Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley said on Sunday the Republican National Committee (RNC) is “clearly not” being an honest broker in the 2024 contest.
She was responding to RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel describing former President Donald Trump as the presumptive nominee upon his victory in the New Hampshire primary last week.
“Do you think — just going back to the RNC calling for the party to unify around Trump, which happened, by the way, during the New Hampshire primary, before the polls had even closed — do you think the RNC has been an honest broker in this case?” asked NBC’s Kristen Welker on “Meet The Press.”
WATCH: @NikkiHaley says the RNC is “clearly not” an honest broker in 2024 race.
Haley: “Trump overstepped when he pushed them to” unify around him.@kwelkernbc: Do you have actual knowledge that he asked the RNC to do that?
Haley: “The people that pushed it are his people.” pic.twitter.com/EUluwtzQuT
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) January 28, 2024
“I mean, clearly not,” Haley replied. “If you’re going to go in and basically tell the American people that you’re going to go and decide who the nominee is after only two states have voted. I mean, 48 states out there. This is a democracy. The American people want to have their say in who is going to be their nominee. We need to give them that.”
Although Trump has won the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, Haley noted the vast majority of delegates for the nomination have yet to be claimed, saying, “It’s 1,215 delegates to reach the nomination. Donald Trump has 32; I have 17. So let’s let this play out.”
On Tuesday, after news outlets declared Trump the victor in New Hampshire, McDaniel called for Republicans to rally around the former president while encouraging Haley to listen to the voters.
“I’m looking at the math and the path going forward. And I don’t see it for Nikki Haley,” she said. “I think she’s run a great campaign. But I do think there is a message that’s coming out from the voters, which is very clear, we need to unite around our eventual nominee, which is going to be Donald Trump and we need to make sure we beat Joe Biden.”
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Trump suggested Haley might drop out in the lead-up to the New Hampshire primary but also insisted that he does not care whether she does or not.
A draft RNC resolution dubbing Trump the presumptive nominee quickly got withdrawn after the former president and others came out against it — though CNN reported that Trump and his campaign initially approved of the effort.
“I think that Americans want to be able to make this decision themselves,” Haley said. “I don’t think this is the place of the RNC to do it. I think that Trump overstepped when he pushed them to do it, and I think that’s why he’s had to back down. And that was the right thing to do was to back down.”