Nikki Haley responded to criticism from Ron DeSantis, accusing him of lying because he’s losing.
She denied being inspired by Hillary Clinton and stated that she was motivated to enter politics after hearing Clinton speak at a women’s leadership forum.
Haley emphasized that she would rather focus on important issues like inflation, the economy, education, border control, and law and order.
“So, you’re also getting heat for not being conservative enough or a true conservative from DeSantis. He has a new ad out saying that Hillary Clinton was your inspiration,” Martha MacCallum said.
“And he plays a number of videos where you say, yes, you know, we differed on certain issues, but she inspired me to get into politics. I saw her speak at The Leadership Institute. I walked out the door and I made my decision to get into politics.”
“You’re shaking your head.”
“No. Because I mean, look, DeSantis is desperate,” Haley said. “He’s lying because he’s losing.”
“But let’s go — the problem is if you have to lie to win, you don’t deserve to win.”
“I never said Hillary Clinton was an inspiration. What I said when I was talking to a group of women, who were looking at running for office, I said the same thing about her that I said about Sarah Palin.”
“And that is when I was looking to run, everybody told me why I couldn’t do it.”
“They said you’re too young. They said you have small children. Oh, you should start at the school board level.”
“And I went to a women’s leadership forum at Furman University and one of the speakers happened to be Hillary Clinton. And I have never agreed with a single thing Hillary Clinton has ever said and I said that, too. But Ron forgot to put that in the ad.”
“But what I’ll tell you is, she ended it by saying, for every reason they tell you not to run, that’s exactly the reason you should. And I left there and said that’s it. I’m running for office. I had never been politically active. I had never been involved in politics.”
“So, they can twist and turn this all they want, but it’s because they see what we see, we’re surging in the polls — not just in Iowa, not just in New Hampshire, not just in South Carolina.”
“But I’ll say that’s the problem with politicians. Rather than talking about what they can do, they just want to talk up and make things up that I — that they are saying that I said.”
“I’m happy to dispute it every day of the week. But at the end of the day, I’d rather be talking about inflation and our economy and education, and how we have to go back to the basics and get our kids reading again.”
“About a border that’s out of control. About the fact that we need law and order back in this country and that we need a strong America that we can be proud of again. And that’s what I’m going to stay focused on.”
