Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley announced on Wednesday that she was suspending her campaign for president after getting defeated by former President Donald Trump in the Super Tuesday primary states.
Haley — whose only victories in the Republican Party presidential primary were in Vermont and Washington, D.C. — did not endorse Trump during her remarks.
She said in an interview on Sunday that she was no longer bound to honor her pledge to support Trump if he won the party’s nomination. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis did endorse Trump once he decided to exit the race.
“In all likelihood, Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee when our party convention meets in July,” she said. “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. But on this question, as she did on so many others, Margaret Thatcher provided some good advice, when she said, ‘never just follow the crowd, always make up your own mind.’”
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“It is now up to Donald Trump to earn the votes of those in our party and beyond it who did not support him,” she continued. “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.”
Haley also warned in her speech about the dangers of the exploding national debt, the need for term limits in Congress, and the “moral imperative” the U.S. has to support its allies across the world.
WATCH:
Full Nikki Haley speech: “The time has now come to suspend my campaign.”https://t.co/kFd1vt3b6Q pic.twitter.com/umthGh62EZ
— NBC News (@NBCNews) March 6, 2024
