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♪ >> midco supports c-spans a public servicealong with these other television providers. giving you a front row seat to democracy. >> 2024 republican presidential candidate nikki haley held a rally in dallas prior to super tuesday and the south colina republican primary election. during the event, she was interrupted several times by protesters. after her remks, she met with voters in the audience. [cheers and applause] >> oh, thank you so much! look at you guys. thank you. hello, dallas!

[cheers and applause] dallas, you know how to show up. thank you. [cheers and applause] you know, i love this because when i was governor in south carolina, i would always refer to south carolina as mini texas. because we think alike. we act alike. we love our freedom. and we all want government -- don't want government telling us what to do. [applause] >> i love you! >> i love you too. you know, when we were -- when i was governor, i came in, we took in a double-digit unemployment that had 11% unemployment. we had thousands of people on welfare and south carolina was the butler of the joke -- butt of the joke and we rallied and we got to work. and by the time i left, we were building planes with boeing. we were building more b.m.w.'s

than anyplace in the world. we brought in mercedes-benz. we brought in volvo. we had five international tire companies and they were referring to us as the beast of the southeast, which i loved. we moved that 11% unemployment down to 4%. we announced stkpwhrobs every county -- jobs in every county in the state. we had pension reform but we acknowledged some truth. we said, if you have to show picture i.d. to buy sudafed, if you have to show picture i.d. to get on a plane, you should have to show it to protect the integrity of the election process, we passed voter i.d. in south carolina. we passed the toughest illegal immigration tphraut country -- law in the country. president obama sued us over it and we won. and by the time i left being governor, we were named the friendliest state in the country. the most patriotic state in the

country. and the number two state in the country people were moving to. [people yelling] [cheers and applause] [crowd chanting] >> nikki! nikki! nikki! nikki! nikki: you know, don't ever get upset about someone who does that and who may do -- there may be more. don't ever get upset about that. because my husband and every man and woman in the military sacrificed every day for their right to do that. [cheers and applause]

we are blessed to live in america. don't ever forget that. so after i left being governor, i went to the united nations and i dealt with russia, china and iran every day. and we made sure countries knew what america was for and what america was against. we didn't care if they didn't like us. but we wanted them to respect america. and we took the kick-me sign off of our backs and america was respected again at the u.n. and now i'm running for president. [cheers and applause] and i don't need to tell you how tough things are. you don't have to turn on the news to see it. we are $34 trillion in debt. we're having to borrow money just to make our interest payments. china owns some of that debt. and right now we're making -- we're paying more money for our

interest payments than we are for our defense budget. you know who notices that? russia, china and iran. and i would love to tell you that biden did that to us. but i've always spoken in hard truths. and i'm going to do that with you today. [crowd noise] >> nikki! nikki! nikki! nikki! nikki: so as much as i would love to say biden did that to us, our republicans did that to us too. you go back and look at that $2.2 trillion covid stimulus bill that they passed with no accountability, they expanded

welfare that's now left us with 80 million americans on medicaid, 42 million americans on food stamps. that's 1/3 of our country. and did republicans try and make it right? nope. they opened up pet projects and earmarks for the first time in 10 years, passing through 7,000 of them last year. want to know how they spent your money? $30 million on an honors college in vermont. $10 million totary down a hotel in -- to tear down a hotel in hr*fplts $7.5 million on a courthouse in colorado. and the list goes on. all while one in six american families can't pay their utility bills? [crowd noise] we're going to do better than that. [cheers and applause] 60% of americans are living paycheck to paycheck. 50% of american families can't afford diapers. what are we doing?

we've got to start holding both of them accountable. and do you know congress has one job. one job. and that's to give us a budget on time. and do you know congress has only given us a budget on time four times in 40 years? you know what i say to that? you don't give us a budget on time, you don't get paid. period. [cheers and applause] and don't you think it's finally time we had term limits in washington, d.c.? [cheers and applause] don't you think we need to have mental competency tests for everyone over the age of 75? [applause] now, i want to say this. i'm not being disrespectful when i say that. we all know people who are 75 that can run circles around us. and then we know joe biden.

[laughter] >> and trump! nikki: congress right now is the most privileged nursing home in the country. [laughter] but we need to remember these are people making decisions on the future of our economy. these are people making decisions on our national security. we need to know they're at the top of their game. so we've got to start making sure we hold them accountable. so this is how i would deal with the economy. the first thing we'll do is we'll claw back the $100 billion of unspent covid dollars that are still sitting out there. instead of 87,000 i.r.s. agents going after middle america, we'll go after the hundreds of billions of dollars of covid fraud, one out of every $7 was spent fraudulently. if 8% of our budget is interest, quit borrowing. cut up the credit cards. you have to balance a budget every day, i had to balance a

budget as governor. why is congress the only group that refuses to balance a budget? we'll stop the spending, we'll stop the borrowing, we'll eliminate the earmarks and i'll veto any spending bill that doesn't take us back to pre-covid levels. that will save us trillions. [applause] then we'll take as many federal programs as we can and we'll send it down to the state level. that will reduce the federal government dramatically but it will empower people on the ground. think education, think health care, think welfare, think mental health. if we pass that down, you've got the resources customized by state. >> nikki! nikki! nikki! nikki! nikki!

nikki: oh, bless his heart. then we want to make sure we open up the middle class. we're watching the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. we want to open up the middle class by eliminating the federal gas and diesel tax in this country. we want to cut taxes on the middle class and simplify the brackets. and we want to make small business tax cuts permanent. [applause] small businesses are the heart beat of our economy. we need to start acting like it. [cheers and applause] and then we're going to take our energy sector and turn it into an economic powerhouse. [cheers and applause] we're going to roll back the e.p.a., right now they care more about sage brush lizards than they do about whether or not we

can afford our utility bills. we're going to speed up our permitting, we're going to speed up our pipelines, including keystone pipeline. we're going to export as much liquefied natural gas as we possibly can. [cheers and applause] when we do all of that, we will pay down our debt and we'll reduce inflation. and then we've got to talk about the border. it is unbelievable that we are allowing this to happen in the united states of america. now, let me tell you, i've been on the border and i didn't pull a kamala go and come back. i went 400 miles down that border. you're not ready for what i saw and some of you may have seen it. when you get up in the morning, you get your coffee and you watch the news. when these ranchers get up in the morning, they get their coffee and they go see if anybody died crossing the fence. they pick up whatever little kids are left behind and turn

them over to border patrol. i met with multiple sheriffs, they said before 7:00 a.m. they round up whatever illegal immigrants they can find, they turn them over to border patrol. border patrol documents them and releases them until their court date years from now. and when i asked border patrol about their jobs, they said, you know what we do? we're glorified baby-sitters. they don't let us do our jobs. 8 1/2 million illegal immigrants have come across that border. we've had more fentanyl cross the board that are would kill every single american last year. number one cause of death for adults 18 to 45, fentanyl. and don't think for a second china doesn't know what they're doing when they send it over. so we will take what we did in south carolina and we'll go national with it. we won't just do a wall, whether he do more than that. we'll do a -- we'll do more than

that. we'll do a national e-verify program where every business has to prove that the people they hire are in this country legally. [applause] we will defund sanction wear cities once and for all. no more safe havens. we'll put 25,000 border patrol and i.c.e. agents on the ground and let them do their jobs. we'll go back to the remain in mexico policy because no one should even step foot on u.s. soil. and instead of catch and release, we'll go to catch and deport. that is what will stop us at the border. [applause] and then, growing up in rural south carolina, my parents always taught me --

[crowd disturbance] >> nikki! nikki! nikki! [crowd chanting] nikki: pray for them. pray for them. so my parents always said, you take care of those who take care of you. but i'm going to ask you for taking care of those who take care of us, right now in america, over 35,000 of our veterans are homeless. one in three suffers from ptsd or thoughts of suicide. we lose 22 heros a day to suicide. if a veteran needs a doctor's appointment at the v.a., on average it takes 29 days. why 29 days? because on the 30th day, they can go to the doctor or hospital of their choice.

so midway law that the 29 days, they get a call to reschedule and the clock starts all over again. it's shameful how we treat our veterans. now, i'm the proud wife of a combat veteran who served in afghanistan. [cheers and applause] when michael came home from afghanistan -- when michael came home from afghanistan, that was a lot of prayers answered. but that was the easy part. the hard part's when we got home. michael couldn't hear loud noises, he couldn't be in crowds. life had passed him by for the year that he was gone and the transition was tough. we can't just love our men and women when they're gone. we got to love them when they come back home too.

[cheers and applause] so let's do more than just the two-week strings. let's take -- >> nikki! nikki! nikki! nikki! nikki! nikki! nikki: the best way we take care of our veterans is we make sure we do telehealth so they get the mental health care they need right when they need it. let's let them go to the doctor or hospital of their choice, they've earned that right. and i think the best way we deal with veteran health care, i think every member of congress should have to get their health care from the v.a. and you watch how fast that gets fixed.

[applause] it will be the best health care you've ever seen, guaranteed. and then we need to focus on national security. and you know the part that no one understands, everybody says, why doesn't america understand national security? don't blame americans. because right now the president and congress don't tell people why ukraine matters. they don't tell people why israel matters. they don't tell people about north korea or china. when i'm president, i will overcommunicate and tell you absolutely everything. [cheers and applause] but you look right now, the world is on fire. we've got a war in europe. we've got a war in the middle east. you've got north korea testing intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of hitting the

u.s. bless you. and you've got china on the march. but make no mistake, none of that would have happened had we not had the debacle in afghanistan. the idea that my husband and his military brothers and sisters who served there had to watch us leave bagram air force base in the middle of the night without telling our allies who stood shoulder to shoulder with us for decades because we asked them to be there, think about what that says -- [crowd disturbance] >> nikki! nikki! nikki! [crowd chanting] [crowd disturbance] nikki: that is exactly why you have to worry about iran. [cheers and applause]

when you look at what happened with bagram air force base, they about what that told our friends. more importantly, think about what it told our enemies. our number one goal should be to prevent war. period. [applause] so when congress and the president come to you and say, are you for ukraine, are you for israel, are you for israel or are you for securing the border? [crowd disturbance] [crowd chanting] >> nikki! nikki! nikki!

nikki: you got to give them an a for spirit. i'll give them that. congress should not sit there and tell you you have to choose. congress has to include the fact that securering the border is -- securing the border is priority number one. period. but they also have to prevent war. they also have to keep americans safe. that's their job. [crowd disturbance] so we know what we need to do with domestic policy. we know what we need to do with national security. but now we've got to talk about some hard truths. republicans have lost the last seven out of eight popular votes for president. that's nothing to be proud of. we should want to win the majority of americans. [applause] but the only way we're going to win the majority of americans is if we have a new generational

conservative leader. [cheers and applause] you know, it has been one year today that i announced that i ran for president. [cheers and applause] and what a year it's been. we had 14 people in the race. we defeated a dozen of the fellas. i just got one more fella i gotta catch up to. [cheers and applause] we had 2% in iowa. we moved it to 20%. they said we were down 30 points in new hampshire, we ended up getting 43% of the vote. and when we got 43%, donald

trump threw a temper tantrum. now, i want to say this. hard truths. i voted for donald trump twice. i was proud to serve america in his administration. but the truth is, chaos follows him everywhere he goes, chaos follows him. and we can't be a country in disarray in a world on fire and go through four more years of chaos. we won't survive it. [applause] so he throws a temper tantrum onion stage and talks about revenge and my -- onstage and talks about revenge. and my dress. and then the next day he says anybody who supports her is barred permanently from maga. [cheers and applause]

now, think about that. a president of the united states should want to bring as many people in, not push people out of his club. but we had a little bit of fun with that. we sold barred permanently t-shirts. we sold 20,000 t-shirts after he said that. then the next day he tries to get named the presumptive nominee. you know, we don't anoint kings in america. every state deserves the right to vote. don't you want to vote, texas? [cheers and applause] then the next day he loses a court case and he goes on another rant and he talks about being a victim.

the problem i have with all of that, whether it was the night of new hampshire or whether it was after this court case, at no point did he talk about the american people. at no point did he talk about the fact that we were $34 trillion in debt. yes. [cheers and applause] at no point did he talk about that only 31% of eighth graders are proficient in reading. at no point did he talk about an open border. at no point did he talk about the lawlessness in our cities. and at no point did he talk about the wars around the world. all he did was talk about himself. [cheers and applause] and you think about the fact that if anybody wants to get something done in america, you

first have to win. and you look at any one of those general election polls, he's down by seven, he's down by seven, he's down by nine, on his best day he's even as far as margin of error. i'm in every one of those same general election polls. and i defeat biden by up to 17 points. [cheers and applause] you win by that big of a margin, that's bigger than presidency. that's house, that's senate, that's governorship. that's school board. that's transforming our entire government. but you win by double digits, that's a mandate to stop the wasteful spending and get our economy back on track. that's a mandate to get our kids

reading again and back to the basics in education. that's a mandate to secure our borders with no more excuses. that's a mandate for law and order back in our cities, that's a mandate for a strong america that prevents wars, that we can all be proud of. don't you want that? [cheers and applause] because we could have that. but it's going to take a lot of courage. courage from everybody in this room. courage for me to run and currently for every one of you to know, don't complain about what happens in the general election if you don't play in this primary. [applause] donald trump lost in 2018. he lost in tw*ept. he lost it for us in 2022. but look at what happened last week.

last week he loses his case on immunity, he's now tpwobg citizen tr*up -- he's now going to be citizen trump. he has his first case in march. march and april he's in one court case. may and june he's in another. he's already said he's going to spend most of this year in a courtroom, not on a campaign trail. that's not a way you win. but then you go and you look at the fact, we lost a vote on mayorkas. we lost a vote on israel. the r.n.c. chair lost her job. and trump had his fingerprints on all of it. everything he touches we lose. [applause] and if you want to know why this matters, seven months ago i dropped my husband, michael, off at 4:00 a.m. for another-long deployment. and i watched him and 230

soldiers pick up their two duffel bags of belongings to go to a country they'd never been, all in the name of protecting america. [applause] they're willing to sacrifice their lives and their families because they still believe in this amazing experiment that is america. [applause] so if they're willing to sacrifice for us there, shouldn't we be willing to fight for america here? [cheers and applause] because we have a country to save. and if we have a country to save, let's look at what donald trump is offering you. he has already said he's going to raise taxes. he wants to put tariffs on everything from baby strollers to appliances.

every american family is going to pay more than $2800 a year. everybody talks about the economy under trump. he put us $8 trillion in debt in just four years. now he's saying he wants to cut social security after 10 years by 24%. don't let him fool you on this. but we have to be smart too. [crowd disturbance] >> nikki! nikki! nikki! stph-fpt crowd chanting] nikki: y'all are just letting me feel the love tonight. i appreciate that. so right now the people of texas have a choice to make. do we want more of the same?

or do we want to go in a new direction? and more of the same is not just joe biden. more of the same is donald trump. and listen to america. 70% of americans have said they don't want a trump-biden rematch. 59% of americans have said trump's too old and biden's too old. the majority of americans disapprove of trump and the majority of americans disapprove of biden. and do we really want to leave it up to two 08-year-old candidates -- 80-year-old candidates to take our country forward? so this is where we get to work. because if we want to make a difference, we have a chance to do that. and the way we do that is when you leave here, take a yard

sign, go vote, vote early if you have to, and take five friends with you. [cheers and applause] because we know, texas, what happens when we want to take a turn in our country. we know, texas, what happens when we want to see a change in a new direction. we know, texas, what it means to prove everybody wrong. and i trust texans to get this right. [cheers and applause] when i announced, they asked me why i was doing this. and i said, you know, my parents came here 50 years ago to an america that was strong and proud and full of opportunity. i want them to know that country again. i'm doing this for michael and

his military brothers and sisters. they need to know their sacrifice matters. they need to know that we love our country. [applause] i'm doing this for my daughter who just got married and i saw how hard it was for her and her husband to buy a home. the average homebuyer in america now is 49 years old. the american dream is leaving them. and i'm doing this for my son who is a senior in college, and i'm tired of watching him write papers of things he doesn't believe in, just to get an a. that's not us, that's not america. [cheers and applause] and for the first time, 81% of americans don't think their kids are going to have as good of a life as they did. i'm not ok with that. we do have a country to save. but i'll promise you this. if you will join with us in this

movement, if you will tell your friends and join with us in this fight, i promise you, our best days are yet to come. thank you very much. god bless you, dallas! thank you! [cheers and applause]

♪

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