Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said she would pardon former President Donald Trump to help the country “move forward,” with the caveat it would only be after convictions “play out” in court, as she does a complex balancing act competing for independent and conservative voters in the Granite State.
“Politics is not personal for me. This is about how we move the ball,” Haley said during an appearance Friday on Fox and Friends when she was asked if she still supports Trump.
“I don’t think it will do anybody any good to have an 80-year-old president sitting in jail. I think the way you move the country forward is, yes, I would pardon him so we can move on,” Haley added.
Trump faces 91 criminal charges over four indictments and has been forced to shift his campaign strategy to the courtroom during the GOP presidential primary. The former president won the Iowa caucuses decisively and leads Haley by 13.5 points in a RealClearPolitics average of polls in New Hampshire. Ahead of the New Hampshire primary, he has escalated his attacks against Haley in an attempt to outperform her on Tuesday.
Haley has attempted to tread lightly to win over voters who supported former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and his tough talk against Trump while avoiding alienating voters who supported the former president but are looking for an alternative.
In a CNN town hall on Thursday, Haley said if she were elected president, she would not preemptively pardon Trump such as President Gerald Ford did for outgoing President Richard Nixon, saying she thinks “everything needs to play out.”
“If he wants to defend himself and prove that he’s been treated the wrong way, or whether that’s political, I think he would want to fight for that. You only want to talk about a pardon after someone has been convicted,” Haley said.
The former South Carolina governor also rejected Trump’s calls on Thursday that he should receive “COMPLETE & TOTAL” immunity from criminal charges, even for things that “cross the line.”
“Do you get just total freedom to do whatever you want? No, that’s never the way it was intended to be. There needs to be accountability. No one is above the law,” Haley told CNN anchor Jake Tapper.
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In the New Hampshire primary, the spotlight will be on independent voters and non-Trump Republicans, who are a force in the Granite State and could also play a major role in November’s general election. Only 22% of Haley’s backers and 10% of Christie’s supporters said they would vote for Trump in a general election matchup against President Joe Biden, according to a Suffolk University survey of New Hampshire voters released before Christie dropped out of the race before Iowa.
Moderate voters form a much larger piece of the electorate in New Hampshire than in most Republican primaries. A recent poll from Suffolk University of voters in Iowa and New Hampshire showed that 41% of likely voters in New Hampshire’s GOP primary define themselves as moderate or liberal, compared to 23% of likely caucusgoers in Iowa.