South Carolina Republicans Sen. Lindsey Graham and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images; Win McNamee/Getty
Sen. Lindsey Graham cautioned Nikki Haley about she may hurt her potential VP chances.Graham said the longer her fellow South Carolinian challenges Trump for the nomination “the more scar tissue accumulates.”Haley has repeatedly said she does not want to be vice president.
Sen. Lindsey Graham has a message for his fellow South Carolinian Nikki Haley if the former UN ambassador wants to eventually become former President Donald Trump’s running mate.
“I think he would pick her if he thought it would help him win,” Sen. Lindsey Graham told Politico’s Jonathan Martin. “But the longer it goes and the more scar tissue accumulates the less likely it is.”
Haley and her campaign have tried to portray the GOP primary race as a one-on-one contest between her and Trump following the Iowa caucuses. Haley, who finished in third behind Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, is hoping the the more favorable electorate in New Hampshire will power a strong finish there.
It should be noted that Trump still leads by double digits in the state ahead of Tuesday’s primary. He already won the Iowa caucuses by an unprecedented margin.
Haley has repeatedly emphasized that her focus is on winning the nomination. She has also sternly rejected the notion that she wants to be vice president.
“I’m not playing Chris [Christie’s] game. I have said over and over and over again. I do not want to be vice president. Period,” Haley told WMUR, a New Hampshire TV station, earlier this week. “I don’t know how many more times I can say that.”
In the meantime, some Trump allies are assailing Haley, arguing that she’s unfit to be on a potential Trump-led ticket due to her foreign policy views.
“Nikki Haley as VP would be an establishment neocon fantasy and a MAGA nightmare,” Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican, told Politico. “On Day One she would convert the Naval Observatory into an anti-Trump, resistance headquarters, undermining him at every step.”
Graham, who advocates a more interventionist foreign policy, said these people are “isolationists in MAGAworld.”
“The same people who don’t like her don’t like me,” he said.