Haley vows not to drop out of White House race

Calling her candidacy a battle for something “bigger than myself,” Indian American Republican presidential aspirant Nikki Haley has vowed not to drop out “until the American people close the door.”

Delivering what her team billed as a “state of the race speech” at her alma mater, Clemson University in South Carolina, a defiant Haley Tuesday vowed to remain in the race even as she polls far behind Donald Trump in upcoming primaries across the map.

Haley pledged to continue on despite calls from high-level Republican leaders for her to end her presidential bid and support him as the party’s likely nominee, according to Politico.

Instead, Haley unleashed a torrent of criticism against the former president, calling him a “bully” who’s “getting meaner and more offensive by the day.”

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She argued that Trump is “completely distracted” from the campaign as he splits his time in courtrooms. She repeated her oft-used refrains that Trump has “gotten more unstable and unhinged.”

Haley, who served as US ambassador to the UN under Trump, painted her former boss as weak on national security, bashing him for “inviting” Russian President Vladimir Putin to “invade NATO countries.”

She said she does not need Trump’s support for any future political ambitions and has nothing to lose by remaining in the race. “I feel no need to kiss the ring,” Haley said. “And I have no fear of Trump’s retribution. I’m not looking for anything from him.”

READ: Haley vows to stay in the race against Trump (February 19, 2024)

Speaking four days before the South Carolina primary on Saturday, Haley framed her run as an effort on behalf of a faction of the Republican Party that has grown tired of Trump, even if she is struck down in the process.

Beyond the GOP, she said she was staying in for the “70 percent of the country” that “doesn’t want a Biden-Trump rematch.”

“I’m willing to take the cuts, the bruises and the name-calling,” Haley said. “Do we really want to spend every day from now until November, watching America’s two most disliked politicians duke it out? No sane person wants that.”

READ: Nikki Haley asks Biden to take a mental competency test (February 9, 2024)

She said she will be “campaigning every day until the last person votes.” Still, even Haley acknowledged much of the media’s interest in her has been reduced to a death watch.

“Some of you — perhaps a few of you in the media — came here today to see if I’m dropping out of the race,” Haley said to reporters and roughly 50 supporters in downtown Greenville. “Well, I’m not. Far from it.”

“Dropping out would be the easy route,” Haley said. “I’ve never taken the easy route.”

Despite making a case against Trump, Haley continued to temper her criticism of the former president by saying that he was the “right president at the right time” and that she was “proud” to serve in his Cabinet.

“There are those who will try to paint me as never Trump. That’s not who I am, never have been,” Haley said. “My purpose has never been to stop Trump at all costs.”

She also continued to tie some of her sharpest rebukes of her former boss to similar criticisms of President Joe Biden.

“We’ve all seen them fumble their words and get confused about world leaders. That’s now who you want in the Oval Office when Russia launches a nuclear weapon at our satellites or China shuts down our electricity grid,” Haley said. “We’re talking about the most demanding job in human history. You don’t give it to someone who’s at risk of dementia.”

READ: Nikki Haley calls herself ‘best hope of stopping Trump-Biden nightmare’ (January 16, 2024)

Haley again rejected notions that she’s running for vice president or setting up a 2028 bid, even as she polls some 30 percentage points behind Trump in her home state.

Haley is vowing to keep campaigning past Saturday, starting with events in Michigan on Sunday. From there, Haley plans to campaign next week in half a dozen other Super Tuesday states and DC.

Ahead of her speech on Tuesday, Trump’s campaign advisers released their own memo, referring to Haley as a “wailing loser hell-bent on an alternative reality and refusing to come to grips with her imminent political mortality.”