Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley predicted in an interview Thursday that former President Trump would not win the general election if he were the Republican nominee.
“Donald Trump can’t win the general election,” Haley said on CNN’s “The Lead” with anchor Jake Tapper. “We can let him win the primary we want, but he’s not going to win the general election. We’re going to have a female president of the United States, and it’s going to be me, or it’s going to be one of us. [Vice President] Harris. ”
“But if Donald Trump is the candidate, mark my words, he will not win the general election,” Haley added.
Haley also said voters can’t “complain about what’s going to happen in the general election if we don’t really think about it in this primary.”
According to multiple polls, Haley is far behind Trump in her home state of South Carolina, where she once served as governor. According to Hill/Decision Desk Headquarters poll averages, Haley’s approval rating is 33.1%, while the former president’s approval rating is 63.8%.
The former U.N. ambassador dismissed the deficit in polls earlier this week, just days before Saturday’s Republican primary in the Palmetto State.
“Can you explain to a general audience that when you look at a poll and you might be underperforming in your home state by 20 to 30 points? They say, ‘Why is she underperforming in your home state? ‘What would you say to them?’ Blake Berman asked Haley in an interview on ‘The Hill on NewsNation.’
“What I tell them is they said I couldn’t make it to Iowa and we beat a dozen other guys. And we just made it to Iowa. Instead, we came within 1 percentage point of second place. We had 20 percent,” Haley said.
“On Election Day in New Hampshire, they said I was down 30 points. I got 43 percent of the vote. This is the only poll that matters that’s going to be in South Carolina.” she added.
Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
