Nikki Haley says RNC is ‘clearly not’ an honest entity in 2024 primary and slams Trump ‘overstepping’ by pushing Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel to declare him the presumed nominee

Nikki Haley says she’s “not going anywhere” in response to pressure from Donald Trump to have the Republican National Committee (RNC) name him as the presumptive nominee before this summer’s conventions.

The 2024 hopeful said Trump is “overstepping” as she insisted it was his team that planted the idea for the RNC to make the move. But new reports indicate that chairwoman Ronna McDaniel has scrapped the plan after a major backlash.

‘I think Americans want to be able to make this decision themselves. I don’t think this is the place for the RNC to do this,” Haley told NBC Meet the Press host Kristen Welker on Sunday.

She also emphasized that she does not need to win the South Carolina primary next month to remain a viable candidate in the race, after finishing third in the Iowa caucuses and second in the New Hampshire caucuses. However, she does admit that she needs to be better there than in New Hampshire if she wants to see a path to victory.

When asked if the RNC has remained an “honest broker” during the Republican presidential primary, Haley said, “I mean, clearly not.”

“If you go in and basically tell the American people that you’re going to decide who the nominee is after only two states have voted. I mean, there are 48 states,” Haley said. ‘This is a democracy. The American people want to have a say in who their candidate becomes. We have to give that to them. I mean, you can’t do that based on just two states.”

So far, Trump has 32 delegates and Haley has 17. But after the Nevada caucuses on February 8, Trump will walk away with another 26 delegates as he runs almost unopposed in an anomalous primary in the state.

Haley is running in the Nevada primary, which means she can’t earn delegates because the RNC only awards them through the caucus. Instead, she’s focusing her efforts on South Carolina.

“I think Trump overstepped his bounds when he urged them to do so, and I think that’s why he had to back down,” Haley told Welker. “The people who pushed this are his people.”

“And I know that during the debates he pressured Ronna McDaniel to stop the debates,” she continued. ‘He called her every other day. He’s been pushing them to pay for his lawsuits and all this other stuff, but at the end of the day, this isn’t about the RNC. This is about the American people.”

The RNC will hold its winter meeting in Las Vegas from January 30 through February 3, 2024, meaning the meeting will take place five days before the caucuses.

Haley served as governor of South Carolina from 2011 to 2017 before becoming Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, where she served for just under two years.

“I think I have to do better than I did in New Hampshire,” Haley said when pressed on whether South Carolina would do well or no more for her campaign. “What I think I need to do is show that I’m building momentum. I have to show that I’m stronger in South Carolina than I am in New Hampshire. Should that be a win? I don’t think that necessarily has to be a victory.’

“But it certainly has to be better than what I did in New Hampshire and it certainly has to be close,” she added. ‘And that’s what we focus on. If we win? Awesome. If not, we must show that we are gradually reducing that margin.’

Last week, reports emerged that the RNC was considering a route to declare Trump as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, despite the vast majority of states having not yet voted in the primaries.

Trump and Haley are the only two remaining serious contenders in the primaries — along with pastor and businessman Ryan Binkley, who has remained in the race despite very little support.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis dropped out of the race just days before the New Hampshire primary after finishing second in Iowa, making the race a two-way race.