ORANGEBURG, SC (AP) – Former UN Ambassador and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, often referred to as a possible 2024 GOP presidential candidate, said Monday she would not seek her party’s nomination if former President Donald Trump chooses to hold a Second time to run.
“Yes,” said Haley, when asked if she would support a second bid from Trump, in whose cabinet she held the first half of his administration.
“I wouldn’t run if President Trump flee, and I would talk to him about it,” said Haley, asked by The Associated Press if a possible offer from Trump could preclude her own effort if he announced first. “That’s something we’ll have a conversation about at some point, if that decision is something that needs to be made.”
Haley spoke Monday after touring the campus of South Carolina State University, an HBCU in Orangeburg, where current President James E. Clark demonstrated her campus improvements, including a revamped student center and state-of-the-art cancer research and cybersecurity facilities.
The visit was one of Haley’s first public events in months in her home state.
Since stepping down as governor of South Carolina in 2016 to join Trump’s cabinet, Haley has maintained a delicate balancing act among Republicans who are, in some way, deeply divided over the now former president. In two years at the United Nations, Haley has walked a path to speak out against Trump without directly expressing his anger. She left the office on her own terms in 2018, a rarity back then during a wave of unrest in the workforce.
Haley has taken several steps in recent years to stir up speculation, her sights set on a higher office. In 2019 she and her family moved back to South Carolina, buying a home in the Kiawah Island community. She also set up a political action committee, published a memoir, and had a whopping $ 200,000 for speaking engagements.
Republicans were already grappling with the party’s future after Trump’s tumultuous term. But after the violence on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6 when lawmakers gathered to certify Joe Biden’s election victory, Haley said Trump had been “ seriously wrong. ” by stirring up the riot and telling an audience at the winter meeting of the Republican National Committee that Trump’s “actions since election day will be harshly judged based on history.”
Haley also said that the whole idea was “deeply disappointing” because of the effect it will have on the Trump administration’s legacy, echoing comments from some, including fellow South Carolinian Senator Lindsey Graham, who described Trump’s melee. self-inflicted wound “. “
On Monday, Haley defended her former boss, who last weekend pranked fellow Republicans, including his own vice president, saying he was “ disappointed. ” in Mike Pence and calls Mitch McConnell, leader of minorities in the Senate, an “icy loser.”
“I think former President Trump has always been cocky,” Haley said, asking about Trump’s weekend commentary and whether they hurt the GOP. Just because he left his position as president doesn’t stop that. But I think whatever he talked about was all the successes he had in the administration. And I think that’s what Republicans rally on. … Every day that Biden and Kamala Harris are in office, the Republicans unite. “
The outing was Haley’s first public event in her home state in months. It comes just two weeks before Pence, also of those named as a possible 2024 candidate, will visit South Carolina for his first public address, meeting with a conservative Christian nonprofit.
Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP