Nikki Haley and Chris Sununu Join the Guy Benson Show: “She Brings It… (Haley Is) Someone Who’s Actually Done It”

Nikki Haley, 2024 GOP Presidential candidate, Former U.S. Ambassador To The UN, Former South Carolina Governor AND Chris Sununu, the 82^nd Governor of New Hampshire, joined the Guy Benson Show with guest host Jason Rantz to talk about Sununu’s recent endorsement of Nikki Haley for POTUS. The trio also discuss a trio of topics including polling and odds of the nomination for 2024, antisemitism across college campuses, and the failing economy under the Biden administration. Sununu and Haley discuss why Haley is qualified for the presidency and why her leadership will steer the United States in the right direction. Listen to the full interview and read the transcript of the interview below.

Full Interview:

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Full Transcript:

Jason Rantz: As we barreled towards the first two presidential campaign contests, there are two Republican candidates trying to close the gap with former President Donald Trump. And one of those candidates just got a big, big boost. Former South Carolina governor and former ambassador Nikki Haley was just endorsed by New Hampshire governor, Republican Chris Sununu. And they both join me now. Thank you guys so much for coming on the show.

Nikki Haley: Thank you for having us on.

Jason Rantz: So, Ambassador Haley, obviously, let’s start there. This is a coveted endorsement in New Hampshire. You’ve been seeing some pretty significant momentum since the debates started. But at the same time, you’re also looking at the polls. It shows a large gap. So how does this help close that gap in New Hampshire?

Nikki Haley: You know, I mean, this has always been slow and steady wins the race. And we’ve you know, we’ve seen our support grow as we’ve hit town halls, as we’ve done debates, all of that. And then we had a great endorsement last week from, you know, the most conservative freedom fighting grassroots group in the country with Americans for Prosperity. And then this week, to get an endorsement from the Live free or Die Governor, it’s pretty awesome. I mean, you know, he’s the coolest governor in the country. And the fact that he has put his name next two hours, we couldn’t be more proud. We couldn’t be more excited. And the momentum on the ground is so fun. It really is exciting to see what’s happening.

Jason Rantz: And you really do feel that, at least as I do, as someone who covers this. Governor Sununu, the big issue seems to be the economy. We know that Biden nomics is not working the way that the Biden administration would hope. What is it about Ambassador Haley that tells you she’s the most capable of tackling that particular issue?

Gov. Sununu: So there’s a couple of things like Ambassador Haley brings. I mean, just the background is incredible. So the fact that she’s a governor, the fact that she had a sense of accountability as a governor, balanced budgets, cut taxes, created jobs, all of these things that a candidate can talk about. But to have someone who’s actually done it, who’s been in the trenches, who’s not just talked about policy, but worked through a legislative process to get it done, who has always, frankly, been an underdog on the candidates and always outworked all of her opponents was what the thing with New Hampshire is. Our economy is pretty strong and, you know, pretty strong. I mean, really one of the strongest in the country. What folks are looking for more than what’s your policy and what’s your plan? That’s important, of course. But they’re looking for connection. They’re looking for someone that tells them the truth, not just on that, tells them what they want to hear. They’re looking for someone to answer their questions that spend the time to earn trust, because trust is what Washington is really lacking. I mean, that’s the fundamental problem with Washington, D.C. There’s no transparency. There’s no trust. There’s no sense of communication. So folks on the ground in the Live free or die state, they want to hear, what are you going to do not just to solve our problems. What are you going to do to create a system that puts states and localities and most important individuals, individuals first? What are you going to do to make sure that you go in with the mentality that how do I make a system that operates at that localized level? To have that out of a president would be an amazing, amazing opportunity for the country. And she brings it because she’s proven the ability to do it.

Jason Rantz: We’re looking for a leader, right? And obviously, a strong economy comes with large and small businesses feeling like they’re supported. Ambassador, I live in Seattle. You helped lay the groundwork that convinced Boeing to move from Everett, in fact, shut down the Everett plant and bring the 787 Dreamliner production to North Charleston, which obviously our loss. But your gain. What can Democrats in Washington State learn about being more business friendly?

Nikki Haley: Yeah, I think the main thing is, you know, it’s businesses have a hard time. And what they want to make sure they do is that they can have, you know, grow their business without government getting in the way. And what we do in South Carolina is we give businesses the room to breathe. We let them produce. We let them create. Government is an assistance. We support our businesses and what they need to do, but we don’t mandate them on things. And I think the other side of it is in South Carolina, we don’t have a need for unions because we don’t need middlemen. Our employers know when they come to South Carolina that you have to take care of your people and that means you’ve got to be respectful of their schedules. You’ve got to include their families once a year to have them come for an annual picnic so that their family members can see, you know, where they go. You have to respect that On Sundays they go to church. It’s just those niceties that we think are important. And when you have problems in your companies, you should go to your employees and ask them for help. So we’ve done that. That’s how we actually have had a good business network. The other side of it is we train our workers. You know, we train a lot of South Carolinians for those Boeing jobs. And we do that through our technical schools so that companies come in and they just have to interview and we make sure they have the skills for that company that are needed. And I think it’s having that relationship with businesses that’s so important. If you take care of your businesses, you actually better take care of the employees of that businesses and of those businesses. And I think that’s important.

Jason Rantz: Well, and I’m curious just from your role as a former Boeing board member, how important do you think Washington state is to the future of Boeing?

Nikki Haley: Well, look, I mean, I think Boeing valued Washington state. I actually went to one of those plants and saw it. I mean, it was a partnership. It’s a different environment in Washington state than what you find in North Charleston. That’s just you know, the atmosphere in South Carolina is very much it is a there the work ethic is strong and the same that they have in Washington state, but it’s just a more connected feeling with their employer. It’s more of a, you know, a one on one relationship type of feeling, I think, is what’s so important. But I think we saw I mean, there’s great productivity coming out of South Carolina because everything doesn’t cost as much as what it cost to build it in Washington state. And I think that was the biggest thing was they saw so many efficiencies when it came to building in South Carolina. But, you know, our goal should be how do we make it a live free or die country? How do we make sure that government gets out of the way of all businesses, regardless of the state, and make sure that that small businesses continue to be the heartbeat of our economy, that big businesses continue to hire more people and have great relationships with them, how we keep taxes low and grow the middle class. I mean the middle class, we’re watching the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. We need to let the middle class breathe. We need to give them tax cuts. We need to make small business tax cuts permanent. We need to eliminate the federal gas and diesel tax. There are certain things that we need to do. And the way you do that, as you put an accountant in the White House.

Jason Rantz: We’re talking with former Ambassador Nikki Haley and New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu. Governor Sununu, you just heard the ambassador make a comment about not really needing unions in her home state. You know, obviously, that’s going to be seen as a vulnerability, potentially just the idea of unions. You’ve got Joe Biden who says I’m Mr. Union and he’s the big supporter. He’s going to present the ambassador as anti-union. How does that play in New Hampshire?

Gov. Sununu: No one cares. Yeah. No, it doesn’t play here. Because just like Nikki said, we let businesses do what they do best. We let a free market reign. And that’s why we we have very few private unions, if any, really, in the state of New Hampshire. But we still some of the highest wages in the country because people want to be here. They want to compete for the workforce. They want to compete in the market. And that’s why, you know, what’s the net result in incredibly low taxes? We have virtually no taxes here, no sales tax. No income tax. A very efficient government and a state that’s really driven on the local level. It isn’t big government solutions that come in and tell businesses what to do and how to run. They all want to be here. So, no, I and again, that’s not really an issue for Republicans. We don’t want local Republican Party doesn’t like to see things in terms of pro this and anti that the division you know creating all this strife. Democrats love to do that. They love to stir the pot. They love to try to create angst, anxiety and conflict that really isn’t there. Free markets work. Capitalism works. Letting businesses do what they do best so they can reinvest in their communities, reinvest in those employees. As the governor was saying, she’s she’s spot on. That’s the process. And that’s what made this country absolutely great. So I think it’s great that Joe Biden wants to keep tying himself to two, you know, antiquated, union style models that frankly, you know, slow down the supply chain, create, create issues. This is a place for you is, of course, there is well, near the union. Bash But to say that you’re defining your politics on that doesn’t make much sense, that you got to be more than that. You got to be bigger about what this country is about.

Jason Rantz: One thing that I think should be seen as a pro and anti is the issue of Israel, because obviously we’ve got anti-Semitism at least getting louder in this country. It’s being amplified in large part by younger voices. As an American Jew, it’s very concerning to me. Ambassador, you’re obviously a supporter of Israel. I assume that that bond would strengthen with you as president. But I’m wondering, looking at Joe Biden has approached this issue, he’s clearly signaled that he’s pro-Israel and he’s done that in the face of some very loud voices in the progressive left. How would you handle this situation and just anti-Semitism on the ground in this country differently than the president?

Nikki Haley: Well, the first thing I’ll say is in reference to the last thing we were talking about, I’m not anti-union, I’m pro employee. And I think there’s a difference when you look at that. It was never about that. It’s about fighting for the employees. And the way you fight for the employees is you make sure there’s a good relationship between the employer and the employee. And I made a point to make sure that that happen. When it comes to Israel, I mean, look, I think that what happened on October 7th, it’s hard to put into words. I mean, it’s one of those things that should make us all sector our stomach. And we as Americans should always remember it’s never been that Israel needs America. It’s always been that America needs Israel. They are the tip of the spear when it comes to defeating terrorism. And we saw the worst terrorist attack that we’ve seen in a long time and certainly the worst Israel seen since the Holocaust on October 7th. And there would be no Hamas without Iran. And we’ve got to let Israel do what they need to do. I’ve said there’s three things we should give Israel. Whatever she needs, whenever she needs it. We should eliminate Hamas, not weaken it, but eliminate it because they said they’ll do it again and we should do whatever it takes to bring our hostages home. When it comes to the anti-Semitism that we’re seeing in America, you know, this has been bubbling up for a while. October 7th, just exaggerated it even more and brought it to the surface. And I think that that goes back to the fact that Joe Biden refused to have anti-Zionism as part of the definition of anti-Semitism. But the reality is, if you don’t think Israel has a right to exist, that’s anti-Semitic. That’s that’s what’s led to all of this talk about genocide of Jews. So the first thing I do is put anti-Zionism back into the definition of antisemitism. We would go to these universities and I think we have got to get the foreign money out of these universities. We talk about the Chinese money, but there’s Arab money going to these universities too, which is led to these pro-Hamas groups. We need to go to the universities and say, you either take foreign money or you take American money. But the days of taking both are over and get that foreign intrusion off our campuses. And finally, if these universities don’t step up and start protecting these students and make sure that it is a safe place for them, we should take their tax exempt status away because you have to make sure this is no different. Had you had the KKK doing this exact same thing, every one of those college presidents would have been up in arms. This is just as bad as that and we should treat it that way.

Jason Rantz: We have just about two minutes left. I want to try to squeeze in one more question. Ambassador, Summit on climate change just wrapped up. This is an issue that especially among younger voters, including conservatives, we have seen it, unfortunately, a lot of this to the left, but we care about it as well. Washington state. Generates a ton of clean power from dams and nuclear energy. Unfortunately, Democrats and it seems like the White House support removing a lot of dams in order to save spawning fish. So you’ve got two eco issues pitted up against one another. And obviously that means we lose a whole lot of hydropower. Is that the right move? How do you handle competing interests?

Nikki Haley: No, it’s not the right move. And I think, you know, what we have to do when it comes to the environment is we all want clean air. We all want clean water. We all want a world that’s there for our kids. But if that’s the case, if we truly want to do that, then let’s go to the source of where all the emissions are coming from. India and China. Go to them and start to focus on them. America does a lot, right? And we shouldn’t do it. So much so that we’re protecting sagebrush lizards over making sure people can afford their power bills. Instead, let’s make sure that we are energy dominant and being energy dominant is a good thing. It can be an economic powerhouse, but go after the emitters that refuse to do anything about the environment. And that’s China and India. And when we do that, that’s when you’re really going to see the biggest difference be made with the environment. And that’s what I you know, I agree with the younger generation. I just think we need to put the focus where we know we’re going to get the difference.

Jason Rantz: There you go. Ambassador Nikki Haley and New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu. Thank you guys so much for coming on. I really appreciate it.

Nikki Haley:  Go to Nikkihaley.com and join us.