‘Get Out of The Race!’ Ex-RNC Chair Unloads On Nikki Haley’s Muddled Vow to Support Trump If He Wins the Primary

Former head of the Republican National Committee Michael Steele lit into 2024 GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley on Monday over her answer earlier in the day when asked if she would support former President Donald Trump if he won the nomination.

MSNBC anchor Chris Jansing played a clip of Haley on CNBC’s Squawk Box from Monday morning, in which Haley said, “I would support him because I am not going to have a President Kamala Harris.”

Haley added, “We can’t afford that. That is not going to happen. But I will tell you, you look at these indictments. There’s probably going to be a fourth indictment. We can’t have, as a Republicans, him as the nominee, he can’t win a general election. That’s the problem. We’ve got to go and have someone who can actually win. And that’s what it’s going to take.”

Jansing then asked Steele, “So I want to go to Nikki Haley’s remarks because she’s truly trying that kind of pragmatic electability argument to Trump voters, saying, yes, I support him, too, but he can’t win. Is there any evidence that’s the messaging that’s going to reach anybody?”

“Look, you are better than me. And, you know, trying to parse bubblegum speak coming out of the mouths of these people, it’s just banal attempts to sort of placate,” Steele replied, adding:

And it’s frustrating because. Do you want to be president? Well, you got to go through the guy who’s sitting at 52% right now among the Republican base. Otherwise, get out of the race! Stop wasting our time.

You know, you’re not going to take him on. Then why are you in the game? You’re just waiting for the justice system which you demonize and belittle and berate to do the thing you won’t do. I mean, which do you want? You can’t have it both ways. And the justice system is not going to deliver Donald Trump on your political platter.

It’s just not going to work that way. And so the reality of it is you either want the job or you don’t. And if you do, that means you’re going to have to sound a lot more like Chris Christie than the way you’re sounding right now.

Steele concluded by arguing that Trump’s 2024 opponents could move the party away from him if they worked in tandem to attack him. “And if there was more of a unified messaging in that regard, then you would probably begin to see some movement inside the party. But everyone’s hunkering down around protecting Trump as opposed to taking him out because they’re afraid of what? So, you know, I just you know, it’s almost to the point where you get tired of answering the question about what are these people doing? They have no clue what they’re doing,” he concluded.

Watch the full clip above via MSNBC.

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