Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley has been campaigning in New Hampshire. The former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and former governor of South Carolina has the endorsement of New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu and recent polling shows her numbers are up in the Granite State ahead of its first in the nation primary.
NBC10 Boston's Mary Markos sat down with her to get her thoughts on everything from the controversies surrounding her top competitor, former President Donald Trump, to her own comments on the Civil War and slavery, to her stance on reproduction rights and more.
Mary Markos: I'll start by talking about the New Hampshire polls. You are now within four percentage points of Donald Trump. How did you close the gap there and what will put you over the top?
Nikki Haley: I think we have done -- I've lost count of how many Town Halls we've been all over the state multiple times -- shaking every hand, answering every question. I'm the last person to leave. This is about building relationships with the people you're going to serve. This is about trust. And so our focus is put ourselves out there and make sure that there's no stone unturned. They know everything they need to know to make a good decision. And I think that, you know, Granite Staters are smart. They do their homework. They know that this matters. And we've had a great time doing it. But I think that they see what we're doing. We're really putting ourselves out there. And right now, with an economy that's in trouble, with a border that's completely open and with a world on fire, we've got to have a new generational leader that's focused on the solutions of the future and not on vengeance and vendettas of the past.
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Markos: And in a neighboring state, Maine just became the second state to ban Donald Trump from the ballot following Colorado, citing the Constitution’s insurrection clause. Do you think that Trump should be on the ballot?
Haley: Well, first of all, I think we have to look at this mission creep that continues to happen. We saw this during COVID where government didn't think people knew how to take care of themselves. They thought they had to tell them what to do. They thought they had to tell them how to live. That's a scary place to be. Now, you see, Colorado has done it. Maine has done it. They're deciding who's good and bad, who's right and wrong. I trust the American people. I will defeat Donald Trump fair and square. I don't need you taking them off the ballot to do it. That is a dangerous slope we don't want to go down. Put him on the ballot. He hasn't been convicted of anything. I will beat him anyway. But don't take that right away from the American people. I think that's incredibly dangerous. The Supreme Court needs to put a stop to this right away before other states start doing it. But it goes back to the fact chaos follows Trump. Rightly or wrongly, chaos follows Trump. And we can't have a country in disarray and a world on fire and go through four more years of chaos. We won't survive it.
Markos: What do you make of the opinion itself? And then also, do you think that this reflects badly on Trump?
Haley: Well, he hasn't even been convicted yet. So, you know, it's not up to one person to say he did this. Let's go and let the facts go out. Let him defend himself. If they find him guilty, we can deal with it. Then if they find him innocent, then it was all fine to start with. But at some point, let the process play out. When you have one individual in Maine that says, I'm going to do this. Or you have some justices in Colorado that say, we're going to do this. What's happening in America? They don't get to decide who the country should or shouldn't vote on. It's a terrible precedent. I don't ever want to see it. And it's not about, you know, Republicans. This could happen to Democrats, too. Once you open that door, you can't close it. Let's not open it.
Markos: I want to ask you about a question you were asked at a Town Hall in New Hampshire here earlier this week. You didn't mention slavery in your explanation of what caused the Civil War. How do you think that answer landed among voters of color?
Haley: Well, I think, first of all, I was born and raised in the South. Slavery is a part of our growing up. We know what we feel. It's been talked about in schools, at work, you know, everything. So that is a given. Yes. The Civil War, of course, was about slavery, but it was also more than that. It was about individual rights. It was about the role of government based on the economy, based on social issues. It was a bigger issue. So when I was talking about where we go forward with what happened in the Civil War, it very much is about the fact. Let's remember, we need to have individual rights and freedom for everyone, for freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to do and be anything you want to be without a person or government getting in your way. That was my goal. What I should have said was slavery off the top. I've been a Southern governor. I have dealt with that for a long time. We pulled the Confederate flag down from the statehouse grounds when we had nine amazing African-American souls that were killed in a church. So we didn't have riots when that happened. We had vigils. We didn't have protests. We had hugs. South Carolinians very much know where I stand on that issue. But it should have come out immediately. I took it for granted. And so that's where it is. But I think that I hope now the record's been set straight.
Markos: As a lawmaker and as governor, you supported some of the most restrictive measures abortion measures that the South Carolina Legislature could pass. If a federal ban, or a 15-week ban on abortion, were to land on your desk as president, would you sign that?
Haley: So, first of all, I think that, you know, we didn't want unelected justices deciding something as personal as abortion or pro-life issues. I think it's personal for every woman and man in America, and it needs to be treated that way. I think the right thing happened when they put it back in the hands of the people, for the people just to decide. I'm unapologetic, ethically pro-life, but I don't judge anyone for being pro-choice any more than I want them to judge me for being pro-life. So some states have gone the more pro-life route. I appreciate that. Some have gone more on the choice route. I wish that wasn't the case, but the people decided and I respect that. But when you're talking about a federal law, it's very different. In order to pass a federal law, you have to have a majority of the House 60 Senate votes and a signature of a president. We haven't had 60 Republican senators in over 100 years. We may have 45 pro-life senators. So no Republican president can ban abortions any more than a Democrat president can ban these state laws. So let's find consensus. Let's all agree to ban late-term abortions. Let's agree to encourage adoptions and good quality adoptions. Let's say that doctors and nurses who don't believe in abortion shouldn't have to perform them. Let's make contraception accessible and let's make sure no state law says if a woman has an abortion, she's going to jail or she's getting the death penalty. Let's start there. I'm not going to demonize this issue. I had a roommate in college who was raped. I wouldn't wish on anyone that they go through what she went through, wondering if she was pregnant. Everybody has a story. The fellas have not talked about this well. We need to be respectful of everyone's story. And that's how all the is president.
Markos: But as far as a federal ban, is that something you would ever support?
Haley: If 60 senators come together and agree on a consensus. Yes, of course I'll support it, because our goal is how do you save as many babies as possible and support as many moms as possible? Everybody agrees on that. But we're going to have to have consensus in order to get a federal ban that does that. If you don't have 60 Senate votes, stop demonizing people. Stop making this a hateful issue. It's too personal. What I've seen the Democrats do, they put fear in women. And what I've seen Republicans do is they use judgment. You don't take something this personal and put fear or judgment in it. You go in, you use human instincts. You go and you use respect. When you talk about something like that, it's too important. We can't continue to go down this hateful road of dividing people over it.
Markos: Now, after the Harvard and MIT presidents testified before Congress about rising antisemitism on campus and all the tension related to Israel-Hamas war, you said that you think that those schools should lose their tax-exempt status. Is that something that you plan to do if elected?
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Haley: I think schools need to protect students, period. If this had been the KKK happening on these college campuses, these presidents would be up in arms. This is just as bad. anti-Semitism is just as bad. When you've got these pro-Hamas protests, when you've got them saying they want to eradicate the Jews, when you've got them saying that Israel doesn't have the right to exist. That's a problem. Think about the student that's having to walk through these protests that knows that they're Jewish. It's wrong. And so what I think is first, Biden messed up by not including the definition of anti-Zionism in antisemitism, which is saying that Israel doesn't have the right to exist. That's wrong. You've got to put that back in that way. Governments and schools have to acknowledge the true definition of antisemitism. The second thing is, if colleges can't keep students safe, whether it's from racism, antisemitism, anything that makes a student feel unsafe, they should lose their tax exempt status. Period. Colleges and universities used to be the pinnacle of what it meant to raise responsible individuals with respect and dignity. We're not seeing that right now. We've got to get back to that.
Markos: The personality differences between you and Trump are clear, but what are the differences that we can expect policy-wise from your administration?
Haley: Well, I think, first of all, you look at the fact that, you know, I actually think President Trump was the right president at the right time. I agree with a lot of his policies. The problem is chaos follows him and our country can't handle that anymore. And that's why I think it's important to get a new generational leader. My approach is different. No vengeance, no vendettas, no whining. It's strictly about strength and results and letting the American people feel that when it comes to differences, I think you can look at the fact that I don't think President Trump should be praising dictators and thugs. He praised the communist China a dozen times after they gave the world COVID. He calls Kim Jong Un his friend. You don't do things like that. He hit Netanyahu when Israel was on their knees because of some old grievance he had with them. That's the wrong way to be. So I think the way he handles foreign policy is wrong. The second thing is you look at what happened. Everybody talks about the economy being good under Trump. That's true. But at what cost? He's put us $8 trillion in debt. Our kids are never going to forgive us for that. He did that in four years. What good is a good economy if we're in a hole trying to dig out now and have inflation because of it? We've got to be fiscally smart and we've got to start focusing on things from the agencies all the way up. He didn't do anything in the agencies. The agencies need to be cleaned up, pull down the bureaucracy, pull down the red tape, get rid of problem children, get them mission focused in some cases will tweak agencies, in other cases will gut agencies, but at least will go and make sure they're serving the people again. And so I think you look at those things, my mannerisms are different. My fiscal ability and how I look at the economy is different and how I handle national security, I think is completely different. And then when you look at China, he didn't deal with the financial crisis. He didn't do anything to stop these police stations around the country. He didn't do anything to stop the spy base that went up in Cuba. He didn't do anything to stop this flow that's happening on the border the way it should have. We've got a lot of things to fix. I'll make sure we get those results done for the American people.
The New Hampshire primary is set for Jan. 23. In the meantime, Haley is expected to head to Iowa for her next campaign stop.
