CV NEWS FEED // Former Ambassador Nikki Haley announced Wednesday morning she is ending her faltering bid for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination after a string of blowout Super Tuesday losses to former President Donald Trump.
Unlike Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy – the former president’s other former challengers who suspended their campaigns earlier this year – Haley did not immediately endorse Trump following her withdrawal.
“I am filled with the gratitude for the outpouring of the support we’ve received from all across our great country,” Haley said from her campaign headquarters in Daniel Island, Charleston, SC. “But the time has now come to suspend my campaign.”
“I said I wanted Americans to have their voices heard,” Haley said. “I have done that. I have no regrets.”
Haley added that while she “will no longer be a candidate, I will not stop using my voice for the things I believe in.”
Specifically, she claimed: “Our world is on fire because of America’s retreat.”
“Standing by our allies in Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan is a moral imperative,” she said. “But it’s also more than that. If we retreat further, there will be more war, not less.”
“As important, while we stand strong for the cause of freedom, we must bind together as Americans,” the South Carolina Republican went on. “We must turn away from the darkness of hatred and division.”
“I will continue to promote all those values, as is the right of every American,” she emphasized.
Haley stopped short of endorsing Trump, who many observers now regard as the presumptive 2024 Republican nominee.
“In all likelihood, Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee when our party convention meets in July,” Haley acknowledged:
I congratulate him and wish him well. I wish anyone well who would be America’s president. Our country is too precious to let our differences divide us.
I have always been a conservative Republican and always supported the Republican nominee.
>> SUPER TUESDAY SETS THE STAGE FOR TRUMP VS. BIDEN PART II <<
Haley then went on to quote former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, stating, “Never just follow the crowd. Always make up your own mind.”
“It is now up to Donald Trump to earn the votes of those in our party and beyond it who did not support him,” the withdrawn candidate said:
And I hope he does that. At its best, politics is about bringing people into your cause, not turning them away. And our conservative cause badly needs more people. This is now his time for choosing.
CatholicVote previously reported that on Super Tuesday, Trump “won all but two of the night’s 15 Republican nomination contests by a margin of at least 20 points each over [Haley].”
CatholicVote further noted:
[Trump’s] biggest margin came in Alabama, where he bested native Southerner Haley by over 70 points. Trump also won by over 50 points in the states of Arkansas, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas.
It was not just red-state Republican voters who opted to stick with Trump. The former president also prevailed by wide margins in the primary contests of Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Virginia.
Haley’s only win Tuesday came in deep-blue Vermont, where she edged out Trump by just four points.
>> 70% OF HALEY VOTERS IN NH PRIMARY WERE NOT REPUBLICANS <<
Conservative talk radio host Mark Levin took to X (formerly Twitter) Wednesday to call Haley’s now-ended campaign a “disaster,” as well as to criticize some in the media who praised her candidacy.
“Pundits last night crediting Haley with being the first woman to get this far in a Republican primary. What?” Levin wrote.
“She didn’t get anywhere,” he added. “She kept running and kept losing. Not exactly an accomplishment.” He continued:
And she even got the help of Democrat billionaires and activists and lost every primary, including open primaries and her home state, badly except Bernie Sanders’ Vermont and DC. That doesn’t position her for 2028 either
“If Trump loses, God forgive, she will have played a key role in electing Biden despite her self-righteous and self-serving propaganda and posturing,” stated Levin.
Former CNN host Brian Stelter also chimed in on the news of Haley ending her campaign.
“Add this to the list of ‘what Nikki Haley should have done differently,’ he wrote in an X post.
“Haley never gave a single interview to any MSNBC host, despite the obvious overlap between MSNBC viewers and her voters.”
Journalist Glenn Greenwald echoed Stelter’s observation.
“Even Brian Stelter knows Nikki Haley’s voters are mostly liberals and Democrats, far more likely to watch MSNBC than Fox,” he wrote.
“That’s because Haley’s foreign policy is identical to Biden’s, and her economic policy – serving large corporate interests – isn’t much different either,” stressed Greenwald.
Conservative influencer Isabella Marie DeLuca implied that Haley’s decision to not back Trump upon exiting the race reflects poorly.
“Vivek [Ramaswamy] dropped out and endorsed Trump,” she noted on X. “DeSantis dropped out and endorsed Trump.”
“Even Mitch McConnell endorsed Trump for crying out loud,” DeLuca added, referring to the outgoing Senate Minority Leader’s surprise endorsement which broke minutes following Haley’s withdrawal.
“Nikki Haley suspends her campaign and doesn’t have an ounce of class to endorse the man everyone clearly wants back in the White House,” stressed DeLuca.
Following Haley’s withdrawal, Biden himself appeared to make a play for voters who supported her in the primary.
“Donald Trump made it clear he doesn’t want Nikki Haley’s supporters,” claimed the embattled president.
“I want to be clear,” he went on. “There is a place for them in my campaign.”
“I know there is a lot we won’t agree on,” Biden said:
But on the fundamental issues of preserving American democracy, on standing up for the rule of law, on treating each other with decency and dignity and respect, on preserving NATO and standing up to America’s adversaries, I hope and believe we can find common ground.
The New York Times acknowledged Wednesday morning that “With Haley’s Departure, the Rematch Between Biden and Trump Is Now Set.”
“It will be the country’s first presidential rematch in nearly 70 years, a consequential yet familiar collision of starkly different visions of American power, policy and democratic governance,” the Times noted.
