May 23, 2024

Why is Nikki Haley announcing support for Trump? I thought she pledged, long ago, to support the GOP nominee.

It was a condition for the debates last year. Were we supposed to just forget? Are pledges some kind of joke? Was the pledge only ever about stopping Trump from running independently if he could not secure the nomination?

Anyway, I'm seeing "Nikki Haley says she’s voting for Trump in November" (CNN). No mention of the debate pledge. [ADDED: There is a mention, buried in the middle of the article: "[D]ays before dropping out, she said she no longer believed she was bound by the Republican National Committee pledge to support the party’s eventual presidential nominee."]

There's this, from March 3rd: "Haley says she no longer feels bound by the GOP pledge requiring her to support the eventual nominee."
When Haley, Trump’s lone remaining major challenger for the nomination, was asked on NBC’s “Meet the Press” whether she was compelled to honor that commitment, she said, “No. I think I’ll make what decision I want to make.”

She said the “the RNC is now not the same RNC” as it was at the time of the debates. She also maintained that she has always said she had “serious concerns” about Trump, for whom she served as U.N. ambassador.

By contrast, Trump never took the pledge. Last August, he said: "I wouldn’t sign the pledge. Why would I sign a pledge if there are people on there that I wouldn’t have?... So they want you to sign a pledge. I can name three or four people that I wouldn't support for president. So right there, there's a problem right there. There's a problem."

43 comments:

Kevin said...

It’s news because Democrats hoped she wouldn’t.

tim maguire said...

The pledges are silly hoops the media makes people jump through when they think it can be used to embarrass someone they don’t like. What Haley is doing now is the more traditional endorsement—the explicit backing of a specific person.

iowan2 said...

Haley burnt her bridge and is the replacement process. We'll see if Trump believes Haley has any value to him. I have no idea about behind the scenes talks. But I think she is still very much on the market to serve a paymaster. My bet is she would earn much more a destuctive mole. That risk, plus, lacking any discernible skills, except talking out of both sides of her mouth, makes her value to Trump low.
Haley's loyalties lie with the GOPe

Enigma said...

Most politicians have mushy ideals that shift as quickly as weathervane. Anything to stay in the news and build the brand. These are some of the reasons why she lost to Trump...

rehajm said...

This is the kind of stupid scrutiny that Democrats never get. If CNN is talking about it it is because they believe it helps their side. Good on CNN for not completely disappearing behind the paywall. With so many outlets for leftie propaganda it is hard for the TV irrelevant to gain The View status.

Related: We were all provided an opportunity to reject Haley and we accepted....

rhhardin said...

I've forgotten who Nikki Haley is, if I ever knew. One of the indistinguishable Republican women.

richlb said...

Maybe Trump is learning from this Michael Cohen situation. If someone thinks they deserve a spot in your administration, find one for them. Otherwise they'll forever have it out for you.

Leland said...

I'm sorry, but I don't understand why Althouse is asking this question now. In 2016, the GOP demanded Trump agree, with signature, to support whoever won the primary. But later in the primary GOP candidates back off pledge to support nominee.

I point this in case you forgot and perhaps thought pledges were somehow a thing again.

rehajm said...

It is a bit silly to think these political positions are anything but political. Where’s the outrage from Jewish leaders? The same people who crawl out of the woodwork for a week of sound bites re: hate when some kids spray paint a swastika are conspicuous in their absence from the conversation at the moment. Good on Jerry for a timid rebellion…

Anyways, Haley mushy isn’t news. She’s a politician.

Howard said...

She's trying to get in Trump's good graces so she can get on the inside and provide information to the Democrats.

RideSpaceMountain said...

A lot of things can change for a person when the Lockheed Martins, ATKs, Olin Corps, and General Dynamics etc. of the world stop calling and donating money. A person might even say or do things they would never admit to when the baskets of cash were piled high in the finance office.

Aggie said...

If it appears that Nikki Haley changes her mind a lot, and seems to change her sentiments as quickly as any other political metric does, it's because she's 100% a political animal - and she's just following orders.

Tank said...

People tend to analyze these things in a Trump versus some unicorn kind of way. The actual choice will almost surely be Trump, Biden or Kennedy. It would be bizarre for Haley to vote for either of the left wingers.

Gusty Winds said...

Back on March 3rd, Nikki was still a woman scorned. Still in the limelight. A focus of attention. She was really pissed after the story leaked, and was confirmed by the lovers, that she banged two staffers in the back of and SUV. Was that worth the price?

Now, nobody gives a shit about Nikki Haley. She's doggy paddling for relevance. The only way she achieves any further attention is by supporting Trump, and praying he'll give her a job. May she'll give Trump a job for a job. He does have a roomy SUV.

The Milwaukee GOP Convention is coming up fast. Nikki will want a prime speaking spot. She won't get one if she's Never Trump. She'd end up sitting at home like Paul Ryan, or making appearances on MSDNC as a last act of betrayal.

Robert Cook said...

"People tend to analyze these things in a Trump versus some unicorn kind of way. The actual choice will almost surely be Trump, Biden or Kennedy. It would be bizarre for Haley to vote for either of the left wingers."

If only there were any actual left wingers in the running. There are only a scant handful of them in all of Congress.

Gusty Winds said...

Nikki Haley doesn't want to be Liz Cheney.

gilbar said...

if Trump picks a VP from South Carolina.. WHY would it be HER?
what would SHE bring to the table? Oh i forgot! She thinks she IS the table

Iman said...

Haley may’ve realized that the possibility of another 4 years of ruinous Democrat policies is a bridge too far.

One would be wise to jump off the Democrat Party’s Hellbound Train before it’s too late.

JRoberts said...

On January 20, 2021 Joe Biden placed his hand on a Bible and "pledged" to follow the Constitution.

How'd that work out for the nation?

Wince said...

Try not to spit out your coffee noticing that in her endorsement of Trump, her lingering reservation about Trump is that Trump is not steadfast enough, presumably in the face of political pressure.

Christopher B said...

Kevin is right. Given her pledge repudiation earlier this year, I think they held out hope she would at least say she wasn't voting the Presidential line, maybe even thinking she'd pull a Liz Cheney and endorse Biden.

BTW, she voted for Trump in 2016 too with a similar line about why.

tim maguire said...

Robert Cook said...If only there were any actual left wingers in the running

I suppose in the sense that there are no left or right wingers, only opportunists. But in any other sense, this is laughable left-wing "everyone to right of me is conservative" nonsense.

Butkus51 said...

its called CYA

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

CNN has been subject to a lame fantasy for a while now that Trump would make that fatal, unrecoverable mistake and Haley would come roaring back as the GOP front runner. Biden could then bulldoze over her on his way to victory. Any talk about her now is them trying to get their heads around the fact that that slim hope is gone and that Trump, unless he drops dead, will be the nominee.

Sebastian said...

A simple calculation: a Trump win is better for Haley and better for the country; her endorsement may help on the margins to persuade a few nice women to hold their noses.

William said...

Trump may harbor some uncharitable thoughts about Haley, but he's kind and forgiving to the people who voted for her. Let bygones be bygones.... In his coming administration, he will need a keen eyed administrator to go to Alaska to survey the oil fields there and make sure they're developed properly. It's an important job and the administrator has to be on site twenty four hours a day to keep things running smoothly. The administrator has to be willing to live in a Quonset hut in sub-zero temperatures so as to lessen our dependence on foreign oil. There is much about Haley to make her the ideal candidate for this job, and Trump will probably offer it to her.

My name goes here. said...

Holy Moley!

If Trump can convince a democrat like Nikki Haley to vote for him, his chances in November are better than I expected!

Rich said...

Republican Party member to vote for Republican Presidential candidate.

Easy to explain — she's eyeing 2028.

In other news, the Pope has confirmed his belief in God. Bears have been known to do their business in the woods and it rained in the US yesterday .

Ann Althouse said...

"I point this in case you forgot and perhaps thought pledges were somehow a thing again."

No. I thought they were bullshit from the start. But I still want to point out that these people pledged whenever they do something inconsistent with the pledge. Making the announcement of support, Haley was implicitly saying her pledge didn't count as a pledge, and I posted to be explicit about that.

I know she renounced her pledge earlier. That's in the post. That does not change that she is implicitly renouncing it again. She's calling attention to herself, behaving as if she has confidence in her importance in this election, and what she's doing deserved to be marked down because it is in violation of her pledge.

Drago said...

Haley's announcement is battlespace prep for a likely GOP convention battle/coup where the GOPe-ers argue Trump, as a "convicted felon", (assuming Merchan does his Soviet court proceeding correctly) cannot be the nominee and a group of delegates/GOPe "leaders" band together to try and remove Trump from the contest.

Dont look for Romney or Cheney et al to be there as they are already booked for the dem convention.

Enigma said...

@NorthOfTheOneOhOne: CNN has been subject to a lame fantasy for a while now that Trump would make that fatal, unrecoverable mistake

Leftist/state media has been in salvation fantasyland about Trump since 2016...he was 'disqualified' for 1,000 reasons before he won... Hillary thought she had it in the bag with her debate grinning. She thought she'd break the glass ceiling until after the polls closed on election night.

imTay said...

I have been noticing lately that Trump has been mending fences with some of the powers that so damaged his first presidency. This is more evidence that that is true. What the neocons have been explaining to Trump, and which he appears to be at least listening to, is their argument, and I can't say that it is wrong, but their argument that the government "of the people, by the people, and for the people" has long since perished from the Earth, mainly in November of 1963, and once and for all when the FBI and CIA brought down Nixon, and installed Gerald Ford, who headed up the coverup of the Kennedy assassination. The problem with rule by the people, is that "the people" don't want to fight wars, either to die in them, or to send their sons to die in them. Clearly this is unacceptable.

But get over it, study stoicism, even if one of its foremost writers, Marcus Aurelius, was an emperor at the very center and pinnacle of power, and stoicism for him may well have amounted to a philosophy of obedience to him, well, as I said, get over it; "render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's."

JRoberts said...

Nikki reached a fork in the road.

Given Trump's current momentum (not only in his polls, but the performance of his down ticket primary endorsements) and the anticipated positive outcome of his various court cases, Haley could either keep her name visible for future campaigns or prepare for a new career of "sign-spinning" at local strip malls.

Christopher B said...

Speaking of inconsistencies, her pledge to vote for Trump seems to me to be at odds with her continued contention that he needs 'reach out' to her supporters.

If she's positioning herself ala Drago's convention prediction then it's to be able to say to Trump supporters that she "reluctantly" thinks he shouldn't be nominated, at which point she'll have flopped more than a fish on a pike.

Yancey Ward said...

Haley wasn't cucked enough to implicitly endorse President Joe Shit for his Brains Biden.

Yancey Ward said...

You have to have Chuck and Rich level cuckedness to do that.

Joe Smith said...

Haley is a deep state war-mongering snake.

I doubt she has any scruples other than acquiring power...

NKP said...

Nikki Haley doesn't want to be Liz Cheney.

Nikki Haley IS Liz Cheney!

If Trump goes an inch beyond saying "Thank you. I want to welcome Nikki and her supporters aboard in our mission to Make America Great Again.", I'm staying home on election day.

Michael K said...

In other news, the Pope has confirmed his belief in God. Bears have been known to do their business in the woods and it rained in the US yesterday .

I'm not so sure about the Pope but I agree about bears. No rain in Arizona so I can't comment.

AlbertAnonymous said...

I truly don’t understand the issue here:

She pledged to support the nominee
Then she said she didn’t consider herself bound by the pledge
Then she announced she’s supporting the nominee

Did I get that right? So what do people have a problem with?

That she earlier claimed not to be bound by her pledge?
Or that she is now complying with the pledge?

I’m guessing it’s both, because they just HATE Nikki Haley now… so they shriek “flip flop” when she says she’s not bound by the prior pledge, and then shriek “flip flop again” when she supports him.

Who cares…

RCOCEAN II said...

Nikki Haley is a Goddamn liar. Why are R voters so accepting of liars? I dunno. How can you cast an intelligent vote if you have no idea whether the politican is just saying something to get elected?

So, do people who love liars like haley, know she's lying, and think its a clever tactic? Or are they just so stupid they don't know she's lying?

She pledges to Support the R nominee. And if you'd questioned her sincerity, she and supporters would've said "How dare you question Nikki's honesty". Then, when it suited her, she stated she would NOT support Trump. And now she's flip-flopped on that, and supports TRump!

Does she still think Mr. V is "scum". OR was that all a show too? What does she REALLY believe? I dunno you tell me, those who love Ms. Haley.

Bunkypotatohead said...

Some CNN "reporter" asked her if she would vote for Biden or Trump. What was she supposed to do...drop the mic and run away?

Bunkypotatohead said...

Some CNN "reporter" asked her if she would vote for Biden or Trump. What was she supposed to do...drop the mic and run away?