Haley undecided on endorsement but it won't be Trump
COLUMBIA ─ Gov. Nikki Haley hasn’t made up her mind yet on which GOP candidate she will support in Saturday’s presidential preference primary but she knows it will not be Donald Trump.
The governor said she has talked with all of the candidates and expects to decide “soon” if she will make an endorsement.
“I’m doing what a lot of people in South Carolina are doing,” she said. “I’m looking at all the candidates that are there and trying to figure out who that person would be.”
What Haley said she is looking for is someone “who is going to keep our country safe,” someone who understands the problems the states face and a “fighter.”
“I want someone who is going to hold Republicans accountable, and I want someone who is going to make a difference, not just for our party but for every person they represent in the country," she said.
But that person will not be Donald Trump, she said.
Trump said at a Lowcountry appearance this week that Haley had been weak in her responses to the issues of the possibly transferring prisoners from the federal detention facility at Guantanamo Bay to South Carolina and in opposing the acceptance of Syrian refugees.
Haley has fought consideration of the Naval Brig in Charleston as a site for prisoners if Guantanamo closes and has also opposed bringing Syrian refugees into South Carolina, saying she does not have enough confidence in the vetting of Syrians.
“When you have a candidate that comes in and goes against a governor, it’s everything a governor doesn’t want in a president,” she said. “Because we don’t want a president that’s just going to bash and sit there and tell us what we're not doing right. We want a president that is going to help us fight, help us win and help explain why we don’t want Syrian refugees and why prisoners at Guantanamo Bay don’t need to come to South Carolina.”
Haley also said she took her daughter to the GOP debate in Greenville Saturday and was "embarrassed" at the criticism of former President George Bush by Trump over Iraq and 9/11..
Trump said during the debate that Bush made a "big fat mistake" on Iraq and accused the Bush administration of lying about the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Trump also said that Bush did not keep the country safe during 9/11 because the World Trade Centers were attacked on his watch.
"I was embarrassed to see a candidate criticize the president on one of the worst days that we’ve had in American history,” she said, “and criticize the way this president handled it. That was a sad day for America and a tough day for the president and to sit there and put him down in front of my daughter, I didn’t know what to say to that. There were no words.”
Haley in 2012 endorsed the GOP’s eventual nominee, Mitt Romney. But GOP voters in South Carolina instead picked Newt Gingrich.
Haley said it is possible she will not endorse any candidate. She said this election’s dynamics are different, with the nation facing massive debt, the threat of terrorism and the loss of a Supreme Court justice.
Danielle Vinson, a Furman University political science professor, said one of the considerations Haley has to face is if she endorses a candidate who does not win.
Trump enjoys a comfortable margin in the polls over the rest of the field.
Vinson said a Haley endorsement might “move some people at the margins who are looking at Kasich and Bush.”
“If she were to endorse Bush, it might suggest he has some momentum,” she said.
If Haley declines to endorse anyone, “it keeps her from burning any bridges” among candidates, Vinson said. “And so it leaves her open for vice president or a cabinet position at some point regardless of who wins that nomination,” she said.
Of course, if someone wins who doesn’t receive her endorsement, “they are certainly free when looking at VP candidates to look for others who have been more helpful and who are from states who don’t automatically vote Republican. Whoever picks her doesn’t need her to get them votes in South Carolina in the general election. But some of them might need help in the primary.”
Haley said she is not sure of the value of endorsements.
“I don’t know how much endorsements mean,” she said. "I've never put a lot of weight on endorsements. Trying to figure out whether that matters or not is what I’m trying to weigh out right now.”