Speaker 1: Nikki Haley, the former
ambassador to the U.N. under Donald Trump, former Republican governor of South Carolina. She
was Donald Trump's toughest challenger during the primary in the sense that she secured the
most votes other than Trump. She's been a significant Trump critic. But we all expected her
to. And she did ultimately kiss the ring and say, yes, I'm supporting Donald Trump. However, she
regularly seems disgusted with the things that Donald Trump actually says and does. So she went
on Face the Nation this weekend and was asked, Why are you supporting Trump given all of these
different disagreements and things that he's saying and things you don't like. And I'm going to
translate her answer as it's good for my political ambitions. It is mere naked ego sand centrism that
is guiding Nikki Haley to support Donald Trump, despite the fact that we can all tell she thinks
he's a doofus and doesn't like him on a personal level. Okay. So let's go to the first clip.
See if you see if you can unwind what she says. Speaker 2: It'll be helpful. Donald Trump just
finished a press conference, three quarters of which was about grievances related to that
past conviction related to alleged sexual assault. I know when you were campaigning,
you said you had no reason really to question the findings of the jury related to the
defamation case brought by Eugene Carroll. I'm not asking about the specifics of the case,
but if that's the focus of a press conference for a presidential candidate, is it the best use
of his time? And what is the message to female voters to be? Going through this again? Well, I
think the focus for me is on policy. I think he's the candidate now. And I've always said, look, if
I thought Biden or Trump were great candidates, I wouldn't have run for president. I ran because
I thought I could do a better job. You think he's a good candidate? I, I think he is the Republican
nominee and I think put him against Kamala Harris, who's the Democratic nominee. For me, it's not
a question. Now, do I agree with his style? Do I agree with its approach? Do I agree with his
communications? No. When I look at the policies and how they affect my family and how I think
they're going to affect the country, that's where I go back and I look at the differences.
I mean, this is these are the candidates we have been given. You look at Kamala Harris and it's
quite remarkable. She never had a debate. She never had a primary. She never had anyone vote for
her. And they basically took her. And in 48 hours, they put her back out there and she was this
whole new candidate. But the reality is, she has a record. The administration
has a record. Trump has a record. And so neither are perfect. Neither are ideal.
Speaker 1: So she is making this decision with one thing in mind. She sees that the the Republicans
who boisterously and loudly denounce Trump, people like Adam Kinzinger, Liz Cheney, there was
Jeff Flake back during Trump's first term. There's Mitt Romney. There's you know, you can go through
the whole list here. They are either people with no political ambitions such that it doesn't matter
to them what the consequences are of saying, yeah, I'm a Republican, but Trump is not for me. They
are retiring from politics like Mitt Romney, or they end up losing and getting kicked out. I
mean, look at what happened to Liz Cheney and her Republican primary because of the stand that she
took against Donald Trump. Nikki Haley sees this and Nikki Haley is young enough that she still
does have political ambitions. It's not 75 or however old. Mitt Romney is independently wealthy,
retiring. His career is over. What does he care? It is a different situation for Nikki Haley. And
so we all know she finds Trump repulsive. We all know that she personally despises the disgusting
attacks that Trump launched on her birdbrain and all this other stuff during the primary. We know
that normal people wouldn't be called birdbrain on a global stage by a guy for months and then
go, That's the guy I'm voting for. Even if you don't like Kamala Harris, you might just say
nothing. You might just stay out of it. But that is not what Nikki Haley is doing, because
although she knows Trump is bad for the country, she doesn't care because what's more important to
her is are what's more important to her are her own political ambitions. And she's calculated. I
just need to stay silent at this point with regard to my disgust with Trump. And then when Trump
is gone, maybe it's 2028, maybe it's by January, maybe it's who the hell knows when she wants to
be in a position to still be in the good graces of the most number of Republicans that she can? Now,
she was also asked about J.D. Vance saying all of these disgusting things about women. And she also
acknowledged there that a lot of that stuff is not helpful. Not helpful is quite an understatement
for what J.D. Vance is doing to Trump's candidacy. Speaker 2: We know that since Vice President
Harris entered the race, the gap among women voters has grown to an out double digit lead for
her over Donald Trump. According to our CBS most recent survey. So how do they close that?
Because just as recently as last week, J.D. Vance said he's disoriented and disturbed
that the head of the most powerful teachers union in the country doesn't have a single child.
He continues to say things that certainly are highlighted as being offensive to women. That is
going to hurt, won't it? With female voters, it's not helpful. It's not helpful. I mean, is he an
effective messenger for the policies you say they are stronger on? I think the policy look, you can
either look at style or you can look at substance. I choose as a voter to look at substance.
Speaker 1: How you end up voting Trump with substance as your priority. I don't know.
Speaker 2: The style substance of that, though. The substance is cutting taxes, making
housing more affordable. Immigration. National security. That's the substance. The style is no,
it is not helpful to talk about whether women have children or whether they don't. It's not helpful
to say any of those things that are personality driven or anything else. I have I have said
that, and I will continue to say to Republicans, stop it. That's not helpful.
Speaker 1: Cut it out, guys, and I'm voting for all of you.
Speaker 2: If you want to talk about things, stick with policy. Americans
are smart. They don't need all the. Other noise to distract them. They just want
to know how you're going to help them. And they're you know what I would suggest
to every American? Look at the records of each of them. You've got some stark contrast
there, you know. Harris was not strong on the border. Trump was strong on the border.
Harris wanted to eliminate fracking. Now she's taking that back. But energy production
was not as strong as it was under the tourism industry. High right now, actually. But when?
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's actually at a record high, as Margaret Brennan points out there. So, listen,
this interview is a stark reminder of the reality. And this is not a defense of Republicans
that a ton of the prominent Republicans that are publicly supporting Trump don't like
the guy. They think he's bad for the country, but they don't care. And we have to remember that
they can't then be rewarded later when they say, now I'm running for something and Trump was a
mistake and all these different things. This is the opportunity to actually have the testicular
fortitude, ovarian fortitude, to say this is bad. I'm a conservative Republican, whatever that
means at this point to them, who knows? And I'm just not going to vote for it. And this is the
wrong thing for the country and it's been the wrong thing for our party. We've lost ever since
Trump eked out a win in 2016. We've essentially lost everything. That's not what Nikki Haley
is willing to do. And we should remember that