Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley has said she is not officially ruling out being Donald Trump’s running mate, claiming that doing so would boost the news cycle “for days” and rob her campaign of needed momentum.
Haley’s rivals, as well as some Republicans in Trump World, have speculated that she is actually aiming for the second spot behind the 77-year-old on the 2024 Republican ticket. The former ambassador to the United Nations has maintained that she is not in the race for coming in second place, but has not specifically said he would reject Trump’s offer.
“First of all, it’s very offensive to think that I would go through all this to run for vice president,” Haley told the New Hampshire union leader in an interview published Thursday.
“I’m fighting to be president and I’m going to win,” she added.
Haley then predicted that ruling out being vice president would be “the news for days” and divert attention from her recent poll gains against Trump in New Hampshire, where a new poll puts her within four percentage points of the 45th president.
Nationally, Trump continues to dominate primary polls by an average of 50 points over his closest competition, according to RealClearPolitics.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ campaign has particularly pushed on rumors that Haley wants to run alongside Trump, launching a microsite to track the claims.
Nikki Haley has never ruled out the option of being vice president, but she has said she will not run for the second position. REUTERS
“She won’t answer directly – and she owes you an answer to this –: Will she accept a vice presidential nomination from Donald Trump? Yes or no,” DeSantis himself said last month.
Those within Trump’s inner circle have publicly expressed fear that the former president would seriously consider Haley for the job.
Former White House strategist Steve Bannon speculated earlier this week that a “big fight” over the issue will break out in the spring.
“They’re going to try to force Nikki to accept the fine,” Bannon said Monday on “Human Events Daily.” “They’ll say, ‘Trump needs a woman, Nikki, on the ticket, she balances things out and can bring together that 15% of never-Trumpers in the Republican Party.’ “We’re going to have to have that fight.”
Nikki Haley worked in the Trump administration as its ambassador to the UN. fake images
Donald Trump Jr. said he would personally intervene if Haley were his father’s vice president.
“I wouldn’t accept it and I would do everything I could to make sure that doesn’t happen,” he told Newsmax’s Eric Bolling in an interview in December.
Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, a Trump supporter, also expressed strong criticism, telling podcast host Tim Pool that he would “not only not vote for that ticket, but I would defend it as strongly as I could.”
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, also a Trump supporter, said the election would be a “mistake” but would not alter her support for the former president.
“If he chose her, I would tell him that I don’t agree with him. But then I would support the nomination, because he is still the president and the president still makes the decisions,” Noem told Bolling on Tuesday.
Noem has previously said she would accept the vice president job “in a heartbeat” if Trump offered it to her.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn