Haley Campaign Press Release - Haley Chats With Charlamagne Tha God on The Daily Show

CHARLESTON, S.C. – Last night, Nikki Haley joined Charlamagne Tha God on The Daily Show. The two discussed their South Carolina roots, the need for term limits in Congress, the importance of expanding the GOP tent, and, yes, her heels.

On term limits...

Charlamagne Tha God: You know, let's talk term limits, because you said you support term limits, and I actually agree with you on that. Do you think that term limits should be measured in years or freezing episodes? I think you should get one freezing episode, just one, one freebie. Any more after that, you've got to retire. What do you think?

Nikki: I think that we'd be kicking a lot of people out then right now. You know, I think that we have to have term limits. It's two reasons. One is, you know, I told you I think the Senate's the most privileged nursing home in the country. They stay too long; they get used to the power. But the other side of it is, when you run for office, you're as close to the people as it gets. You've listened, you know what people want, and you really know how to go in there and get things done. The longer you stay, the more you move away from the people. And I think that's what's happened, is you look at what's happening in DC and they're so tone-deaf. Both Republicans and Democrats don't understand the value of a taxpayer dollar. They don't understand that we've had serious issues with education. They don't understand the fact that crime is high and they're not doing anything about it. They don't understand that we've got threats facing us everywhere from terrorists and they're continuing to talk about things that don't matter. And so yeah, I think we need to have term limits because I think we have a lot of people in D.C. who have literally lost what the American people want.

On expanding the GOP tent...

Nikki: What I can tell you, the younger generation, they're different than my generation. They don't care about money as much as they do about really wanting to make a difference, really wanting to contribute to our country. They care more about the environment, and they want to talk about that. They care more about making sure that they don't watch the news because they think both sides are crazy, and I don't think they're wrong about that. And I think that the younger generation is going to be the group that saves us. They actually have a lot of good common sense. We have to start engaging them. We have to start bringing them in. You know, I look at my kids, they're 22 and 25. They're very sober about what's happening in the country right now. And they really know that this is not how they want to live and that they deserve better. And so I don't want to just get a party, I don't want to just get a demographic I really want to talk to everybody and let them know I'm gonna work for them and I'm gonna work hard to earn their support.

On rapping...

Charlamagne Tha God: I want you to engage young voters, I want you to earn their support, but are you willing to promise right now that you will not try to rap in order to do that?

Nikki: Can I just say this? I loved Eminem and that song before then, and Ramaswamy just ruined that for me. He ruined it. Like, no, I will never rap. You don't want me to rap. I've always said, if you ever see me doing karaoke, you better take me home because something's really wrong.

On identity politics...

Charlamagne Tha God: Why don't you play the identity politics game though? Because that's something Democrats like to do. They always talk about how diverse they are. Why don't you get into the identity politics game and play up being Indian more because a lot of voters just think you're a white woman?

Nikki: I think the problem is when you start labeling people, you're assuming that they're different than you. I don't want to just be a woman. I don't want to just be Indian. I don't want to just be a mom. I don't want to just be a Republican. I don't want to just be all of those things. I'm more than that. And I think every person is more than that. And what I know is if you look across America, we agree on 80 percent of the things. It's the 20 percent we fight over. So why add more divisions by talking about labels. I don't want to talk about labels. I think that's what's caused us to get into this situation, where everybody in this country is so divided. I want to talk more about what we can agree on and how we move forward as a country.

On Ron DeSantis' heels...

Charlamagne Tha God: My last question. Are you wearing higher heels than Ron DeSantis next week at the debate so you can look taller than him on the stage?

Nikki: I don't know, we'll have to... we'll have to figure that out. I can tell you I've always talked about my high heels, I've never you know hid that from anybody. I've always said don't wear them if you can't run in them, so we'll see if he can run in them.