Haley launches run for president, becoming 1st Republican to challenge Trump

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• Geoff Bennett:

  Former Ambassador Nikki Haley announced her candidacy for president today, making her the first Republican to challenge former President Donald Trump for the 2024 GOP nomination.

  Lisa Desjardins explains how she got here.

  Nikki Haley (R), Presidential Candidate: It's time for a new generation of leadership.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  With a three-minute video, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley launched a long-speculated bid for the White House.

  The former U.N. ambassador diplomatically, but clearly sought contrast with her former boss and now primary opponent, Donald Trump.

• Nikki Haley:

  Republicans have lost the popular vote in seven out of the last eight presidential elections. That has to change.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  The daughter of Indian immigrants, Haley made history in 2010 as the first woman and first person of color elected governor in the Palmetto State.

  She led it following the massacre at the historic African American Mother Emanuel Church in 2015. A white supremacist killed nine Black parishioners.

• Nikki Haley:

  You are going to see all of us try and lift these nine families up in prayer.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  Reversing her position, Haley then pushed through the removal of the Confederate Flag from state capitol grounds.

• Nikki Haley:

  The Confederate Flag is coming off the grounds of the South Carolina Statehouse.

  (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

• Lisa Desjardins:

  Now a national name, Haley backed a Floridian who was not Donald Trump in 2016.

• Nikki Haley:

  Our next president will be Marco Rubio!

  (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

• Lisa Desjardins:

  This started a nuanced relationship with Trump, whose tone on immigrants she seemed to criticize in her State of the Union response that year.

• Nikki Haley:

  It can be tempting to follow the siren call of the angriest voices. We must resist that temptation.

  Donald Trump, Former President of the United States: Nikki Haley, very nice woman, she said I'm an angry person. I said, I am. I'm very angry, because I hate what's happening to our country. I am angry.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  But, ultimately, Haley would support Trump, and he would hire her as an ambassador to the U.N.

• Nikki Haley:

  There is a new U.S. U.N.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  And unlike others in his orbit, she left the White House on her own terms and in good standing.

• Nikki Haley:

  It's been an honor of a lifetime.

• Donald Trump:

  We will be speaking all the time, but we will miss you nevertheless.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  In the time since, Haley's walked a tightrope of high praise and soft criticism of Trump.

  After the January 6 attack, she said he would be judged harshly for his role.

• Nikki Haley:

  The actions that president had since Election Day were not his finest.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  But, later that year, she backed him as the leader and the future of the party.

• Nikki Haley:

  I would not run if President Trump ran.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  But he is running, and now so is she, highlighting her foreign policy record with notable words.

• Nikki Haley:

  I don't put up with bullies. And when you kick back, it hurts them more if you're wearing heels.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  And wading into the identity issues that Trump has stressed, raising The New York Times' 1619 Project on slavery, a flash point on the right.

• Nikki Haley:

  Some think our ideas are not just wrong, but racist and evil. Nothing could be further from the truth.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  Haley will hold a campaign kickoff event tomorrow in Charleston, before heading to Iowa and New Hampshire.

  For the "PBS NewsHour," Lisa Desjardins.

• Geoff Bennett:

  And we are going to talk more about what Nikki Haley brings to the 2024 presidential race.

  Whit Ayres is a Republican strategist and the president of North Star Opinion Research. He's consulted for Republican candidates, including Senators Marco Rubio and Lindsey Graham and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

  It's great to have you here.

• Whit Ayres, President, North Star Opinion Research:

  Geoff, good to be with you.

• Geoff Bennett:

  It strikes me that the central idea behind a Nikki Haley candidacy is that she is someone who can attract a different kind of Republican primary voter, expand the Republican base, and ultimately carve out a lane for herself.

  Is that realistic? Can she do that?

• Whit Ayres:

  Well, we're going to find out.

  She's got a lot to sell. She's a very popular former governor of one of the very earliest GOP primary states. She showed some real leadership chops with the Dylann Roof massacre and the taking down of the Confederate Flag that you showed in the intro. She's one of the very few people who went into the Trump administration and emerged with an enhanced reputation, and, in the process, got some foreign policy experience.

  Demographically, she obviously separates herself from most of the potential candidates. She's well-known, relatively well-known among Republican primary voters. About three-quarters of them nationally have heard of her. That's not Mike Pence or Ron DeSantis level, but it's more than many of the others.

  And she can make a pretty good case at age 51 that it's time, as John F. Kennedy said in 1960, for a new generation of leadership. So she's got a lot to sell.

• Geoff Bennett:

  She took a veiled jab at Donald Trump without naming him in her announcement video, noting that he failed to win the popular vote in either of his presidential campaigns.

  How does Nikki Haley confront, navigate or sidestep entirely the Trump factor?

• Whit Ayres:

  It is a challenge, and it will be a challenge for every one of the candidates or potential candidates as they go forward.

  One thing is clear, Geoff. You cannot run for a GOP nomination in 2024 by running against Donald Trump. The Republican Party is split into three factions. There's a never-Trump faction. But that's only about 10 percent of the party. There is an always-Trump faction, a group of people who will walk through a wall of flame for him and will follow him anywhere, including in an independent candidacy against, say, a Ron DeSantis or a Joe Biden; 28 percent of Republicans would vote for him, which would put a Democrat in the White House.

  But the largest portion of the Republican Party is a maybe-Trump faction. Those are people who voted for him twice, supported when he was president, but are really interested in an alternative who looks more like a winner and carries less baggage.

  And that's the group she's going to try to go for.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Tell me more about that, because you did some polling recently for The Bulwark.

  And what you found was that there were Republican voters who don't necessarily dislike Donald Trump, but they think that other people dislike Donald Trump and think he's not electable, and that's why they're looking for somebody else.

• Whit Ayres:

  Yes, that's right. That's right. They have heard so much from their friends that they just couldn't — their friends can't stand Donald Trump. They're never going to vote for him. That's why they think he might not be electable.

  And so they're looking for someone who can maybe be in the White House for eight years rather than four, which is what Trump would be in for if he were elected again. So, they are reluctant to admit that they don't like Trump, but they want somebody who is going to be a different sort of candidate, who is less confrontational, and who has a better chance to win, in their judgment.

• Geoff Bennett:

  What about Ron DeSantis? Can he own the mantle of Trumpism for the Republicans who want the Trump policy without the Trump personality? Is he their guy?

• Whit Ayres:

  We're going to find out.

  In many ways, Ron DeSantis is Trump without the crazy. I think we're — that's what the whole campaign is going to be about is, who can get and capture a large portion of those people who liked Trump in the past, but want a different candidate in the future?

• Geoff Bennett:

  Whit Ayres, thanks, as always, for being here.

• Whit Ayres:

  My pleasure.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Great to speak with you.

• Whit Ayres:

  Enjoyed it Thank you.