it is 10:00 eastern, and we are following breaking news this morning with nikki haley expected to announce in just moments that she is suspending

her presidential campaign. thanks for being here, i'm ana cabrera with special coverage alongside my colleagues, josé diaz-balart and andrea mitch el. >> nikki haley is expected to speak from south carolina. she's going to announce her exit from the presidential race according to two sources familiar. >> and those remarks coming after haley's disappointing super tuesday showing, netting her just one victory, the state of vermont. >> let's get right to nbc use vaughn hillyard in west palm beach, florida, and steve kornacki is with us at the big board. also joining us, symone sanders townsend, and mark murray, nbc news senior political editor. thank you all for joining us. so vaughn, haley kicked off her campaign 385 days ago. what are you anticipating as we wait for her remarks to begin? >> reporter: right, more than a year ago nikki haley has been running this campaign against

donald trump. donald trump much to his chagrin, had noted multiple times that she had once promised that she would never challenge him, but like others including his own former vice president mike pence, florida governor ron desantis, south carolina senator tim scott, and others, they all jumped into the race thinking that they could knock off the former president. nikki haley, the last one standing. and with the results that came in last night in which she only pulled off a victory in the state of utah, losing in 15 other states, this was a clear message send by the republican electorate, that the republican electorate and the united states of america wants donald trump to be their nominee, despite four criminal indictments, despite having been found to have sexually abused e. jean carroll. despite having been found to have repeatedly engaged in financial fraud, they wanted donald trump to be their nominee. and nikki haley we anticipate

her making these remarks any moment now and notably per ali vitali our colleague in the room right now, she does not intend to endorse donald trump suggesting that there's a great share of the republican electorate, the independent electorate that wants a different message coming out of this republican nominee. the question here is would that mean potentially supporting joe biden down the road, and does donald trump have any interest in expanding his appeal, or does he believe he is running a campaign that can outright beat joe biden as it exists in its capacity right now, guys. >> and vaughn, we're expecting in about a minute at least, a two-minute warning we got about a minute ago holds, she will be coming into the room. we understand that she will be without -- her family will be in the room, but she will be alone at the podium. at least that was the game plan going in. and vaughn, it's really, you know, really interesting that we don't expect an endorsement. she's not going to fold. and we certainly got a key indication of that with kristen

welker on "meet the press" on sunday when she said she took that republican pledge, because that was the ticket to get on the debate stage, and there were a lot of other candidates then of course. we expect her not to endorse, and here she is coming into the podium, nikki haley. [ cheers and applause ] >> good morning. just over a year ago i launched my campaign for president. when i began, i said the campaign was grounded in my love for our country. just last week my mother, a first generation immigrant got to vote for her daughter for president. only in america. i am filled with the gratitude for the outpouring of support we've received from all across our great country, but the time has now come to suspend my campaign.

i said i wanted americans to have their voices heard. i have done that. i have no regrets, and although i will no longer be a candidate, i will not stop using my voice for the things i believe in. our national debt will eventually crush our economy. a smaller federal government is not only necessary for our freedom, it is necessary for our survival. the road to socialism is the road to ruin for america. our congress is dysfunctional and only getting worse. it is filled with followers, not leaders. term limits for washington politicians are needed now more than ever. our world is on fire because of america's retreat. standing by our allies in ukraine, israel, and taiwan is a moral imperative, but it's also more than that. if we retreat further, there will be more war, not less.

as important, while we stand strong for the cause of freedom, we must bind together as americans. we must turn away from the darkness of hatred and division. i will continue to promote all those values as is the right of every american. i sought the honor of being your president, but in our great country, being a private citizen is privilege enough in itself, and that's a privilege i very much look forward to enjoying. in all likelihood, donald trump will be the republican nominee when our party convention meets in july. i congratulate him and wish him well. i wish anyone well who would be america's president. our country is too precious to let our differences divide us. i have always been a conservative republican and always supported the republican

nominee, but on this question as she did on so many others, margaret thatcher provided some good advice when she said, quote, never just follow the crowd. always make up your own mind. it is now up to donald trump to earn the votes of those in our party and beyond it who did not support him, and i hope he does that. at its best, politics is about bringing people into your cause not turning them away, and our conservative cause badly needs more people. this is now his time for choosing. i end my campaign with the same words i began it from the book of joshua. i direct them to all americans but person to so many of the women and girls out there who put their faith in our campaign. be strong and courageous. do not be afraid. do not be discouraged for god

will be with you wherever you go. in this campaign, i have seen our country's greatness, from the bottom of my heart, thank you, america. god bless you. [ applause ] >> you've been listening to nikki haley suspending her presidential campaign today. our whole panel is still with us, including jennifer palmieri who just joined. let me start with you, vaughn, you spend a lot of time on the campaign trail throughout the primary so far, so what stood out to you when we listened to nikki haley's brief remarks announcing her exit and urging donald trump to earn the support of her voters? >> right, ana, what stood out to me was the specific line from nikki haley, it's now up to donald trump to earn the votes of those in our party who did not support him, including myself. it's about bringing people into your cause. this is now his time for chugz.

having been there eight years ago on the day that ted cruz dropped out of his presidential campaign in indiana to donald trump, he gave similar remarks. he didn't endorse donald trump that day and said it took him several months. and yet, what we watched over the course of those months in 2016 and we've even seen take place over the last months here in 2024 is that republicans time and again have gone back to donald trump regardless of his -- of his efforts, you know, donald trump over just the last 36 hours referred to her as bird brain again. this is a man who continually mocked her birth name, had openly promoted the question of whether she could run for president because her parents are immigrants. that is the man who she is urging her to bring her back in the fold, despite her suggesting repeatedly that he was not fit to be president of the united states.

and so i think the question here is whether donald trump feels compelled to actually shift the way that he's running his presidential campaign, and so far his advisers say no. and the last thing i want to point out is we are talking about those independent voters or even those conservatives who are reticent to donald trump, and those are the voters that decided the elections in georgia, in arizona, michigan, and wisconsin, not only in 2020 but also in 2022, and they gave democrats the wins in those pivotal races. when you look at 2016 to 2020, guys, in the movement of independents from -- or i should say away from donald trump from 2016 to 2020 e, in arizona 12 percentage points. georgia 20, georgia 22, wisconsin 25. this is the part of the electorate that nikki haley largely speaks to. the question is could the likes of her own words and where she throws her support in the months ahead, could the support of liz

cheney, those types of conservatives reticent to donald trump, could they have a major impact on the trajectory of this presidential race in the months ahead. nikki haley in those short remarks made it clear she intends to be a part of that very conversation. >> and haley's exit makes donald trump the presumptive republican knee. i was really struck by the fact that she said that she was going to, you know, not follow the crowd, make up her own mind, but she also used lines against socialism, against big government that she's used against joe biden and the democrats. she was clearly not going in that direction, and she put it squarely on donald trump, now it's up to you. so she to me is signaling that depending on what he does next that there's maybe an opening there for her to join in to unite the party, but just moments before she announced, he was on truth social saying nikki haley got trounced last night, all caps. so he was smashing her on truth

social just moments before she dropped out. >> yeah, and i think we have to introduce one question here into this conversation of, you know, haley's out, she's received as we've shown a number of votes across these different primaries. her high water mark will be winning narrowly in vermont, 43% in new hampshire, 40% in her home state of south carolina, but i think when you look at the totality, excuse me, of her vote across all of these states, a couple of questions come to mind. the biggest one is how many of the voters who supported nikki haley in republican primaries are actually already joe biden supporters in they're not there for donald trump to win over. they were never going to be there for donald trump to win over. let me show you an example of what i'm talking about. let's call up virginia last night. trump wins virginia by 28 points. virginia on paper was one of the most demographically friendly to nikki haley states that was

voting yesterday on super tuesday. had she been performing with the group she's done best with at those same levels in virginia as we saw in new hampshire and south carolina, this state would have been very competitive statewide last night. instead she's losing it by 28 points. but virginia is an open primary. everyone could participate in it if they wanted to. this was true in many, many states. it was true in south carolina, it was true in michigan, independents, a huge chunk of the new hampshire electorate could participate there, and i think there's a lot of evidence coming out of all of these primaries that a very significant factor in the republican electorate in the rote was people who voted for biden in 2020 who will never vote for trump, they're motivated by their opposition to donald trump, but the rules allowed them to participate in these republican primary, and they obviously sided with nikki haley because they want to vote against donald trump. and some of the evidence for that is that when you ask in the exit poll what is your -- do you approve or disapprove of joe biden's job as president in a republican primary electorate in

virginia, one out of five voters said, yes, they approve of biden's job performance as president. now, in our own nbc poll of republican voters when we asked for joe biden's approval rating it clocks in at 3%. so when you see a republican primary electorate that is seven times more favorable to joe biden and the job he's doing as president than we're getting when we poll republicans, that should set your alarm bells off in terms of i think there was a lot of crossover voting here and elsewhere from folks who just want to vote against donald trump and will in november because when we look at the general election polling, we don't see a lot of slack for donald trump with republicans. we see some slack for joe biden in his base, but not for donald trump among republicans. so i actually think there's a counterintuitive lesson that's emerged from these primaries. that is these crossover voters that i'm describing, they tend

to be suburbanites, they tend to be college educated. this is the general we've seen trump struggle with in elections. they've been turning out in massive numbers. that's why democrats have turned out so well in special elections. the suburban college-educated segment of the democratic base is absolutely on fire for turnout. democrats don't have to worry about that in november. that's the positive that democrats can take from these republican primaries. but whether there's a huge chunk of voters here who are actually open to donald trump that you're seeing in these primaries not with him right now, i think we have to ask some critical questions about that. >> thank you so very much. really appreciate it. i want to bring in ali vitali who was in the room for haley's speech in south carolina. good morning. what was the mood like there? >> a somber mood here, jose, as roughly 100 campaign staffers came in the same building as their headquarters to the first floor of this building where we stood all night last night

waiting to see if we would see the candidate. that silence led us to this morning where the campaign said they would be suspending their bid for president. of course as soon as nikki haley walked in the room, she said it immediately. she's suspending her race, but what she didn't say is notable here. the fact that she is not endorsing the former president, it struck me that she said she is a lifelong conservative republican. she has always voted for her party's nominee, but that this is going to be a time for choosing. invoking someone who i have heard her quote throughout this campaign, the iron lady herself margaret thatcher, someone who haley mentioned in her book that she wrote before the campaign actually began, someone who haley has tried to model herself after with that kind of steel backbone style of leadership that thatcher was known for, the fact that she invokes her on a day like today i think is fitting for a candidate who's leaving this race but clearly vowing that she could be someone who comes back into the fold and issing a challenge to the former president and her former

boss saying he now has to earn back the voters she took from him over the course of this republican primary. i think that steve makes a good point when he points out that haley's coalition was not just republican traditional voters who would come out in a primary, but it also consisted of independents. i asked her that question in new hampshire. how do you win a republican nomination when you're not necessarily winning republican base voters. she said, in fact, that's the wrong way to look at it and instead, the party should be trying to make a bigger tent for themselves. that's something that vaughn most trump has been sort of loathe to do. at one point saying that anyone who gives money to or backs haley would be barred permanently, and i think that it's striking that in the biden campaign's response to haley's dropout, they say donald trump made it clear he doesn't want nikki haley's supporters. i want to be clear, the biden campaign says, there is a place for them in my campaign, and i can tell you in traveling this country over the last year, but certainly over the course of the last few months, i meet these

voters all the time who tell me themselves in their words, they are lifelong republicans and they don't know if they can see themselves getting behind the republican nominee in november if it's donald trump. some of those voters say they might vote for joe biden or they'll stay home. >> thinking about the difference between today and yesterday, right? she was talking over and over again about the fact that very few of the states had voted, had spoken. 16 states spoke yesterday, and what they said was we want donald trump. what does this say about the republican party, the republican voters right now? is this a possibility for a bigger tent as haley was talking about? or is that tent shut? >> i am sorry to laugh and i was sitting here trying to pull up all of the things that nikki haley has said about donald trump, the way that he disparaged veterans and after that specifically nikki haley's husband and then nikki haley said someone like that is not fit to be president.

the way that he speaks about women. and so i think that a number of people have been looking for nikki haley since she started to make sharper contrasts against donald trump, to really pick up the mantle of that ball that folks keep trying to toss to her, and she had an opportunity to do that today, but instead, she made the point that she wanted to make sure that all of americans' voices were heard and many voices were heard, and she felt that that had been done, and now, you know, the ball is essentially in donald trump's court, and she said that it is up to him to earn the votes of her supporters herself included. i don't know if i could support someone who disparaged the person that i love in the way in which donald trump disparaged nikki haley and her husband. so oftentimes within the republican party apparatus when it comes to these primary contests for president where donald trump is concerned the dignity of the other candidates in the race who have gone to challenge him are directly attacked and it comes into question because campaigns are about contrast.

you say things on a debate stage, and in campaigns because you want to win, but there are lines and donald trump has repeatedly crossed them. so anyone who thinks that, you know, giving -- i mean, donald trump has already posted on his social media site saying nikki haley was trounced in all caps. he said much of her money came from radical left democrats. not true. he ended it talking about joe biden is the enemy, again, something insane i think to say, and then said but he would further like to invite all the haley supporters to join the greatest movement. >> think about ted cruz, lindsey graham, all those things you were talking about, marco rubio, they all came home to trump venn eventually. >> none of them back in 2016 or 2020 e had the backbone to stand up and say no. no one else in the party has done that really except for a handful, and they've been run out of the party like liz cheney, chris christie and others, adam kinzinger.

the thing about this is that donald trump can't have it both ways and neither can nikki haley. she needs to be consistent. the only time she started to punch back is when he went after her husband who is serving our country honorably, unlike donald trump who was a draft dodger. at that point now it became personal for her. that's wonderful. it's been personal for a lot of americans for years who have been on the receiving end of donald trump's insults and his indignities. so you know, that's great that she's decided to do that now, but more importantly, she represents a large swath of the republican party that is homeless now. they don't know what to do. and we've seen consistently that they are voting at 20 to 35% against donald trump. where do those people go? karl rove was on fox news last night saying the trump campaign really has a five-alarm fire here looking at how many of these republicans are not going to vote for him. how are they going to unify? donald trump is consistently

insulting. last week at a rally, he said we don't want you moderate republicans. to win elections, you need to have 50 plus one. so this is -- i mean, i think nikki haley is trying to buy some time because she wants to still remain relevant, right? power and relevance is a hell of a drug, and she has that for right now, but at some point, what is she going to do, she's going to go the same way as ted cruz and mitch mcconnell and the rest of them and sell the country out when she's in a position to say the only way we want to aif democracy and make sure we have real policy decision ss to make sure that joe biden wins the presidency this time around and we can argue about it later because at least he's not a threat to our democracy. she means it or she doesn't. >> it seems as though the national discourse politics as a game has been so cheapened and the talk has gotten so ugly, and

i think that 2015 was really a watershed moment for the ugliness of how people speak about each other in politics, and how that is carried out really through our national discourse. i'm just wondering with that being the reality, and i would like to add let's not forget that the former president has been saying on the campaign trail that immigrants are poisoning the blood of this country and that they're coming from mental institutions. in other words, all of this, i don't know what it is, semantics, but it has such a deep -- >> vitriol. >> heavy vitriolic effect on our nation. the republican voters spoke very loudly until, you know, last night that they want donald trump. >> yeah. leadership matters and people respond to leadership, and when you release that kind of ugliness into the world, it will find traction and it has really

taken hold in the concern. what i find inspiring and reassuring is people continue to turn out and vote in huge, huge numbers and that democrats continue to win in this case being both big d's and little d's and that people are not so -- you know, you can be exhausted by the news, and you can be troubled by it, but people are still turning out to say i'm rejecting that. so i find that, you know, and the other thing about this in terms of contrast now that we know like for real it's definitely going to be biden and trump, biden as, you know, i talked to a lot of pollsters that do focus groups around him, his decency as a person really holds him up, you know. his approval rating is low. approval ratings are low everywhere, if you're a democratic leader anywhere in a country is low. joe biden's is higher relative to other world leaders. the right track, wrong track also is off. for 20 years people have been more pessimistic about the

future. these sort of metrics are not as relevant as they used to be in determining who's going to win. but joe biden as a decent father, a good family man, as somebody who really cares about the country. that does come through. that is a good counterbalance. it is discouraging to hear all of what trump says and his followers that double down on that, but biden does get more votes, you know. i don't lose sight of that that in the end there does seem to be more people that are wanting to be on the side of decency. >> that is why the president going out there campaigning getting in front of voters in retail politics is going to be very important for his campaign. he is a great retail politician. i would argue so is vice president harris. when people get to see the candidates up close and they see the decency that jen is talking about, they can -- and the candidate becomes not just a far away figure that they cannot imagine but a real person sitting in front of them that they can talk to and ask

questions to, it can change the minds of people across the country. >> also, the wish casting that it wouldn't be biden and trump is now over. we've been saying this for months at the lincoln project. it's going to be biden and trump and everybody needs to stop this fantasizing about it being somebody else. now the reality is cemented. it will be biden and trump and so hopefully the biden campaign can start pushing the messaging. i awe jaime harrison on air last night using terminology, which i think that they've probably focused group, which is good, joe biden did that. he went down a list of accomplishments because president biden's actually had a very successful presidency, but perception is reality in politics, and there's been a deficit here in pushing the messaging of all of the positive things that biden has done. so if they start doing this now and it starts the repeating it over and over again, people tart realizing that, yes, we already know joe biden is old, thank you. can we talk about other things, more substantive like what he's accomplished versus what donald trump is saying, dictator on day

one, this project 2025 that wants to, you know, rechange our entire federal bureaucracy, retribution against enemies, there is a clear contrast that the american people need to make a decision on, and now is the time to start setting that narrative. >> ladies, stand by wit us, andrea you have news on an endorsement for trump. >> mitch mcconnell the republican leader endorsing donald trump the presumptive nominee. mitch mcconnell who just days ago last week said he is going to step down as leader at the end of this year, but stay in the senate and recognizing that it is now donald trump's republican party. behind the scenes he's also mourning the death of his sister-in-law. it's been a very difficult time medically for him as well, but the reality is more political than medical. he would press on, that's the mitch mcconnell that we've covered for decades you and i. how important is it for donald trump that mitch mcconnell who had been really the holdout

among the republicans in the senate is now basically throwing in the towel? >> yeah, andrea, it's really instructive on how the party starts to come together and even parts that hadn't necessarily fans of former president donald trump that with eight months to go that as time goes on, this is going to be joe biden versus donald trump. how republicans go back to their corners and democrats go back into theirs, and when it comes to mitch mcconnell, do note that it's just not -- he's not the only recent endorsement coming from the senate side who's been kind of critical of crump. we saw john thune do the exact same thing, and so i do think that that is a suggestion eventually about how nikki haley comes. not predicting because b obviously the remarks we heard this morning, the ball is in his court. she ended up having some potentially critical comments of his. as time goes on you can see her doing the same thing.

>> john barrasso is going to be running for whip, the number two spot. you think it's too early to tell maybe, but will this quiet the rebellion we've already seen in the rick scott part of the republican party? will donald trump go along with this, or will he be on the revenge mode and not accept this endorsement and want his own trusted player in there? >> andrea, donald trump is always unpredictable. it's hard to note what he's going to say on his truth social account like we saw nikki haley say this morning. it's hard to anticipate how we're receiving this. one rule of thumb ability donald trump is when people actually come to him and say, hey, i'm now behind you, donald trump usually embraces them. it is when they criticize him when he punches back. i do think that as people start coming back into the fold, you'll end up seeing the donald trump we saw from last night, the more magnanimous side as opposed to the side that purges

back. a lot of that is determined on hey, are you in his corner or against him? >> ana, the question is what is nikki haley doing going to do, and you've got people who know her very well. >> stay close, i want to bring in a couple of people who know nikki haley and south carolina politics really well. "today" show co-host and south carolina native craig melvin and former south carolina governor mark sanford. thanks for jumping on with us here. craig, you've interviewed nikki haley multiple times including just recently, just a few weeks ago, so as you hear her message today as she bows out of the presidential race, what goes through your mind? >> that was hard for her, really hard for her. i've known the former ambassador and governor for 20 years since she served in the state legislature in south carolina. until now nikki haley had never lost a race, to be fair, which is quite the feat for a woman in south carolina politics. but the reality was when i talked to her a few weeks ago down in charleston, she had all but acknowledged it was going to be a steep climb. there was a hope that last night she would have performed a

little bit better in virginia, but if you look at how well she did with suburban women, if you look at how well she did with independent voters this primary, there are still a lot of republican voters who don't like the idea of donald trump being the nominee, and she knew that. that's what prompted her to get in the race. i think ultimately that's what she thought would help her. what's going to be very interesting is the role that she plays over the next few months leading up to the election in november or does she play a role at all? is this going to be a situation where as some have predicted this morning at some point she falls in line, or does she become a never trumper? i think it is telling that she didn't endorse this morning. if you listen, and you pointed this out, if you listen to the language that she used this morning, she basically said at some point perhaps i'll consider endorsing if donald trump does this. and i think -- i think that's very interesting. here's what's not going to happen. if donald trump is reelected, she's not going to serve in the

administration. she's not going to help his presidency. she made that abundantly clear. i think if you also look at the language she started to use over the last month or two, he was more critical of donald trump than at any point she had been in her political career, and some have suggested that perhaps if she had been that aggressive with some of the language six months ago maybe we're not having this conversation right now. >> i want to point back to something that she told you just a couple of weeks ago when you spoke with her. this is what she said about trump back then. take a listen. >> the problem now is he is not the same person he was in 2016. he is unhinged. he is more diminished than he was. >> unhinged, and more diminished. >> she all but called the former president a basket case, and that's not what -- you would never have heard nikki haley say that three months ago. and i think the hope was politically that that kind of language, that kind of rhetoric,

ratcheting it up might help her, and i i think she found the opposite to be true. the reality is we talked about the polling that shows this, there are americans that have legitimate concerns about president biden's age, donald trump isn't that much younger. but for whatever reason a slew of americans have just accepted that. it's baked in. and i think that she thought she could move the needle there, and she was never able to do it. but jose, it was, for me at least, striking to hear her be so openly critical when she had been for years very careful about what she said about the former president. but if you recall, even before she became ambassador, she was somewhat critical. i mean, but -- >> and even as ambassador when she serve within the trump administration, she was somebody who didn't always fall right in line. >> right. she pointed that out, and in fact, that was one of the central thesis of her book as well. but it's -- it's fascinating. it really is on so many levels,

and now we are all bracing for what is going to be the longest presidential general election in american history. in american history. we've never had a general election that's this long. >> so it begins. >> a long, strange general election campaign. craig melvin, good to see you. >> good to see mark sanford as well. haven't seen you in ages, how you doing? you look good. >> good to hear your voice, craig, a long time. >> craig, we know you got a job. thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you, thanks for having me. >> andrea. >> and governor mark sanford, let's pick it up there. what did this race reveal about nikki haley's brand of republican politics? where does, you know, she fit in to the republican party? where do you fit in to the republican party? and also wanted to flag that joe biden on twitter, on x saying you don't have to agree with me on everything to know that maga extremism is a threat to this country, and what he's done is re-tweet a copy linked to a

donald trump tweet where he went after nikki bird brain haley. he is already reaching out to the haley voters. >> in a very strange way. so i'd say a couple of different things. i'd say -- i take exception with craig in that i would argue, you know, her comment that, you know, trump has suddenly become unhinged is not accurate. i mean, i think he's been the same guy throughout and you know, the four of us who spoke out early against trump are all gone on the republican side. so, you know, i think that she's always played within the crayon lines if you want to call it that with regard to political rel relevancy, you know, back in one of the early debates, would you, you know, support trump if he's convicted, not indicted but

convicted, hers was one of the hands that went up because i think she knew at that time and i think she's consistently done that with the exception of maybe the last month or so that i can't go too hard against the base. can't go too hard against him. and so while she has stepped away from that, i would argue that she'll still play within the crayon lines and will come back to fold and that she'll end up endorsing trump because to not do so risks the political extinction that me and ken singer and go down the list have seen, and i don't think she wants to play that game given the voice she wants to have within the republican party. >> so you think she'll endorse trump even though just days ago on "meet the press," she said she's no longer committed to endorsing trump if he became the nominee, and here we are now. he is the presumptive nominee. while you think she may come around to endorsing him for her own political future, my question is what kind of

influence does she even have? what would an endorsement mean when it comes to giving trump more supporters? >> i don't think it means a lot. you know, i think it's a kiss the ring and it keeps you relevant for possible future runs. i think what's particularly interesting is the way that the republican party is in flux. i think that if you look at the suburban voters last night, increasingly well-educated and of more means is shifting to the democratic side, and you can see it with some of the black votes. i mean, almost a quarter in some cases, some of the hispanic votes, rising numbers there so that the republican party oddly is becoming the party of folks of lesser means and the democratic party in some cases particularly the suburbs, is becoing of greater means. i think a lot of the haley supporters were democratic votes who just can't stand trump and there was no other place to go.

it wasn't a particularly -- it wasn't a competitive race on the democratic side, and it was a protest vote. so i don't know that it means a lot other than a chance to stay in the arena, which i think would be important to the haley campaign going forward. >> and just thinking about that tactic of not taking trump on directly in these primaries, you can see that that was what desantis followed, cott followed, so many other people followed, and they are out of it. nikki haley now being out of it. do you think that she does have a future, governor, in a post -- i guess we're still in the trump era, so i mean but she have a future in the trump republican era? >> no. i think within the trump era, it's a one-person rocket ship, and he's it, and everybody else is sort of rocket fuel or spent rocket fuel. i do think, though, age matters

and, you know, trump isn't going to live forever. she's young in her early 50s, and i think we're going to have huge debate within the republican party as to where we go next after trump is gone. are we going to continue this sort of maga movement, or are we going to come back to some of the things that the republican party and the conservative movement once stood for? that's going to be a giant debate. it's not taking place at this time as we have, i would argue a cult of personality that's locked in around trump. i mean, the operative question in my last race was are you for or against trump, period, not themes, not ideas, not conservative things i've talked with these folks for 20 years. are you with trump, that's still the question unfortunately. >> former south carolina governor mark sanford, thank you so much for taking the time and offering your perspective. nikki haley now withdrawing from the republican primary race making donald trump the

presumptive gop nominee. up next after a quick break, we're going to take a look at the view from inside trump world on haley's exit. is there a chance they work together ahead of november? >> you're watching special coverage on msnbc. you're watchl coverage on msnbc. y'all wayfair is the talk of the neighborhood, c'mon! we wanted a recliner. but it had to be chic. so we wayfair'd it. wayfair for the win. hey neighbor looking fancy. fancy? nah. we wayfair'd it and saved a ton. wayfair does it again.

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and we are back with special coverage of the breaking news this morning, nikki haley dropping out of the 2024 presidential race leaving donald trump the last man standing in the race and now the presumptive republican nominee, and picking up an endorsement from one of his biggest republican critics, republican senate leader minority leader mitch mcconnell. p "new york times" chief white house correspondent peter baker. so vaughn, what are we hearing from trump world this morning? >> reporter: how about this from trump world, trump himself, literally as nikki haley was taking the stage in south

carolina, donald trump here at his mar-a-lago estate posting on his social media account, quote, nikki haley got all caps trounced last night in record setting fashion, despite the fact that democrats for reasons unknown are allowed to vote in vermont and various other republican primaries. donald trump bemoaning the fact that she even won one of the 16 states that voted last night, but for donald trump, i think that this is important context because you heard her say up on that stage that it's up to donald trump to earn the support of not only her but others in the republican party and independents as well who are currently reticent to him as the republican nominee. and when you're looking at the likes of where this republican party lies, look, mitch mcconnell, you know, donald trump on the campaign stage when talking about mitch mcconnell just less than two years ago referred to him as, quote, old broken down crow, mitch mcconnell. he said he had wished he had run a primary campaign to oust mitch

mcconnell from office at one point. his son, don jr. on a stage in florida just this fall referred to him as glitch mcconnell. and you see mitch mcconnell here today throwing his support donald trump, but also like don bacon who was the first republican u.s. house member to come out ahead of donald trump's 2024 announcement by saying he wouldn't support him in 2024, and just this morning he's doing exactly that. and so the question here is what is the path forward for a nikki haley, and i just want to put this out there that no labels, that organization that has been qualifying for ballots around the country is still looking for a bipartisan unity ticket to run as a third-party slate. and nikki haley to our ali vitali was saying she doesn't have interest in running with a democrat. no labels says they are looking for a ticket by april 15th that. is a month from now, and you heard nikki haley say it's up to donald trump to win her over.

so theoretically, she's got several weeks to make the determination of whether it may be worth continuing her own presidential bid in a third-party capacity. that opportunity would be available to her if she so chose to take it up. >> and peter, we know how important loyalty is to donald trump. you remember the truth social post earlier in the campaign, he didn't just promise revenge on haley, but he declared that anyone who donated to her be permanently banned from the maga world. should we expect him to pick up her offer and begin moving over toward her or does he simply expect her to fall into line as she has in the past and move over to him? and does that also apply to mitch mcconnell? as mark and i were talking earlier is he going to still be

revengeful against mitch mcconnell? >> i think he's expecting her to move to him. i don't think he's going to do anything to reach out to her explicitly. i think his experience is that republicans will come to him. he doesn't need to actually do anything other than intimidate them, which is what's clearly happened. all these republicans who said they would never support him again, all these republicans who said he was unfit for office, all these republicans who decried his actions on january 6th. mitch mcconnell gave the most, you know, vigorous attack on donald trump on the day of the senate impeachment trial finale, even as he voted to acquit him. he gave as tough a speech as any democrat gave denouncing donald trump, and here they all are falling in line. donald trump has said to his associates they all come and bend the knee in front of him. that's his expectation, and he has every reason to expect that. >> peter in your book, you

explore the way trump tests loyalty. one particular passage was really insightful. you write for trump, loyalty was something to be received, not given. as 2020 approached, the president regularly asked aides, advisers, even visitors to the white house what they thought of pence and broached the idea of dumping him from the re-election ticket in favor of nikki haley, his former u.n. ambassador. boy, that seems like ages ago, doesn't it? what more can you tell us and how have things changed? >> yes, how have things changed? i think the idea for nikki haley vice president was pushed by the jared kushner ivanka trump part of the white house. they thought she would be appealing back then. they're not involved in this year's race. the reason why donald trump gave to some of his aides for not wanting nikki haley to be his vice president, is he said he didn't like her complexion, and by that he meant some sort of, you know, markings on her skin

that he found unattractive. it's not exactly very substantive policy or politics considerations here with donald trump. he makes decisions on the most superficial basis. but i think it's hard to imagine him bringing her back into the fold in any significant way after all of this. what he learned from 2021 with mike pence and that you can have a vice president who is absolutely 100%, 150% loyal for three years and 300 and some days and still then discover that even a mike pence will say no. there's only so far i'm willing to go. i'm not willing to try to bust the constitution for you as he said on january 6th, and i don't think that donald trump's going to look at nikki haley and think that she's going to be more loyal to him than mike pence was. >> peter baker, thank you so very much. back with us, symone sanders townsend, tara sut meyer, and mark murray.

>> donald trump made it clear he does not want nikki haley's supporters. i want to be clear there's a place for them in my campaign. is this something that biden can actually do? can he capture those voters? which truth be told were very little. >> yeah, were very little. he went on to say in that statement, we all know this is no ordinary election, and the stakes for america couldn't be higher, and then he kind of cribbed that and posted on the site formerly known as twitter, like you don't have to agree with me on everything to know maga extremists are a threat to this country. i don't need you to with me 1000%, i don't need you to be with me 50%. i need you to be with me on this one thing, and that's there, and the coalition that they put together in 2020 was a coalition that included base democratic voters, independent voters, a number of moderate republicans, literally had a republicans for biden that rolled out during convention 2020, democratic convention.

and that is the coalition that propelled joe biden and kamala harris to the white house. that's going to be the coalition he needs again. and i think he can get it, but i don't think folks should be looking to overcorrect for the haley voters, if you will. base democratic voters will be very, very, very important here. >> do you think that base coalition is still out there? >> yes. to be very clear, you do not -- you're not a democrat in this country that gets elected to a national office without base democratic voters. it is still there. i think the support that you see in the polls, the warning signs, not warning signs, a snap shot of how people feel at this time. i do not personally believe that, you know, 27% of black voters are going to vote for donald trump. i've been black my whole life and that flies in the face of everything i've seen. i'm a woman, i've seen what's been happening and i doubt the women numbers. i think the campaign has to go out and there and earn the votes of the base voters and that

looks like to me what they're trying to do. >> jennifer, let me ask you about what they need to do. we know haley performed strong with moderate republicans, with some suburban women, with independents, key constituencies if you want to win the general election. >> i come out of the sort of primary season pretty optimistic about that, about biden's chances. steve had a really good point about who are the haley voters. they could -- some measure of them are democrats, if 25% of them in virginia were giving joe biden high marks for doing a good job, i think a lot of them are independents, those voters were open to biden and the biden team will figure out who they are and we can -- they'll be able to message to them on the issues they know are meaningful to them, democracy, concerns about the court trials that he's going through, classified documents, january 6th, all of that. but, you know, one thing we haven't really talked about that

i think is going to be a huge issue across -- it is abortion. this is the vote last night was the first post alabama ivf decision. when you talk to democratic voters in north carolina, what was the most on your mind, abortion. >> and the economy and -- >> and immigration, but i think that that, you know, in addition to biden being able to argue the job that he has done, that he's got a proof of concept, it is working, he built a new foundation for the economy, he has plans for the future, we'll hear about that state of the union, that i just -- i think it is the most important thing that has happened in the primary season is that decision. because it reminds people, without roe v. wade, you can't be certain of any rights. the vice president speaks to this really well. she says they're going to tell you to terminate a abortion and if you can start a family. and it was such a big deal in

'22 and it will be just as meaningful in '24. >> stay with us. andrea? >> mark murray, let's talk about november. it seems so far off as we sit here in march. november is a lot closer when it comes to getting people's attention. can the president do that with the state of the union? does very an opportunity there? and he's going to talk about the economy, he's going to talk about foreign policy, about abortion, he's going to talk about ivf, but, you know, how does he galvanize it and is he prepared to do what he did last year, which was to use the protests and the shouts and the rudeness that was particularly from the far right and turn it to his advantage. it could be from some of his own base supporters this time around. >> and we're talking about a jam-packed week we're having with the state of the union address on thursday, just two days after super tuesday. and it is great timing for president biden on the state of the union address. essentially his rebuttal to what we heard from donald trump last night after his victories on super tuesday. you're exactly right, eight months is a very long time.

this is going to be a very long general election contest. and what does kind of strike me and our colleague chuck todd wrote about this, the next six weeks starting with the state of the union address, but over the next six weeks, could be pivotal for president biden. he has a huge cash advantage over donald trump now. do they start using that in tv ads, other -- >> up in north carolina. >> they have been spending millions and millions of dollars for the last several months. but to spend more and start turning their firepower on donald trump right now, our last nbc news poll that came out last month showed donald trump was substantial leads with who better handles the economy, who better handles foreign policy, who is more competent. for president biden, not only to start moving up in the horse race polls against donald trump, he's go the to start kind of leveling off some of donald trump's perceived strengths now. i do think that donald trump is -- has almost this halo effect. he's the challenger right now despite his record as president

from four years ago. however, this is the time in which if you have the cash advantage, if you have the incumbency advantage, you start trying to use that right now. >> we have seen already in this hour so much that is consequential going into the next six weeks with the suspension of haley's campaign, her repositioning, leaving the door open a little bit, mitch mcconnell endorsing trump, trump coming out strong, and biden reaching out to the haley supporters come with me. >> and in 55 minutes. that's just in the last 55 minutes. so let's not -- let's turn the page from 55 minutes to the next couple of months. what do you think is going to be the longest or maybe the -- among the longest campaigns in history with two very different candidates, how do you see the next months going? >> i would argue the campaign never stopped. and it didn't stop for donald trump and republicans, which is partially why biden has been losing the narrative messaging right now because they

constantly pitch this drumbeat from day one. now, there is the opportunity for the president to get out there, and talk to -- it was smart for him to go after the haley voters right now. it is smart for them to say, listen, we welcome you, and to show that contrast. particularly the women who are the -- we call them -- these are women in the republican party who need a permission structure to vote democrat. they need -- you have mitch mcconnell and all of these republicans who know better, that had a chance to vanquish trump falling in line. these folks, these voters need to decide is this the party they want to be part of and there is an opportunity here for joe biden and democrats to go get them. and they will need them to win in the swing states that will decide this election. >> thank you, all, so very much. much more ahead in our next hour of coverage on nikki haley's exit from the 2024 presidential campaign. so where do her supporters go and does this open up for a

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