Sen Tim Scott asks Nikki Haley to step aside from her 2024 presidential bid ‘for the good of the country’
Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), who bowed out of the 2024 presidential race in November, urged his former ally Nikki Haley to quit her White House bid on Thursday. He said she should do it “for the good of the country.”
Senator Tim Scott, a Republican from South Carolina, center left, and former US President Donald Trump during a Fox News town hall in Greenville, South Carolina, US, on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024. Photographer: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg(Bloomberg)
Scott, 58, was questioned by reporters on Thursday morning as he voted early in South Carolina’s presidential primary. They asked him if Haley — who appointed him to the Senate in December 2012 — should withdraw “for the good of the party.”
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“Well, I think [she should] for the good of the country,” Scott answered.
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Nikki Haley’s ‘stepping aside is very important’
“I mean, the bottom line is … I decided for myself back in November that America needed someone who was more assertive, more outspoken, and a little bit more unruly to help tackle some of the problems that are persistent and stubborn in our nation,” the senator continued, who threw his support behind former President Donald Trump after his overwhelming win in Iowa’s caucus last month.
“The only person who prevents a dialogue between Joe Biden and Donald Trump is Nikki Haley, and so stepping aside, is very important, not for the party, but for America’s future.”
However, Haley’s supporters, who attended a rally in Georgetown on Thursday afternoon, disagreed with Scott’s plea.
“The country has not voted enough yet,” they said.
He told journalists after casting his vote on Thursday that he was more “enthusiastic and driven for President Trump than I was for myself.”
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The former president hinted this week that Scott was among his “short list” of potential choices for a vice president. Trump has also advised Haley to stop her campaign, arguing her ongoing run “damages” the country and the party.
Haley has ignored calls to quit the race, despite trailing Trump by 28 points in her home state. In a speech on Tuesday, she emphasized she would persist until the March 5 Super Tuesday contests.
