'Fox News Sunday' on January 21, 2024

Interview

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Well, first of all, Shannon, I think Trump is way out ahead in New Hampshire, but also nationally. That's very important to remember.

But I guess my response to that voter would be, Nikki does have baggage. She just hasn't faced the onslaught of years of media attacks, of super PAC attacks that Donald Trump has faced. And, frankly, the fact that Trump is still standing and is still leading in the polls against Joe Biden suggests he has real political resilience.

I know a lot of people who are choosing Nikki Haley think she's the low baggage candidate. In reality, she's the candidate the Democrats haven't teed off on, but they will tee off on her if she's the nominee. She won't be, but if she is, she will face exactly what Donald Trump has faced for the past six years.

And I don't think she'll survive, and I certainly don't think she'll win the presidency through it. That's why we need to elect the guy who's shown some resilience. That's why we need to nominate Donald Trump.

BREAM: Well, we'll see what voters decide here. So, let's break this down a little bit more because others I talked to follow this argument about how Nikki Haley does head-to-head against President Biden.

Here she is making that point in one of her routine points now in campaign stump speeches.

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Well, first of all, Shannon, I just saw a Rasmussen poll just yesterday that suggested that Donald Trump did better against Joe Biden than Nikki Haley does. I don't think that's true of anything close to the majority of the polls.

But again, I go back to something I said a little bit earlier, Nikki Haley has not faced the Democrat and media machine for six years. And we have to ask ourselves, not what polls will say today, but what do polls say when Democrats run ads saying that Nikki Haley wants to slash your Social Security so that she can send more money to foreign countries?

That is exactly what they're going to do because that is, in fact, what Nikki Haley says she wants to do out on the campaign trail.

We have to remember negative ads --and the messaging behind them, Shannon, if I can just finish -- they really do make an impact. And we have to ask ourselves who's the most resilient candidate in the face of the Democratic machine? I don't know how anybody can look at the last six years and say that's anybody but Donald Trump.

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Well, Shannon, I just -- I'm sorry, I just don't think that Ron's point passes the smell test there. They're trying to do everything that they can to remove him from the ballot. Even moderate Democrats are coming out and saying some of the tricks that they're using against Donald Trump don't even pass constitutional muster.

So, the idea that the Democrats want him to be the nominee when they're throwing everything against the wall to throw him off the ballot, it's insane, nobody actually believes that. I think broadly speaking, Republican voters recognize not only was Donald Trump a good president in the past, he'll be a good president in the future and he has survived the machine.

I've tasted a little bit of this. Most Republican politicians taste some small piece of this. Trump has faced an onslaught of character assassination, hundreds of millions of dollars, maybe billions of dollars of attack ads. Surviving in the face of that is maybe the most important signal of whether you are a winning candidate and I think Trump has survived it better than anybody I've seen in politics.

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Well, Shannon, we have to draw a distinction between independent minded and New Hampshire voters. I think a lot of them are going to vote for Donald Trump, but also liberal -- many of them from Massachusetts who are moving to New Hampshire, they're never going to vote for a Republican nominee, even if it's Nikki Haley. They're just trying to play spoiler to Donald Trump.

But I think Republicans really have to ask ourselves, do we want liberal suburbanites from Massachusetts to choose our nominee or do we want to choose our nominee as Republicans and independent-minded conservatives?

I think if we choose our nominee, Donald Trump is going to win and he's going to win handily.

By the way, Shannon, this campaign strategy of getting liberals to vote for you in a Republican primary, it doesn't work nationally. It won't work in South Carolina. It won't work in Ohio. It won't work in most other states.

We actually need to select our nominee with voters who we can actually get, not with voters who are trying to play spoiler because they hate Donald Trump and they hate the Republican Party.

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I think the President certainly agrees. In fact, I come from a party of sort of ancestral Democrats who migrated to the Republican Party in large part because of Donald Trump's message. But it's one thing to get Democrats who are open-minded to vote for you. And it's another thing to get Democrats who are never going to vote for Republicans to vote for you. I think we've got to be a big tent party, but with people who have an open mind, not with Democrats who just hate Donald Trump and want to play spoiler.

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Thanks Shannon, good to see you.

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