WASHINGTON: Fresh out of her stinging loss in the Nevada primary, a confident Nikki Haley has reiterated that the US will have a female president in 2024 -- either her or Vice President Kamala Harris -- both Indian-Americans.
"This is about the fact that we are going to have a female President of the US. It will either be me or it will be Kamala Harris," the Republican presidential aspirant told Fox News @ Night on Thursday.
Following her first Republican presidential debate last year, Haley had said that the thought of having Harris as president "should send a chill up every American spine", adding that a vote for President Joe Biden is a vote for Harris.
Haley first spoke about the US having a female president during a meet and greet at a Columbia barbeque restaurant last week.
"We will have a female president of the US," Haley told a gathering of about 100 people at Doc's BBQ, which booed when she said, "the hard truth is it's going to be me or Kamala Harris”.
According to a Morning Consult survey, 33 per cent of voters said they hold a positive view of Haley, while 40 per cent said they have an unfavorable view of her, which equates to a net favorability rating of negative 7.
As for Harris, 37 per cent of respondents held a favorable view, while 56 had a negative view of her, resulting in a net favorability rating of negative 19, a Newsweek report said, citing the survey.
Speaking to Fox News, Haley said her rival and Republican frontrunner Donald Trump cannot win the general election, moments after the US Supreme Court finished hearing arguments in a landmark legal case to decide whether the former president can be on the ballot in November's election.
"He can't win a general election. That’s a fact. We lost in 2018. We lost in 2020. We lost in 2022... he;s got a year's worth of court cases yet... Everything he touches is chaos, and we continue to lose," Haley told the news channel.
Having voted for Trump twice and "proud" to serve in his administration as UN ambassador, Haley asked, "How many more times do we have to lose before we realise that is the problem?"
The lone woman in the 2024 White House race said that the US cannot be a country in disarray in a world on fire and go through four more years of chaos. "We won’t survive it," she said.
Trump won Nevada's Republican caucuses after being the only major candidate to participate and said that Haley continuing with the 2024 presidential run "hurts" the party as well as the country.
Addressing reporters outside his Mar-a-Lago residence on Thursday, the septuagenarian highlighted Haley's losses in Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada.
"I don't know why she continues. I don’t really care if she continues... but let her continue. We have a big win coming up, as you know, in South Carolina, and the polls are indicating that we’re through the roof on that one".
Haley ran in Nevada's symbolic state-run presidential primary on Tuesday where voters chose 'none of these candidates' over her.
While speaking to Fox News, she insisted after these results that the whole thing was "rigged" for Trump.
"Nevada -- it's such a scam. They were supposed to have a primary. Trump rigged it so the GOP chairman -- who’s been indicted -- would go and create a caucus," Haley said.
Following her Nevada loss, Haley said her campaign is in "full steam ahead in South Carolina and beyond".
Trump's Nevada victory gives him all 26 of the state’s delegates, and the 77-year-old needs to accrue 1,215 delegates to formally clinch GOP's presidential nomination.