that have millions of hours of operation. so there's a fair amount of comfort around the design and everything that we are seeing is confirming that. so it really takes us to production, manufacturing, maintenance, those types of issues, and ensuring that the pieces are where they need to be and all the bolts are in place. >> the faa now has inspectors on site of the boeing plant in washington. the goal, increase the scrutiny on where production problems might be occurring. the faa also now has a sampling of data from about a quarter of the max-9s in the u.s. and looking at measurements to issue ungrounding orders for those planes. he told me the faa is not going to let that plane back in the air until they're convinced this issue is taken care of. by the way, boeing doing a safety stand down starting tomorrow. it is a one-day pause, where workers will break off into work groups and sessions on quality and the quote from the boeing head of commercial planes, stan

deal, says they'll pause, evaluate what they're doing, and look at recommendations for improvement. this is something the military typically does after it deals with a plane crash. poppy? >> a big deal to stop production across that whole factory, to really focus on quality. and we'll see if they keep doing it throughout. they might, pete. thank you for that reporting and important interview with the head of faa. cnn this morning continues now. if you win both, they've never had a loser. we're not going to be the first, i can tell you. >> donald trump will win the republican primary in new hampshire. >> the republican party has proven by and large that they are ready to come home to donald trump. >> this is the moment that the biden campaign is fully making that pivot to the general election. >> i don't get too angry, i get even. >> that speech showed just how much -- >> well, i'm a fighter and i'm scrappy, and now we're the last ones standing next to donald trump. >> it was a great speech, but it may be her last one. >> i don't see the path and the

math. >> the pressure and momentum is built to support donald trump. >> it's south carolina and beyond from the official standpoint of the campaign. >> she's going home to fight, not to retreat. but of course, they're always going forward, until they're not. well, good wednesday morning, everyone. i'm phil mattingly with poppy harlow in new york. donald trump scoring a decisive victory over nikki haley in new hampshire as he continues his path towards the gop presidential nomination. now, after haley's loss, she's refusing to quit, vowing to stay in the race for next's month's primary in her home state of south carolina, where polls do show her trailing trump. >> this race is far from over. there are dozens of states left to go. the first party to retire its 80-year-old candidate is going to be party that wins this election. >> as for trump's part in his

victory speech, he lashed out at haley for not bowing out, like his other opponents. watch this. >> who the hell was the imposter that went up on the stage before and, like, claimed a victory. she did very poorly, actually. just a little note to nikki. she's not going to win. she's not going to win. when i watched her in her fancy dress, that probably wasn't so fancy, come up, i said, what's she doing? we won. >> such a long way from that unifying speech in iowa, all of a week ago. so, here's the reality on the ground right now. when you start to take stock of what happened in hucnew hampshi last night. donald trump can have an absolute hammer lock on the republican party and very clearly be heading towards locking up the republican nomination, and last night also underscored nikki haley's theory of the case for her race and had clear warning signs for trump in a general election. let me show you what i mean. last night, donald trump, 54.6%, an 11-point victory over nikki

haley. that's a sizable amount in the state of new hampshire. let's track back to 2016 where trump was. trump at 35%, winning by nearly 20 points. so what happened that was different? well, take a look at one candidate in particular in '16. that's john kasich, where you see the pink here, all the red is pink. the pink is john kasich. he ran a similar theoretical campaign that haley was running, trying to run up the numbers in the suburbs, higher income folks, and higher education folks. haley also focusing on those undeclared voters, the independents, nearly 350,000 voters that weren't republican or democrat, but could choose to vote republican, much like what kasich was trying to do. what happened last night? this is where the map is. you'll see a lot more yellow than there was pink. haley picking up a number of townships and cities that kasich was unable to. now, trump still winning by a sizable margin, but when you think about haley's theory of the case, it shows that it was in large part accurate. take a look at the township of

bedford. back in 2016, trump won this by 12 points over john kasich. this demographically, socioeconomically is exactly what haley was looking for. highly educated, high income. this is the suburbs, this is where she wanted to win. this is where she did win, flipping trump's lead by a significant amount, winning by almost 10 points. the reality when you look across the state, ten points wasn't enough. we saw it over and over again, whether in concord, whether in some of the suburbs, whether in some democratic strongholds, haley running up numbers, flipping townships and flipping cities, but not flipping them by enough. and here's why. when you look at the ideological breakdown when it came to last night, this is the number that mae matters more than anything else. haley rolled up big numbers with those indeclared and independents with 60%. if she wanted to win the state, she needed to be to 75 to 80%. still, clear warning signs, because those suburban voters and higher-income voters, women

voter, those with higher education levels, all an achilles heel for donald trump and would be in a general election as well. >> nikki haley is warning republicans against nominating trump. she says that's exactly what the democrats want. listen. >> the worst-kept secret in politics is how badly the democrats want to run against donald trump. >> trump's a loser! >> they know trump is the only republican in the country who joe biden can defeat. a trump nomination is a biden win and a kamala harris presi presidency. >> with us this morning, republican strategist and pollster, special assistant to president george w. bush, scott jennings, kate bedingfield, and former special adviser to president obama, van jones. rana mcdaniel keeps saying the path and the math is not there

for nikki haley. she didn't say drop out, but she said, you know, drop out. you said that might be her last speech last night. do you think that? >> it could be her last speech as a candidate. it's a tough assignment that she's got now, because she's got to go to her home state, where she's not doing very well, in four weeks. what's going to happen is every day between now and then, every republican in the country from dog catcher all the way up will be signing up on the trump train, the trump train, the trump train. it's a very long, slow march to probably another defeat in south carolina, at some point, it's not just your donors that start backing away, your volunteers start backing away. >> is there an "unless" there, unless she does what? >> i think that it's for her, i don't see a big "unless." it's tough, it's tough. i tell you what, people, saying all this time, i wish a republican would stand up to donald trump. i wish that people wouldn't just bow down and kiss the ring. there's one person in this

country that's standing between donald trump and this nomination. it's nikki haley. she's not bowing down and kissing the ring and people should be proud of her. >> that's the main argument for her staying in. it is not that she is a viable contender to defeat donald trump in a head-to-head contest for the republican nomination. it is to continue to give that 30 to 40% of the matter that says, no, thois is not the direction we want to go a continuing voice. when we ask republican voters if they're tuned in or not, many of them say, it's too early. well, bad news for them. it may be too late for them at this point. but if you want to give your party a chance to say, hey, we're not all on the trump train, that's why you stay in. but this is a -- that's -- that's a tough reason to ask your donors to keep funding this effort. and that's why i -- i wouldn't be surprised if she doesn't stay in all the way to south carolina. >> and by the way, the donors

have been funding this effort. super pacs supporting nikki haley have surpassed $100 million in spending to try to take out donald trump. and now she's lost two states. >> you know some of those folks. are they going to keep giving her money? >> i mean, these people don't get rich by being stupid. you know, at some point, you ask yourself, am i throwing good money after bad? also, some of these people are transactional. am i going to keep funding somebody and keep enraginge ing donald trump here? these are the difficult conversations. and it's tough -- vance, it's tough on an election night to say, okay, fine, i'm done. but once the realities of things begin to seep in, the truth is, republicans decide who the republican party will nominate. she is not as popular among the republicans as trump is, and absent an external or supernatural intervention that comes between now and some other state, it's not going to change. and this is the most fertile ground she was ever going to

get. and she came up short. they gave it a valiant effort. she made all the arguments that everybody on these panels have been making for years, and the republicans chose otherwise. >> i respect you giving credit to the political acumen of donors, which is a little less all in on that one based on my conversations over the last ten years. if there's one thing rana mcdaniel and joe biden agree on, it's that donald trump is the presumptive nominee at this point. is that what the biden campaign wants? >> yes, absolutely. >> why? >> because the sooner they move to a general election posture, the sooner this becomes a concrete choice between donald trump with all of his vulnerables, that, you know, some of which you were discussing earlier. he has a clear -- he has clear vulnerabilities in the general election. he has a ceiling, he has issues with moderate voters, with suburban women. we saw that on display in the vote totals last night. you know, he has -- he's going to have trouble reassembling a coalition that got him elected in 2016. so for biden, the sooner he can make this about the reality of

donald trump not as an abstract, but as a candidate, as somebody who is constantly hurling, you know, personal invective, who's constantly making the race about retribution, you know, that is a good contrast for biden. and the sooner that they make that head-to-head, the better it is for joe biden. >> so if we do fast forward there, and nikki haley is very much still in this race, but if it is a head-to-head trump and biden, we saw the vice president on the trail so much more just in the last week. you saw our interview with laura coates here, on the message of abortion, protecting those rights, trying to regain those rights, abortion, abortion, abortion. he has a lot of ground to make up when it comes to black voters and also voters that supported him who don't now, because of his consistent support for netanyahu in israel. two big challenges, no? >> yeah, there are two people standing in between donald trump and the white house. one is nikki haley. the other is joe biden. both right now don't look at

strong as you want them to. both right now look like they've got some big problems. i think in our party, you have a big disaffection wave going on with our younger voters, who are going to be your volunteers, who are going to be out there working for you ordinarily. in 1968, the democratic party had a president who had his hands on a war that the images were shocking the nation, vietnam. and our convention of '68 was a disaster. and nixon won. we have a very unpopular war right now. the images there are shocking a generation. and the same thing could happen again. so joe biden has a bunch of challenges, but you know, as you just heard, trump doesn't have an easy path, either. you have two radically unpopular and weak nominees, look like, for both parties, but i think people should be proud of nikki haley. i like for her to stay as long as possible. and we have to start working on our party to get us ready for a real fight. >> and i think the biden campaign knows that they have weaknesses with young voters. that they have work to do with voters of color. they spent a lot of 2023 laying

down the infrastructure to try to put together a campaign that's going to reach out to those communities. this is why we run the race. and i think the biden campaign recognizes that they have work. >> can you talk about what they're going to do on that front. they'll point to polling that shows his strength among older black voters, but it's not there among young black voters. >> some of the thing he's going to do is talk about what he's done that impacts young people. that's on his economic agenda, on issues like climate. across the board, student debt. there are issues that have impact with young voters, including voters of color, that, you know, the campaign can do a lot to reach out, they can run paid advertising, they can put together an infrastructure that lets them talk to those communities. but i also think, don't forget, the contrast is a big part of this. a big part of this is saying donald trump is -- poses a threat to your ability to build a good future for yourself, and here's what that looks like.

>> joe biden's weakness has been donald trump's best friend throughout this primary process. because as you heard, in haley's speech last night saying, look, we didn't get the across the finish line here in new hampshire, but we'll keep going. she said, look, you need me to stay in, because if we pick donald trump, disaster looms. and there's a lot of data that suggests she's right, but not enough data. because republicans can look at joe biden and go, there's no way america is going to elect this guy again, right? and so it undercuts the core of haley's argument all along and has made it hard for anyone but trump to get traction. >> real quick? >> republicans want this delicious moment where they see donald trump beating joe biden on election night. two quick things. it's the economy and whether donald trump gets convicted of a crime. if people feel better about the economy, biden goes up. if donald trump gets convicted, he loses a cohort of republicans. if he gets acquitted, look out! >> a note of university of michigan consumer sentiment

popping 13 apppoints. great points, all, thank you very much. president biden, as we discussed, making it clear that he believes that trump will be the gop nominee come november. how is the president's team gearing up for that general election against trump. maryland governor wes moore joins us next to discuss. >> also this breaking overnight, a russian military plane crashes near the ukraine border. russia and ukraine with conflicting claims about what happened, who was onboard. we have that breaking news reporting ahead.

president biden viewing last night's results as the unofficial start of the general election. he put out a statement saying, it's now clear donald trump will be the republican nominee. my message to the country is the stakes could not be higher. let's bring in a key supporter and surrogate for the biden campaign and the democratic governor of maryland, wes moore. governor, great to have you. it's clear what they're thinking and you look at the poll earlier this month from cbs that shows that nikki haley in a head-to-head political matchup

with the president bests him by eight points. would biden rather run against trump than nikki haley? would you rather see that? >> well, i think we saw, especially after last night, that nikki haley's not going to be the republican nominee. you know, you think about what happened last night, where the president wasn't even on the ballot. and ended up winning by over 50 points, via a write-in campaign. and, you know, nikki haley, spent the past few weeks campaigning heavily in new hampshire, in a state that actually gave independents the chance to be able to vote for her. end and ended up losing double digits to a person who didn't really campaign in new hampshire, because donald trump spent most of last week in a courtroom. i think the people of new hampshire saw what people around the country and what people in my state of maryland are seeing. that the policies of president biden, that they are working. that we have a president who is now driven historically low levels of unemployment here in

the state of maryland. we have the lowest unemployment rate in the entire country. since i've been governor, we've announced the creation of over 39,000 jobs. billions of dollars of infrastructure projects. and so, i think it's very clear that the nominees are going to be donald trump and against president biden and that's why i feel very good about president biden's re-election process. >> there are just some hills here for president biden to climb, if that is the case. his approval rating is really low. his rating on the economy is really low. his rating on dealing with the southern border is low. you know those are all facts from the polling. we've heard so much more just in the last week from this administration on the right to abortion. this was really interesting, i thought, from a key ally of the president, michigan governor gretchen whitmer about wanting to hear more from him. not everyone around him, but him on abortion. listen to this. >> joe biden has not talked about abortion much, in fact, he's said he's not big on it because of his faith.

does he need to talk about it more? >> i think it would be good, if he did. >> you think he needs to be the messenger on it? >> i don't think it would hurt. i think people need to know, this is a president who is fighting, and he has said that to use more blunt language, that would be helpful. >> do you also think that would be helpful? >> i agree with the governor, i also think that responsibility can't fall on him. this is an issue that all of us are dealing with, where we have watched decades of basic reproductive rights, basic health care, now being under assault. and you're seeing how states are taking leadership on it, here in our state, in my first months as g governor, we passed legislation that did things like increasing privacy and protections, making it illegal for someone to be prosecuted for getting an abortion in the state of maryland. and now in this election, in november, abortion rights are going to be on the ballot because we'll put it in the constitution in the state of

maryland. i think we want to see -- i think the president is speaking with a full throat -- >> would you like more from him? given how you've led on this, governor, in your state, do you want to hear more from the president on this? >> yeah. >> well, i think -- >> we know that we have the president as an ally in this. and our ability to be able to lead in our state the way that we have, abortion is health care. and we also know that we have a president who doesn't just speak on this, but also is providing all of the supports that we need on the state level to make that so. >> we were just talking with our panel here at the table about where the president is underperforming, particularly among african-american voters. underperforming by double digits compared to where he was in 2020 and you look "the new york times" polling, 26% of voterses said that they would support trump. that is a number for a republican presidential candidate front-runner that we haven't seen in 50 years. i wonder if you're worried about

that? >> as the only african-american governor in this country and only the third elected african-american in the history of this country, the thing that i know that the black community wants results, not rhetoric. we've watched the african-american employment rate drop to historic lows. we've watched the rate of black businesses started by black men has increased significantly. the child poverty rate, not just the black child piotroverty rats decreased significantly under president biden. under donald trump, we continue to hear him brag about how many indictments he has. >> i think that's why i'm wondering, governor, how you explain the numbers. particularly young black voters. 32% approval among young black voters, voters under 50. given what you just said, how do you explain that and how does this campaign turn that around? >> i think it's important for the campaign and important for

all of us as surrogates to make sure that the people understand the connection. i think about what's happening here in our state, right. where we have been very intentional and very deliberate, i want maryland to be the state that ends the racial wealth gap. i want us to be able to, and we are focusing on things like unfair appraisal values, and increasing capital to african-american entrepreneurs. focusing on things like how to turn our students from being employees to employers. these are all things that are happening in partnership with the biden administration and the biden/harris administration. so it does behoove not just a campaign, but also all of us as surrogates to be able to make sure that that's translating to people on the ground, who want to see and understand that we have a president who sees us, who feels us, and who's willing to invest in us. >> governor, the president was out yesterday making his pitch on abortion rights and he has interrupted over a dozen times by protesters opposing his support for israel. you can take a look at some of this and opposing calling for an

immediate cease-fire. and i wonder what your concern level is about that, particularly when it comes again to another constituency of young voters. this is something gretchen whitmer has also talked about being concerned about, and i wonder if you are, as well. >> my baseline always comes back to humanity and protection of human life. you know, what we saw on october 7th was unconscionable. and we know that hamas is not and will never be a legitimate partner inside the work pch we have to be able to push for a peaceful and a stable israeli state. we also need to make sure that we have a peaceful and stable palestinian state, as well. anybody who is not pushing for that is not going to be a partner inside this work. and i think that that's something that the president has been talking about and pushing for. the idea that we need to be able to have a pause in fighting to

allow humanitarian aid in. that we need to be able to ensure that we get the hostages out now. these need to be priorities. we have to preserve human life. and the president is acting as the commander in chief in making sure that we can get that conclusion. and really make sure that we have peaceful states, both the palestinian and the israeli states, side by side, and anybody who is not fighting for that is not going to be part of a long-term solution. >> before i let you go, switching gears in a large way, i do have to ask you about something little happening this weekend. and that is the afc title. who takes it home this weekend, governor? and how superstitious are you? >> i'm pretty superstitious. i -- you know, you've already said, if the ravens go to the super bowl, there's no way we're missing that. and at the same time, i'm like, let's hold off until sunday. this is the most -- the ravens are the most complete team in football. there's only one team that can beat the ravens left. and haathat's the ravens. i feel very good about what

we're going to be able to do. and literally we have the league's most exciting player, the mvp who's going to lead us to vegas for the super bowl. so we're feeling good. we respect kansas city. but kansas city is about -- >> not good enough to buy your plane ticket to vegas yet, but we'll all be watching, governor. thank you! >> look how quickly he slipped into like nfl analyst mode. >> he is all in on this. >> that's impressive. i'll give him credit for that. other news breaking overnight, a russian military plane crashes near the ukraine border. how conflicting accounts from russians and ukrainians are impacting the crash and what we're learning about the moment that plane went down, next.

we are following breaking news out of russia this morning. you can see here on the screen, a plane in russia's belgorod region crashing, exploding into flames. russian media is reporting that the plane was carrying 65 ukrainian servicemen ahead of a prisoner exchange, citing the russian defense ministry. that is at odds with what ukrainian sources are saying, that the plane was not carrying pows, but instead was carrying missiles. we're joined now by matthew chance, cnn military analyst, cedric layton. i want to start with you.

sharp divergence in the stories here. do we have any sense of why and what the actual story is? >> no, we don't have a sense of what the actual story is, but, you know, this is an area that's very close to the ukrainian border, of course, inside russian air space. and ukrainian air defenses have been very active, particularly over the last couple of weeks, in pushing forward and taking out key aircraft inside russia's air space, they did it earlier this month, over the sea of asov, where they took down an a-50, which is a big russian radar, surveillance gathering plane. if this was the ukrainians that shot the solution 76 out of the skies and it was carrying something like 65, according to the russians, prisoners of war that were being transferred back to ukrainian territory, obviously, the ukrainians say they're investigating that. it's their understanding, according to officials inside ukraine at the moment, that this aircraft, which is a military transport plane, was actually

carrying missiles for russia's s-300 air defense missile system. and so, you know, if that's what they believed, then it would have been a target that would have certainly been very high up on their list of priorities. but at the moment, what the russians are saying is that this was a barbaric act, that coming from an official at the russian foreign ministry, and also saying that there were 65 people, ukrainian prisoners of war onboard, and all of them, along with the crew, are now. >> colonel layton, would a military transport plane usually carry 65 people? these were, according to russia, you know, pows, and they were on their way to a prisoner exchange. or would it be more likely to be carrying missiles? or either? >> it can do either, actually, poppy. and you know, this is interesting, because the il76 is capable of carrying up to 90 passengers. and of course, that depends on the configuration and what cargo is on that plane. so it's not inconceivable.

however, if it has components for a missile system, that would diminish the capacity to carry extra passengers onboard that plane, depending, of course, on the nature of the components, their weight, and things like that. but it is possible for them to carry either. >> we'll definitely be keeping an eye on this. matthew chance, colonel cedric layton, thank you. so, to the oscars. ryan gosling revving up his kenergy, speaking out after margot robbie and greta gerwig were snubbed by the statement. we'll read you part of his powerful statement, ahead. and south carolina governor tim scott promising to take down nikki haley while he stands by donald trump's side. the e potential for r a trumump ticket, ththat's next t thisp

. coming up off his win against nikki haley in new hampshire last night, former president trump gave his victory speech surrounded by one-time rivals, who are now clearly fully behind him. >> all in. >> all in. >> that included south carolina senator tim scott, who despite being appointed to his seat by then-governor nikki haley, promised the crowd that trump will end her race in her very own backyard. >> i'm going to invite you to my home state starting tomorrow! where this election is over! >> earlier in the day, trump boosted speculation that scott could be his runningning mate, saying this during a radio

interview. >> is tim scott now the front-runner for the vice presidential nomination? >> well, he's a guy i look at, he's such a wonderful man. he's a wonderful guy. he's been a friend of mine for a long time. that's a big thing, for a senator from her state. >> let's bring in our friend, early start anchor, cnn national affairs analyst, c kasie hunt. i mean, i'm not sure him saying nice things about people necessarily means that tim scott is going to be his running mate, but that exchange was telling, odd on the stage last night, all of it at once. what's your takeaway? >> yeah, poppy, let's show everybody that moment, because honestly, it's really the one that's people are talking about more than any other moment from what we saw at trump's speech. take a look at the position that he put tim scott in here and how scott responded. watch. >> did you ever think that she actually appointed you, tim? and think of it, appointed and

you're the senator and she endorsed me. you must really hate her. no, it's -- it's a shame. it's a shame. uh-oh. >> i just love you! >> no, that's -- that's why he's a great politician! >> right? i mean, i don't -- i honestly don't -- it's easier to describe with a facial expression than with words, but, you know, tim scott there, he was showing himself, phil, you've covered tim scott in the halls of congress, i've covered him since he was appointed to the senate by nikki haley, and he's really, you know, he ran his campaign in this optimistic way, he's a genial guy, if anything, he comes across as soft-spoken, and in the way he tried to push back against donald trump there, you saw some of that. but you also saw him be put in the position that donald trump

puts everyone that comes around, comes to heel, really, and stands behind him in this position. how many politicians have we seen basically humble themselves in that position in a camera frame behind donald trump. i mean, we saw chris christie in that position, it's an image that came back to haunt him. mike pence spent four years doing it only to be met with chants of "hang mike pence" during the insurrection on january 6th. so this is a pretty classic situation for one of these people. whether trump picks him as vice president, i mean, you know, clearly this is something that trump is going to hold out over the heads of so many people were going to be competing to potentially get that nod, again, potentially it's a difficult place to be, considering what happened to mike pence. i think there's a couple of things to consider. he has talked about wanting a woman to do it. there was some chatter that it would be nikki haley. i think that was put pretty firmly to rest last night, if it wasn't already put to bed. i think one person to kind of pay attention to, that's under the radar a little bit is katie

brit, she's a senator from alabama who has very solid working relationships across washington, and would kind of, you know, potentially help with some of the weaknesses trump has, in working with republicans on the hill. she's very -- she's trusted among the people who make those decisions. >> that's an interesting name, because as a well-respected, on both sides of the aisle, longtime former staffer, why on earth would you want that job if you're katie brit. as we saw last night, trump's greatest talent is his ability to totally demonstrate the ability of people who can bend the knee and kiss the ring right in front of them on live television. it is epically impressive how they can do that. i want to talk about policy issues that we saw in the race last night. when we were looking at the cnn exit poll, where new hampshire republicans were, where voters were on the economy, immigration, foreign policy, abortion, immigration yet again scoring very high in a republican primary. the economy, though, i think we heard this from voter that our colleague spoke to throughout the day, number one, without

ques question. >> right. well, i think the important thing about these numbers, too, phil, is they include independents that polled republican ballots, right? so this is probably closer to a general election electorate, certainly than what we saw in iowa. i think that the critical thing here is the you compare this to the polling that we do on these issues, voters say that they trust donald trump on those top two issues more than they trust president biden. that's why the president has the current sitting president has his work cut out for him. >> that's a really, really good point. kasie hunt, always appreciate it, thank you. nikki haley refusing to bow out despite a second consecutive loss to trump, making her case to stay in the race shifting her focus to november. >> the race for the white house heading south. hear how south carolina voters hear about trump's win over their former governor.

south carolina voters are reacting to the new hampshire primary results, as they'll be the ones up next at the ballot box, while most of the folks we spoke to hail nikki haley as a strong governor. some say it's just not her time to be president. cnn's gary tuchman has more. >> i know you have a long way to go, but at least at the moment -- >> we watched cnn's new hampshire primary coverage with loyal republicans from south carolina. what could be a crucial primary state.

most of the people we watched with are planning to vote for donald trump. nine of these 13 said they will vote for the former president. >> donald trump made it clear in his speech, he thinks this is over. nikki haley says she is continuing. who thinks it's over? you do. tell me why. >> because the results that we got tonight, that was the answer for her. it's over. >> what do you think? >> i agree. i do think that it's over. we'll see when south carolina, but i think it's over. >> do you think nikki haley should stay in the race? >> i think it would be a very tough road for her. i think if you look at our state, our governor, both of our senators or five of our six congressmen all came out for trump. >> reporter: two people on our panel are planning to vote for nikki haley. >> she said she's going to stay in the race and we'll see what she does. i think at the proper time, she'll make that decision. but right now, she's not at that decision yet. >> i think she should stay in the race. i think she has come from behind in other races and i think that

she has four weeks, i believe it is, to make some changes in her campaign. and i think she needs to really drive her message home to south carolina voters. >> reporter: notably, 12 of the 13 people in our group tell us that they thought nikki haley was a good governor. >> well, i think it's undeniable that nikki haley had a good track record as governor, but president trump had a good track record as president. >> i don't know if it's so much that she wouldn't do a good job, but i think she's the wrong person for the job. >> why is that? why is that? >> i just think that donald trump has made a presence in our world. he has made hard >> reporter: a survey this iowa and new hampshire, is donald trump fit for the presidency if he is convicted? raise your hand, if you think he is fit.

raise your hand if you don't think he is fit for the presidency. i will qualify that. >> it would need to go through appeals. if he is guilty, then i don't think i would find him fit. >> reporter: the south carolina primary is still more than four weeks away. a lot of time for additional political developments. phil, poppy? >> always so illuminating to see who gary talks to. thank you. joining us now, co-chair of the republican national committee, former president trump endorsed him for south carolina republican party chairman in 2021. but he and the gop remain neutral. good to have you. thanks for being with us. it's interesting that gary there at the end talked about time. do you think time, four weeks, is helpful for nikki haley heading into your state or harmful?

>> we specifically picked this time for our primary. we looked and when iowa and new hampshire would have their contests. we moved to the end of february. traditionally, we have been ten days after new hampshire. with the way the rules work, no others can go before super tuesday, we didn't want to leave all that real estate on the calendar when we could have it to ourselves in south carolina. essentially, a month of activity in south carolina, potentially. south carolina is ready. we're used to the spotlight. since 1980, no republican has become president of the united states without winning the south carolina republican primary. we have only missed who the nominee would be one time. no other state in the country has that track record. we have a representative sample essentially of the republican electorate at large around the country. social conservatives, national security conservatives. retired veterans here in south

carolina and populist conservatives. i think that's why we get it right. as a result, we have become the graveyard of presidential campaigns. >> to my question about time, given all that you laid out -- you are important, we know -- time help haley or hurt haley? >> you know, that's -- i don't know how to answer that question. good things can happen. bad things can happen. every candidate has to make their own decision how long they want to go, what the resources are. given the road ahead, we know what we know about nevada. nevada is having a caucus when it comes to the delegates. i don't think governor haley signed up for the caucus. this is about delegates. at some point, eventually. 70% of our delegates are elected by the end of march, 70%. mathematically, this becomes a challenge at some point. >> you make the point about the diversity of your electorate

with the republican party. it's why jeb bush thought he had a chance. it's why marco rubio thought he had a chance. donald trump won. i'm curious, are residents of south carolina -- something people think about the south carolina primary, which is that it's brutal. people get cut up. it's nasty. it's not the best of politics, but it is politics. people are warning nikki haley is going to have a really tough go. >> you know, someone said politics ain't beanbag. that's true. i expect that's what you will see. i know people who are still mad at one another about certain primaries. we could see the same thing here. somebody might make a decision about -- or change of course between know and then.

>> talk about the landscape and the makeup of voters there for folks that drew some hope from what nikki haley did in new hampshire last night. there's multiple differences but also you have a more open primary there than you have. explain to folks, because it's very different, what she's heading into. >> again, as i pointed out, we have a broad representation of the party in terms of the various -- what's called the types of conservatives. not that they disagree with each other, but different focuses and emphasises. it's difference than new hampshire. if you look at -- what issues do people in south carolina care about? you can look at your average poll of national republicans and then probably add seven to ten points to the conservative side of the scale. that's probably where we are. it's a more conservative electorate. the voters in our primary expect to see the candidates, talk to the candidates. they expect candidates that will

talk about issues that matter to them. quite frankly, that's the big reason why president trump did so well here back in '16. we had 17 candidates running back then. he cut through all the clutter. i think the issues that he talked about then, immigration being at the top, which is still a huge concern for our base right now, and then things related to trade and so forth, that resonated with people. with a lot of conservative democrats and independents around the state. i have seen the biggest growth in the history of our state party since i've been chairman -- i got elected in early '17. we have seen tremendous growth. >> issues that matter. the former president showing up at the clemson/south carolina game. big month ahead for you. thanks for your time. >> absolutely. thank you. >> our coverage of the race for the white house continues. president biden not the only one looking ahead.

new details on nikki haley's ad buy and her message. that's next.