Now-former GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley appeared to make a dig at her main rival, Donald Trump, during her concession speech Wednesday morning as she announced she was suspending her campaign after suffering losses in most Super Tuesday primaries.
“We must bind together as Americans,” she said at one point during her short speech. “In all likelihood, Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee when our party convention meets in July. I wish him well.”
However, the former South Carolina governor and UN ambassador refused to formally endorse her former boss and the likely GOP nominee.
“I have always been a conservative Republican and have 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, ‘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,” she said. “At its best, politics is about bringing people into your cause, not turning them away. This is now his time for choosing.”
WATCH:
.@NikkiHaley: “The time has now come to suspend my campaign.” pic.twitter.com/2lDzyBZDgG
— Conservative War Machine (@WarMachineRR) March 6, 2024
JUST NOW: Nikki Haley has officially suspended her presidential campaign.
— Kayleigh McEnany (@kayleighmcenany) March 6, 2024
Trump responded to his resounding victories in “Super Tuesday” primaries around the country on Tuesday, elections that appear to have cemented his status as the presumptive 2024 GOP nominee.
In remarks to Fox News Digital, Trump said that it was a “great evening” and that it was his “honor to represent not just the Republican Party but our country in leading it back to health and prosperity.”
Trump won Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Texas, Massachusetts, Colorado, Maine, Alabama, Arkansas, and Minnesota by 9:45 p.m. ET Tuesday night, all of them handily over remaining challenger and his onetime UN ambassador, Nikki Haley, whose campaign was suspended by Wednesday morning.
“It is a great evening,” Trump told the outlet, adding: “Rarely has politics seen anything quite like this.”
“It is my honor to represent not just the Republican Party but our country in leading it back to health and prosperity,” he noted further.
Trump would also go on to win the California GOP primary, Fox News reported, while Haley won the primary in Vermont.
“President Trump dominated Super Tuesday in convincing fashion in ways that have never been done,” a Trump campaign spokesperson told Fox News after the race was called in Vermont. “There is no doubt—President Trump is the nominee, and he will go on to defeat Crooked Joe Biden.”
Fox added:
Trump’s major Super Tuesday primary victories come after he dominated the Iowa caucuses, left New Hampshire with a commanding victory, swept caucuses in Nevada and the U.S. Virgin Islands, won South Carolina with a “bigger win” than he anticipated, and won Michigan.
Trump won GOP contests in Missouri, Idaho, and Michigan over the weekend, and North Dakota Monday.
In remarks at his Mar-a-Lago estate Tuesday evening, Trump lambasted Joe Biden as “the worst president in the history of our country.”
“There has never been anything like what’s happening to our country?” Trump asked, citing the chaotic illegal immigration and border security situation that Biden has made worse with his reversal of Trump’s strict enforcement policies.
Trump also said he’s focused on efforts to “unify this country and unify this party.”
“We have a great Republican Party with tremendous talent and we want to have unity and we’re going to have unity and going to happen very quickly,” Trump said. “I have been saying lately, success will bring unity to our country.”
He added: “Our country was coming together. Our country was coming together. And now we have a very divided country.”
Trump also proclaimed Nov. 5 as “the single most important day in the history of our country.”
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