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Nikki Haley Gave a Particularly Telling Non-Answer About Whether She'd Support Trump

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  February 19, 2024 5:30 PM

Last August, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley signed an RNC loyalty pledge that she would support the ultimate nominee, though she did spruce it up a bit by crossing out "Beat Biden" and replacing it with "President Harris." Since then, now that it's just her and former and potentially future President Donald Trump left in the race, Haley may be singing a different tune. During her Sunday appearance on ABC News' "This Week," Haley was asked a direct question by host Jonathan Karl as to if she would keep to that pledge, after he threw in a note about comments Trump has made about NATO, though her response wasn't quite as direct.

To begin with, Haley reminded "I mean keep in mind, I am running against him for a reason," as she went on to list her complaints against the Republican frontunner while also voicing that she's in the race to win it. "The last thing on my mind is who I'm going to support. The only thing on my mind is how we’re going to win this," she said as part of her answer. 

During the back-and-forth, Karl reminded Haley that she had already signed the pledge. 

One part of the pledge that Haley does seem to be sticking to is that she believes Vice President Kamala Harris will actually be the one to face.

"We are going to have a female president of the United States. It will either be me or it will be Kamala Harris. And if Donald Trump is the nominee of the--in--for the Republican Party, he will not win. Every poll shows that. He will not win. And we will have a president Kamala Harris," Haley declared. "I'm not going to allow that to happen. I'm not stopping. I'm not going anywhere. We’re going to do this for the long haul and we’re going to finish it."

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When it comes to a rematch between Trump and President Joe Biden, Trump still enjoys a +1.1 lead of 44.9 percent support to Biden's 43.8 percent support, according to RealClearPolling. Haley has a larger lead of +3.6 against Biden, with 43.3 percent support to Biden's 39.7 percent support, but both Republican candidates lead against Biden. 

For a hypothetical matchup against Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump leads by +6.6, with 49.3 percent to Harris' 42.7 percent support. When it comes to that matchup that Haley has spoken up about, there isn't even that much data, though what polling is included shows mixed results. One such poll, the Harvard CAPS-Harris poll from last November, shows Haley with a lead of +1, with 42 percent support to Harris' 41 percent. 

The most clear answer that Haley finally did provide, sort of, is that she'll weigh in at a later time. As Karl asked "does that mean you will not support him if he’s the Republican nominee," Haley shared that "that means I'm going to run and I'm going to win. And y’all can talk about support later. Right now you can ask him if he’s going to support me when I'm the nominee."

When asked by Karl as to if Trump would support Haley, she responded back by asking him that same question. "Do you think he would? I highly doubt it." It's worth reminding that Trump did not participate in the RNC primary debates and did not sign such a pledge. 

Karl brought it up again during the panel discussion, as he noted that Haley "refused to answer my question about whether or not she would still support Trump if he's the nominee. But what's interesting is she didn't say yes. I mean, she's not saying no, but she's already signed a pledge saying she would. And she's not reaffirming that."

National Review's Ramesh Ponnuru, who was on the panel, agreed. He also weighed in to share "I think that it's obviously not an accident that she's sort of trying to straddle the issue like that," adding "because a lot of her voters, the people who are now supporting her who are excited about her candidacy are anti-Trump voters."

Indeed, the support Haley got from voters in last month's New Hampshire Republican Primary came mostly from those not registered as Republicans. 

Polling still shows Trump with an insurmountable lead in the primary. He leads Haley by +57.7 overall, with 74.9 percent support to Haley's 17.2 percent. In Haley's home state of South Carolina, Trump has a lead of +31, as he enjoys 63.4 percent support to her 32.4 percent. 

One particular poll, Cygnal, shows Haley with just 18 percent support in the primary compared to Trump's 76.3 percent support. The poll also curiously highlighted how Republican enthusiasm for voting goes down with Trump off of the ballot. 

"Republicans express much greater election interest (79% max-interest Republican – 67% max-interest Democrat). However, max interest among Republicans drops to 57% without Trump (a 22-point drop in GOP enthusiasm), while max interest among Democrats jumps to 72%. 1-in-10 Republicans drop all the way to 0 interest," the poll noted. 

Such an appearance wasn't the only way in which Haley made headlines. Her X account was posting quite a bit on Sunday, including post in particular highlighting how she aims to outlast Trump, just as she did with all the other primary candidates. As our sister site of Twitchy put it, the "Internet Was Made" for such "Hilariously Unfortunate Wording."