S.C. Governor Nikki Haley: Anyone but Trump
CHARLESTON, S.C. -- South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley says she may not endorse anyone ahead of Saturday's first-in-the-South GOP primary, but if she does, it certainly won't be Donald Trump.
Haley said Tuesday she's still trying to make up her mind. But she said Trump represents "everything a governor doesn't want in a president." On Monday, Trump said Haley's not fighting the federal government hard enough on Syrian refugees and Guantanamo detainees.
Haley says Trump doesn't know what he's talking about. She says governors want a president who will work with and fight for them, not come into their state and bash them. She called Trump's comments "quite Obama-like."
Haley also said she was embarrassed for her daughter's sake at Saturday's debate, when Trump criticized former President George W. Bush's handling of 9/11.
During Saturday night's GOP debate, Trump was asked whether he stood by a 2008 interview where he said it would have "been a wonderful thing" if Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi had tried to impeach Bush for starting the war. Amid Trump's criticism, his fellow presidential candidate, Jeb Bush, said he was "sick and tired of [Trump] going after my family."
As Bush defended his brother's ability to keep the nation safe, Trump said, "The World Trade Center came down."
In an interview with "Face the Nation" after the debate, Trump said, "I am not blaming [President Bush], although...the CIA said there was a lot of information that something like that was going to happen. I'm not blaming anybody. It's a tragedy." He called it "worse than Pearl Harbor because you're talking about civilians.
"Now, could he have done something about it? His CIA knew about things happening... but when Jeb gets up and says, we were safe under his brother, we weren't safe," Trump added.
He also said "I'm not blaming anybody" for saying there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, which turned out to be false.
"I'm just saying he went in there, he thought there were weapons of mass destruction, maybe or maybe he didn't," Trump said. "If he knew that there weren't weapons of mass destruction and if he used that as an excuse to go in and try to make up for some sins for previous years then it would be a lie."
He was still harsh about Bush's decision to push for the war in Iraq, saying it was a "disaster" that may lead to "the destruction of Europe" because of migrants fleeing the region.
"We would have been so much better off if Bush and the rest of them went to the beach and didn't do anything. If you had Saddam Hussein, he was a bad guy and all of that, but he made a living off killing terrorists. Now if you want to become a terrorist you go to Iraq. That's like the Harvard of terrorism," he said.