Nikki Haley on Newsmax (FULL)

As President Trump, he's been on a temper tantrum every day about me talking about things and everything he's saying is not true. Nikki Haley's choice words for her former boss, now opponent, of course, in the 2024 GOP presidential race, Donald Trump. It is just six days away from the Iowa caucuses where Haley will be meeting voters today at Mickey's Pub in Waukee. It is a snowy, cold day there, and joining us right now is Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley. Nikki Haley, Ambassador, welcome into Newsline. It's good to have you here with us today. Thanks so much for having me from very snowy Waukee, Iowa. Well, we've been seeing the images there, but I guess it is winter and it is Iowa. So let's jump into it. One of your surrogates, Don Bolduc, this morning here on Newsmax, says this is a two-person race, saying it's basically you and it's Trump. So tell our audience on Newsline, what do you think success would be for you in Iowa? Is it second? Is it third? And it's sort of a signal to Ron DeSantis to hear this is a two-person race. Our goal is to be strong in Iowa, strong in New Hampshire, strong in South Carolina. We won't know what strong looks like until we see Election Day and see how the numbers fall out. But we feel really good. The momentum on the ground is good. People are excited. They're ready to caucus. They've, you know, they've had enough of the TV commercials and the and the mailers and all that, that now they're ready to go to the polls and make it happen. And so we're excited. We're continuing to get good crowds. We're continuing to get good momentum, and we're going to fight until the very end. Fight until the very end. So when we talk about a path forward, though, it obviously goes to New Hampshire. And some are saying, you know, Donald Trump leading in the polls. There were polls showing today fresh data saying you're surging. Some say you're cooling. How much do you believe in that? Well, I think you never really know a poll until Election Day. But I think what you can look at and see is that the polls are consistently showing that there's a narrow margin between me and Trump in New Hampshire. The polls continuous continue to show that we are surging in Iowa and getting further and further into second place. And I think that, you know, right now we're in second in Iowa, second, New Hampshire, second in South Carolina. That's a great place for us to be. We got one more fellow to catch up to. And so we're going to continue doing that. All right. And you just got an endorsement today from Judge Judy. Obviously, independent female voters will be a part of the election this year. Tell us about some of your endorsements, obviously, on the ground in Iowa, DeSantis is using his endorsement for Kim Reynolds, Bob Vander Plaats as some of the momentum he's hoping to gain with just six days to go. But you had Judge Judy today, and obviously the female voters are looking at you as the only female in the race here. Yeah, I mean, look, we have had people. What I love is we've got people coming out that are voting for the first time that have not been politically active because they know that we need a new generational leader. They know that we have to leave the negativity and baggage behind. They know that we've got to start working on solutions going forward. And so, yes, Judge Judy, a strong woman who says her piece. We're excited to have her. But we've also had people like Marla Patma, who is was a former director of Right to Life in Iowa, and she has come out and endorsed us strongly, too. So, you know, we've gotten it from many farmers in Iowa. We've gotten it from women in Iowa. We've gotten it from, you know, all types of people. And that's what we want. This is, you know, I continue to say Republicans have lost the last seven out of eight popular votes for president. That's nothing to be proud of. We should want to win the majority of Americans today. But the only way we're going to win the majority of Americans is we have to fight forward for a new generational leader. Today Donald Trump is in D.C. for his immunity case in the appeals court there as your former boss. And you said you believe he should be left on the ballot. You've also said chaos just follows him. Is some of the chaos, though, not of his own causing? When you have people like a secretary of state removing him from a ballot, does it take two to tango? Is there any sympathy for you for what you're seeing Donald Trump go through in some way as someone who once was your boss? Absolutely. I've said rightly or wrongly, chaos follows him. I mean, we've seen some of these cases have been incredibly political. We've seen other cases where, you know, he can be his own worst enemy and he gets himself into trouble. Either way, chaos follows him. And, you know, what I have said is he absolutely should be on the ballot. This is a door we never want to open because once you open this door, you can't close it. And we can't have other people deciding for us who should and shouldn't be on a ballot. I will defeat Donald Trump fair and square. I don't need anybody throwing me off the ballot to do that. And I think we need to be really careful. Supreme Court needs to respond very quickly on this before other states start to move forward. Would you pardon Donald Trump? I would pardon Donald Trump. I think that when you talk about a pardon, you're, you know, you're already assuming that he has been found guilty. I think he's still innocent until proven guilty. But I think what's important is the last thing we need to see is an 80-year-old president sitting in jail. I think that further divides our country. So for the good of the country, I absolutely think that the right thing to do would be to pardon Donald Trump. Finally, Ambassador Haley, last question. Do you think Joe Biden ultimately will be the nominee, no matter who gets the GOP nomination? Do you think he'll be going up against President Joe Biden? I mean, I think that, you know, what keeps me up at night is what happens between now and Election Day. I think that what they're trying to do is Joe Biden's trying to hang in there until he can turn the reins over to Kamala Harris because they know Kamala Harris can't win. It should chill every American's spine at the thought of a President Kamala Harris. That's why in every one of those head-to-head polls, you know, you see Trump, he defeats Biden by two points, maybe four in Wall Street Journal. That's margin of error. It'd be another nail-biter of an election. In every one of those polls, I defeat Biden by double digits, 17 points in the Wall Street Journal poll. You're going in there. You're winning more than the presidency. That's governorships. That's the House. That's the Senate. That's school boards. That's a mandate to go into D.C. to get our economy under control, a mandate to get our kids reading again and going back to the basics, a mandate to secure our border once and for all, no excuses. Well, we know that is the case you're making to the voters in Iowa today and through the next six days. Very important what happens there and on to New Hampshire. Nikki Haley, thank you so much for joining us today here on Newsline. Thanks so much. Go to NikkiHaley.com. We're going to do this.