live coverage here on c-span.

>> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome former first lady of virginia, susan allen!

>> thank you so much, everybody. it's great to be with you tonight. nikki attracts supporters of all ages and the next generation needs to know how important it is to be a part of this team. thank you all for coming and bringing your signs p. well, virginia, are you ready to have your voices heard on super tuesday? we're the lapd of liberty, patrick henry's home and he fought for each of us to be able to have a chance to give our voice a point at this nomination and we are going to show the world that virginia believes in nikki haley on tuesday and you're going to have to get out and hustle and vote and bring your friends because we know what's at stake. we know you're ready to elect the next president of the united states, nikki haley. now, you know, i've known nikki haley for a long time. i read this great book she wrote

after being u.n. ambassador. i knew her when she was a state legislator in south carolina and went on to be a great governor and went on to serve our united states as ambassador to the u.n. i'm university of south carolina grad. gamecocks in the house. we don't mind a clemson candidate, it's ok. they say something about women who come from the south. a heck after lot of them are steel magnolias and that's what we've got in nikki haley, one heck of a steel magnolia. she's great. you know, when you look at a candidate you're going to work hard for and get elected, what are the criteria you look for? number one is negrito, somebody who speaks the truth, somebody whose word you can take to the bank and nikki has integrity and

we know she with beat the gentleman in the white house right now but will help the candidates running around the country for u.s. senate, for governor or for congress. she will help get them elected, no doubt about it. the other great thing about nikki haley, she has no fear when it comes to staring down those meaning to do us harm. she's ok if she's going to tell putin he is an animal, somebody who takes his adversaries in risen and kills them. we need someone to track them down and say it like it is. she's done that before. nikki's book, her subtitle is called "grit and grace." we need a president who has grit and grace. not only will she stare down our

adversaries and tell them where to go but can work with our allies and make sure we stick together with those countries we've made promises to. we need somebody who understands that in the white house for sure. we know we have a problem on our borders, no doubt about it. nikki is one who can make sure we're safe north and south, make sure we put the remain in mexico policies back into place, make sure we know who is crossing our borders and make sure we're taking care of those who have come in already. nikki is strong and will make sure we're doing the right thing to make america the great country it always has been and to provide a future for those who want to stay here and work and live the american dream. nickie also understands military families, what it takes for our men and women who serve. she stands with you because she understands you. right now her husband is deployed. thank you, nikki, and your

family for serving our country. like ronald reagan, she knew peace through strength was an important motto to live by but we can also keep our fiscal house in order. won't it be great to send an accountant to the white house? no doubt in my mind our country is need and someone who can prioritize what the government is to be spending money on and get rid of the waste already. she'll make sure we get closer to fiscal responsibility and the old reagan model that used to be. ladies and gentlemen, there is a time for choosing, as ronald reagan once said, and it's our time on tuesday to choose really the very best steel magnolia that could ever come from the southern part of the u.s. she's going to be a great leader for each and every one of us and

lead america in an honest, decent way that we can all be so very proud of. i want to present to you somebody we're all here to cheer for, to work for, to vote for, our next president of the united states, nikki haley. ♪ nikki: hey, guys. what a great crowd. it's such a great crowd. it's great to be here in virginia. thank you for showing up. so i want to start, there's a possibility that you should know we could have some protesters. so i will tell you to my protester friends, just please

be respectful. there's a time and place we can have you protest outside or anywhere else, but in here, we want to talk about the fact that we have a country to save. so it has been a whirlwind of a year. i announced i was running for president a year ago. we had 14 people in the race. i defeated a dozen of the fellas. i just have one more fella i have to catch up to. and you look at the situation of what's going on right now. you don't have to turn on the news to know that it's bad. we feel it. we're 34 trillion in debt. we're having to borrow money just to make our interest payments. china owns some of that debt. and for the first time we're

spending more in interest payments than we are on the defense budget. you know who is paying attention to that? russia, china and iran. it's a national security issue. and the problem is -- [indiscernible] [crowd booing] [crowd chanting "nikki"]

nikki: i told you. don't get upset when you see people protest like that because my husband and his military brothers and sisters sacrifice every day for her right to be able to do that. y'all get it out. go ahead and get it out. [crowd chanting "nikki"]

>> we love you, nikki! nikki: i love you, too. ok. we'll try this again. i would love to be able to tell you that $34 trillion in debt is joe biden's fault. but i've always spoken in hard truths. and i'm going to do that with you today. donald trump and the republicans are responsible for that, too. you go back and look at that $2.2 covid stimulus bill that they passed with no accountability. they expanded welfare that now has left us with 80 million americans on medicaid, 42 million americans on food stamps. that's a third of our country. did the republicans try and make it right? nope. they doubled down and opened up pet projects and earmarks for the first time in 10 years and

passing through 7,000 of them last year. in the 2024 appropriations budget, republicans put in $7.4 billion worth of pet projects. god bless america, right? so in the 2024 budget, republicans put in $7.4 billion worth of pet projects.

democrats put in $2.8 billion. now you tell me who the big spenders are, all while one in six american families can't afford their utility bills. 60% of americans are living paycheck to paycheck. 50% of american families can't afford diapers. that can't continue. don't you think it's finally time we had an accountant in the white house? so how do we fix it? we start by including back the unspent covid dollars sitting out there. instead of 87,000 i.r.s. agents going after middle america, let's go after the hundreds of billions of covid fraud. one out of every seven dollars was spent fraudulently. if 8% of our budget is interest, quit borrowing. cut up the credit cards.

you have to balance the budget every day, i have to balance the budget as governor. why is congress the only group that refuses to balance the budget? she's almost gone, hold on. [indiscernible] nikki: we will stop the

spending, stop the brother ok and eliminate the earmarks and i'll veto any spending bill that doesn't take us back to precovid levels and that will save us trillions. then we'll take as many federal programs as we can and send them to the state level and dramatically stop the size of the federal government but empower people on the ground. think education, think health care, think welfare, think mental health. we cut the strings and send it down to the states. it's better that the people in the states make the decisions about those resources than some washington bureaucrat. and then we want to open up the middle class. we're going to cut taxes on the middle class and simplify the bracket. we want to eliminate the federal tax and diesel tax in this country. and we want to make small business tax cuts permanent. small businesses are the heartbeat of our economy.

if small businesses are the heartbeat of our economy, we need to start acting like it. but speaking of congress, they have one job, one job, and that's to give us a budget on time. i don't know if you've turned on the news this week but they didn't do it again. did you know congress has only given us a budget on time four times in 40 years? four times in 40 years. you know what i'm going to do about that? you don't give us a budget on time, you don't get paid, period. don't you think it's finally time we had term limits in washington, d.c.? don't you think we need to have mental competency tests for anyone over the age of

75? [applause] i want to be clear. i am not being disrespectful when i say that. we all know people over 75 that can run circles around us. and then we know joe biden. [laughter] congress has become the most privileged nursing home in the country. [laughter] it's true! these are people making decisions on our national security. people making decisions on the future of our economy. we need to know they are at the top of their game. we can't play with that. then let's talk about the border. i can't believe this is happening in the united states of america. i went 400 miles down the border. it was unthinkable what i saw. we have had 9 million illegal immigrants come across that border. we had more fentanyl crossed the border last year that would kill every single america.

number one cause of death for adults 18-45, fentanyl. don't think for a second china doesn't know what they're doing when they send it over. when i was governor of south carolina, we passed the toughest illegal immigration law in the country. president obama's us over it and --sued us over it and we won. [applause] we will take what we did in south carolina and we will take it national. we will do a national e-verify program for every business has to prove that the people they hire are in this country illegally. [applause] we will defund sanctuary cities once and for all. we will put 25 thousand border patrol and i.c.e. agents on the ground and let them do their job. we will go back to the remaining mexico policy so that no one even stepped foot on u.s. soil, and instead of catch-and-release, will go to

catch-and, the -- catch-and-deport. there was an opportunity a few weeks ago when we could have done something about the border. congress came out with a border bill the good part about that bill was it strengthened asylum laws. 3 million illegals came in a trumpet with our asylum laws were not strong enough. the weaker part of that bill was it didn't have remained in mexico. and it had a 5000-person threshold. we can't even have a one-person threshold. but what went wrong is congress should have gone in the room, strengthened it and pass something else. but donald trump told republicans, don't fasten anything until after the general election. because it would hurt him. [crowd booing] gov. haley: we can't wait one more day for a strong border

bill to pass. [applause] congress needs to do their job, get in the room and figure it out, and trump needs to stay out of it, period. [applause] now i know in virginia, you have had a lot of conversations about abortion and pro-life issues. and i am just going to be honest . i don't think the fellas know how to talk about it. the issue of pro-life and pro-choice is incredibly personal to everywoman and everyman. and it needs to be treated with that kind of respect. but i will go back and take you to help got to this point. prior to 1973 we had 46 state laws on abortion. sent in 1973, unelected justices

came in and threw out those 46 state laws and said there would be abortion anytime, anywhere, for any reason. i believe the wrong was literate, the unelected justices said they should have done that and they put it in the hands of the people, where i think it should be decided. now, i am unapologetically pro-life. [applause] not because the republican party tells me to be, but because my husband was adopted, and i had trouble having both my children. having said that, i don't judge anyone for being pro-choice anymore than i want you to judge me from being pro-life. [applause] so now we have estates deciding, some states have decided to be more pro-life.

i welcome that. some states have decided to go more on the choice ride. i wish that wasn't the case, but the people decided and i respect that. the issue at hand is, should there be a federal law? no one has told you the truth about what is required to get a federal law. i am going to tell you that truth. in order to pass a federal law, you would have to have a majority of the house, 60 senate votes, and the signature of a president. we have not had 60 republicans editors in over 100 years. . we might have 45 pro-life senators. so no republican president can, and ban these abortions, anymore than a democrat president can ban these state laws. so what can we do? find consensus. can't we all agree to ben late term abortions? can't we all agree to encourage adoptions?

can't we all agree that doctors and nurses who don't agree with abortions should not have to perform them? can we all agree that deception should be accessible? and can't we all agree that no state law should say to a woman that has gotten an abortion that she is going to jail or getting the death penalty? can't we start there? [applause] no more demonizing this issue. we have to humanize it. when i was in college, i had a roommate who was raped. i wouldn't wish on anyone to go through what she went through wondering if she was pregnant. everybody has a story. let's be respectful of their story. our overall goal should be, how do we save as many babies as we can, and support as many months as we can. that is what winning looks like. [applause]

and when i told you that i had trouble having both of my children, both of my children, we were blessed, or do to fertility treatments. dash for due to fertility treatments. we need to make sure every parent has access to i.v.f. and fertility treatments. so now that we have got that out of the way, growing up in rural south carolina, my parents always taught me, you take care of those who take care of you. but i am going to ask if we are taking care of those who take care of us. right now in america, over 35,000 of our veterans are homeless. 1 in 3 suffers from ptsd or thoughts of suicide. we lose 22 he was day to suicide. there a veteran needs a doctor's

appointment, on average it takes 29 days? why 29 days? because of the 30th day they can go to the doctor or hospital of their choice. so midway through the 29 days, they get a call to reschedule, and the clock starts all over again. it is shameful how we treat our veterans. my husband, i am proud to say i am the proud wife of a combat veteran who served in afghanistan. [applause] when michael came home to us, that was a lot of prayers answered. but that was the easy part. when we got home, life got hard. michael could not hear loud noises. he couldn't be in crowds. life had passed him by for the year that he was gone, and the transition was tough. we can just love our men and women when they are gone.

we got to love them when they come back home, too. [applause] we need to do more than just the two week transition, we need to take care of them for the long haul. that's why we need to have telehealth so we can get them to mental health care they need right when they need it. let's let them go to the doctor or hospital of their choice. they have earned that right. and i think the best way we deal with v.a. health care, i think every member of congress should have to get health care from the v.a., and you watch how fast that gets fixed! [laughs] [applause] gov. haley: it will be the best health care you have ever seen, guaranteed, i promise. speaking of the military, let's talk about national security. the world is on fire.

literarily. we have got a war in europe. [protesters shouting] [crowd chanting "nikki"] [indistinct shouting] gov. haley: gov. haley: we have got a war in europe. the war in the middle east. we have north korea testing intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of hitting the u.s. we have china doing cyberattacks on our infrastructure. and we have rushed or blinding satellites so we can't see anything that they are doing. but, make no mistake, none of that would have happened had we not had that debacle in afghanistan. [applause]

the idea that michael and his military brothers and sisters who served there had to watch us leave 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. think about what that said to our friends. more importantly, think about what that said to our enemies. this is the time where america needs a leader that has moral clarity. [applause] a leader that knows the difference between good and bad, right and wrong. we need to make sure that we know that america can never be so arrogant to think we don't need friends. after 9/11, we needed a lot of friends. [applause]

and two weeks ago, trump goes and said that he would actually encourage putin to invade our allies. [crowd booing] gov. haley: now think about that. trump is going to align himself with a thug, where half a million people have been wounded or killed because putin invaded ukraine. trump is going to align himself with a tyrant who killed his political opponents. with a bad man who arrests american journalists and holds them hostage. trump is going to side with putin, who has made no bones about the fact that he wants to destroy america. and he is going to side with him over our allies who stood with us after 9/11? it doesn't make sense. you can't do that. we have always got to grow the number of friends that we have. .

we have only got to focus on what it takes to prevent more. every president should focus on preventing more. [applause] and now you have got trump, and you have members of congress lying to you, telling you that you have to choose between ukraine and israel, or securing the border. that is so far from the truth. securing the border is priority number one. but preventing more by understanding that putin has said, once he takes ukraine, poland and the baltics are next. to understand that iran is spreading towards them when they say that to israel and death to america. if we supported ukraine and israel, that is only 5% of our budget. [crowd booing] [indistinct

shouting] [crowd chanting "nikki"] [indistinct shouting] [protesters shouting "cease-fire now!"] gov. haley: y'all keep that doorway clear, so we can get them out faster. [laughter] [applause] bottom line, if we supported ukraine and israel and secured the border, that is less than 20% of president biden

subsidies. don't let them lie to you, a president and congress are supposed to focus on preventing war. they are supposed to focus on protecting americans. that's their, job not for us to decide which protection we want. so -- [applause] we have the answers on what we need to do for national security. we have the answers on what we need to do for domestic policy. now we have to talk about the politics of it all and what you are going to do on tuesday. this is the difference between doing want more of the same, or do we want to go in any direction. more of the same is not just joe biden. more of the same is donald trump. 70% of americans have said they don't want joe biden, or donald trump.

[applause] 60 percent of americans have said donald trump is too old, and joe biden is too old to be a president. but look at how this year has gone. they said we wouldn't make. it to iowa. . we made it. they said we would be 35 points down in new hampshire we got 43 percent of the vote. [applause] but the night of new hampshire, trump was totally unhinged. he went on and on about revenge. and my dress. [laughter] then the next day he said, anybody that supports her is barred permanently from maga. [laughter] [applause] now think about that.

he had a little fun with that. so we sold these t-shirts that said "barred permanently." over 25,000 t-shirts so it was great for us. but think about that, a presidential candidate should be trying to bring people into the fold, not pushing people out of his club. and then the next day he goes and tries to get the rn the name him the presumptive nominee. [crowd booing] gov. haley: we don't anoint kings in america. we have elections. [applause] gov. haley: states deserve their rights to have their voices heard. then he had a couple of court cases with some judgments that came down and he talked about being a victim. the problem that i have with all of that is, whether it was the night of new hampshire or whether it was after these court

cases, at no point did he talk about the american people. no point did he talk about us being $34 trillion in debt and at no point to talk about the fact that only 31% of eighth graders in our country are proficient reading. at no point did he talk about the illegal immigrants, through. at no point did you talk about the lawlessness in our cities. at no point did he talk about the wars around the world. all he did was talk about himself. and what is happening right now is not about him, it's about the american people! [applause] but what you're seeing is, in this primary, it's also a shift and a decision on the republican party. because you look at the fact that the republican party i want

is one that is focused on fiscal discipline and small government and paying down debt. [applause] but you look at donald trump, he never talks about fiscal discipline. he actually grew government. he put us 8 trillion dollars in debt in just four years. he loves to say that it was covid. that was less than 20% of it. what did republicans do? they went along with it and started spending on none of these pet projects and earmarks. that is the part that has to stop. what else does he take with the republican party? i want to have a country where we are focused on peace through strength. [applause] he wants to be a country that doesn't need friends. that isolationist approach will always put us further in war.

30 look at the operation of the republican party. . the rnc is always focused on winning seats up and down the ticket. now he has put the rn, would his daughter-in-lawc ahead of him, has his campaign manager running it. they have not said it will not be about any other races, just about donald trump. he has taken $60 million of his own campaign contributions to pay his personal court fees. [crowd booing] and now the rnc is going to become his legal slush fund. now, if you look -- i was in michigan earlier this week. . michigan used to be a bright spot back in 2012, i was there, we were celebrity out of michigan's whales. they had won its up-and-down the ticket, they had passed right to work. it was a great day. ever since donald trump became president, they have lost the governor's mansion, they left

the state house and they lost the state senate. when i left michigan, i went to minnesota. the exact same story. i went to colorado. colorado, and the republican has gotten over 45% statewide since donald trump became president. look at virginia. the problem is, everything donald trump touches is chaos. and we can't be a country in disarray and a world on fire and go through four more years of chaos. we won't survive it! [applause] and if we really want to turn our country around, you've got to ask yourself, if all of these early states, if 30% to 40% of the people are not voting for him, how do you win the general election? more than that, don't listen to

me, look at the polls, the market for the last week. donald trump and joe biden are in the same margin of error. i am in the simple oh, and i defeat joe biden -- i am in the same poll and i defeat joe biden by 18 point. [applause] do you know what that means? that is bigger than the presidency. that is the house mother in it, governorships. it changes the structure of our government. that is a mandate going into these to stop the wasteful spending and get our economy back on track. that is a mandate to get our kids reading again and go back to the basics and education. that is a mandate to secure our borders with no more excuses. that is a mandate for law and order back in our cities. and that is a mandate for a

strong america prevents wars, that we can all be proud of. don't you want that? [applause] because we can have that. but in order to have that, it takes a lot of courage. courage for me from everyone of you to know, don't complain about what happens in the general election if you don't vote in this primary. it matters. [applause] you know, eight months ago, i dropped michael off at 4:00 a.m. for another year long deployment. and i watched him and 230 other soldiers pick up their two duffel bags of longing to go to a country that had never been, all in the name of protecting america. they are willing to sacrifice

their lives and their families' because they still believe in this amazing experiment that is america. so if they are willing to sacrifice for us there, shouldn't we be willing to fight for america here? [applause] [chanting "u.s.a.!"] gov. haley: because we have a country to save. and you know, the media is losing their mind, going, why does she keep fighting? why does she keep doing this? amber honest answer is, i am doing this for my kids the arcades and for your grandkids. because the truth is, look at what the younger generation has been through. i am seeing a lot of them here. they went through covid which was dramatic.

they don't know what this 30 $4 trillion in debt means to them and what they will have to be responsible for. they are worried about getting a job, they are worried about making ends meet. they don't believe they will ever be able to own a home. and then they wonder if war is good to break out. if that isn't enough, it's all under this trend of anger and division. and then we want to know why there is so much anxiety, stress, and depression? our kids deserve to -- to know what normal [applause] feels like. [applause] it's not normal under joe biden to allow millions of illegal immigrants to come in and not stop them. it's not normal for joe biden to worry more about gender pronouns and not with our kids can actually read them! [applause]

it's not normal for joe biden to have these wars around the world. but it's not normal for donald trump to guide a tyrant over -- decide with a tyrant --to side with a tyrant over our allies, it's not normal donald trump to spend campaign contributions on his court cases, it's not normal for him to mock members of the military! [applause] it's not normal for joe biden to be: his opponents fascist, and donald trump to be calling his opponents vermin. none of that is normal. i want to get us to a place -- can you imagine a country where we could sit down at the dinner table and not have a political fight? [cheers and applause] can you imagine a country where we can go to work and say what

we think and not worry about being demoted? can you imagine a country where we can strongly disagree but not hate each other? [applause] that is where i want us to go. because that is who i know we can be. we are better than this. we are better than what is happening right now. [applause] when i announced that i was running matt they asked me what my motivations were for doing this. i said, my parents came here 50 years ago to an america that was strong and proud and full of opportunities. i want them to know that country again. i am doing this for michael and his military brothers and sisters. they need to know their sacrifice matters. i am doing this for my daughter

who, just got married and i saw how hard it was for her and her husband to buy a home. the average home buyer in america is 49 years old. the american dream is leading them. and i am doing this for my son who is a senior in college. i am tired of watching him write papers of things he doesn't the -- doesn't believe in just to get an a permit that is not america. that's not us. and for the first time, 81% of americans don't think their kids will live as good of a life as we did. we can't be ok with that. i am not ok with that. we have a country to save. this is where it comes down to you tuesday is election day. this is the chance for you to be heard. so i want everyone of you to go and vote and take 10 people with you. [applause]

i want you to get a yard sign, but a yard sign in your yard. if you can't have a yard sign, put it in the back of your car. and i want you to email, text and call everybody you know. you will be shocked at the number of family and friends who are just general-election voters. i want you to give them a message for me. in a general election, you are given a choice. in a primary, we make our choice. [applause] i know virginia knows how to use the power of her voice. i know you guys can get out there. we have a country to save. so i want everybody to get out and vote. this is a promise to you, if you will join us in this movement, if you join us in this fight, i will take the pain. i will take the cuts.

i will take the bruises. i have done it up until now because i think all good things don't come easy. and they think that to get to a blessing, sometimes you have to go through the pain. but if you join me in this, i promise you our best days are yet to come. thank you very much! god bless you. thank you! thank you very much. thank you. [cheers and applause] thank ya'll so much. i appreciate it. thank you. ♪ two announcer: earlier today, u.s. defense secretary general

austin, talked about his failure to alert top officials, including president biden about his hospitalization back in january that stemmed from a prior medical procedure. you can watch his entire testimony tonight starting at 9:00 eastern on c-span, c-span now, our free mobile video app, or online at c-span.org. ♪ announcer: c-span's "washington journal our live forum invoking you to discuss the latest issues in government, politics, and public policy, from washington and across the country. coming up friday morning we will talk about government funding deadlines, border security and u.s. aid to israel and ukraine, first with the illinois democratic congressman, brad schneider, and then with florida republican congressman john rutherford. and a long-term consumer advocate, author and former presidential candidate, ralph nader will talk about the presidential race and the launch

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