COLUMBIA, S.C. — Former South Carolina Governor and U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley is among the growing list of 2024 contenders for the White House.
The Republican launched her campaign back in February and is seeking her party's nomination in a field that likely may have her face her old boss, Former President Donald Trump.
Ahead of another rally in the state, Haley spoke with News19's Andrea Mock about her campaign, border security, the threat she sees from China, and her calls for a competency test for candidates.
Andrea Mock:
She has been criss-crossing the country in New Hampshire and Iowa and Texas. And now she is back here in her home state of South Carolina ambassador, former governor, Nikki Haley, who is now a candidate for President of the United States. Thank you so much for being with us today.
Nikki Haley:
Great to be here. And it's a great day in South Carolina. I always love being home.
Andrea Mock:
The last time our viewers saw you regularly, of course, you were at the U.N. You were ambassador of the U.N. and you decided to step away from that. We thought you were going to take a break from politics. You wrote a book, did many other things. What called you back?
Nikki Haley:
Really it was the fact that I watched the country just fall apart. You know whether it was the debacle that we saw in Afghanistan, whether it was the fact that we saw all these stimulus packages and spending and the debt increase, whether it was the fact that we saw our kids suffering in schools, and the fact that Republicans lost the midterms. I mean, at some point, we had to fix this. At some point, and I didn't trust anybody else to do it.
You know, I am doing this because my parents came here 50 years ago to an America that was strong and proud and full of opportunities. I want to prove to them they made the right decision. I'm doing this for my husband and his military brothers and sisters. I want them to know their sacrifice mattered and that we do love our country. I'm doing this for my daughter because she just got married and I see how hard it is for her and her husband to have bought a home. And now Biden's wanting to hurt people. I raised her to have a good credit rating. He's wanting to hurt her on that too. You know, I'm doing this for my son and he's a junior in college and I see he's writing papers he doesn't believe in just to get an A. That's not our country. That's not who we are. And for the first time in history, 78% of Americans have said they don't think their kids are going to have as good of a life as they did. We can't be okay with that. That's why I'm running and I'm determined to fix it.
Andrea Mock:
Alright, it anybody who's been watching the news recently, you've been talking a lot about a competency tests for any politician who's over 75 years old. And you will also said in an interview that President Biden would be unlikely to make it to 86. Tell me about this competency test and why you are being very outspoken about this.
Nikki Haley:
This isn't about age, it's not about politics. This is about the fact that if we have someone representing us in Washington, don't we want them to be at the top of their game? These are people deciding our national security. These are people deciding our kids' economic future. We need to know that they're ready. You can have an an 86 year old that is a young 86 year old. You can have an 86 year old that's in decline. We have watched President Biden in decline. A child last week had to tell him what country he was in the week before. You know, he didn't know how many grandchildren he had. These are things a mental competency test. I don't care if you do it for 50 and up.
The key is Americans deserve to know that they've got the right people out there. These are tests that just basically make you name certain things with the same letter or what month and what day it is. We deserve to know that. It's about transparency. I've always fought for transparency and that's what I'm fighting for now.
Andrea Mock:
Alright, let's talk a little bit about policy and what a Nikki Haley White House would look like. Yu've said that you want to close the border. I know you just traveled to Texas and looked at the wall in many different areas and issues that they're having and you said you want to take money and hire 25,000 New ICE agents and border patrol. What how do you feel this will make America more safe?
Nikki Haley:
Well, first of all, what I saw on the border, I didn't just go and come back. I went along 400 miles to the border. And you know where, you know, most people get up and get their coffee and watch the news. These ranchers get up get their coffee and see if anyone died crossing the fence.
I spoke to the sheriffs. they go in they round up illegal immigrants before 7 a.m., turn them over to Border Patrol. Border Patrol documents them and releases them for two or three years before their court date. Then you go and you look at the fact that when I talked to Border Patrol, they said we're just glorified babysitters. They don't let us do our job. 4.8 million illegal immigrants.
When Title 42 ends next week. 15,000 illegal immigrants a day will start coming across our border. When I was governor, we passed one of the strongest illegal immigration laws in the country. We need to do that again. For the entire country mandatory e-verify program so that no businesses hire anyone here illegally. 25,000 Border Patrol and ICE agents on the ground. Defund sanctuary cities. Make sure we do remain in Mexico because nobody wants to remain in Mexico. Keep Title 42 and above all things instead of catch and release, let's go to catch and deport. This is a national security issue. And Biden has totally...this is a dereliction of duty. Every state's a border state. We've got to start protecting Americans instead of protecting illegal immigrants.
Andrea Mock:
One of the things you've talked about when talking about the border is how you feel closing the border will help the fentanyl crisis. We know that the numbers are astounding. Even here in South Carolina they've gone up gone up dramatically in the last three years fentanyl overdoses. How do you feel closing the border will help that?
Nikki Haley:
Right now we've got a lot of trafficking trafficking of people, trafficking of drugs. We had enough fentanyl cross the border last year that would kill every single American. The number one cause of death among adults 18 to 49: fentanyl. Don't think for a second China doesn't know exactly what they're doing and trying to destroy us. We have got to put a stop to that. Closing that border is going to stop that but we also need to go after the cartels. We need to do special operations and go after them like the terrorists that they are. Make sure that we go after those crimes, make sure we go after those gangs and make sure we go after those drugs and stop the killing of Americans that's happening right now.
Andrea Mock:
All right, let's talk international policy for a moment. Now. I did get to fly out to see the UN [when Haley was Ambassador] and I sat in on a meeting and it just so happened that that day, you were speaking about American policy towards both Iran and China talking about them. What about America needing to show force in our dealings with both Iran and China? I know you were quite critical and vocal about what happened with the spy balloon. That was shot down obviously right off of South Carolina's coast. How would you change let's talk about China first, how would you change relations with China?
Nikki Haley:
It's our number one national security threat. We need to wake up they are having our lunch and we're handing it to them on a silver platter. You know, the first thing we need to do is just look at it from a national security lens. I don't care if Americans get T shirts and light bulbs from China any more than I care if they get agricultural products from our farmers. But when it comes to national security, we need to make sure we're careful. When COVID hit and they asked everybody to put on a mask, they were made in China. When they said take a COVID test you turn it over it was made in China. You go down the drugstore aisle all of those medications are made in China. We need to make sure that if China pulled out the rug from under us tomorrow, Americans would be safe and we would be ready. We need to start calling them out on stealing intellectual property. We need a strong military to make sure they know that we are going to prevent wars and they don't want to mess with us. We need to make sure that we go after the fact that they basically bought 400,000 acres of U.S. farmland most recently near Grand Forks Air Force Base where our most sensitive drone technology is.
President Xi said whoever owns the data rules the world. They're capturing data as much as possible. He started a commission that he personally chairs that says any company that does business in China has to cooperate with the Chinese military. Think about our tech companies. Think about all of our financial data, all of our healthcare data, and all of our children's lifestyle data and know that the Chinese military has it. We have to start getting smart to China.
Andrea Mock:
All right back in 2017. Again, at the UN you were very vocal talking about Iran the dangers of Iran their nuclear program. Not much has changed now this many years down the road. With a Nikki Haley White House what would the policies be with Iran?
Nikki Haley:
Well, first of all, they are working to build a bomb and the problem is our friends don't trust us and our enemies don't fear us. It all started with the debacle in Afghanistan. You know, Michael deployed to Afghanistan and the idea that we left Bagram Air Force Base in the middle of the night without telling our allies who stood shoulder to shoulder with us for decades because we asked them to be there. Think about what that told our friends. More importantly, think about what it told our enemies. We've got to start being strong when that Russian plane hit an American drone a couple of weeks ago when we do. Nothing. What would I have done? Put two more drones back up there a fighter jet and put our naval fleet back in the Black Sea which we never should have moved in the first place. When you have a strong military, when you show American strength, It prevents wars. That's the key is we have to show strength again. And that's when our enemies will be back to where they need to be and not challenge us anymore.
Andrea Mock:
I know your husband deployed and you know, South Carolina has a huge military population. So many of the people watching this today will either have been the parent of somebody who deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq or a spouse or have themselves deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq. Where do you see your take if you become president on funding for our military, and how will our attitude towards towards Afghanistan change?
Nikki Haley:
There were two things that China, Russia and our enemies never wanted. They never wanted us to have a strong military and they never wanted us to be energy independent, I'll focus on both of those. And it's not just about how you spend with the Department of Defense. We need to modernize our military. We need to make sure that they have up-to-date equipment, we need to make sure they have the highest protections possible. We need to make sure it's not just about can we prevent a land, air, sea war, but we need to be strong on cybersecurity, on artificial intelligence. But above all of those things, we need to take care of our veterans. We need to make sure that they are fully protected from health care from retirement from no taxes to all of those things. They sacrificed for us. These military families sacrifice for us. I mean, the idea recently I saw on Biden's budget, they're going after veterans benefits. The reason we're down and recruitment on military 25% down if you don't take care of the people that sacrifice for you, why are they even going to put their foot forward to sacrifice for us? We've got to make sure we take care of the veterans along the way as well.
Andrea Mock:
Alright, I know we're running out of time. So there's just two more things I want to touch on with you and 2021. You said that if President Trump was running again for President, you would not run or at least speak to him. Did you have that conversation and how have your thoughts changed now?
Nikki Haley:
I did have that conversation with him before I ran, one out of respect for the fact that he gave me the job and we had a great working relationship. And two I wanted him to know that I was serious about running. And you know, what I told him was that I very much I was proud to serve in the administration when it came to the foreign policy and all the things that we did, but this is time for America to move forward. We need a new generation. We've got to leave the baggage and the drama behind. We've got serious issues and the distractions are killing us. We have got to start moving forward with you know, in a new direction and an I've been a two-term governor that took a double digit unemployment state and turned it into an economic powerhouse. I was at the U.N. I didn't deal with one country I dealt with 193. But more importantly, I took the kick me sign off of our backs at the UN. We need someone that has the executive experience and the foreign policy experience, to get us to understand our national purpose. And we have to start loving America again. Our kids need to love America again. And I'm determined to do that.
Andrea Mock:
All right, final question. Let's talk about polling numbers. And I know that this is something that you find as an extra challenge our viewers watching will remember you running for governor, many people hadn't heard of you. And you said your campaign back then was tell one if you liked this message, tell one friend. How are you taking the way you ran for governor now with the challenge of letting the entire world know who you are and what you stand for?
Well, first of all, when I first got into elected office, I ran against the longest serving legislator in a primary. And people laughed at me and I worked that district like no one else, and I said we've got way too many lawyers at the Statehouse. We need a really good accountant. They took a chance on me and I won when I ran for governor. I ran against an attorney general, a lieutenant governor, a very popular congressman and a state senator. I was Nikki who I was 3% in the polls. I had the least amount of money, but I work this state like no one else and earn their support. And I want when I went to the UN they said I didn't have any experience. And I got to work and I took the kick me sign off of our backs. I have been underestimated all my life and it's a blessing because it makes me scrappy. No one will outwork me in this race. But more than that, I strive to earn every single American support and what I know fact, the polls you see today will not be the polls a year from now you can look at any presidential election in history. So what I tell everybody is if you like what I have to say go tell 10 people, make sure that go to Nikki haley.com We're going to finish this but more importantly, we're going to run a race that makes every American proud.