save as many lives as possible and support as many moms in challenging situations as we can. All right.

Well, Nikki, thanks for taking time to talk with us. today. Thank you so much. Take care. That was former South Carolina governor and presidential candidate Nikki Haley. And this has been a Sunday extra edition of Morning Wire.