Nikki Haley on Fox & Friends 1.16.24

All right. Thanks so much, Janice. Meanwhile, this morning, GOP candidates are turning to New Hampshire after President Trump's win in Iowa, including our next guest, who calls this now a two-person race, wasted no time getting to the granite state. He's there now, live in Concord, New Hampshire, presidential hopeful Nikki Haley. Governor, great to see you. Last night, you came in third overall. You got roughly 21,000-plus votes, 19 percent of the vote. Ron DeSantis got 21 percent of the vote. Why do you think it's a two-person race? Well, I think, first of all, look at where we started. I mean, when we started, there were 14 people in the race. We had 2 percent in the polls. And we came out with a strong showing. That's what we wanted in Iowa. Now we're in New Hampshire. You can look at the polls in New Hampshire. We're a stone's throw away from Donald Trump. And so we're going to continue to work really hard. We've been here for 11 months. We've done over 75 town halls. We have been in Red Arrow Diner before. And so we're going to continue to talk to people. But we know that that gave us the strength coming out of Iowa. We're going to get even stronger in New Hampshire going to South Carolina. So you said New Hampshire is going to fix what Iowa did. How does New Hampshire fix it? Well, Brian, that was a joke. I mean, you know that. I don't take politics as seriously as sometimes you guys do. We were having a joke there. But what I can tell you is Iowa was very good to us. But now New Hampshire is going to go and continue what's happening and set the tone as it goes to my sweet home state of South Carolina. This is the process. This is what I love. This is, it's a marathon. It's not a sprint. But we couldn't be more excited about the energy we have on the ground here in New Hampshire and the send off that Iowa gave us. We're happy. Right. You did come on late. They had you up in the last Des Moines Register poll in second, but you end up in third. Nikki, right now, at least a phonic yes, they came out. Fellow Republican says calling on all the other candidates to drop out. What do you say to Elise Stefanik? Well, I respect Elise Stefanik, but I will say that you've got 70% of Americans don't want to see a Trump Biden rematch. The majority of Americans disapprove of both Trump and Biden. If you look at the fact that both Trump and Biden put us trillions of dollars in debt that our kids are never going to forgive them for. And you look at the fact that they are still focused on the past, whether it's investigations, whether it's grievances, we need a new generational conservative leader. That's what Americans want. That's what they're yearning for. They don't want to continue to deal with all the negativity and baggage of the past. They want to start seeing solutions so that we get things done on the economy, on education, on the border, once and for all, on law and order, and on making sure that we prevent war. That's the biggest focus we have. That's what granite staters are talking about, and that's what we're going to continue to talk about. I know last night in your remarks, it seems to me, it's saying you have some supporters there. It seems to me last night, you were very tough on, much more direct about Trump and Biden, saying that we had two 80-year-olds. It's time to turn the page. The American public doesn't want these two. Was that intentional, be tougher after Iowa? You know, I think, look, I've always spoken in hard truths. And so you had 14 candidates, and as we did, we were trying to get ourselves out there, make sure people knew what we were for, what, you know, my record as governor, my record as ambassador. Now that we've come out of it, look, I mean, you look at any poll here in New Hampshire, Donald Trump and I are a stone's throw away. And so we have an opportunity to really make a difference here and continue to follow what the American people want. The truth is we don't want any more 80-year-olds in D.C. We don't want to go in here about any more investigations. We're done with that. Everybody wants to see new, fresh leadership. They don't want all this division. They don't want the hatred. They just want sanity. And they want government to work for them again. They're tired of working for government. And so that's what we're going to try and do. This isn't personal for me. It's never been personal for me. This is about making sure that my kids don't live like this. No parent feels good about how their kids are coming up. You look at houses, the average home buyer in America is 49 years old. The American dream is getting away from us. You look at young Americans, they're worried about getting a job. They're worried about being able to afford a home. They see the debt that Trump and Biden put them in and they're worried about how they're going to pay for it. We owe it to them to get this right. As you know, a lot of that debt came after the pandemic with the former president. But Governor, I got to ask you, I know you weren't watching the coverage because you told me you had to get right to New Hampshire, but listen to what Joy Reid said of the reason why you lost last night, where it came in third, listen. Elephant in the room. She's still a brown lady that's got to try to win in a party that is deeply anti-immigrant. It's still a challenge. I don't see how she becomes the nominee of that party. With Donald Trump still around, I can't picture it happening. Maybe it could happen. Ron DeSantis' only argument for staying in it is he's the white guy, but he can still make the appeal to white immigrants. Do you agree with her interpretation of the results? First of all, I mean, Joy Reid lives in a different America than I do. I mean, yes, I'm a brown girl that grew up in a small rural town in South Carolina who became the first female minority governor in history, who became a UN ambassador, and who is now running for president. If that's not the American dream, I don't know what is. You can sit there and give me all the reasons why you think I can't do this. I will continue to defy everybody on why we can do this, and we will get it done. Are you a racist party? Are you involved in a racist party? No, we're not a racist country, Brian. We've never been a racist country. Our goal is to make sure that today is better than yesterday. Are we perfect? No, but our goal is to always make sure we try and be more perfect every day that we can. I know, I faced racism when I was growing up, but I can tell you today is a lot better than it was then. Our goal is to lift up everybody, not go and divide people on race or gender or party or anything else. We've had enough of that in America. That's why I'm so passionate about doing this. I don't want my kids growing up where they're sitting there thinking that they're disadvantaged because of a color or a gender. I want them to know that if they work hard, they can do and be anything they want to be in America. I saw it at the United Nations. Countries loved the fact that we had freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to do and be anything we wanted to be without government getting in the way. That's why I'm doing this, is because we've got too much chaos in this country and our kids don't deserve it. And I'm determined to get us back on track where everybody loves America again and everybody's invested in making her strong. And that governor is gonna be a primary, not a caucus. It's gonna be more traditional. We've only got 40% of New Hampshire residents who are not affiliated with the party who are gonna be able to vote. It's gonna be a really exciting week. Thanks so much. Appreciate it. Governor Nikki Haley from New Hampshire. Dana Perino is next and she's in Iowa.