Nikki Haley to Newsmax: Country Must Move Past Trump's Legal Woes

Former President Donald Trump will continue to be the target of "lawsuit after lawsuit and indictment after indictment," and that means it's time for the country to go in a "new direction" in the 2024 presidential race, GOP candidate Nikki Haley told Newsmax on Tuesday.

"I have said Trump was the right president at the right time," the former South Carolina governor, who served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations for two years under Trump, told Newsmax's "National Report." "But this is going to continue to happen… we have to have a new generational leader. We have to leave this chaos and negativity behind. They're not going to stop."

Her comments came after Trump said Tuesday that he got a letter from special counsel Jack Smith about being the target of the Justice Department's investigation into the events of Jan. 6, 2021, and efforts to undo the results of the 2020 presidential election.

"We've got real issues at hand," Haley said. "We're $32 trillion in debt. Families are feeling inflation. They're feeling the lack of transparency in the classroom. They're seeing record crime on the streets. They've got an open border, and now we're seeing a national security policy that's in shambles. We've got some serious work to do. We can't have distractions. We can't continue to go down this path. We've got to start looking forward with new solutions in a strong way."

She added that if she's elected to the White House, she'd ensure there is not a two-tier system of justice by doing what she did as governor of South Carolina: Replace the heads of every agency.

"I went in and sent teams in to clean each agency up," said Haley. "I think, if you look at our intelligence agencies, you look at the Department of Justice, they need to be gutted. The American people have lost all trust in them. I think we've got to look at the IRS. We've got to look at some other ones."

She added that as presidents typically meet with governors once a year, she will change to quarterly meetings, to push for a reduction of the size of the federal government and empower what people in states can do.

Haley also on Tuesday called the lack of accountability "appalling" when it comes to the Biden White House and the discovery of cocaine near the Situation Room.

"You don't have a big group of people coming in and out of that area," she said. "Not only that, everybody that comes into that area has to sign in. They have to be allowed into that area. They know who was in that area during that time, and the fact that they're closing this case, the fact that they're not giving us any information, shows this was someone close to the president."

Haley has also been outspoken against allowing biological men to play in women's sports, as well as against business campaigns such as the one between Bud Light and transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, and Tuesday, she told Newsmax that if she's elected, she'll make a push for the values in "faith, family, and country" which "made our country great."

"The idea that biological men are playing in women's sports is really one of the worst women's issues we've got during this time," Haley said. "How do we get our girls used to biological boys in their locker rooms?"

She also pointed out Maybelline, after the makeup giant's use of male cross-dresser Ryan Vita to promote its offerings for Amazon's Prime Day sales.

"It's making fun of women," said Haley. "We should be focusing on the fact that strong girls become strong women. Strong women become strong leaders."

She added that Maybelline can advertise in any way they want, but "I would tell them to look at Bud Light. This is not going to end well for you. This is not what the American people want to see. We don't want it pushed in our faces. We don't want it pushed in our homes, and if they really care about their profits, they'll do something about it, but we'll care about it with our wallets."

Meanwhile, the national polls are showing Haley's candidacy at 3%, compared to Trump at 49%, but she said that's because "we haven't spent any money."

"The rest of the candidates are spending millions of dollars," she said. "We're not. We're holding onto ours because this isn't the time that people are paying attention. The national polls aren't the ones we are worried about. We're going to be looking at Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina for right now. We wanted to have a good launch. We had a few thousand people in Charleston, South Carolina, which is what we wanted to see."

And when asked if she'd consider a cabinet position under someone else as president, Haley insisted that she has "never played for second" and that she won't start now.

"We've got a country to save," she said. "We cannot afford a President Kamala Harris, and we're going to make sure we finish this."

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