By Aaron Pan
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich called on GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley to quit the race after she lost to former President Donald Trump in the Republican Michigan presidential primary.
“I hope she’ll drop out,” Mr. Gingrich said during an interview with Fox News’s “Hannity” on Feb. 27. “Donald Trump tonight is the Republican nominee. This is over, and the issues to focus on the general election and why Trump would be a dramatically better president in 2025 than Joe Biden.”
Mr. Gingrich’s comments came shortly after President Trump defeated Ms. Haley in Michigan’s Feb. 27 Republican presidential primary, notching his sixth-straight primary victory as he marched towards the GOP nomination.
The result is another blow to Ms. Haley, coming days after a double-digit defeat in her home state of South Carolina. Despite the loss, she has vowed to stay on through Super Tuesday on March 5, when numerous delegate-heavy states will hold their primaries.
In the interview, Mr. Gingrich highlighted several points that Ms. Haley should end her bid and support the former president in defeating President Joe Biden in November.
“The theory that she’s hanging around in case something happens to Trump, so she can then be the choice,” Mr. Gingrich said. “No MAGA Republican, no Trump delegate is ever going to pick Nikki Haley. They will pick any of a dozen or 50 Republicans who are acceptable, but they aren’t going to pick her.”
The former House speaker also cited the Nevada GOP primary, where Ms. Haley was defeated by “None of Those Candidates,” as more evidence that she should drop out of the race. “When ‘None of Those Candidates’ beat you by two to one, there’s a hint that maybe you’re in the wrong game this year,” he said.
Ms. Haley has faced growing pressure to drop out of the race after her loss in South Carolina on Saturday. However, the former U.N. ambassador has resisted the calls, stating that she is “not going anywhere” and will continue “campaigning every day until the last person votes.”
Following the South Carolina GOP primary’s defeat, where she trailed the former president by about 20 percent of the vote, the billionaire Koch family’s libertarian policy advocacy group Americans for Prosperity Action (AFP) announced that the organization would withdraw its financial support for Ms. Haley. The group has contributed $31 million to fund Ms. Haley’s campaign and around $10 million to oppose President Trump, according to the nonpartisan research group OpenSecrets.org.
Mr. Gingrich suggested that if Ms. Haley remains in the race, she could potentially divide the GOP. He hoped she would reconsider her candidacy, highlighting that the 45th president “is going to beat her in every single primary in the country.”
“I hope she’ll become part of the effort to beat Joe Biden. I do not think it’s helpful to have her out there saying nasty things about the Republican nominee,” he said.
Average polls show that the former president leads Ms. Haley by over 62 percent, securing 77.3 percent support compared to the former U.N. ambassador’s 15.1 percent.
Last week, Mr. Gingrich suggested that to win the presidential election in November amidst concerns over voter fraud, Republicans need to outvote Democrats by a significant margin.
He warned that Democrats would try every approach possible to win the 2024 White House race and consider this a “life and death” issue.
“To beat Donald Trump, these folks are going to vote early, they’re going to vote often, they’re going to cheat. They’re going to do everything they can,” he said to Fox News.
According to the latest RealClearPolitics polling average, President Trump takes a narrow lead of 2 percent with 47 percent support, compared to President Biden’s 44.9 percent for the general election in November.
The Epoch Times has reached out to Ms. Haley’s campaign for comment.
Nathan Worcester contributed to this report.
