Nikki Haley: You Don’t Always Have to Agree With Trump to Vote For Him

Former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, who previously clashed with Donald Trump during the primaries, is now fully supporting the 2024 GOP nominee.

“Donald Trump has my strong endorsement. Our country is at a critical moment. We have a choice to make. For more than a year, I said, a vote for Joe Biden is a vote for President Kamala Harris. Everyone knows it’s true,” Haley stated.

“Four more years of Biden or four more years of Harris, and our country will be in much worse shape. For the sake of our nation, we must support Donald Trump. But there’s more to consider. We should recognize that some Americans don’t agree with Donald Trump 100% of the time. I personally know some of them, and I want to address them tonight. My message is simple: You don’t have to agree with Trump 100% of the time to vote for him. Take it from me—I haven’t always agreed with President Trump, but we agree more often than not,” Haley continued.

This statement comes as uncertainty looms over the first presidential debate in September between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.

“Trump’s team, according to a source, wants the microphones to be muted throughout the debate except for when it’s the candidate’s turn to speak, similar to what was done during the first debate with President Joe Biden,” CNN reported.

“In contrast, the Harris campaign is requesting that ABC and other networks planning to host a potential October debate keep microphones on, marking a shift from the June debate when the then-Biden campaign wanted microphones muted except during a candidate’s speaking turn,” the outlet added.

“We have informed ABC and other networks seeking to host a possible October debate that we believe both candidates’ microphones should remain live throughout the entire broadcast,” stated Brian Fallon, the Harris campaign’s senior communications adviser.

“Our understanding is that Trump’s team prefers muted microphones because they don’t believe their candidate can act presidential for 90 minutes without assistance. We suspect Trump’s team hasn’t even informed him about this disagreement, as it would be too embarrassing to admit they don’t think he can hold his own against Vice President Harris without a mute button,” Fallon added.

Trump’s team has indicated that when they agreed to the ABC debate with Harris as the front-runner, they agreed to follow the same rules as the last debate.

“Enough with the games. We accepted the ABC debate under the exact same terms as the CNN debate,” Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller stated.

This development comes after a significant shift in the 2024 race, with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suspending his campaign and endorsing Trump.

Although RFK Jr. was polling at around 5 percent nationwide, in a close race between Harris and Trump, that small percentage could be decisive, as reported by the New York Post.

“Most of Kennedy’s left-leaning supporters had already shifted to Harris,” said Cook Political Report senior editor and elections analyst Dave Wasserman to The Post. “So this could be a significant advantage for Trump.”

“We’re probably talking about a fraction of a point in our August survey from battleground states,” he added. “Forty-six percent of RFK supporters leaned toward Trump in a two-way race, 26% favored Harris, and Kennedy’s support dropped from 8% to 5% nationwide.”

“Campaigns would invest hundreds of millions of dollars for even a fraction of a point given how tight the margins are in these battleground states,” he noted, referencing the narrow margins in 2020, especially in Arizona and Georgia.

“RFK’s endorsement won’t sway all his supporters to Trump,” Wasserman cautioned. “We’re in a very volatile environment right now, and it could stay that way through the election.”

Chris Lane, a pollster for Cygnal, observed that “among swing voters who will ultimately decide this election, 16% indicated they were going to vote for RFK.”

“With margins in battleground states being razor-thin, that 16% could be the difference between winning and losing a state,” Lane explained. “If RFK urges his supporters to back Trump, it could have a significant impact and alter the calculus for both Trump and Harris, especially in battleground states.”

“Additionally, the fact that this 16% leans more center-right means they will likely boost Trump’s vote share,” Lane added. “Our data shows that, by a 4:1 margin, these swing voters were more likely to identify as conservatives than liberals.”

Even anti-Trump pollster Frank Luntz acknowledged that RFK’s endorsement could be pivotal.

“It’s probably worth about 1% for Trump, and that 1% could be everything if it’s in the swing states. In the end, the reason Kennedy was polling at 10, 12, even 14% was that he was drawing votes away from Joe Biden. With Biden out of the race, Kamala Harris has taken over, and Kennedy’s support dropped to about 4 or 5%, with the remaining votes favoring Trump,” Luntz said on NewsNation while speaking with host Leland Vittert after the endorsement.

“Some of Kennedy’s supporters may choose not to participate in November. Of those who remain, about two-thirds will likely vote for Trump over Harris, and that could make the difference in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin,” Luntz added.

He also criticized the media’s response to the RFK endorsement.

“If Kennedy had endorsed Harris, I believe he would be celebrated as a hero. But because he endorsed Trump, the media isn’t giving him the credit he deserves. We need to be cautious during the final 73 days of this campaign and consider the motivations of those providing us with information,” Luntz warned.