The Michael Knowles Show - Nikki Haley： The Path To The Presidency with Michael Knowles

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00:00:37.880 Nikki Haley has served as the 116th governor of South Carolina.

00:00:43.600 She has served as the 29th U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

00:00:48.880 Now, she is seeking the presidency. 0.84

00:00:51.800 And after Donald Trump, Nikki Haley is the first declared Republican candidate for the 2024 presidential nomination.

00:01:02.500 And now, she is sitting down with me to discuss her campaign.

00:01:09.180 The last time I saw Nikki Haley, she was teaching me how to be a U.N. ambassador. 0.95

00:01:14.280 I am still not the U.N. ambassador, but she is now running for president.

00:01:20.720 Nikki, thank you so much for being here.

00:01:22.260 Thank you.

00:01:22.440 And you almost had the veto down, but not quite.

00:01:24.840 It's not my hand, was it?

00:01:25.940 Yeah, yeah.

00:01:26.480 It doesn't.

00:01:26.840 I'll keep working on it.

00:01:27.660 Yeah.

00:01:28.000 Maybe in a Haley administration. 0.92

00:01:29.180 I'm just putting it out there.

00:01:31.140 I'll keep practicing.

00:01:31.840 Who knows?

00:01:32.520 Who knows?

00:01:33.260 So, Nikki, congratulations on entering into the race.

00:01:35.620 Thank you.

00:01:35.720 I appreciate it.

00:01:36.360 I've got a list of 10 questions.

00:01:38.600 Okay.

00:01:38.760 Answer them however you like.

00:01:42.160 They're from a smattering across policy, philosophy, history.

00:01:45.800 First question, real hardball, who's your favorite president?

00:01:50.000 I have two, Lincoln and Reagan.

00:01:52.020 Lincoln and Reagan.

00:01:52.860 Good choices.

00:01:54.540 What book has most influenced the way that you view politics?

00:01:59.100 The most recent book, because I feel like I've read, but the most recent book really was J.D. Vance's book.

00:02:07.240 I just related to it so much, because I grew up very similar in the way that you lived with people who didn't know what we didn't have.

00:02:17.680 And to not forget their voices and to understand that they matter is really important.

00:02:24.740 Because in rural South Carolina, you've got schools that are challenging, and companies don't come always where they need to.

00:02:32.200 And that's why when I was governor, I focused so much on every single part of South Carolina.

00:02:37.480 And I think we need to focus on every single part of the country.

00:02:40.420 But you have to look at the cultures.

00:02:42.100 You've got to look at the people.

00:02:43.300 You've got to look at, you know, what they do and how they live.

00:02:45.760 And I thought that J.D. did an amazing job of really describing who they are, what they care about, and what we need to do as a country to make sure that we let them know we've got solutions that lift up everybody.

00:02:57.660 Well, speaking of reaching out to people that one does not typically reach out to, you have had a lot of crossover appeal, more so than many of the candidates who have been talked about as potential nominees.

00:03:09.700 What is one time that you have reached across the aisle, successfully or unsuccessfully?

00:03:17.740 And what is one issue on which you most likely would not be able to reach across the aisle?

00:03:23.180 The hardest issue, I think, of having to deal with reaching across the aisle was after we had the shooting at Mother Emanuel Church.

00:03:31.200 And you had a white supremacist come in to a church.

00:03:36.680 It was the first time we'd had a shooting in a place of worship.

00:03:40.080 And these 12 people did what so many South Carolinians do on a Wednesday night.

00:03:45.000 They went to Bible study.

00:03:46.380 But somebody else showed up.

00:03:47.800 He didn't look like them.

00:03:48.920 He didn't sound like them.

00:03:50.020 He didn't act like them.

00:03:51.380 And when they bowed their heads in that last prayer, he began to shoot.

00:03:57.240 And South Carolina was devastated.

00:04:00.000 Three days later, he showed, you know, he had his manifesto out and he was showing the Confederate flag.

00:04:06.180 And this was on the heels of Ferguson.

00:04:08.460 And you were watching riots on TV.

00:04:11.540 You were watching that.

00:04:12.280 And I knew that I had to somehow protect the state.

00:04:16.240 And really pushing for the flag to come down was something that you had to be really respectful about.

00:04:23.640 Because half of South Carolinians saw the flag as heritage and service.

00:04:28.500 The other half saw it as slavery and hate.

00:04:31.400 My job wasn't to judge either side.

00:04:33.300 My job was to get them to see the best of themselves and go in a different direction.

00:04:37.680 It took two-thirds of the House and two-thirds of the Senate.

00:04:41.180 But what we were able to do is tap into the best part of people and say, let's put this Confederate flag instead of the front of the State House where it's a living, breathing symbol.

00:04:50.680 Let's put it in a museum where it belongs.

00:04:52.700 And then move on as South Carolinians.

00:04:55.240 And South Carolinians did that.

00:04:56.720 The next push, they, of course, were like, what about monuments?

00:05:00.160 What about street signs?

00:05:01.060 And I was like, we're not doing that.

00:05:02.300 And I strong-armed and said, we will never do that because you can't erase history.

00:05:07.020 You can add to history.

00:05:08.760 So instead, they're adding a monument for the Mother Emanuel victims.

00:05:12.940 They built an African-American museum.

00:05:15.560 And so that was one that was really not just hard but emotional for the people of South Carolina.

00:05:21.540 Of course.

00:05:21.880 And it was, you know, part of who they were.

00:05:24.260 And so getting them to see if there's a better place we could go but you don't have to hate each other to do it was really important.

00:05:30.340 Now, what would be one issue, because obviously you successfully were able to affect that policy, what would be one issue where you think, I probably couldn't work with the other side if there is one?

00:05:41.800 I mean, the one thing I would love to do is term limits because I don't think that that's an issue for Republicans or Democrats.

00:05:49.660 I think that's an issue for Americans.

00:05:51.040 I mean, look at D.C.

00:05:52.520 Look at how long everybody's been there.

00:05:55.180 And so do I think Congress will ever pass a term limits bill on their own?

00:05:59.360 No.

00:05:59.780 But what we have to do is get—

00:06:00.760 You couldn't work with either side on that.

00:06:02.100 That's exactly right.

00:06:03.220 But what we have to do is get the American people to say when every single congressman decides to run, are you for term limits?

00:06:10.520 And make them do it at that moment.

00:06:12.600 And when America goes and puts them to where they have to answer and they have to sign a pledge and they have to follow through with it, that's how I think we're going to get it.

00:06:21.080 But I think that's going to be incredibly tough because they don't want to leave the power of it all.

00:06:24.200 And that's a Republican or a Democrat thing.

00:06:26.340 Right.

00:06:26.660 Neither side has any interest in that, at least of the officeholders.

00:06:29.800 Yes.

00:06:29.980 According to the polls, the top issue for everybody is the economy and not just the economy but cost of living, which is through the roof right now.

00:06:38.460 But it's a very thorny issue because any policy that you can undertake is going to have consequences that you don't want to see.

00:06:45.560 So how does President Haley deal with record high inflation without harming employment?

00:06:53.080 Very much like what we had to do in South Carolina.

00:06:55.340 You know, when I took on as governor, we had double-digit unemployment and, you know, everything had kind of fallen to the wayside and I had to build the state back up.

00:07:03.100 What we need to do in America is first, stop the spending binge that's happening in D.C.

00:07:08.220 I mean, it's ridiculous how much they're spending.

00:07:10.760 And it's Republicans and Democrats.

00:07:12.600 Why did they open up earmarks?

00:07:14.480 Why are we spending $12 million on a baseball stadium in New York or $15 million for New Jersey to get the World Cup or $6.5 million for golf courses in Colorado?

00:07:23.240 Stop the spending.

00:07:24.220 Secondly, balance a budget.

00:07:26.640 I did it as governor in South Carolina.

00:07:29.080 Many governors do it.

00:07:30.340 Why is it that D.C. doesn't do it?

00:07:31.880 We should really push to balance a budget.

00:07:35.000 Then look at 15% of our budget is interest.

00:07:39.020 Well, stop borrowing.

00:07:40.800 We have to.

00:07:41.460 We're now borrowing money just to make our interest payments.

00:07:44.480 We need to actually focus on pushing the debt down because our kids are never going to forgive us for this.

00:07:49.600 But the big sting of what we're going to have to do is look at the supply chain and understand that we've got to start building things in America again.

00:07:58.600 And that means when we build things in America, that's what's going to help with inflation.

00:08:02.520 And then for all the people who say we can't talk about entitlement reform, guess what?

00:08:06.480 You've got to talk about entitlement reform.

00:08:08.660 But that means you don't have to take away things that have been promised to people.

00:08:12.960 But you do have to look at that new group coming in and say you're going to have to play by different rules.

00:08:18.380 I had that situation in South Carolina with pensions.

00:08:21.660 We made sure that those that were promised got.

00:08:24.160 But we told the new ones coming in, it's a different game for you.

00:08:28.100 And they know they're not going to get it anyway.

00:08:30.420 And so we've got to start doing something.

00:08:32.060 So it's those hard decisions.

00:08:33.660 I'm not a lawyer.

00:08:34.580 I'm an accountant.

00:08:35.440 So it's those decisions that are tough.

00:08:37.600 But we shouldn't pass any bills that do anything that raise the spending level that we have.

00:08:44.440 Every bill has to work towards bringing down the debt.

00:08:47.360 When we do that and commit to that, then it'll be a different day in America.

00:08:50.780 That would be another issue where you're taking on both sides because obviously the Democrats have no interest in entitlement reform.

00:08:57.500 And then the House Speaker, Kevin McCarthy, just came out and said entitlement reform, dead on arrival.

00:09:02.340 President Haley says, too bad.

00:09:04.420 We're going to run out in 2028.

00:09:06.340 Like we have to do it.

00:09:07.420 But I don't think we have to raise taxes to do it.

00:09:09.920 I think you just have to go back and look at the system and say let's try something new.

00:09:13.920 On another big issue that people are focused on, immigration.

00:09:17.580 Assuming that you want to put an end to illegal immigration, which most reasonable people do, what do you do about the people already here? 1.00

00:09:25.640 Do you put them on a path to citizenship?

00:09:27.380 Do you not put them on a path to citizenship?

00:09:29.520 And furthermore, when it comes to legal immigration, do you restrict it?

00:09:34.060 Do you expand it?

00:09:35.160 Or do you keep it about the same?

00:09:36.620 So I am the daughter of legal immigrants.

00:09:39.360 They came here.

00:09:40.180 They put in the time.

00:09:41.040 They put in the price.

00:09:41.960 They are offended by what's happening on the border.

00:09:44.360 The very first thing is we have to secure the border.

00:09:46.880 We have to stop catch and release.

00:09:48.920 We have to go back to remain in Mexico. 0.61

00:09:50.900 But more than that, we have to understand we're a country of laws.

00:09:54.800 The second you stop being a country of laws, you give up everything this country was founded on.

00:09:59.200 And we right now are watching Biden give more money to illegal immigrants than we're seeing given to citizens these days.

00:10:05.500 So I think we have to acknowledge that we have an immigration problem. 0.62

00:10:08.380 When it comes to immigration reform and DACA, everybody's quick to want to talk about DACA.

00:10:14.020 We don't talk about DACA until they do immigration reform.

00:10:17.300 Congress loves to complain about it.

00:10:19.080 They need to get in a room and do it.

00:10:20.720 And it's time for a change.

00:10:22.060 We need more processors.

00:10:23.620 We need to look at who's coming in.

00:10:25.120 But more than that, we should look at what will make our country better.

00:10:29.100 Do it on merit.

00:10:30.500 Do it based on the talent we need, not just bringing people in.

00:10:34.380 And do what I did in South Carolina across the country.

00:10:37.120 We passed an Arizona-style e-verify program that said no business could hire anyone that was in this country illegally. 0.99

00:10:44.980 They all left South Carolina because they couldn't get a job.

00:10:47.500 Let's have them all leave America because they can't get a job. 1.00

00:10:50.540 We've got to start making sure that we focus on the Americans that live here and not the illegals that are coming in, 1.00

00:10:57.380 feeding off the hospitals, feeding off our schools, feeding off the economy, and giving law enforcement more issues.

00:11:02.840 So we have to do that.

00:11:04.240 But we do have to have immigration reform.

00:11:06.240 But I think it should absolutely be on merit.

00:11:08.160 Now, what about legal immigration?

00:11:09.840 This is one area that a lot of people don't talk about.

00:11:13.080 According to whichever polls one looks at, a lot of Americans, including many Democrats,

00:11:17.860 want to reduce the number of legal immigrants who come into the country everywhere. 1.00

00:11:23.780 Would you touch that?

00:11:25.760 Would you say let's only focus on illegal immigration?

00:11:28.580 That's when you have to focus on your economy.

00:11:30.680 What I did in South Carolina is I knew what our manufacturers needed.

00:11:34.780 I knew what our small businesses needed.

00:11:36.220 I knew what our farmers needed.

00:11:37.880 Look and see what they have.

00:11:39.760 Look and see what Americans can fill.

00:11:42.680 Then you look at immigration.

00:11:44.740 You should only be bringing in what you need, not what you have.

00:11:48.100 I think the problem for too long has been they're looking at numbers.

00:11:51.120 Well, the numbers don't work.

00:11:53.060 Instead, do it on merit.

00:11:54.760 Do it based on what will make America better.

00:11:57.980 And look at the things that we're doing.

00:11:59.460 You've got kids that come in from overseas, we train them in our colleges, and then we turn around and send them home. 1.00

00:12:05.380 Why are we doing that?

00:12:06.660 Just focus on educating the ones you need and then keep them if that's the talent that you have to have.

00:12:11.680 Rather than looking at a firm number, just say, okay, what do the companies need to fill the jobs?

00:12:16.580 And we're not going to bring in more than we need to fill those jobs.

00:12:19.800 No, because there are times where if we've got plenty, then you can slow that down.

00:12:23.840 If there's times that manufacturers say, we need this talent, we need this skill, you can pick it back up.

00:12:28.960 Now, among the presidential field, one expects lots of governors, and you've been a governor.

00:12:34.100 One expects lots of senators.

00:12:36.260 Very few people in the presidential field will have foreign policy experience.

00:12:40.120 You do happen to have foreign policy experience.

00:12:42.240 Tomorrow, China invades Taiwan.

00:12:46.380 What does President Haley do?

00:12:47.900 Well, if we're smart, China doesn't invade Taiwan because we have to focus on how we're handling Ukraine.

00:12:53.880 It's a big issue.

00:12:55.560 You know, many people think this is about Ukraine.

00:12:57.580 It's bigger than Ukraine. 0.91

00:12:58.820 It's about freedom.

00:13:00.100 And that's a war we have to win.

00:13:02.260 We don't have to put more money in it.

00:13:04.440 We don't have to put troops on the ground.

00:13:06.140 But we do need to get with our allies and send equipment and ammunition that they need to win.

00:13:11.180 If Biden would have done this sooner, if you look back, this actually was with Obama.

00:13:15.740 When he went into Crimea, he didn't do anything.

00:13:18.540 It gave Putin the green light to say they don't have the will to do this.

00:13:23.240 Then they go and invade Ukraine, and Biden was slow to the take.

00:13:26.420 If we would have been strong and firm in the beginning, it would have made a big difference.

00:13:29.940 But look at what the Ukrainians did. 1.00

00:13:31.760 Here, these men went to the front lines to fight for their freedom and their country.

00:13:37.240 They put their women and children off to the side. 0.89

00:13:39.420 The women said, no, that's not going to happen. 0.99

00:13:41.240 They made Molotov cocktails.

00:13:43.100 And they have gone when they gave them five days to save their country.

00:13:47.320 Look at them now.

00:13:48.320 They are gaining ground back.

00:13:50.000 And you know how far Putin has fallen when they're getting drones from Iran and missiles from North Korea.

00:13:55.280 They've raised the draft age to 65.

00:13:57.680 They've lost thousands of soldiers.

00:13:59.500 So Putin knows that there's not a place to go.

00:14:02.380 But the lesson in all of this is when a dictator says they're going to do something, we need to believe it.

00:14:07.900 President Xi said he was going to take Hong Kong.

00:14:09.880 We watched it.

00:14:10.880 Putin said he was going to take Ukraine.

00:14:12.520 He's done that.

00:14:13.580 Xi has said Taiwan is next.

00:14:15.040 We better believe him.

00:14:16.320 Putin has said Poland and the Baltics are next.

00:14:18.500 If Ukraine loses and Russia moves in, we're looking at a full-on world war. 0.72

00:14:24.500 We're trying to prevent war at this point.

00:14:26.720 We've got to prevent war. 0.93

00:14:28.260 We don't want China moving into Taiwan.

00:14:30.580 So the best thing is make sure Taiwan is strong.

00:14:33.280 Make sure we're strong with Ukraine and we finish this. 0.99

00:14:36.360 And then we'll tell every enemy not to go further.

00:14:39.500 If Ukraine loses, then we're in a world of hurt.

00:14:41.780 And very often these problems compound on themselves.

00:14:45.020 Vladimir Zelensky agreed with everything you just said.

00:14:47.760 He said had Joe Biden not taken the sanctions off of Russia, Russia would not have invaded.

00:14:54.280 Had Joe Biden not actually said if Russia takes on a minor incursion into Ukraine, we won't do very much, Russia very likely would not have invaded.

00:15:03.440 So you see that weakness from the previous administration creating problems for whoever the next president is.

00:15:08.940 But let's also remember, Russia never would have invaded if we wouldn't have had the debacle in Afghanistan. 0.87

00:15:14.040 Right.

00:15:14.380 The idea that we left Bagram Air Force Base in the middle of the night without telling our allies who stood shoulder to shoulder with us for decades because we asked them to be there.

00:15:23.560 Think about what that told our friends.

00:15:25.700 More importantly, think about what that told Putin and Xi.

00:15:28.420 Right.

00:15:29.000 They knew they'd never see another weak president like this.

00:15:31.500 But what if, well, this very likely would be the case, you inherit an America which had this debacle in Afghanistan, which is projecting weakness around the world, which has fumbled the Ukraine war from before it was a war.

00:15:44.860 And so you get in there, through no fault of your own, America's looking very, very weak.

00:15:50.900 And Chairman Xi, to whatever degree he wants, is aggressing into Taiwan.

00:15:58.620 How do you deter further aggression?

00:16:01.000 So, first, a strong military doesn't start wars.

00:16:03.980 A strong military prevents wars.

00:16:05.820 We have to strengthen our military.

00:16:07.560 We've got to modernize it.

00:16:08.900 We've got to let China know we're on to them. 1.00

00:16:11.340 Look at how they have the largest naval fleet in the world.

00:16:14.080 They have more air defense systems, we do.

00:16:16.040 And they're modernizing their military.

00:16:17.920 They're stealing our intellectual property.

00:16:19.740 No one is doing anything about it.

00:16:21.740 They're committing genocide.

00:16:23.500 Everybody's silent because they're too scared to deal with China. 0.99

00:16:26.080 But President Xi started a commission that said any company that does business in China has to cooperate with the Chinese military.

00:16:33.740 Think about our tech companies.

00:16:35.360 Think about our financial data.

00:16:37.060 Think about our health care data.

00:16:38.380 Think about our kids' lifestyle data.

00:16:40.020 And know that the Chinese military has it.

00:16:42.560 But what is America doing?

00:16:43.780 We're not strengthening our military.

00:16:45.840 Instead, we're making them take gender pronoun classes. 0.68

00:16:48.300 I know that.

00:16:48.860 My husband's a combat veteran.

00:16:50.540 We're not doing anything about the intellectual property.

00:16:53.580 We should go tell our universities, you either take Chinese money or you take American money.

00:16:57.360 You don't get both.

00:16:58.420 And make them decide.

00:16:59.700 We should not be allowing China to buy 380,000 acres of American soil that we know they're buying next to military installations. 0.79

00:17:09.260 Recently at Grand Forks Air Force Base, that's where our most sensitive drone technology is.

00:17:14.500 It's ludicrous to do that.

00:17:16.300 We have yet to hold them accountable for COVID, which think they closed their borders to people coming in and they opened their borders to people going out.

00:17:24.040 And of all the drug issues we have, who's saying anything to China about the fact that the fentanyl is coming from them and they know exactly what they're doing? 0.61

00:17:32.120 So when we do that and when we start to be strong, it makes a difference.

00:17:36.380 But we are giving $46 billion in aid to countries and most of them hate us.

00:17:43.820 Why are we giving money to China for the environment?

00:17:46.500 Why are we giving money to Pakistan?

00:17:48.200 Why are we giving money to communist Cuba?

00:17:50.860 Why are we giving money to Zimbabwe, the most anti-American African country there is?

00:17:54.900 We have to stop giving money to countries that hate America.

00:17:57.840 And when we start to say this is different, we're going to be strong, we'll have the backs of our allies, and for those that even try and mess with us, we're going to take names.

00:18:07.440 That's when life changes.

00:18:09.220 That's when we have to tell those countries what we expect of them instead of being reactionary.

00:18:13.760 It's very interesting you say that because you have a reputation, whether this is deserved or not, as more interventionist when it comes to foreign policy.

00:18:22.440 And here you are talking about cutting foreign policy.

00:18:23.660 I'm the wife of a military wife.

00:18:26.500 Do you think I want my husband to go to war?

00:18:28.320 It's the total opposite.

00:18:30.180 What I want is our military to be so strong nobody wants to touch it.

00:18:33.660 And that's where we have to go.

00:18:35.920 Everything we do should always be about preventing war.

00:18:38.860 We should never—but you don't prevent war by cowering.

00:18:43.120 You don't prevent war by looking weak.

00:18:45.440 You don't prevent war by being scared of the enemy.

00:18:48.300 You prevent war by being strong and letting them know what you expect, and you tell them not to doubt you.

00:18:53.260 That's what we did at the United Nations.

00:18:55.400 I told countries what America was for and what America was against.

00:18:58.860 I didn't care if they didn't like me, but I wanted them to respect America.

00:19:02.300 That's what we have to do.

00:19:03.320 Well, speaking of China and speaking of the best defense sometimes being a good offense, 0.98

00:19:08.840 which sounds like what you're describing, when it comes to trade,

00:19:12.380 there's been a big shift in the way that Republicans have talked about trade.

00:19:16.040 For the early part of the Republican Party, it was a more protectionist party.

00:19:20.400 In fact, it was founded in many ways on tariffs.

00:19:22.800 For much of recent Republican history, it's been the free trade party.

00:19:27.060 And you saw that especially during the Reagan era and after the Reagan era.

00:19:30.200 Recently, it's turned back a little bit more toward a protectionist party, or I'm just not quite sure.

00:19:36.720 It's in flux.

00:19:37.720 So, President Haley, looking at trade, does she make trade freer, more protectionist, or about the same?

00:19:47.000 You look at national security first.

00:19:49.600 When COVID came, they told us to put on masks.

00:19:52.680 They were made in China.

00:19:53.580 They told us to take COVID tests.

00:19:55.120 They were made in China.

00:19:56.060 If you go and get your medicines, guess what?

00:19:57.720 They're made in China.

00:19:58.980 We have to go and start looking at our national security.

00:20:01.780 I don't care if Americans buy T-shirts and light bulbs from China any more than I care if China buys agricultural products from our farmers.

00:20:09.020 But I don't want us to be dependent on an enemy for things that Americans need for security.

00:20:14.400 That's the lens you want to look at.

00:20:17.000 Yes, of course we want free trade.

00:20:18.620 But when it comes to an enemy, don't ever be dependent on anyone else.

00:20:23.240 And that's why we need to build more things in America.

00:20:25.480 And what we can't build in America, go to our allies, go to India, go to Australia, go to Japan, go to Israel.

00:20:31.800 Those are the ones we need to be going to.

00:20:33.700 We shouldn't be dependent on China.

00:20:35.340 So, yes, you want free trade, but national security comes above all else.

00:20:39.680 It's about protecting Americans and making sure you're doing things that are smart.

00:20:43.760 And we haven't done things that were smart in a long time when it comes to our foreign adversaries.

00:20:48.220 In order to encourage manufacturing in America, would you do that through, say, protective tariffs?

00:20:54.300 Would you do that through deregulation to encourage companies through the market to come back to America or some combination?

00:21:02.120 I would do what I did in South Carolina.

00:21:04.040 We had double-digit unemployment.

00:21:05.600 All our jobs had gone to were in textiles, and they all went overseas, and we didn't have anything.

00:21:11.020 And so I started recruiting foreign direct investment because I wanted to make things in America again.

00:21:16.380 We went to all of our agencies, and we said, if you're costing a person or a business time, you're costing them money, and that's no longer acceptable.

00:21:23.140 We pulled back regulations.

00:21:24.740 We made sure that things were free-flowing.

00:21:26.540 We cut all the red tape.

00:21:27.980 By the time I left, we were building planes with Boeing, more BMWs than any place in the world.

00:21:32.720 We brought in Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, five international tire companies, and they were referring to us as the beast of the southeast.

00:21:39.360 And we had the lowest unemployment we had had in 15 years.

00:21:42.900 The key was we didn't just bring the companies.

00:21:45.520 We retrained South Carolinians to do those jobs.

00:21:48.700 We made sure that it was helping the people that I was serving first.

00:21:53.200 And I think that's what we have to look at when we look at America.

00:21:55.980 You want business.

00:21:57.340 We want to be able to build things.

00:21:58.860 We want to be able to have trade.

00:22:00.540 But do trade with friends.

00:22:01.900 Don't do trade with enemies.

00:22:03.580 And that's the biggest.

00:22:04.420 Look at the Europeans. 1.00

00:22:05.320 They learned that the hard way.

00:22:07.280 Speaking of protecting Americans, on the social front, beyond the economic questions, even beyond national security, the social fabric has frayed.

00:22:17.680 You're seeing marriage rates plummet to all-time lows.

00:22:20.620 You're seeing birth rates plummet to all-time lows.

00:22:23.660 You're seeing abortion continue to remain high even after the Dobbs decision.

00:22:28.580 The family is in trouble.

00:22:30.460 What would the Haley administration do to help to restore the American family?

00:22:36.800 Stop paying them to not get married.

00:22:40.060 I mean, people right now, you get more money if you're single.

00:22:42.840 So you'll see two singles and they'll have a baby. 1.00

00:22:44.920 But on their taxes and in terms of getting aid, it's better off for them not to get married.

00:22:50.580 We need to reward the family unit.

00:22:53.000 So first of all, get all the bureaucrats out of education and quit trying to teach anything to our kids because parents need to decide it. 0.94

00:23:00.760 You know, I look at, honestly, the critical race theory that they did.

00:23:04.860 Think about it.

00:23:05.380 If a five-year-old girl goes into school, if she's white, you're telling her she's bad. 0.95

00:23:09.160 If she's brown or black, you're telling her she's never going to be good enough and she's always going to be a victim. 1.00

00:23:13.720 Sort of a lose-lose. 0.76

00:23:14.960 It's terrible.

00:23:15.680 And then you've got the don't say gay bill that everybody was up in arms about.

00:23:19.600 And basically it said don't talk about gender before third grade.

00:23:23.000 I don't think that went far enough.

00:23:24.520 When I was in school, you didn't have sex ed until seventh grade.

00:23:28.200 And even then you had to have your parents sign a permission slip and my dad wouldn't sign it.

00:23:32.380 So I was the uncool kid in the classroom next door.

00:23:34.700 Great dad.

00:23:35.220 That's stuff that needs to be handled at home.

00:23:38.060 We need to go back to faith, family, and community and allow those things to happen.

00:23:42.440 We need to go back to every school saying the Pledge of Allegiance and remembering what it means to be patriotic.

00:23:48.000 We need to allow all the things that government wants to be involved in,

00:23:52.180 we need to remember that government was intended to secure the rights and freedoms of the people.

00:23:56.380 It was never meant to be all things to all people.

00:23:58.580 When we pull that out of the lives of people and allow them to be free,

00:24:02.840 and when we reward a family unit, that's when good things happen.

00:24:07.580 You know, I think we, and you also have to look at those that have challenges.

00:24:10.860 When I was in South Carolina, we had so many people on welfare.

00:24:14.420 And what I did was I went to the businesses that needed workers.

00:24:19.260 And I said, I will give you this person.

00:24:21.220 I will pay for them for X weeks if you train them.

00:24:24.660 And at the end of that, you decide whether you want to keep them.

00:24:27.860 We moved over 20,000 people off of welfare to work.

00:24:31.440 Because when those people saw what it meant to have a job, when they felt that dignity,

00:24:36.200 when they felt that responsibility, and when the business owner trained them and put the time and effort,

00:24:41.520 it was a win-win.

00:24:42.980 We've got to start doing more things like that.

00:24:45.280 That's hugely important.

00:24:46.360 So you're saying even before thinking about things that the government can do proactively to encourage families,

00:24:55.080 first, stop the bleeding.

00:24:56.360 Stop doing things that are discouraging.

00:24:57.700 I don't want government involved in our families.

00:25:00.560 I think that's the problem is you've got government in schools trying to teach kids about what a family should be.

00:25:06.100 You've got government welfare going to people telling them they shouldn't get married.

00:25:10.700 You've got things like that that are making people more dependent on government.

00:25:13.700 I actually want less of that.

00:25:15.760 That's when we pull government back.

00:25:17.500 I think we could start to heal the family unit and start to go back to community and family and churches,

00:25:23.100 and that's where it should be.

00:25:25.140 One threat to the family would be the criminals that are marauding all over the streets.

00:25:29.960 There are some people in the country who say that we have an over-incarceration problem,

00:25:34.260 and we need to actually arrest fewer criminals and get rid of certain prisons.

00:25:39.040 Others look around.

00:25:39.880 They say murder rates have spiked to recent highs in cities around the country.

00:25:45.880 Actually, maybe we have an under-incarceration problem because there are so many criminals out there.

00:25:51.480 What does the Haley administration and the Haley Justice Department do about crime?

00:25:57.140 You go deeper than that.

00:25:59.020 And again, it's what I did as governor of South Carolina.

00:26:02.400 We went, first of all, law and order matters.

00:26:04.820 You need to have the backs of police, and they have to enforce laws,

00:26:07.900 and district attorneys have to prosecute them.

00:26:10.060 So we need to make sure that we're doing that.

00:26:11.960 But the second thing is I took time to go into our prisons and figure out how they were getting in there

00:26:17.120 and what was happening when they got out.

00:26:19.100 We went, we started teaching them financial planning.

00:26:21.940 We taught them family planning.

00:26:23.740 We offered them faith-based classes if they wanted them.

00:26:27.400 And then I took equipment from our businesses, put it behind the fence.

00:26:31.400 We trained our inmates so that now in South Carolina, when someone leaves the fence,

00:26:35.520 they've got a job to go to the next day.

00:26:37.140 We have the lowest recidivism rate in the country now.

00:26:40.540 We did that by making sure they never go back in.

00:26:44.300 So enforce the laws.

00:26:45.880 Let the police do their jobs.

00:26:47.720 Give them the penalties. 0.84

00:26:48.740 They get a punishment.

00:26:49.660 You do the crime.

00:26:50.480 You've got to pay the time.

00:26:52.000 But let's train them on something else so that when they leave,

00:26:55.740 the first thing is not to go out there and sell drugs again,

00:26:58.680 not to go out there and commit another crime.

00:27:00.360 Let's actually give them a job so that they can get to work 0.95

00:27:03.200 and start rehabilitating who they are themselves.

00:27:05.680 Final question.

00:27:08.500 Patriotism is at what would seem to me an all-time low.

00:27:11.900 And not just on the left.

00:27:13.240 The left for a long time has been unpatriotic, I think,

00:27:16.440 and has said that the country is evil and oppressive and has a terrible history

00:27:20.620 and we shouldn't like it.

00:27:21.320 Many on the right now are beginning to believe that America is a woke empire,

00:27:28.700 that we're spreading all sorts of crazy values and transgenderism and whatever all around the world 1.00

00:27:34.380 and that we've lost our way.

00:27:36.100 And it's very difficult, even for a conservative who used to bleed red, white, and blue,

00:27:40.660 to feel pride and satisfaction in the country right now.

00:27:44.680 How would President Haley restore patriotic love of country on both the left and the right?

00:27:51.500 And that's why I'm doing this.

00:27:53.440 That is why I'm doing this.

00:27:54.520 Because when my parents came here,

00:27:56.500 they came to a country that was confident and growing and bright and full of opportunities.

00:28:01.440 And now I look at a country that's covered in national self-loathing,

00:28:05.380 where people are saying we're bad or we're woke or we're racist or all these other things.

00:28:10.140 We have to go back and restore patriotism.

00:28:12.880 We have to go back and have love of country.

00:28:15.200 And our kids need to know that America deserves their love.

00:28:19.000 And when we go and do that again, that's when I think we'll get back on track.

00:28:22.940 You have to have kids saying the Pledge of Allegiance in school every day.

00:28:25.880 We have to go remind people that every individual needs to bring back the spirit of what our national purpose is.

00:28:32.760 And you look as a military wife, I can tell you, like you see that sacrifice

00:28:37.500 and you see the courage that our military men and women go to defend it.

00:28:41.120 We have to go back and understand we're the best country in the world.

00:28:45.340 We're the freest country in the world.

00:28:47.140 But we won't always be like that if we don't love her,

00:28:50.020 if we don't really put in the time to get her back to where she needs to be.

00:28:53.660 We look so distracted right now, Michael.

00:28:56.400 And when America's distracted, the world is less safe.

00:29:00.020 When we start to focus again on getting people to work, fixing our economy,

00:29:05.820 teaching our kids the right education we need to be teaching them,

00:29:09.340 and start being strong again on the world stage, that patriotism will come in.

00:29:14.620 But you have to bring out the best of people.

00:29:16.900 That's what's been lacking.

00:29:18.460 We're not bringing out the best of people.

00:29:20.160 We're bringing out the worst in people.

00:29:21.600 We have to go back to remind them love of country.

00:29:24.780 And that happens when they see production, when they see people moving,

00:29:27.940 when they see people working, and when they see people living with a good quality of life again.

00:29:32.040 I really like that word distracted.

00:29:34.380 It's a really precise way to describe what's going on.

00:29:37.440 In fact, I've heard sin described as not just the rejection of God and evil in itself,

00:29:42.960 but it's just a distraction.

00:29:45.560 It's a total distraction.

00:29:46.420 So, one issue that has crept up is what religion has to do with all of this.

00:29:52.980 You know, John Adams says the country is built for a moral and religious people,

00:29:55.540 and it's not fit for anybody else.

00:29:56.980 Religion has completely declined in the country.

00:29:59.900 People don't really know what they believe at all anymore.

00:30:02.840 You mentioned the spirit of America.

00:30:05.980 What's the spirit look like?

00:30:07.060 I mean, the spirit of America is built on faith, family, and community.

00:30:11.240 That's always been the spirit of America.

00:30:13.560 And so, you know, I think they say that less people are going to church than ever before.

00:30:19.080 If you combine all of these things, it all adds up.

00:30:22.760 You know, we've got to go back to where, yes, we see each other as neighbors.

00:30:26.900 We understand we're one American family.

00:30:29.500 We want our children to live better lives than we live.

00:30:32.620 We've got to go back to what the men and women who sacrificed their lives fought for.

00:30:37.960 They fought for that.

00:30:39.260 They fought for us to have an America that was patriotic and loved country

00:30:43.980 and didn't fall into socialism and didn't fall into national self-loathing.

00:30:47.980 We owe it to them to go back and find our purpose in America.

00:30:52.720 And I think that's hugely important.

00:30:54.480 And I think what we're seeing is with all these distractions,

00:30:57.300 people are finding reasons to hate each other.

00:30:59.160 But what we have to remember, too, is Republicans have lost the last seven out of eight popular votes for president.

00:31:07.240 We have to look in the mirror and mean that we're doing something wrong.

00:31:10.760 We should want to win a majority of Americans because our policies are right.

00:31:14.620 Our solutions are right.

00:31:15.680 We focus on lifting up everybody, not just a select few.

00:31:19.100 But look at how we've been acting.

00:31:21.100 We lost the midterms.

00:31:22.740 We didn't lose it because of one person.

00:31:24.380 We lost it because when you had independents and those that weren't sure where they wanted to vote,

00:31:29.280 they saw Republicans hitting each other and hitting Democrats.

00:31:32.320 They didn't want to be part of that chaos.

00:31:34.760 Let's remind them that Republicans are patriotic.

00:31:38.300 We're freedom-loving people that believe in that our best days are ahead of us.

00:31:43.360 But we have to get back to that.

00:31:44.940 And we should do it by addition.

00:31:47.300 We need Hispanics. 1.00

00:31:48.480 We need the Jewish community.

00:31:49.720 We need Asians. 0.94

00:31:50.900 We need African-Americans.

00:31:52.040 We need women. 1.00

00:31:52.740 Women, I know we can do it because I did it in South Carolina. 1.00

00:31:55.840 You don't go to them by saying, you should be with us.

00:31:58.600 You go to them by saying, what do you care about?

00:32:01.040 And guess what?

00:32:01.820 They all care about their kids' education.

00:32:03.860 They all want school choice because they want to be able, as parents,

00:32:06.500 to be able to decide where to send their kids to school.

00:32:08.780 They all care about making sure their kids have opportunities they didn't have.

00:32:12.740 They all want a safe America that's strong abroad.

00:32:15.840 When you have those conversations and you communicate it that way, people will come.

00:32:20.520 If you're tired of losing, that's why I'm telling Americans to stand with me.

00:32:25.980 America deserves better.

00:32:27.540 Families deserve better than how we're living today. 1.00

00:32:30.440 I don't want my children to grow up like this.

00:32:32.860 I mean, I see my daughter and how hard it is for her and her fiancé to buy a home.

00:32:36.540 I see my son having to go and take tests and write things that he doesn't believe in just to get an A.

00:32:42.320 Right.

00:32:42.700 I don't want that for my children, but I don't want that for anybody's children.

00:32:46.760 And I think we owe it to everybody to all invest and say, we're going to be part of the solution.

00:32:51.180 We're not going to whine and complain about it anymore.

00:32:54.160 Ambassador Haley, thank you for making the time.

00:32:56.460 This was fun.

00:32:56.760 Thank you.

00:32:57.100 We'll see you out on the campaign trail.

00:32:58.220 Thank you.

00:32:58.620 I appreciate it.

00:32:59.240 We'll see you out on the campaign trail.

The Michael Knowles Show - March 11, 2023

Nikki Haley： The Path To The Presidency with Michael Knowles

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