Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley stated that she does not feel obligated by the Republican National Committee’s (RNC) promise to support the party’s future nominee.
NBC’s Kristen Welker asked Haley in an interview for “Meet the Press” if she still feels required to fulfill the RNC promise she made last year to support the party’s nominee. The promise was one of the conditions candidates needed to meet to qualify for the debate stage.
“I have always said that I have serious concerns about Donald Trump. I have even more concerns about Joe Biden,” Haley first responded.
When pressed further on whether she feels obligated by the promise, Haley suggested that she just made the promise to get on the debate stage.
“The RNC promise —I mean, at the time of the debate, we had to make it so, ‘Would you support the nominee,’ and in order to get on that debate stage, you said yes. The RNC is now not the same RNC,” she responded before Welker pushed her again on the topic.
“No, I think I’ll make what decision I want to make. But that’s not something I’m thinking about,” she told Welker.
“And I think that while you all think about that, I’m looking at the fact that we had thousands of people in Virginia, we’re headed to North Carolina, we’re going to continue to go to Vermont, and Maine, and all these states to go and show people that there is a path forward. And so, I don’t look at what if. I look at, ‘How do we continue the conversation?'” she added.
Haley has yet to win any of the early primary contests as Trump continues to expand his lead in the race. According to Decision Desk HQ, Trump has already secured 192 delegates, while Haley significantly lags with 24 delegates.
Haley also pledged in a recent interview to stay in the race “as long as we are competitive” just days ahead of Super Tuesday.
