♪ opening music ♪ ♪ ♪ Gavin Jackson> On Tuesday night, voters in the first in the nation Republican presidential primary here in New Hampshire made it overwhelmingly clear that former President Donald Trump is the clear standard bearer for the Republican Party and nomination.

Welcome to This Week in South Carolina special report.

I’m Gavin Jackson in Salem, New Hampshire, in the state that was key for growing momentum for South Carolina’s own Nikki Haley ahead of the state’s February 24th primary.

I was on the ground crisscrossing the state as the governor barnstormed here in what became a two person race when Florida Governor Ron DeSantis dropped out on Sunday.

But before we get on the trail here in New Hampshire, I want to take you back to October when we spent a few days with Haley on the trail.

She filed at the secretary of state’s office to be on the ballot in New Hampshire back when her support was hovering in the low teens.

We also got behind the scenes access to her before the current media swarms became such fixtures on the trail.

(car engine rumbling) (footfalls) (footfalls) (indistinct chatter) Haley> Hello!

(applause) >> We’ll be right outside, okay?

Haley> Oh, my goodness!

I’ve got to stop everything.

(laughter) <Haley> How are you?

>> I’m doing well.

Haley> Congratulations.

>> Thank you very much.

Haley> As if ten tours in Afghanistan wasn’t enough.

Now he’s going through law enforcement academy.

(applause) Haley> Now, you know, I just saw a commercial on TV, and you’re right there in it.

guest #1> Yes, she is!

(laughter) Haley> Have you been getting a lot of flak for that?

guest #2> There’s just a lot of people calling me going, you’ll really like her.

You’re going to love her.

(laughter) Haley> That’s good.

Well, thank you.

I can’t thank you enough.

I start with this man who I adore, who just came out for me like, (snaps fingers) like that.

>> Boom!

Haley> And he really got us going.

And then y’all have just, it’s been a story of addition, which, you know, we love.

But I’d love to just chat with you about whatever you want to talk about.

I can tell you, if you want to talk about Iowa, if you want to talk about New Hampshire, if you want to talk about anything else, I’m happy to.

You know, or tell me what you’re hearing on the ground; that’s important too.

<Speaker on stage> She will serve you.

And I believe this in my heart, in this first in the nation primary summit, was made for her, because she’s been it.

She’s done it.

She’s put the mileage in.

She’s going to put in more.

She’s got more energy than anyone I’ve ever seen.

And I frankly love her.

My wife, Sharon, loves her.

And we’ve been on day one.

And I will say I was the first one and I’m going to pat myself on the back when she gets elected president.

But right now, I’m going to introduce to you the next president of the United States, Nikki Haley.

(cheers and applause) ♪ Haley> But now I’m going to tell you what I told South Carolinians when I became governor.

No more whining.

No more complaining.

Now we get to work.

How do we fix it when it comes to our economy?

Let’s start by clawing back the $500 billion of unspent COVID dollars that are still out there.

(applause) Instead of 87,000 IRS agents going after middle America, let’s go after the hundreds of billions of dollars of COVID fraud that we know exist.

A dollar out of every $7 was spent fraudulently.

Thank you.

(cheers and applause) Thank you.

Thank you so much.

(applause) ♪ (lively chatter) ♪ guest #3> Could I get a picture with you?

♪ guest #3> Thank you so much for everything you’ve done, ma’am.

Haley> Spread the word for me.

guest #4> You think I could get a picture with you?

Haley> Of course!

(lively chatter) ♪ (lively chatter) ♪ guest #5> It’s good seeing you again.

♪ Thank you.

♪ Haley> No problem.

Last one, then I got to go.

(lively chatter) Haley> Take care.

<Crowd> Oh no!

♪ (indistinct chatter) Haley> Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Good to see you.

It’s great to be here.

Thank you.

Gavin> Autumn in New Hampshire gave way to lower temperatures and steadily higher poll numbers and fundraising numbers for Haley that led into winter, where she solidified her second place dominance in New Hampshire polls and looked forward to capitalizing on her close third place showing in Iowa.

(indistinct chatter) Haley> Y’all have decided you want to talk about what the scenario is going to be.

I have told you from the very beginning and been very consistent.

I said, “I want to be strong in Iowa.”

I feel like we did that.

We started at 2%.

We ended with 20%.

I was happy with that.

I said, we want to be stronger in New Hampshire.

We’re going to do that.

We won’t know what stronger is until the numbers come in.

And then I want to be stronger than that in South Carolina.

And for all of those that are reporting that I’m a moderate, I will ask you or anybody, Trump or anybody in Fox News saying that I’m not a conservative, name one thing that I wasn’t conservative about, because what I know as a governor, I passed tort reform, I passed voter I.D., I passed the toughest illegal immigration law in the country, I passed pension reform.

We cut taxes, we lifted up people, and put thousands of people to work.

When I went to the U.N., we cut a billion dollars.

Not one person can tell you how I wasn’t conservative.

So you can go and say that I’m moderate.

Show me where I’m moderate, because I’m not.

The difference is who is deciding who’s conservative and who’s moderate?

Is it because of what I say?

Is it how I talk?

What is it that’s saying that?

So, I mean, I think that’s the focus.

But I’ll tell you now they’re saying, “But if you win in New Hampshire, that’s favorable territory, but not South Carolina.”

I won South Carolina twice as governor.

I think I know what favorable territory is.

And South Carolina, we are going to South Carolina.

We’re going to be strong in South Carolina.

The road is never going to stop there.

That’s always been the plan.

Strong in Iowa, stronger in New Hampshire, an even stronger in South Carolina.

Gavin> The popular Republican governor, Chris Sununu, who got reelected in a state with a full Democratic federal delegation, has been a key supporter and cheerleader on the trail, especially as the two barnstormed across the state and looked for undeclared or independent voters to turn out Tuesday.

Sununu> Only Trump needs to win New Hampshire.

Because Trump, now Trump told the media have told America he’s going to win.

New Hampshire for two years now and so there’s no expectation, but the fact that she’s down here, means that she’s still on this road that she has all the momentum We’re expecting record turnout.

Trump’s scared that he’ll actually get shattered is that something.

He thinks that he’s unbeatable because he is beatable.

The emperor has no clothes, so he’s scared.

You know, she just needs- Just like she said.

She needs a strong showing here and a strong showing in South Carolina.

We’re proving that it’s a one on one race.

That was goal number one.

We did it.

We’ve proven that she has a shot at going after him.

That’s number two.

She’s going to get a strong second no matter what.

She’s very confident about that.

So, no, Trump is the only one that actually has to win, which is why he’s so dramatic.

Do you know since 2016, here in New Hampshire, federal races, Republicans are 0 for 11 with Donald Trump at the top.

I’m sick of that.

These are our seats.

We’ve got to win these things back.

And Nikki at the top brings the entire party along.

Right?

We are tired of losing.

Republicans are tired of losing.

We’re tired of losers.

We’re tired of Donald Trump.

We’re going to galvanize this party.

We’re going to bring the country together.

Let’s bring out the person that’s going to do it.

(applause) She’s the governor.

She’s the ambassador.

She’s really my best friend lately.

Mrs. Nikki Haley, (applause) (applause continues) Sununu> Go get them.

(applause) Haley> So I’m cracking up because your governor had way too many Red Bulls today.

Like, I don’t know what the- But he is such a fun friend.

We’ve had a great time through this process.

You know what I love is I love the relationship he has with Granite Staters.

I love the fact that- Give them applause.

I mean, it really is.

(applause) He tells you the truth.

He fights for you.

He really does understand.

You got to be with the people, not with those that are in elected office.

You got to be with the people.

And he’s done that.

And we have been all over this state multiple times.

And so when we started and we were trying to, you know, get together and he decided to endorse me, you know, I love music.

If you were to listen to my playlist, I love music.

And, you know, he got to pick his song that he wanted to come out to.

So I hadn’t- Nobody told me what his song was.

And so we’re standing there.

I’m standing right behind him.

And all of a sudden, welcome to the jungle comes on.

And I looked at him and I was like, “Nice.. “That’s really nice.”

So, no, he’s been great.

You’re blessed to have him as your governor.

So it’s great to be here.

There’s a lot going on.

All eyes are on New Hampshire.

Three days until you vote.

Gavin> While Donald Trump held a handful of rallies over the weekend leading into the primary, he also picked up the endorsement of his one time opponent, Senator Tim Scott.

Scott, and other top, South Carolina politicians rallied in a show of force on Saturday for Trump or as he put it- Trump> So we’re going to be there in three weeks.

So you know what I’m doing?

I’m kissing this.

I’m kissing that.

McMaster> Do you all know what the plural of y’all is?

All y’all.

Well, I want to tell all y’all while we all are here, I don’t know if you noticed, but all the statewide elected officials in South Carolina, we call them constitutional officers are for Trump.

Step one, she’s a rookie and she’ll figure it out before long.

Our two U.S. senators and the vast majority of the people of South Carolina want Donald Trump.

So- (applause) So, that’s why we are here.

We are here for one reason.

We are here for one reason.

You’ve heard, those great philosophers, The Spice Girls?

‘Tell us what you want, what you really, really want.’

Well, that’s what we’re here to do, To tell you what we in South Carolina want.

What we really, really want.

And there he is.

Right there.

(applause) Haley> This is not personal with me and Donald Trump.

I don’t hate him.

I don’t dislike him.

None of that.

This is totally about the fact that I don’t want my kids to live like this.

I’m watching out for them.

That’s what we have to think about.

And then yesterday, I don’t know if you saw it, but Trump went on this rant at this rally and he’s going off how, Nikki Haley didn’t allow security into the Capitol.

Trump> By the way, they never report the crowd on January 6th.

You know, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley, you know, they did you know, they destroyed all of the information, all of the evidence, everything deleted and destroyed all of it?

All of it, because of lots of things like Nikki Haley is in charge of security.

We offered her 10,000 people, soldiers, National Guard, whatever they want.

They turned it down.

They don’t want to talk about that.

Haley> What is he talking about?

I wasn’t in D.C. on January 6th.

I wasn’t at the Capitol.

But you know what?

Look at Joe Biden, two years ago and look at him today.

That’s just what happens.

(silence) Gavin> On Sunday morning, I watched Haley’s appearance on Face the Nation at the home of Bob and Barbara Thinnes in Hooksett to gauge their reaction to Haley.

They’re registered Republicans and are set to vote for her on Tuesday.

Haley> We want the top of their game.

These are people making decisions on our national security.

host> The New Hampshire primary is just two days away.

Can anyone stop the Trump steamroll towards the Republican nomination?

We go now to former U.N.

Ambassador Nikki Haley, who is hoping to be the one to stop him.

She’s on the campaign trail in Derry, New Hampshire.

Good morning to you.

Haley> Good morning.

host> 26 Republican senators at this point and all of the House, Republican leadership have lined up behind Donald Trump.

Why?

Are they afraid of him?

Haley> Not surprised at all.

And I’ll tell you why.

You’ll see a lot of the South Carolina legislature line up behind him, too, and it’s because I’ve never really taken care of elected officials.

I call out.

Bob> That’s it.

Haley> Because I think they need to be accountable to the people.

I call out Republicans and Democrats when they don’t do the right thing.

Barbara> That’s what it should be.

Haley> …is going towards Trump because he’s going to take… Bob> Nah.

They’re more concerned with their own political careers than they are the country.

They’re a bunch of hypocrites and liars.

Simple as that.

Haley> But this goes back to a pattern.

I mean, we saw this over and over again.

It’s not just that he congratulated China’s President Xi a dozen times after China gave us COVID.

He congratulated the Chinese Communist Party on their 70th anniversary.

We don’t congratulate the Communist Chinese Party.

I remember at the United Nations I had to sit him down and tell him to stop this bromance with Putin.

I mean, you can’t have someone who’s trying to buddy up with dictators that want to kill us.

Instead, you have to let them know what we expect of them.

Gavin> Does she need to be more pointed when it comes to that kind of stuff, like should she be digging in harder?

Bob> I think she’s doing just about right.

I don’t think so.

Bob> She’s not given a canned speech.

She’s talking from the heart.

You know, it’s.

She’s just making sense.

Reasonable what she’s saying.

Barbara> And her being not so pointed is the difference between her and Mr. Trump.

You know, and you have to think that when it comes down to governing, she’ll be the same way.

host> Governor, we have to leave it there.

Thank you for your time.

We’ll be back in one minute… Bob> I thought she handled that pretty well.

Barbara> I do, too.

I would hope that she would get young people to decide on her just coming out because she really… was reasonable.

Bob> Yes, she could play hardball with the people that she interviews, and I thought that went very, very well.

I’m very impressed.

You know, there’s a lot of there’s a lot of canned stuff in that, but, you know, look at her.

Listen to her, the inflections in her voice.

You know, she’s a natural.

Stop the nonsense and elect her.

Barbara> Yeah.

Gavin> It was supposed to be just a normal campaign stop, one of many today, on Sunday.

A few days before the New Hampshire primary here in Seabrook, New Hampshire, at Brown’s restaurant.

But the big news happened with the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, dropping out of the race.

And Nikki Haley broke that news to the crowd that was gathered here.

Haley> We just heard that Ron DeSantis has dropped out of the race.

Crowd> No.

(applause) Haley> I want to say to Ron.

He ran a great race.

He’s been a good governor and we wish him well.

Having said that, it’s now one fellow And one lady left.

(applause) There were 14 people in this race.

There were a lot of fellows.

All the fellows are out except for this one.

And this comes down to What do you want?

Do you want more of the same or do you want something new?

Jeannine St. Germain> I like her energy.

And I enjoyed meeting her personally.

And I excited about her running as president of the United States.

And I think she’ll do a great job for all parties and help America to be great.

Gavin> What made you- Are you, a registered Republican?

Are you undeclared?

How do you identify?

Jeannine> I was undeclared, but a registered Republican.

Gavin> What about other folks in this race?

Obviously, it was Ron DeSantis too.

Did you ever think about Ron DeSantis?

Jeannine> No.

No.

I kind of liked Chris Christie and then the more I heard about Nikki and her experience, it changed my vote for her.

Gavin> What did you think about the news with Ron DeSantis dropping out?

Jeannine> I thought it was very exciting.

Good for her.

Dave Smith> Well, no, he doesn’t any more than Trump does.

Or more or less Ramaswamy.

They just- Too much screaming and yelling and, No, no, no, no decency.

No, no.

just let’s take a deep breath and think about things.

You know, whereas I think.

I think Haley would, you know.

That’s basically it.

Gavin> Yeah.

Dave> That’s why I’ll vote for her Tuesday.

Chris Ware> I mean, you just look back, you know, three half years ago.

I mean, we we’re in such a better place.

Inflation was next to nil.

2% where we were on it.

Border was secure, which I think is the most important thing.

I mean, inflation and that is bad.

But what’s happened on the border is evil.

I mean, we’re seeing fentanyl coming across the border, killing hundreds of thousands of Americans.

We’re seeing child trafficking, which is just pure evil.

So we need to get back to the way it was when Trump was here.

Gavin> And why not Nikki Haley?

What’s the difference between the two of them?

Chris> I just think Nikki’s we got a lot of publications, a lot of literature from Nikki.

And so I think she’s got some really deep pockets.

I think some of the deep pockets are on the Democratic side.

I think there’s, kind of seeing that she might be an alternative to Biden if they think Biden can’t win.

So I think, I think she’s getting a lot of money from the the other side at this point.

Nothing wrong with Nikki.

If she is the nominee, I’ll support her, obviously, as a Republican.

But, but I’d much prefer to see Trump.

Haley> We’re excited.

I mean, this is what Election Day.

It’s all about democracy and freedom and people going and showing the power of their voice.

Today is a great day to show the power of their voice.

Anna> Yeah, really, the main reason for me voting for Trump was economics, because I feel like when he was in office, things were so much better and more affordable.

And even though my family’s not struggling as much as others, I do feel very blessed.

I can still see how it’s affecting us and everyone else.

So really for me, it’s like, I’d like to see things get back to how they were a couple of years before.

Gavin> Do you worry about any of the indictments or anything like that?

Anna> Not really.

If anything, it kind of makes me wonder why they’re coming at him stronger than others.

Yeah, I think there’s a lot of corruption in politics.

It’s hard to see.

I don’t think he’s a perfect guy by any means at all.

But I think the main thing is just getting America back on track.

Gavin> And what about also Nikki Haley?

Did you give her any consideration or what were your thoughts?

Anna> Yeah, I watched her in the debates.

She was not as compelling to me as the other candidates.

I would have voted for a few of the others before Trump, but ultimately we came down to her and Trump.

I leaned towards him just based on his track record.

>> Well, one of the reasons is, I think he is involved in too much chaos.

With all of the court issues coming up.

January 6th is still very strong in my mind.

It was very frightening.

I’m 87 years old and I’ve never lived through something like that.

And I think he’s too old to be the president.

host> All right.

We can now make a major projection.

CNN projects that Donald J. Trump will win the Republican presidential primary in New Hampshire.

The former president scoring his second decisive victory of 2024, delivering a powerful blow to his only remaining major opponent, primary opponent Nikki Haley.

Trump taking a critical step toward winning his third Republican presidential nomination.

Again, CNN projecting Donald Trump will win the Republican primary in New Hampshire.

And we should note that it has never happened that somebody won Iowa and New Hampshire and then did not go on to win their party’s nomination.

Trump> Remember in 2016, we came here and we needed that win and we won by 21 points and it was great.

(applause) And today, I have to tell you, it was very interesting because I said, wow, what a great victory.

But then somebody ran up the stage all dressed up nicely to the stage all dressed up nicely when it was at seven, but now I just walked up and it said 14.

(applause) And she ran up when it was seven.

And, you know, we have to do what’s good for our party.

And she was up and I said, Wow, she’s doing like a speech, like she won.

She didn’t win.

She lost.

And, you know, (applause) last, last week we had a little bit of a problem.

And if you remember, Ron was very upset because she ran up and she pretended she won Iowa.

And I looked around, I said, didn’t she come in third?

Yeah, she came in third.

Not have somebody take a victory.

When she had a very bad night.

She had a very bad night.

And you have the, you have the very the now very unpopular governor of this state.

This guy, he’s got to be on something.

I’ve never seen anybody with…

He’s like…

But we’ll be leaving there very quickly.

We’ll head out to South Carolina where I think we’re going to win easily.

I think we’re 50 points up 5-0, 50 points up on a person that was governor.

That tells you something.

But I felt I should do this because I find in life you can’t let people get away with …

Okay.

You can’t.

You just can’t do that.

And when I watched her in the fancy dress, that probably wasn’t so fancy come up, I said, “What’s she doing?

We won.”

Haley> With Donald Trump, Republicans have lost almost every competitive election.

We lost the Senate.

We lost the House.

We lost the White House.

We lost in 2018.

We lost in 2020 and we lost in 2022.

The worst kept secret in politics is how badly the Democrats want to run against Donald Trump Now (crowd jeers) Trump is a loser.

He’s a loser.

Haley> They know Trump is the only Republican in the country who Joe Biden can defeat.

You can’t fix- you can’t fix the mess if you don’t win an election.

guest>You want to win.

Haley> A Trump nomination is a Biden win and a Kamala Harris presidency.

(crowd jeers) Every time I’ve run for office in South Carolina, I’ve beaten the political establishment.

(applause) Haley> They’re lined up against me again.

That’s no surprise.

But South Carolina voters don’t want a coronation.

They want an election.

(applause) guest> We want you Nikki.

Haley> With Donald Trump, you have one bout of chaos after another.

This court case, that controversy, this tweet, that senior moment.

You can’t fix Joe Biden’s chaos with Republican chaos.

Thank you for the love.

New Hampshire.

We’re going home to South Carolina.

(applause) >> And while these weren’t the results Haley wanted, she says that she will continue on to the first in the South primary in her home state on February 24th.

And we’ll be there every step of the way.

I’m Gavin Jackson in Salem, New Hampshire.

Be well, South Carolina.

♪ closing music ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪