Nikki Haley took a swipe at former President Donald Trump even after her ally appeared to give her the nod to run against him. Trump spoke at a low-key rally in Colombia, South Carolina – an early primary state – on Saturday flanked by Governor Henry McMaster and Senator Lindsey Graham.
However, Haley, who was ambassador to the UN under Trump and is a political heavyweight in the Palmetto State, was absent from the event.
On Twitter Saturday, she shared a clip of a previous interview with Fox News captioned: “It’s time for a new generation to lead.”
Nikki Haley, 51, has argued that a new generation of younger politicians needed to take up the mantle of governance. The frontrunners for 2024, Trump and Biden, are 76 and 80, respectively.
The clip featured her response when asked about a comment in 2021 when she said she would not run against Donald Trump in a Republican Primary.
She claimed that the “survival of America” was at stake which was bigger than “one man”.
“And when you’re looking at the future of America, I think it’s time for new generational change. I don’t think you need to be 80 years old to go be a leader in DC,” Haley said. “I think we need a young generation to come in, step up, and really start fixing things,” she said.
Trump appeared to give Haley the nod to run on the same day of the rally and the tweet.
He told reporters: “I talked to her for a little while, I said, ‘Look, you know, go by your heart if you want to run’…She’s publicly said that ‘I would never run against my president, he was a great president’.”
He also said that he told the former SC Governor that she “should do it”.
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On Tuesday, former Secretary of State under Trump Mike Pompeo said he will decide if he would make a 2024 run. He told CBS: “[My wife] Susan and I are thinking, praying, trying to figure out if this is the next place to go serve.
“We haven’t gotten to that conclusion. We’ll figure this out in the next handful of months.”
He said that Trump’s 2024 campaign was not having an effect on his decision-making regarding his own run.
Other names touted for a potential run include former Vice President Mike Pence, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp and Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin among others.
