DNC Statement on Nikki Haley’s Exit From the 2024 Republican Primary

In response to Nikki Haley suspending her 2024 GOP primary campaign, DNC Chair Jaime Harrison released the following statement:

“In the twilight of her campaign, as it became clear that Donald Trump’s MAGA base was sticking with the original, Nikki Haley began to call out Trump as the dangerous, pathetic loser he is. Trump has made it clear that he does not want Nikki Haley’s supporters – and her supporters know Trump failed the American people and that he would go even further to rip away our rights and tear down our democracy if given the chance. For them, there is only one candidate left in this race who’s proven he has what it takes to beat Donald Trump: Joe Biden.”

Take it from Nikki Haley, Trump is a weak candidate who would be a disaster for the American people:

Haley: “I don’t believe Donald Trump can beat Joe Biden. Nearly every day Trump drives people away.”

Haley: “Republicans will not win in November with Trump on the ticket.”

Bloomberg: “Nikki Haley presented Donald Trump as a candidate who will deliver only more defeats to Republicans … ‘Everything he touches, we lose,’ Haley said.”

NPR: “Nikki Haley called comments Donald Trump made about Black people at an event Friday ‘disgusting’ and proof Republicans would lose the presidential race if he’s the nominee: ‘That’s the chaos that comes with Donald Trump. That’s the offensiveness that’s going to happen every day between now and the general election, which is why I continue to say Donald Trump cannot win a general election. He won’t.’”

Haley on Trump’s false claims about the 2020 election: “As long as they keep saying that, Republicans will keep losing. Period.”

Haley: “If you look at what happened on January 6… The problem is when he had the opportunity to stop it, you have everybody from Fox News anchors to friends to family begging him to say something to get them to stop including his vice president, and he was silent. And he didn’t say anything.

Fox News: “Nikki Haley questioned whether former President Trump would follow the Constitution if elected again … ‘I don’t know,’ Haley said during an appearance on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ on Sunday, where she was asked if she believed Trump would follow the Constitution if elected. ‘When you go and you talk about revenge. When you go and you talk about, you know, vindication. … I don’t know what that means and only he can answer for that.’”

New York Times: “[Haley] criticized the former president’s comments over the weekend insinuating that her husband, who is deployed to Africa with the National Guard, left the country to escape her. Those remarks, Ms. Haley said on Monday, were insulting to all military personnel, adding, ‘With that kind of disrespect for the military, he’s not qualified to be the president of the United States, because I don’t trust him to protect them.’ Speaking to reporters afterward, she got more personal. ‘The most harm he’s ever come across is whether a golf ball hits him on a golf cart, and you’re going to go and mock our men and women in the military?’ she said. ‘I don’t care what party you’re in, that’s not OK.’”

Haley: “I mean, every bit of it’s disgusting, you know, to sit there and mock my husband for not being with me on the presidential trail because he is deployed and serving our country. … You mock one veteran, you’re mocking all veterans … But this is a pattern, Dana. He’s done this over and over again. Whether he went and called military members suckers, whether he was at Arlington Cemetery saying what was in it for them, why would they do this? The problem with Trump is he’s never been anywhere near a uniform.”

Haley: “Donald Trump continues to side with Vladimir Putin — a man who kills his political opponents, holds American journalists hostage, and has never hidden his desire to destroy America … Trump continues to side with Putin over our allies and our military service members.”

Haley: “Trump sided with Putin over NATO, and his willingness to abandon Ukraine and our allies puts every American in danger. Our focus must always be about preventing war and keeping our troops out of harm’s way… We need a president who has the moral clarity to do that.” 

Haley: “Our national security is at risk, and what’s he doing? He’s praising dictators.”

Haley: “Have you heard a vision from him on where he’s going to take us in the future? You haven’t. You’ve heard about who he’s going to go against in the past, what vendettas he’s going to take care of, but nothing about the vision for the future.”

Haley: “I do think that he is in decline, and I think that he needs to know to step away. I do think that he surrounds himself in chaos, and we can’t be a country in disarray, and have a world on fire and be in chaos. … That’s exactly why I don’t think he should be president.”

Haley: “[Republican chaos is] what Donald Trump is. All breaking, no fixing. All vendetta, no vision.”

Haley: “He’s made it chaotic. He’s made it self-absorbed. He’s made people dislike and judge each other. … A president should have moral clarity, and know the difference between right or wrong, and he’s just toxic… He doesn’t know how to fix things again, and it’s not okay to just break, you got to fix it, make it better. And he hasn’t done that.”

Haley: “He goes and says that he is going to ban anyone from MAGA that donates to me. … He’s totally unhinged.”

NBC News: “Haley ripped into the former president, calling him a ‘disaster’ for the GOP, ‘more unstable and unhinged’ than when he first ran, criticizing other Republicans for being ‘too afraid to say it out loud.’”

Haley: “Donald Trump’s not talking about the fact he put us $8 trillion in debt in four years. … People who want to go and see a secure border, and they don’t like the fact that Trump stopped Congress from trying to fix the bill and pass a strong border bill. This is about national security… and Trump said he would stand with Putin as he invaded our allies.”

Haley: “He is unhinged; he is more diminished than he was… This is a fact: He is now saying things that don’t make sense.”

NBC News: “Nikki Haley questioned whether Donald Trump is mentally able to serve as president after he mixed her up with Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., at a Friday-night rally.”

Haley: “If you look, recently, there have been multiple things. I mean, he’s claimed that Joe Biden was going to get us into World War II. I’m assuming he [meant] World War three. He said that he ran against President Obama. He never ran against President Obama. He says that I’m the one that kept security from the Capitol on January 6. I was nowhere near the Capitol on January 6.”