GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley predicted Thursday that former President Trump would not win in the general election if he is the GOP nominee.
“Donald Trump will not win the general election,” Haley said on CNN’s “The Lead” during an interview with anchor Jake Tapper. “You can have him win any primary you want — he will not win a general election. We will have a female president of the United States; it will either be me or it will be [Vice President] Harris.”
“But if Donald Trump is the nominee, you can mark my words, he will not win a general election,” Haley added.
Haley also said voters can’t “complain about what happens in a general election if you don’t really think about that in this primary.”
Multiple polls show Haley is far behind Trump in the primary race in her home state of South Carolina, where she once served as governor. The Hill/Decision Desk HQ polling average shows Haley at 33.1 percent support versus the former president’s 63.8 percent.
The former United Nations ambassador earlier this week shrugged off the polling deficit only a few days before the GOP primary in the Palmetto State, which will be held Saturday.
“Can you explain to the casual viewer who sees the polls — you down potentially 20-30 points in your home state — and they might wonder, ‘Why’s she down in her home state?’ What would you tell them?” Blake Burman asked Haley in an interview on “The Hill on NewsNation.”
“You know, what I would tell them is that they said I wouldn’t make it to Iowa, and we defeated a dozen other fellas. And we didn’t just make it to Iowa, we came within 1 percent of second place. We had 20 percent,” Haley said.
“The day of the election in New Hampshire, they said I was down 30 points. We got 43 percent of the vote. This is — the only poll that matters is the one that happens in South Carolina,” she added.