>> It's been about a year since we've last set down as you're
kicking off the campaign.
Has it gone
the way you thought it was?
>> Will campaigns you never know how they're going to go.
But we're incredibly proud of everything that we've done.
I mean, think about it. A year this week we announced
there were 14 people in the race.
We defeated a dozen of them. I just got one more. I got to
catch up to.
>> You're still some pretty optimistic that that's
a dragon that can be sleigh this year.
>> I mean, look, you have to do whatever it takes to save our
country. That's the way I look at it. And
even if it means, you know, taken on, you know, the biggest
giant there is I've always been an underdog. It's all I know
how to do. And it's what I'm good at is just going in trying
to make a difference, going to try, make sure that we do what
we need to do. As you know, the former president.
>> Yesterday endorsed of the group of loyalists, including
his daughter-in-law to run the RNC. Now the idea reportedly to
bring the campaign closer to the party. What do you make of
that?
>> It's a lot of political insider stuff. I mean, he's
surrounded himself by all political insiders. If you look
at all the congressional members surrounding him,
I mean, those are all more of the same people who haven't
gotten anything done. And look, they're never going to support
someone like me. Why? Because I want term limits because I
think if they don't get us a budget on time, they should get
paid because I don't think they should be trading in the stock
market. I mean, there are multiple things that I'm
fighting back against DC because they never get anything
done for us. But for him to first try and get the RNC to
name him, the Republican nominee
and the public had backlash about that,
then to go and fire the RNC chair and now do this. It's
just another way of doing that. He's just trying to control as
much as he can control. But we don't want to king in America.
That's the problem.
>> They they heard your criticism earlier and they
responded to Trump. Campaign spokesman said, quote, Nikki
bring the Birdbrain Healy reeks of desperation. As it's clear
she knows she has no shot and is now addition for cable news
contractor. 15 minutes are over.
That was there.
That was their response to your criticism once you do that.
>> And I mean, it's a weak response. He knows that.
I mean,
you know, that we're under his skin because he's tweeting
about us at 02:00AM in the morning. I mean, you know,
we're under the skin because you saw what he did at the
rally on Saturday. I mean, when he goes off the teleprompter,
he's unhinged. He's totally on hand, you know, to mock my
husband,
Michael, and I can handle that when you're in politics,
it's, you know, public is anything can happen. But 2 Mach
one member of the military, you mock all members of the
military
and to go and do it the way he did.
He doesn't understand what that kind of sacrifice is. He
doesn't understand what it means to wear the uniform.
He doesn't understand because this is a pattern that he
continues to do, whether he called
those that have lost their lives in the military, whether
calls and losers are suckers or whether he's at Arlington
National Cemetery saying, you know what was in it for them.
He's never known what that's like that to going say
something like that. You insulted every member of the
military wants all to every veteran that you insulted every
military family.
>> But the reality is this time it's different because he's
talking about your husband needed at a campaign event over
the weekend. Then last night, your point, he said that when
you try to get this right, he said that your husband needs to
come back from Africa to, quote, see their dining
campaign.
What do we know? He's he's talked about the military
for years now in a disparaging ways. Suckers and losers.
John McCain, gold star families.
>> What's different now? What's different this time?
Well, I mean, I think before when he did it was during the
2016 election. Everybody thought, oh, did he have a
slip? What what did that mean during the time that he had his
in that I was in the administration? I mean, I
called him out every single time if something was wrong.
I had a conversation with them about Charlottesville. I had a
conversation about something that he would say about women.
I had a conversation with them about multiple things. You know
how we told him what I thought something was wrong. The
problem now is he is not the same person he was in 2016.
He is on hand. TE is more diminished and he then he was
just like Joe Biden's more diminished them. What he was.
We have to see this for what it is. This is the fact that he's
now saying things.
>> The don't makes a lot of the box. And with all due respect,
he's been saying want to see stuff for years and often times
in the past when he said those things, you right there,
you might. You endorsed him. But he ran again. You're a
vocal supporter. You out on the campaign trail for me was
seeing crazy stuff on the first one to say I voted for him
twice.
>> I was proud to serve American his administration,
but you can go back and look at my book. I cite multiple times
and he knows it. When I called him out for things that he was
doing that were wrong.
There were other things that he did that were wrong. I would
tell him he was his own worst enemy. He knows that would
always say that to him.
And since then since I got out of the administration, I have
called him out multiple times, which is why he's upset because
he thinks on this oil, I'm not loyal to anyone. I don't do
that. What I do is I call it out if you're right, you're
right. If you're wrong, you're wrong. I'm going to call it out
every time. The part that bothers me now is look at what
else he said at the rally.
He says that he's not going to support our NATO allies.
If they don't pull their weight,
he didn't just stop there.
He then turned around and said he would encourage you to
invade. Then
these are countries that stood by us after 9.11.
And you're going to side with a sock
who half a million people have died or been wounded because of
Putin and his invasion of Ukraine. You're going to side
with the dictator who killed his opponents. You're going to
side with someone who's arrested Edgar so much just for
doing his job of journalism. You're going to side with that
over our allies.
That's dangerous.
>> It's not just him know what, what about
the hundreds of thousands who turned out the primaries to
vote for?
I mean, he is clearly
head and shoulders above the rest in terms of front-runner
status. Right now. You can see what does that say about the
party? What why? Why has your message not broken through so
far?
>> Well, I think my message has broken through because what
we're seeing is not only are we getting Republicans were
getting independents were getting Reagan Democrats,
the people who want the anger to stop the people who want the
division to stop and the people who want us to stop having 80
year-old candidates and start getting someone who can run 8
years and solve the problems and get a solution. That's what
they want. When you look at the situation we have now, Craig,
you've got to be honest.
Youve got Joe Biden or the special counsel said he was
diminished and he's not. The Joe Biden was 2 years ago.
You've got to Donald Trump whose unhinged and he's more
unhinged than he ever was.
And while we settling for that, when the country is disarray in
disarray in the world is on fire,
why are we saying that's our choice? Would you know? Because
voters are saying no saying that, you know who sang it?
70 1% of Americans are saying they don't want Trump or Biden
and a reelection. 59% of Americans just this past
weekend said
Donald Trump and Joe Biden are too old run for president.
So let's look at the majority of Americans. If you're going
to talk about him, don't talk about a certain part of the
Republican primary. That's not everybody. Don't paint
everybody with the same brush. You've got a lot of good
Americans who say this is very wrong. They're tired of DC not
getting anything done. They're tired of the fact that they
have 2 older men who are focused on themselves running
for office and they're tired of the anger in the division.
>> You mentioned that the former president's mental
fitness, but our latest NBC News poll showed that 80% of
GOP voters 80% have minor or no concerns
about that. What do you think that is? What do you think that
there are so many GOP primary voters who may agree with you,
the mace and you know what, Trump's not the same guy was.
I'm going with that. He's 77 with that. He says on the
interesting sometimes with that, why do you think that is?
>> It's because I mean, a lot of them saw
when he was president. He never got announced a credit or a
moment's peace. And they saw that he fought for them and now
they want to go back and reward him for that. What I'm saying
to them,
I was with you. I voted for him.
But look at what he's now saying. Not only is he saying
he's going to side with Putin which could hurt our military
and start a war.
He wants to raise taxes on every American family by
putting tariffs on all goods that come in from strollers to
appliances. It's going to cost every American family. 2800 $1.
He tried to raise the gas tax $0.25 per gallon in 2018.
He'll do it again. He wants to cut Social Security by 24% in
10 years.
That's a fact.
He put us a trillion dollars in debt in just 4 years that our
kids are never going to forgive him for.
We need to start looking at the fact what seen really saying
he's going to do. And now he takes 50 million dollars of his
campaign contributions
and puts it to towards personal court cases for his legal fees.
Look at last week
he lost the case on immunity. He's now going to be citizen
Trump and he says he's going to spend more time in a courtroom
that he will be on the campaign trail. Problem number one,
Republicans lost the bill on the border. They lost the bill
on Israel. The RNC chair lost her job. His fingers were in
all of that.
Everything he touches is chaos. That's just a fact now.
>> What a lot of what you may be swifter same may be true,
but it sure does. He's of Republican primary voters knew
all of that and they've made peace with.
>> You're saying that because 2 states voted like we still with
what you've you've seen the polls. You've seen the polls
right now
here in our state. Were you elected governor twice recent
poll has you down the more than 30 points? 3 point you said
you've got to do at least.
>> 43% think that's what you did in New Hampshire. You said
that 43% of the magic number. That's what you want to garner
if you don't do that and south coming home state.
>> What does that mean? Just said I was 30 points down in
New Hampshire and I got 43%. This is about closing. We moved
25 points in the last 3 weeks of the election in New
Hampshire.
We are moving in South Carolina. We're going to close
the gap on fighting for every single vote. That's why we're
doing this bus tour on every small town. Every big city
going in showing people that they deserve better. Americans
are tired of working for government. They now want
government to serve the people and they see all the chaos that
surround us and they don't like it. Youve got hundreds of
people out there. We've had hundreds of people, whether
it's the low country, whether it's the upstate because they
want something different. And when 70% of Americans
>> say they don't want Trump or Biden, why are you talking
about a poll that want to stay? Is that something percent not
showing up to vote in GOP primaries? You haven't finished
the state's sure. You're going to you're going to ride this
thing out there going. You guys that are Super Tuesday. You're
going to we're going to be competitive no matter what.
>> We're going to be competitive in South Carolina.
Then we're headed to Michigan. Then we're headed to Super
Tuesday. This is about the fact that we need to allow states to
vote.
We don't pick kings. We don't do coronations. We have a
democracy where people vote. We don't decide because he got
one and a half percent of Iowa's population. We don't
decide just because you think about that. He didn't get 43%
of the vote. New Hampshire. Now we're in South Carolina.
Let South Carolinians shoes.
>> Investor, would you concede that at some point, though,
yes, you've got to remain competitive. You've got to show
some growth. But at some point you've got to win one. You've
got to win. The state is their state right now. You look at
it. You said you know what? I can win admission. I can win
in Texas. The primaries I can.
Maybe when. Exactly. Is there one state where you can see
right now?
>> We can win there. You need 1215 delegates
coming out of New Hampshire. He had 32. I had 17
weve got multiple states after South Carolina within 10 days,
10 days we're going to hit 20 states,
let it happen. So if you know, if I got out of that, the the
campaign now,
do you know be the longest general election in history
and one work you 70%. I don't want to be Trump and Biden.
Why would I do that? Why would I do that when you've got so
many Americans that are saying stop, we don't want these 2 old
men running. We want someone who's going to go and fight for
us and work for us with no drama. No vendetta is it's not
all about, you know, that person because it continues to
be about their egos that I'm doing this because I don't want
my kids to live like this. I don't want your kids to live
like this.
>> You did you say something, though? The triggered a thought
and I read something recently. Someone has suggested that part
of your strategy could be potentially
Eubank delegates and if you go to the convention and he has
been a convicted of a crime
lord, there has something else happened. Maybe it's health
related.
You could then stand up and say, you know what?
I've got the second most delegates of any of the
candidates. I'm your woman. Is that a thought that crossed
are?
>> The thought that crosses my mind is every single state.
It's I never think too far ahead. I never thought past
Iowa. I never thought past New Hampshire on now thinking about
South Carolina. All let my team think about Michigan and Super
Tuesday. I'm focused on the state that I'm in Houston for
Super Tuesday. No matter what. Well, why would I get out?
Work is long as we keep it competitive suggested you might
be hurting the potential GOP nominee the longer you stay in.
I mean, how ridiculous is it
that you're literally saying that
I'm hurting him by staying in?
>> Every resource know went O K.
>> Resources from a man who spent 50 million dollars of his
own campaign contributions on his personal court cases where
the RNC is broke. I'm the one hurting in resources. I don't
think so. I think on the one that if the Republican Party
wants to be saved on the one that saves the Republican
Party, you know why? Because look at every general election
poll, look at any of them. Trump loses by 5 by 7 on a good
day. He's even margin of air.
I defeat by up to 17 point Mark Mark Appel. But President Biden
is not the primary. That's that seems to continue to be the
prom and we're going to continue to work on the
primary. We're continuing to try and get the votes. Don't
discount that. I defeated a dozen fellas. Don't discount
that. I got 43% New Hampshire and don't discount me now.
I'm doing this because we have a country is safe.
I'm not doing this from my political career. I'm not doing
this for any sort of gig. I'm doing this because our
country deserves better and I'm not going to stop fighting
until I know I've done everything I can to save her.
>> You said something yesterday that caught my attention
because I've never heard you say before after the most
recent attack on on your your husband than other military
families, you said, quote, He's no longer qualify to be
president.
How do you square that with raising your hand on that
debate stage saying you would support and even if you are
convicted criminal,
how do you support with no qualified?
>> I have said any of those 14
would be better than Joe Biden
because everybody sees how diminish Joe Biden's. I will
also tell you, there is no way that the American people are
going to vote for a convicted criminal.
>> They're not what you said. You were there, not what you
said. You know, that is not the question. The question was.
>> Would we support the Republican nominee? We just had
to sign it before we went on that stage. Everybody needs to
go back and look at what happened. Every Republican
nominee signed a pledge
before they could even get on the debate stage. That said if
that we were not the nominee, would we support the nominee?
And I said yes, and I stand by that that I would support the
Republican nominee. But you don't trust the American people
because I know the American people are not going to vote
for a convicted criminal. They're not going to do it.
I know American people are better than that. I trust them.
>> But you said he's no longer qualified to be president.
>> If you don't know the value
of our men and women in uniform,
if you don't know the sacrifice that they go through,
why should I as a military spouse and all our military
families trust you to know you're going to keep them out
of harm's way?
You're saying you're going to side with Putin,
then I know it's going to cause a war, not stop a war.
Why would any military family feel like you could going keep
our men and women protected? Because you can't.
This is about the security national security of Americans.
It's about the safety of our men and women in the military
and it's about having their backs and you need a
commander-in-chief. It's going to have their backs. And I
don't know what that rant was that he had and it's not even
personal about Mayor Michael, it's about how do you look at
the military and do you and then at 2 o'clock in the
morning, you're going to go say
he should come home and save his wife OKC. You don't realize
when you take a tour, there's no just coming home. I mean,
the reality is he's never been anywhere near a military
uniform. He's never had to sleep on the ground. He's never
know how to sacrifice and the most harm he's ever possibly
had is getting hit by golf ball when he's sitting in a golf
cart. That's the truth. All of that was to 4 years ago.
All of that was true. Anyway.
I just I guess it is not the same person today
any more than Joe Biden was the same person 4 years ago.
That's a fact, Craig.
These guys are you can't have someone in their 80's and you
tell me there is spry as they were years ago. Donald Trump
just sat there and went on a rant 3, 4, times saying that I
was in charge of security at the Capitol
over and over again. He said
he was confused. He's gotten countries confused. Biden is
confused. Why are we going to go in settle for this?
America can do better. We know that.
>> I do want to just put a fine point on this again to be to be
clear, you didn't speak yesterday when you said that
he's no longer qualified to be president. You stand by that.
>> If you are going to have our military, you are not qualified
to be president period because anybody that will mock our
military, anybody that will go and put them in harm's way by
saying you're going to side with Russia, you are not
protecting our men and women in the military.
>> So you would not still support at this point based on
what he said about the military in recent days.
>> I'm telling why don't you ask him the question, wasn't
anybody asking him to respond and defend himself
because he's not y'all. Look at me for something. Watch asking
him. Watch you asking him if he is qualified to be president
after mocking the military.
>> To be fair, I think the president, the former president
might say
don't seem to matter a whole lot.
>> They're still showing up to vote for me. They're still
showing up in a row. And I don't know if you don't ask and
you're never going to know.
>> Does your future look like in the GOP
if you're not the nominee?
>> It's not anything I worry about
when you do something for the right reasons. The last thing
you're worried about is your political career.
That's not why I'm doing this. You don't take on a bully
and think of your political career you take on a bully
because you don't want your kids to grow up in a country
that this divide you take on a bully because you don't want
any other American families to feel the stress, the anxiety,
the depression, that anger, the division that has taken over
our country.
You don't take on a bully
unless you saw the fall of Afghanistan. You saw what
happened with inflation. You see that our kids are only
31% of 8th graders are proficient in reading. That's
why you go in. Take on a bully is because you know
that I'm not going to sleep at night knowing I didn't do
everything I possibly could
to save this country.
>> We talked a lot in the past about
service public service. You know it.
You've also in the past. Yeah, sort of use that to
explain why you stuck around in the previous administration.
Hypothetically,
if your former boss is the nominee again,
would you serve in the
>> another Trump administration? I don't want
anything. I don't want vice president. I don't want
anything. And this is I don't want anything
it. I mean, you you're missing the point. I've said this to on
blue in the face. I'm running against him. Not for him.
I'm running because yes, while I thought he was the right
president right time then I do not think he's the right
president the right time now. That's why I'm running. That's
why defeated a dozen of them is because I know with the
American people want they want to be heard. They've been
through a lot. They don't see enough money in their wallets.
They don't see their kids reading. They see a border
that's out of control. That is that one person can cause a
9.11 and they don't want their military members to go to war.
That's what I'm doing. I'm doing this because we have to
do something. We can't just sit back and let it happen.
I will say this to the people of South Carolina
and Michigan and Super Tuesday
in a general election. You're given a choice
in a primary. You make your choice.
This is the time where we make our choice.
Don't complain about what you get in a general election.
If you don't play in this primary