2024 Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley spoke to Brian Kilmeade about President Biden being in Alaska on 9/11 instead of commemorating the 22nd anniversary. Haley says President Biden and Vice President Harris need to be out front and center and there needs to be a reminder for every high schooler and college student to watch 30 minutes of what happened on 9/11 to understand we can never be so flippant and we can never be so absent to think that that can’t happen again. Responding to President Biden saying we do not want to contain China and not hurt China, Haley said China is looking to hurt us and have been preparing for war with us for years. Haley worries about the message Biden is sending to Iran, Russia, and North Korea, who are unifying with China over their hatred of America.
On abortion, Haley says Kamala Harris refusing to answer what week of pregnancy abortion access should be cut off means she is for abortion anytime, anywhere, for any reason. When asked if she supports Senator Lindsey Grahams proposal of a 15 week federal ban on abortion, Haley says she would sign a bill that bans abortion after 15 weeks but points out that in order to pass a federal law it takes 60 Senate votes and the majority of the House before a president can sign it. Haley added that we have to come together to see what it would take to get 60 Senate votes. Haley also went after Kamala Harris over saying the Biden administrations border policy has been working. Haley believes Harris is who will be president if you vote for Joe Biden. Haley went on to praise Texas Governor Greg Abbot for having the courage for standing up for his people and sending illegal immigrants to sanctuary cities around the country who were lecturing republicans for being bad people for not wanting illegal immigrants.
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Rough transcript below
Brian Kilmeade [00:00:00] Well, if you talk to anyone on the right or left, they would say the candidacy of Nikki Haley, well, she’s surging. He’s a 2024 GOP hopeful. We know we’re a few months away from the Iowa caucus. And then up comes New Hampshire, South Carolina, and then we’ll have a Super Tuesday before you know it. And this is an important time. No longer can people say, well, wait till Labor Day, then it gets serious. Well, it’s after Labor Day. And Nikki Haley’s always been serious. She was the first major candidate in. Ambassador, welcome back to the Brian KILMEADE Show.
Nikki Haley [00:00:29] Thanks so much, Brian. It’s great to be with you.
Brian Kilmeade [00:00:31] So 911’s here and we see the first lady and we see the secretary of defense. We don’t see the president. He’s going to be in Alaska at 4 p.m. today Eastern time. And one of the comments from his traveling, his traveling committee was, well, you know, 22 years after Pearl Harbor, we weren’t still celebrating. We still weren’t marking it like we’re doing now with 911. Do you think it’s time for us to stop marking it?
Nikki Haley [00:00:57] You know, it’s not only that, Brian. I mean, I you know, every American that remembers that day gets that pit in their stomach. I mean, I was watching this morning and that pain never goes away. I had just come home with my son. I had been home maybe a day. And I remember lying in bed with him as my husband, Michael took our little one to preschool and looking on the TV and watching that play out, thinking, what world did I just bring him into? And the pain that followed. But more importantly, it was such a reminder that true evil really does exist in this world, and we’re never immune from it. And it also reminded us about the greatness of the American spirit and our resilience. That’s why Biden and Kamala need to be out there, out front. That’s why they need to be reminding every high schooler and every college student to watch 30 minutes of what that day was like and understand that we can never be so flippant and we can never be so absent. To think that that can’t happen again.
Brian Kilmeade [00:02:04] So his decision was to spend another day in Vietnam and put it on the tail end of the G-20. So the G20 did deconflict from 911, but he thought the Vietnam relationship was more important. Was he right?
Nikki Haley [00:02:17] No. I think the American spirit always needs to take time, period. I mean, I think you’re looking at you’re in Vietnam. That’s not a democracy. You need to be in America. That is a democracy. You need to acknowledge something that happened that was horrific, not just for as a reminder to Americans, but as a tribute to those American families who lost loved ones, as a tribute to the heroes that went and risked their lives and lost their lives in the days following because of the aftereffects of it. That’s why you’re here. That’s what an American president does, is just remind people about the spirit, the resilience, what it means. I mean, I you know, I don’t get it. I don’t get a lot of what he and Kamala do. But what I do get is there’s never been a day where we need more of a reminder of what’s happening in the world and who we are and what we need to believe in. And the fact that division is not where we need to be but unity and the American spirit is where we need to be.
Brian Kilmeade [00:03:13] So people tell you, well, if you’re in diplomacy, you don’t want to go directly at something. Your actions really tell your intent. So that’s really with the spirit I think the President Biden was giving with Hanoi, Vietnam, she’d say he decided to upgrade their relationship because of their natural resources and they seem to view China as a threat. He’s up our relationship with Japan and Korea and South Korea and their relationship with each other. He’s done the same thing with Australia, who see a huge threat on a daily basis. Nobody has to explain to India there’s still border skirmishes, especially to you with your heritage. And now you have a situation where India and Saudi Arabia have set up a corridor to try to counter the Belt and Road program. So the action show there, President Biden and his administration know that China is on the move in the march and they see us as an enemy. But we get this cut 20.
Speaker 3 [00:04:01] Really what this trip was about was less about containing China. I don’t want to contain China. I just want to make sure we have a relationship with China that is on the up and up squared away. Everybody knows what it’s all about. We’re not looking to hurt China. Sincerely.
Brian Kilmeade [00:04:19] Your thoughts?
Nikki Haley [00:04:22] Okay. He’s not looking to hurt China, but China is looking to hurt us. They’ve been preparing for war with us for years. And the amazing part is he sent four cabinet members there, Brian, already four cabinet members after a Chinese spy balloon flew over our country, four cabinet members after we it came out that a Chinese spy base was being developed on Cuba. Four cabinet members after one of those cabinet members was hacked. For cabinet members after seeing the intrusion into our country that they bought up 400,000 acres of U.S. soil near our military bases. The fact that they bought the largest exporter, the largest pork producer in the country here in America, the fact that they steal $600 billion worth of intellectual property, the fact that they’ve killed more Americans from fentanyl than the Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam wars combined, the fact that they are building up their military, it’s unthinkable to me that he continues to want to appease an enemy that has so openly tried to show that they are at war with us. And that’s the problem. Because when you start to be that weak in the knees. On a country like China who’s so involved in actually being on the ground in our country now and causing problems then, What message are you sending to Iran that says Death to America? What message are you sending to Russia that continues to hold hands with China? What message are you sending to North Korea? Because now what you’re seeing is you’re seeing a unification of China, Russia, Iran and North Korea. And what are they unifying about? They’re unifying over their hatred over America.
Brian Kilmeade [00:06:01] So we have a San Francisco summit coming up that we really want China to go to. They say, well, you better invite the leader of Hong Kong. We don’t want to do that. This guy, John Lee, he had a huge hand in crushing Hong Kong at the behest of Beijing. They also say we have to show more sincerity if we want to show we want them to show up to the APEC summit. What’s your reaction to this stance?
Nikki Haley [00:06:25] You don’t beg China for anything. You let China know what we expect of them. It’s their choice to make. What we need to be doing is being strong. We should go back in and say no more buying U.S. soil and we’re going to take back the land you’ve already purchased. We should go and say you’re not going to put any more money in our universities until our universities either take Chinese money or American money. We should go and say that we’re going to create a blacklist of all technology that China shouldn’t have because they build up their military. We should tell China we’re going to end all normal trade relations with them until they stop killing Americans with fentanyl, and we should start strengthening our military. Forget if they show up at a summit, let’s start letting them know that we’re onto them. Let’s start letting them know that we’re going to lead, not react to them. And every time that he reacts and every time that he does things like this, China and Russia get closer. And it just defies logic. I mean, I dealt literally, Brian dealt with China and Russia every day for two years, every day. And Russia would always just create chaos. That’s what they did every day. They create chaos and lie. And China always trying to try to find ways to be more aggressive. And they would literally just condemn everyone that wasn’t then they they acted like they were the best country in the world, and they constantly were trying to make us feel bad. And the thing is, I always made sure that they knew that we were strong, we were proud, and if they wanted to be working with us, then they had to come to us. We were never going to go to them. And that’s the difference between me and what Biden’s doing right now.
Brian Kilmeade [00:08:04] Well, foreign policy, China is connected to Russia is connected to the war in Ukraine. I know you see that. I see that the Republican Party necessarily is getting impatient. The ones that are supportive of it. On the pacing of in which we’re supplying Ukraine, giving them enough to survive, not win. But I do want to talk about domestically, you were one of the first to say you’re not electing reelecting Joe Biden, you’re electing Kamala Harris. And one of the key things is that Democrats in 2022, and I think you’ll agree with this, was messaging as it came with Roe v Wade. It gets overturned and it became Republicans want to take over women’s health care. They had no message. Listen to Kamala Harris when asked what week is the week when it comes to abortion cut 12.
Speaker 4 [00:08:47] I mean, what week of pregnancy should abortion access be cut off? We need to put back in place the protections of Roe versus Wade. You need to put back the protections that are in Roe v Wade into law. We need to restore the protections of Roe versus Wade. Do we need to be more precise? I am being precise. We need to put into law the protections of Roe versus Wade.
Brian Kilmeade [00:09:12] And she would not agree to any week. What’s your message if that’s the debate you’re having with her.
Nikki Haley [00:09:18] That means she’s for abortion anytime, anywhere, for any reason. I mean, that’s what she doesn’t want to say. That’s why I’ve said constantly, we need to ask her and Joe Biden, are you for 38 weeks? Are you for 39 weeks? Are you for 40 weeks? Because they will tell you they’re the ones that push that line to Congress trying to get that passed. They are for abortion anytime, anywhere or for any reason. What we know is we need to make sure that we are always focused on saving as many babies as we can and supporting as many moms as we can and whatever it takes to do that, we should be willing to come together and make that happen, because I think the majority of Americans do want to ban late term abortions. I think they do want to encourage adoptions. I think they do want to make sure that doctors and nurses who don’t believe in abortion shouldn’t have to perform them. I think they do think that contraception should be accessible. And I think all Americans can agree that any woman that gets an abortion should not have to go to jail or get the death penalty. That’s where we should come together.
Brian Kilmeade [00:10:16] Are you for Lindsey Graham’s 15 weeks?
Nikki Haley [00:10:19] I’m for anything that will save babies and support as many moms if we can get 60 Senate votes. And that’s the key, Brian, as they have demonized this issue for years and I refuse to be a part of it. What we need to remember is in order to pass any federal law, it takes 60 Senate votes and a majority of the House and a signature of a president. We haven’t had 60 pro-life senators or 60 Republican senators in over 100 years, so we might have 45 pro-life senators. So the reality is a Republican president can’t ban abortions any more than a Democrat president can ban these state laws. So we have to come together on where those 60 Senate votes are. If 60 Senate votes falls at 15 weeks, absolutely, I’ll sign it. But let’s talk about what it takes to get to 60 votes, because without that, you’re not saving more babies. You’re not supporting more moms.
Brian Kilmeade [00:11:11] Why do you think she doesn’t answer the question?
Nikki Haley [00:11:14] Because she knows that she’s 438, 39 and 40 weeks. He knows that Roe v Wade being overturned. That’s what she’s talking about is abortion any time for any reason. And the thing is, she doesn’t want it turned back on her. Like, they love the problem with the fellows on the stage as they would not acknowledge the issue. Brian. We need to lean into this. Our ways are the right ways. The difference is how you talk about it. You know, I’m not going to condemn anyone for being pro-choice any more than I want them to condemn me for being pro-life. So let’s talk about it and deal with it in a humanizing way that it is. This is personal for every woman and man, and we have to treat it like that. And they want to go demonize men and women who don’t think like them. And that’s not leadership.
Brian Kilmeade [00:12:01] So at the border, obviously, the biggest failure of this administration and in my lifetime, it’s infecting every major city. And they said it. The mayor of New York City said that New York will change forever unless we find a way to stop this 60 or the 3000 a week and the 66,000 that are here right now. But they got what they wanted. They got what they wanted because sanctuary city is here. And a right and a right to shelter is mandatory in this city. So here’s Kamala Harris, who is in charge of the border, cut 38.
Speaker 4 [00:12:35] 35 when the border crossings went down earlier in the summer, the administration said it was due to your policies working. Now they’re going back up, as they did in the month of August. Does that show the strategies no longer working? Absolutely not. What it means is that we have to stay focused on a number of issues related to the irregular migration that, again, we’re seeing around the world. And America is not immune. The strategy is working despite the numbers being up. Overall, we are seeing progress, but there is we’re not going to have a constant there are going to be fluctuations. That is normal, just like the weather fluctuates and and circumstances fluctuate.
Brian Kilmeade [00:13:19] You happy with that answer?
Nikki Haley [00:13:21] Ladies and gentlemen, that is who we are running against for president. That is, who will be your president if you vote for Joe Biden. And that’s what everybody needs to remember. That is your borders. That’s the person that was given the responsibility to fix the border. And that is her answer. We will be in a world of hurt if Kamala Harris becomes president. That’s why I’m fighting so hard, Bryan. That’s why it matters. And I’ll say this about the border, because I think it’s really important. I don’t think that Greg Abbott gets enough credit for what he has done, because, first of all, when all of this was happening in Texas and I went 400 miles down that border, when I talked to the ranchers, when I talked to the sheriffs, when I talked to the border security there, they were so under water, but they were just taking it. They were taking it because they always had to take it. No one was helping them. And and Greg Abbott had the courage to say, you know what, I’m not doing this to my people anymore. And he started sending it to these sanctuary cities around the country who were lecturing Republicans, saying that we were bad people because we didn’t want to let illegal immigrants in. And all of a sudden what happened? Are they bad people now? Are they bad people because they see it infiltrating their schools and their hospitals and taxpayers having to pay for it? No, nobody’s none of us are bad for saying that we want law and order. None of us are bad for saying that We need to make sure that Americans are secure and that national security is a top priority. And now all of these Democrat run sanctuary cities are suddenly saying, oh, wait a minute, don’t do this to us. Well, you know what? If you’re a sanctuary city, they’re going to keep coming. And I think Greg Abbott needs to keep sending them because that’s the only way they’re going to wake up.
Brian Kilmeade [00:15:06] And Ambassador, we know that to this wall turning up there on the FBI most wanted list. So this is this is not a good mix of what’s happening at the border is something’s going to come to a head. I hard hard to imagine this not being the top issue barring a sudden change of events come Election Day. Ambassador, what is.
Nikki Haley [00:15:25] Your remember, too, that Iran says that the easiest way to come into America is through the southern border.
Brian Kilmeade [00:15:30] And we’ll see what’s your right? What has changed since the debate for your campaign?
Nikki Haley [00:15:35] I mean, we’ve seen an incredible amount of support. And I am I am extremely grateful. You know, I think people see that we need a new generational conservative leader. I think they need someone who’s going to tell hard truth and let the chips fall where they may. I think we need someone who’s been an executive and also negotiated across the table from Russia, China and dealt with Iran and North Korea. And I think they’re ready to lead the path and move forward. We’ve got big problems. We need new solutions. And so we’re incredibly grateful for the support that we’ve had. But we’re going to keep our head down. We’re going to keep working hard. This is about earning the support of every single American, and we’re not going to stop until we get America back strong.
Brian Kilmeade [00:16:16] And you’ll keep up with the pledge here in Iowa and in New Hampshire and this year in South Carolina. Nikki Haley, thanks so much.
Nikki Haley [00:16:23] Go to Nikki Haley dot com.
