Republican presidential candidate former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley speaks during a news conference, Wednesday, March 6, 2024, in Charleston, S.C. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Biden campaign is happily having a field day with Nikki Haley’s suspension of her presidential campaign, even promising to welcome the former South Carolina governor’s supporters with open arms if they choose to change sides in the upcoming election.
“I know there is a lot we won’t agree on,” said President Joe Biden, in a prepared statement issued after Haley threw in the towel on Mar. 6. “There is a place for (Haley’s supporters) in my campaign.”
Haley’s decision to withdraw her candidacy came after former President Donald Trump decisively won 14 of 15 Republican primaries on Super Tuesday, surrendering only Vermont’s to his lone remaining rival.
“I am filled with the gratitude for the outpouring of support we’ve received from all across our great country,” the former ambassador to the United Nations said. “But the time has now come to suspend my campaign.”
In her concession speech to supporters in Charleston, Haley said she has no regrets about her futile campaign and promised to continue to raise her voice for things she believes in.
Haley is reported to have spent more than $100 million during her Republican primary bid against Trump. For that investment, she won only two primaries – in Vermont on Mar. 5 and a previous contest in Washington, DC.
Eager to capitalize on any lingering grudges from that failed effort, Democrats undoubtedly hope that Haley’s voice might encouraged to sing the praises of their candidate.
Biden’s statement was released within minutes after Haley announced the end of her campaign.
“It takes a lot of courage to run for president,” Biden said, complimenting Haley’s run. “That’s especially true in today’s Republican Party, where so few dare to speak the truth about Donald Trump.
“Nikki Haley was willing to speak the truth about Trump,” the President added, “about the chaos that always follows him, about his inability to see right from wrong and about his cowering before (Russian president) Vladimir Putin.”
Despite their differences, Biden said that he believes that his supporters and those of Haley could find common ground on the fundamental issues of preserving American democracy, standing up for the rule of law, preserving the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, deterring the nation’s adversaries and treating each other with dignity and respect.
But the gulf between Republicans and Democrats in 2024 still seems too wide to be bridged with those kind of glittering generalities.
In her final speech in Charleston, Haley took pains to list the conservative values on which she based her campaign.
Those included reducing the national debt, maintaining the principle of limited government, encouraging bi-partisan problem solving in Congress and supporting America’s allies overseas.
“We must turn away from the darkness of hate and division,” she emphasized. “I will continue to promote all of those values as is the right of every American.”