RADIOMarch 06, 2024

What Nikki Haley's 2024 Announcement Means for the Republican Party and Trump

After winning only one state on Super Tuesday, Nikki Haley has dropped out of the 2024 presidential race. But she stopped short of endorsing Donald Trump. Glenn and Stu discuss what this means for the Republican party as we move closer to Election Day: Can the Right unite around Trump? Glenn also reveals the biggest issue he had with Haley.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Here is Nikki Haley.

HALEY: So many of the women and girls out there, who put their faith in our campaign: Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged. For God will be with you, wherever you go. In this campaign, I have seen our campaign's greatness, from the bottom of my heart. Thank you, America. God bless you.

GLENN: Wait. Now, what happened?

STU: She nailed it.

GLENN: Nailed it.

STU: Wow. That was riveting.

GLENN: Wow. What happened there?

STU: She's walking offstage.

GLENN: She's walking offstage. We missed obviously, some of her speech.

STU: Wait. She might still be in. I don't know. We never heard her drop out!

GLENN: Yeah. Shoot. She congratulated Trump, but she didn't endorse him, which I guess makes sense. I guess. Maybe not on the first day. But --

STU: If she wanted to endorse him, she would endorse him, right?

I think she didn't want to endorse him.

GLENN: Yeah.

STU: I mean, this is who -- this is consistent with the campaign, she's brought.

GLENN: Consistent with somebody that wants to be on the board with Ratheon. It is absolutely consistent with that.

STU: That is her path forward. Again, it's a good gig, I'm sure.

But it does. She's not running to be the vice president. She's not running to be, you know, the UN ambassador again.

She made a decision, that she was going to go a different direction there.

GLENN: So now, a lot of the people, that are, you know, writing, in -- in papers and -- and opinions, that look at this split in the G.O.P. as something that can be healed, I'm not really looking to heal it.

I mean, I'm fine with us all coming together. But I'm not going to go towards Mitch McConnell. Just not going to do it.

And they say that Nikki Haley should be a vice presidential nominee for Donald Trump. Because it would bring the party together.

And I'm not sure that would.

STU: I don't think there's any chance of that.

I guess, any chance -- these people do get over this stuff fast.

Remember, every -- almost every candidate winds up with a vice president. I mean, you know, go back to Bush and Reagan.

GLENN: Yeah. Reagan did not like Bush.

STU: Reagan did not like Bush. This has happened over and over in history.

GLENN: But I don't think -- Donald Trump doesn't do that.

STU: The only way he would, is if he's convinced it's the only way he has to win. And I will say, you mentioned the unity thing.

And of course, this is what everybody says, right? Oh, we have to bring everybody together now.

But it is important to note, that while Nikki Haley's faction of the Republican Party is not the majority faction, as we saw very clearly last night.

GLENN: It's weird. Because it still is in Congress.

STU: Yeah. Maybe. Maybe. I don't know.

GLENN: Let's see if John Cornyn becomes the Speaker of the Senate.

STU: Gosh. Please help us. Please help us.

Again, just because somebody has power at the top, does not mean they're not the majority of the Senate. You're right.

There's the higher representation of that faction in elected government, which makes sense. These people have been in government for 40 or 50 years.

Of course, you know, it's the people who get to the top of the power structure. But like, you also can't just say, hey, screw those people. Because I have news for you. You don't win any national elections, by the way, them. You will not win any national elections without the Nikki Haley faction of the Republican Party, voting for, let's say Donald Trump. Who is going to be the nominee. If you don't have them. Which, by the way, Trump was able to get in 2016. And got most of them in 2020 as well.

GLENN: And 20 percent of them who voted for Biden in 2020, say they will vote for Trump.

STU: Yeah, and you will get some of those people too. You also need the full base. And part of the base is the 30 percent of people who voted for Nikki Haley in these states. They do exist. They are still important to a Donald Trump victory.

So if you kind of do the thing, where you're like, well, you know what, if you're a McCain supporter, get out.

Well, you know, it doesn't work well. You do need those people, even if you don't necessarily have to bend to their position statements. You need to find a way to pull them in if you want to win these elections.

GLENN: I agree with you. I agree with you.

Just don't bend to their positions.

STU: Yeah. If you start saying, we will throw $200 billion at Ukraine to win over Nikki Haley supporters, that's a bad idea.

You have to keep your principles, and that's not seemingly what Donald Trump wants to do.

GLENN: And I would think that. I would really think that -- I don't know.

You know, I used to be a pretty good judge of the American people. Don't you think.

STU: Yeah.

GLENN: I don't think I don't know if I can anymore.

STU: Yeah. It's harder.

GLENN: I just don't know.

I was going to say, I think the people who were voting for Haley. Will end up voting for Trump.

Just because the alternative is Hillary Clinton. Everything that we said Hillary Clinton would do, they're doing.

In fact, on steroids.

So why wouldn't there be that passion to make sure, that he doesn't get -- because we're done.

STU: These things tend to have a cooling effect. Right?

You have eight months until this election. But Ron DeSantis is another great example.

I mean, think of the things Trump said about Ron DeSantis on this campaign.

What percentage of Ron DeSantis voters vote for Donald Trump in the end? Ninety-seven, 95?

GLENN: I think 100, including him and his wife.

STU: Yeah, he's already endorsed him.

Like, these things cool over time. You have eight months to pull this out. You will see Joe Biden on stage, talking about how he wants to turn the country into a socialist republic for eight months.

Most of the people who have a Nikki Haley vision of the country, will say, well, I'm down to two people. I'll pick one of them. I don't want Joe Biden.

I think that's the majority. You will see, by the way, in some of the exit polls today, that large chunks of Nikki Haley voters are saying today, that they will not vote for Donald Trump.

You have to remember, when you look at those numbers. A lot of those people are Democrats. Who came into open primaries. Some of those people were independents. Who were probably left leaners and never really considered a Donald Trump or Republican vote in the first place.

And, you know, some of them are just disaffected people who are annoyed, at what -- at what Trump supporters tell them online, or what Donald Trump says.

Or how Nikki Haley, they don't believe had a fair shot. Whatever the reason is. A lot of those people --

GLENN: Bernie Sanders people came --

STU: Most of them came home.

GLENN: In North Carolina, 35 percent of G.O.P. voters said, they won't guarantee their vote for Trump. Along with 36 percent in Virginia. 33 percent in California.

The total is significantly higher among Haley primary voters, 78 percent in North Carolina. Sixty-nine, California. Sixty-eight in Virginia.
Won't guarantee their support for the party's nominee.

The overwhelming number of Haley voters who refused to commit supporting Trump, may not be that big of a problem, as a large number of them were Democrats, crossing over.

So you wouldn't -- I mean, I would --

STU: A large number of them.

GLENN: You would expect that.

STU: Yeah, of course.

If you're a Democrat, just trying to sow chaos in the Democratic primary, of course.

GLENN: Yeah. The people who gave her, you know, $100 million, or whatever they gave her for campaign.

They were Democrats. You think Reid Hoffmann is going to actually -- I mean, he could have gotten it nonetheless -- and she would say, I'm voting for Biden.

STU: Yeah. If she got the nomination, she would have voted for Biden.

GLENN: Yes. So let me play a clip from what she just said.

VOICE: Just over a year ago, I launched my campaign for president.

When I began, I said the campaign was grounded in my love for our country.

Just last week, my mother, a first generation immigrant, got to vote for her daughter for president, only in America.

I am filled with the gratitude for the outpouring of support we've received from all across our great country. But the time has now come to suspend my campaign.

I said I wanted Americans to have their voices heard. I have done that. I have no regrets.

And although I will no longer be a candidate, I will not stop using my voice for the things I believe in.

GLENN: Okay. I think that was -- you know, that was good. This has, yeah. And I don't --

GLENN: I don't fault her.

STU: Why -- why not?

You've already entered the race. You've gone through this. You have the money to do it. You got to a place where you were competitive in New Hampshire. Then you had to make a decision, do I drop out right now, or do I look at my home state, which is basically next in line in a month? I ride out a month, I could be tough. Take a shot at it.

If you don't get it, you don't get it. But you're a week away from Super Tuesday. She let it ride to Super Tuesday, and she drops out.

This does nothing to hurt Donald Trump's campaign. Nothing that she did hurt Donald Trump's campaign.

GLENN: No. No. No.

STU: Donald Trump did not need to campaign against her, to win all these states obviously.

GLENN: No. The only thing I have on Nikki Haley. I mean, I disagree with her on a few things.

STU: Sure, but she was a good governor.

GLENN: She was a good governor, and I like her. Personally, I like her.

STU: Yeah.

GLENN: But I didn't agree with her on the war. Her approach for that. I didn't agree with her.

You know, I said really clearly, if you don't know what ESG is, then I can't vote for you.

I did my first interview for nominee was Nikki.

She didn't know what ESG was. I mean, she danced around it.

She knew a little bit. It wasn't key to her.

So I couldn't vote for her. I'm telling this now.

Anybody who listened to that interview. And knew what I had said on the air before. Would have known.

STU: Right.

GLENN: So I had some policy differences with her.

The only real problem that I had, was taking money from the uber left.

STU: Yeah. I think that's --

GLENN: Didn't like that. This has now, most of that money came to her, her super PACs. Which she cannot control.

GLENN: Correct.

STU: Now, obviously everyone likes getting money in politics, and she, of course, I'm sure appreciated the ads she ran. But to be clear, could not block that money, legally.

GLENN: No, but she welcomed it. She welcomed it.

STU: She said, basically, I took the money while Ron wanted it. He doesn't have it. I've got it.

She tried to use it as a talking point. And some of that money was not from the hardcore leftists, you know, like the Koch brothers.

And, of course, we always say the Koch brothers.

One of them is dead. Okay? The other one, he's not really spending any money right now.

GLENN: He's still voting in Illinois, strangely.

STU: Yeah. But he's more -- he's obviously a Libertarian. There was a bunch of money that came in, that was just anti-Trump money from various sources.

Some on the right. Some Libertarian. Some on the left.

The end of the story is like, look. She is a qualified candidate. That absolutely had a place in the race.

GLENN: Uh-huh.

STU: It's just, her vision of where the Republican going, is no longer the majority vision.

GLENN: It's so strange. Because she was a Tea Party person.

STU: She was always, I think, strong on defense.

GLENN: Yes, she was. She was.

STU: And one of the reasons she was a good ambassador, is because she had those viewpoints.

GLENN: She was a great ambassador.

I would have her as ambassador any day of the week.

STU: She didn't connect with that.

I will say, in her defense obviously she's been getting trashed by everybody for weeks and weeks and weeks.

In her defense, unlike many other politicians, that issue was key to her.

And she -- foreign defense, Ukraine, all those things.

She knew it was unpopular in the party, and she did not waver from it at all.

She came out and made the arguments, the best she could, in public, over and over again, to a Republican audience that was not particularly receptive. She tried, it didn't work. But she didn't back off of it. Some of her other stuff. Like the abortion thing, I didn't know where she was on that. She seemed to be all over the place. But that one particular issue, she was very strong and she stuck by it, even when it probably meant she had no chance to win the primary.

GLENN: Yeah.

STU: So you give her credit -- sticking by your views. I'm fine with that. You want to go down in flames because you believe something that the voters don't believe --

GLENN: I respect.

STU: -- that's the way to go down in flames.

GLENN: I have much more respect for that, than somebody who will twist their viewpoint.

STU: Totally.

GLENN: So look, I -- I feel tension between Nikki Haley and this program, because we didn't get on board. And she is a friend. I don't know if that's true. That's just what we have felt. I hope that is not true.

But I wasn't going to endorse anybody this primary season. Not going to do it. I would have voted for any of them, over this guy. And it looks like Donald Trump is the guy. I'm voting for Donald Trump.

So now that we've fought this, I hope that the Ron DeSantis voters and the Nikki Haley voters, will come to the conclusion, that, yeah. It's not your guy.

But I don't think we have anybody on any -- on any side, that everybody is like, I'm 100 -- I don't even think Jill Biden is for Joe Biden. 100 percent.

Now that we've fought this race, and we have our people, darn near picked. We need to come back together, and focus on what we are for, and unfortunately, Joe Biden is not for the same things.

He's for a completely different America. He said, the first time around, he was for, you know, normalcy.

Return to normalcy. A return to, you know, being together, as a country.

Well, that didn't happen.

None of this is normal.

None of this is normal.

And it's not the Republicans this time. It is the policies of Joe Biden.

And he might be a fine, affable, old man. But his policies are not fine or affable. They are a danger to the republic.

Now, let's see if we can all come back together, lick the wounds. Help each other heal.

And come together, and fight the good fight for the republic.

EXCLUSIVE: Chip Roy Explains His FIERY Rejection of Spending Bill

According to the media, there’s a big fight going on between Republicans over the House’s new slimmed-down continuing resolution spending bill. Some, including President-elect Donald Trump, wanted the bill to pass. But others, like Texas Representative Chip Roy, argued that it still wasn’t ready. However, is the Republican “unity coalition” really crumbling, like the media claims? Rep. Chip Roy joins Glenn to explain what’s really going on. He argues that he IS trying to give Trump and DOGE a 100-day “runway” to fix the country. But he makes the case that, by increasing the debt ceiling by $5 trillion without agreeing on other cuts, this bill gives bad actors the ability to be an “obstacle” to Trump’s agenda further down the line. Plus, he reveals to Glenn that he believes some of these bad actors LEAKED false information about his stance to Mar-a-Lago.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN:

I think we have a great opportunity today. To show you how to have a -- tough conversation, with friends, friends. Where you deeply disagree on something.

But you know that their intent is good. They know my intent is good. Or our intent is good.

And we actually have the same end goal, but we disagree on the path. And we're going to walk away friends.

Chip Roy is joining us today. And, Chip, I love you. And I always will. And I agree with your, we've got to cut spending. We have to. But Liz Wheeler is with me. And we've been talking about it all morning. It's the -- the -- the -- the system of DOGE and Trump, the call-out to the world, in saying, you've got to surrender the Capitol. You know, the bad guys are in and about to take all the money.

Surround, and tell them, come out with your hands up. And that happened. And we scored a massive win, in an entirely new way.

Ask then you stood on principle, one we both agree with.

And it failed!

And so here's -- here's what Liz and I were talking about. Here's what we want to say to you.

And then get your response.

LIZ: Hi, Congressman Roy, this is the way I see it. I want your take on it. I love you. I think you're one of the best members of Congress. I disagree with you on the process that's happening. And I think that is the difference. The process. We elected Donald Trump to be a disruptor. Because Republican members of Congress for decades have been telling they're fiscal conservatives. They want to decrease the debt SEAL. It hasn't happened.

It hasn't -- it hasn't been done. And so Donald Trump comes in with Elon Musk, and uses this DOGE process to first identify these pieces of garbage in the first 1500-page bill. And take those things to the people. We took them to members of Congress. Congress said, okay. We'll listen to you.

So that new process was very effective.

And my question to you is: Once that process was proved to be effective. Which I think is exciting and wonderful.

How do we bridge this divide, with you, to say, okay.

Let's put some faith in this new process. And trust Elon Musk and Donald Trump and the Dow Jones process, to eventually address the debt ceiling, but get this done right now?

GLENN: And not blind trust. Chip.

CHIP: So appreciate you guys. Appreciate being on the show. Particular order. I have to go through a couple of things.

GLENN: Yep.

CHIP: Number one, it's important to remember that my job and my duty is to the Constitution, to God, and the people I represent. I told them, when I came to Washington, I would not -- I would not let the credit card and the debt ceiling and the borrowing of the United States without the spending restraints necessary to offset it.

GLENN: Okay.

CHIP: Right now, all we have are promises and ideas and notions. What I know, that neither of you respectfully no, and that none of your listeners respectfully no are the people that are in the room, that I was in with yesterday. And the day before, who are recalcitrant.

And do not want to do the spending cuts that we need to do.

That I believe the president and the DOGE guys. And everybody want to do.

My job, is to force that through the meat grinder. To demand that we do our damn job. Okay?

GLENN: Okay. So hang on. Okay. So wait. Wait. You're right. You're right. You're right. Go ahead.

CHIP: Number thee, when we were going through the bill, I'm glad the bill dropped from 1,550 pages to 116 pages. Three-quarters of Twitter or X or whatever you want to call it, have been out there spreading false facts that we supported a bad bill and didn't like the better bill.

That's not true. But let's be Lear. The 1400 pages that were cut out. It's a panacea.

There were some good stuff in there. There were some bad stuff in there. There was a lot of disinformation.

There wasn't a $70,000 pay raise. There was a 3,000-dollar pay raise.

I didn't support any pay raise. I didn't support a lot of the stuff in there.

But there's a lot of misinformation. And here's the thing: The 116 pages that were left, and I opposed violently the first bill. I was leading the charge on fighting and killing the first bill.

GLENN: And I love you.

LIZ: The second bill for 116 pages. Turned off -- turned off the pay go requirement. That we slash 1.7 trillion automatically.

And added a 5 trillion that are increase.

My view was, I could not support that, without a clear understanding of what cuts we would get, in mandatory spending next year. And undo any of the Inflation Reduction Act.

The undoing of the student loans. The undoing of the crap with the food stamps.

And everything else. I yield back.

GLENN: Okay. I yield back.

Chip, you're not in a hostile room. We love you. And we agree with your end goals. It's our end goal too. We didn't make that promise that you made to the people that voted for you. So we have more wiggle room here.

But you say -- I think our big difference is, you say, I know the guys in the room.

You're right. You do. And we -- we ceded that earlier today on the show.

You are -- one of us is wrong on trust.

I don't trust any of the weasels in Washington.

But I think Donald Trump and Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have earned enough trust, to get a grace period, here for the first -- maybe the first year.

Or at least six months.

To turn the economy around, and also reduce the size of the government.

And totally flip this thing.

And I know, as somebody who is -- you know, run a company, mainly into a ground. But run a company, and have to switch it, in the middle, and totally reshuffle. That -- that actually costs money, while you're doing it, to bridge the gap.

Because you have to fill up holes while you're filling in the gap.

You don't trust the people in the room. Neither do we.

But we do trust the system that worked on Wednesday with DOGE and Donald Trump.

Where do we disagree?

Can you give them --

CHIP: We don't disagree. And yesterday morning, I was making that precise argument in a room full of conservatives and then a follow-up room with people who will call it, less conservatives.

GLENN: Republican. Yes.

CHIP: And so we were making this argument. And then someone infamously. Something leaked out of the room, somehow out to Mar-a-Lago. That I was being resistant. Because I was negotiating trying to get the agreement to achieve the objective that you just said. I was trying to get, okay. In fact, yesterday morning, I made the argument to a group of conservatives. We need to give the president runway. We need to give him his first 100 days. We need to appreciate JD, and Vivek, and all the people -- and everybody involved. For the president to achieve the objective.

But to get there. We have to make sure that the guys in the room, that are an obstacle to that, don't have the ability to block it.

Because information flow matters. And when those guys tell the president, they can't achieve X.

Then the president will not achieve X. Our job was to force and demand, guys, we need actual understanding of what the cuts will be.

And because otherwise, we're asking us to accept a 5 trillion-dollar limit in our credit card increase. In exchange for nothing!

Literally, in exchange for nothing, but -- but hope.

So our job was to force that change.

Unfortunately, while I was trying to make the argument that we needed something in order to get the votes, someone leaked that down to Mar-a-Lago, and the president reacted.

But now I have to now manage that.

GLENN: Right. I know. I know.

CHIP: They're trying to enforce change in town.

GLENN: So hang on.

We have to leave this. Because I'm going to run against the clock.

I could talk to you all day about this. You were in a meeting this morning about J.D. Vance. Can you tell us anything about that meeting?

CHIP: That meeting happened, because despite what happened yesterday, I'm trying to get this done. Last night, talking to JD, we worked to get this meeting done. We had some good progress this morning.

But there still remains people concerned about spending. That we can work out, what agreement we can reach. On what spending cuts. We can actually get next year, in exchange for giving the vote on a debt ceiling increase.

So it remains fluid. Progress was made. But we have to keep working on it.

And I left that meeting to talk to you. Soil get an update in a minute.

GLENN: Thank you for that, by the way.

I hear there is a new bill that may be coming today.

Is that the one you're talking about?

Or is this another bill that could be another nightmare?

CHIP: Despite other people leaking crap, I refused. I can't say, because it's not been decided by the speaker.

And it's not right to talk about things they're talking about in private meetings.

GLENN: Yeah, but it's -- it's this speaker. I mean, is he really the speaker anymore, Chip, really?

CHIP: We need to hear what bill we need to get forward. And I can't talk about the private meetings. But, look, I'm going to keep fighting for what I promised people that I represent.

I'm going to fight to cut spending. I am going to represent article one.

I'm going to support the president's agenda, but we've got to do that together.

GLENN: Okay.

Chip, thank you.

I think we can -- I think we agree, but I await to see what that means to you. Because we may just have to agree to disagree on this.

But I love you. And I still want you to replace Cornyn.

CHIP: The short version is, for inflation's sake, we cannot increase the debt ceiling $5 trillion without knowing what we're getting for it.

And I don't think anybody should disagree with that.

GLENN: But you don't disagree that Elon Musk and Trump and Vivek are serious about gutting the system.

CHIP: I believe that is their objective. I believe there are obstacles to that objective. And I need to know the sincerity of how we deal with those obstacles, both structural, and human. And we have to figure that out. And that's my job.