Nikki Haley can still beat Trump — here's how
Nikki Haley has a fighting chance against Donald Trump as she rallies women voters ahead of the South Carolina GOP primary, which could help turn the tide.
Transcript
00:00 Nikki Haley has a fighting chance against Donald Trump.
00:05 And I'm going to tell you why.
00:06 I'm Walt Hickey. I cover politics at Business Insider.
00:13 Let's get going.
00:14 Do you want to know what I didn't do today?
00:16 I did not do Jenga practice.
00:17 What qualities does she have that might attract voters?
00:25 The biggest thing that she has going for her
00:27 is that her pitch to the GOP,
00:29 she and only she is capable of winning back
00:34 a number of constituencies that have defected
00:36 from the Republican Party.
00:38 I'm talking specifically about suburban women.
00:41 I'm talking specifically about college-educated Republicans.
00:44 These demographics in particular have begun to defect
00:48 over the course of the Trump administration.
00:49 Republicans have lost the last seven
00:51 out of eight popular votes for president.
00:53 She acknowledges that the Republican presidential ticket
00:57 has not won a majority of the votes in quite some time.
01:01 And so she is very big on getting that tent big again
01:05 and actually winning majorities in elections again.
01:07 I promise you, our best days are to come.
01:11 Nope, nope, hey, we're cool.
01:14 This rules, I love this.
01:26 Yeah, she does.
01:27 Is it the biggest chance?
01:28 No, there's a guy who has a bigger chance
01:30 of being the GOP ticket at this point.
01:33 But yeah, no, she's got a chance.
01:34 The thing that we don't expect to see
01:36 from Haley potentially is that it would be difficult
01:38 at this phase in the race to think that she is potential
01:42 vice presidential material to Donald Trump.
01:44 - Donald Trump went on a temper tantrum
01:46 about me last night.
01:47 - She's easy to beat.
01:49 - I think that that relationship is kind of severed
01:54 at this point, and I would be very surprised
01:56 if the end of this process was her joining him on the ticket.
02:00 Not a lot of good options here.
02:05 That was easy.
02:06 Can Haley win because people don't like Biden and Trump?
02:10 Yeah, I mean, that's kind of her argument.
02:12 Haley is essentially arguing that Donald Trump's
02:16 unlikeability is not feasible for him to win
02:20 the presidency another go-round.
02:22 - That over 70% of Americans
02:25 don't want a Trump-Biden rematch.
02:27 - She is running against both Biden and Trump
02:30 on the idea that this country needs a younger,
02:32 more vibrant, more capable individual in the White House.
02:35 - Don't you think we need to have mental competency tests
02:38 for anyone over the age of 75?
02:40 - Ugh, it's getting harder.
02:43 Um.
02:45 This, yeah.
02:48 Oh boy.
02:49 Oh, oh God.
02:50 (dramatic music)
02:53 - Can Haley win if Trump is taken off primary ballots?
03:05 That would potentially be a good thing for her.
03:06 Potentially it would remove the main impediment
03:09 and remove the opposition.
03:11 However, you gotta play this one out.
03:13 If Trump is removed from a primary ballot in a state,
03:16 his reporters are gonna be ticked.
03:18 (crowd chanting)
03:20 - The Supreme Court is taking the case from Colorado.
03:23 - And ticked people vote more often
03:25 than people who aren't ticked.
03:27 And so there's a very reasonable line of thought
03:29 that goes if Trump is removed from the ballot
03:32 in any number of different states,
03:34 that is a motivating factor to get him written in.
03:37 And you do not have to go far back
03:42 in American presidential politics
03:43 to find a presidential contender
03:45 who was not listed on the ballot,
03:47 who nevertheless won on a write-in,
03:49 because Joe Biden just did that.
03:51 He did that in New Hampshire.
03:52 (crowd chanting)
03:55 And I would not be very surprised if Trump pulls that off
03:59 in one of the places that he is potentially
04:01 eliminated from a ballot on.
04:02 - I hate this a lot.
04:13 - Nope, nope, nope.
04:14 (dramatic music)
04:17 - How does Trump's win in New Hampshire
04:24 affect Haley's chit-chit?
04:26 He took a little bit of a tumble,
04:31 but don't count him out quite yet.
04:33 Losing the state of New Hampshire
04:38 isn't really what you want to do in a primary.
04:42 Or particularly someone who spends as much time
04:44 in New Hampshire as Nikki Haley did.
04:46 Eagle-eyed viewers may have noticed
04:48 that this is not, in fact, a Nikki Haley bobblehead.
04:51 This is an improvised Nikki Haley bobblehead.
04:54 Because, hey, listen, second place in New Hampshire, right?
04:57 That doesn't get you bobbleheads.
04:59 You gotta start winning stuff.
05:00 You gotta win a state or two.
05:02 And then the bobblehead machine, they just let it rip.
05:04 And we'll have lots of Nikki Haley bobbleheads.
05:06 But for the time being, we get to improvise.
05:10 So, we're just gonna take Trump Tower.
05:12 Nope, we're good, we got it.
05:16 Nope.
05:17 I don't give up.
05:18 We're just gonna play Trump Tower as it stands
05:24 and take it from here.
05:25 Can Haley win if Trump ends up in jail?
05:28 I think that might be her strategy at this point.
05:31 - All that time that he's spending in a courtroom
05:34 defending himself,
05:35 he's not fighting for the American people.
05:39 Her campaign is kind of wagering that, for whatever reason,
05:43 Trump will not be seen as a viable nominee
05:47 at the time of the convention.
05:48 I think that this is gonna be kind of
05:50 an element of her endgame,
05:51 and potentially if she's unable to build a coalition
05:54 that can actually deliver the 1,215 delegates.
05:58 - There is only one solution to this,
06:00 and that is you have to elect a badass Republican.
06:04 (crowd cheering)
06:05 - Can Haley win if she secures South Carolina?
06:09 - Yeah, yeah, she can win if she secures South Carolina.
06:12 - Thank you for the love, New Hampshire.
06:15 We're going home to South Carolina.
06:17 - South Carolina is an interesting state
06:20 when it comes to the delegates.
06:22 It is winner-take-all at the statewide level,
06:24 and so what that means is that whoever wins the entire state
06:28 gets a bunch of delegates.
06:29 So, straight up, if she does not secure a majority
06:34 of the vote within the state of South Carolina,
06:37 she stands potentially the risk of getting wiped out,
06:40 even if she does secure some like 49% of the vote.
06:44 - Every time I've run for office in South Carolina,
06:48 I've beaten the political establishment.
06:51 - If she does manage to pull it out,
06:53 and she does manage to get above 50%,
06:56 that's a very big victory.
06:57 She would be beating Trump in the delegates at that point,
07:00 almost certainly.
07:00 It's gonna be pretty critical for her
07:02 to have a good performance.
07:03 - Well, I'm a fighter,
07:04 and now we're the last ones standing next to Donald Trump.
07:09 - Is there any hope to avoid a Trump-Biden 2020 rematch?
07:14 Why? Are you not having fun?
07:17 Is this not fun for you?
07:18 - Trump's not concerned about your future, I promise you.
07:22 Joe Biden is truly a threat to democracy.
07:25 - It does seem like we are skating
07:28 towards a Trump-Biden rematch.
07:30 It would take some serious politics from Nikki Haley
07:33 and some overperformance and essentially betting
07:35 that her theory of the case for the United States
07:39 is correct over Donald Trump's theory of the case,
07:41 that the GOP can win by bringing back moderates
07:46 from the suburbs and basically break the hold
07:48 that the Democratic Party has maintained
07:50 across a number of demographics and income levels.
07:54 - If you will commit to go out and vote on Tuesday,
07:57 if you will take friends with you --
07:59 - So, can it happen?
08:01 Yep. Will it?
08:02 We're getting kind of late.
08:03 Just be honest. We're kind of coming up on that.
08:06 (upbeat music)
08:08 (upbeat music)