Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is criticizing former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley for suggesting she is not bound by the Republican National Committee (RNC) pledge to support the party’s nominee for president, which appears to be Donald Trump.
“I signed the pledge and you sign the pledge saying that you’re gonna not take your ball and go home, and so I honored the pledge and she’s gonna have to make a decision about whether she wants to or not, but the idea that somehow circumstances have changed, I think we all knew what we were doing when we did that, and you gotta make a judgement about whether that’s meaningful to you,” DeSantis said during an interview on Newsmax.
“For me, I tell people, you know, if I say I’m gonna do something, I’m gonna do it,” he added.
Every candidate for the Republican presidential nomination signed the pledged to support the party’s nominee, except Trump.
DeSantis endorsed Trump for president immediately after dropping out of the race, while Haley has refused to do so.
Haley suggested in a recent NBC News interview that she no longer feels obligated to support Trump if he is the nominee.
“I think I’ll make the decision I want to make, but that’s not something I’m thinking about,” she said.
Haley’s comment is a shift from August when she raised her hand on the debate stage when candidates were asked if they would still support Trump even if he is “convicted in a court of law.”
“I mean, at the time of the debate, we had to take it to where, ‘Would you support the nominee,’ and in order to get on that debate stage, you said, ‘Yes,’” Haley told NBC. “The RNC is now not the same RNC.”
Haley suspended her campaign for president Wednesday after loses on Super Tuesday. In her suspension speech, Haley said it is up to Trump to earn her supporters vote.
“It is now up to Donald Trump to earn the votes of those in our party and beyond it who did not support him,” Haley said. “I hope he does that.”
