Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley on Thursday told Newsmax that voters "can like" former President Donald Trump, "but we can't win with him," predicting a GOP loss if he becomes the party's White House candidate.
Haley, seeking long-shot win in her home state's primary on Saturday, said on "National Report" that "if Donald Trump is the nominee, you mark my words, we will have a President Kamala Harris, and our country cannot afford that."
Haley said the Conservative Political Action Conference has "very much become a Trump coalition."
"We know that, and that's fine," she said. "I respect what every one of those conservatives at CPAC wants to see happen. But none of those things is going to happen if we have someone who can't win."
Trump, she said, "lost it for us in 2020. He lost it for us in 2022."
"Look again last week what happened — Republicans lost a vote on Israel. Republicans lost a vote on [Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro] Mayorkas. The RNC chair lost her job. Donald Trump had his fingerprints on all of that," Haley said.
"Everything he does is chaos and everything that happens, we lose. At some point we've got to realize that we can like him all we want, but we can't win with him, and Republicans have to win."
Haley argued "so many" voters "want to see a shift in America."
"They want to right the ship. They want to see things get better," she said. "And the only way things are going to get better is if Republicans win."
"What does it do to get someone you like in a primary if that person can't win in a general?" she asked, citing polls showing 70% of Americans don't want to see a Trump-Joe Biden rematch, and that majorities think both are too old to be president.
"This is time for a new generational conservative leader that can put in eight years of hard work day and night and get [Washington] D.C., cleaned up and get results back for the American people," Haley said.