Nikki Haley says Chris Christie's candidacy 'has left everybody scratching their heads'

DES MOINES, Iowa — GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley said Friday that opponent Chris Christie’s candidacy has “left everybody scratching their heads.”

She said Christie has staked his candidacy on defeating front-runner Donald Trump. But if he remains in the contest, he risks splitting the vote and diminishing Haley’s performance against Trump, she said.

Haley has been competing in all of the early states, while Christie has focused almost exclusively on New Hampshire. Asked whether Christie should end his campaign, Haley said that’s for him to decide.

“He's not playing in Iowa. He's not playing in South Carolina,” Haley said. “If he wants to defeat Trump, I think he can see exactly how you do that. But that's for him to see, and that's for him to decide. I'm not going to tell anybody to get out of the race. I'm just going to run my own.

"I think it's left everybody scratching their heads, saying, ‘You know, you say you want to defeat Trump, yet you might be the one person that helps him win?’”

Haley made the comments Friday in an exclusive interview with the Des Moines Register’s Chief Politics Reporter Brianne Pfannenstiel and NBC News Correspondent Dasha Burns in the organizations’ “Closing Arguments” interview series as the Iowa Caucuses approach.

Haley, who has built her campaign on town hall-style events, has steadily risen in the national polls and is fighting with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for second in the GOP presidential contest. Trump continues to dominate the race, with the support of 51% of likely Republican caucusgoers, according to a December Des Moines Register/NBC News/Mediacom Iowa Poll. DeSantis ranked second in the Iowa Poll with 19%, and Haley was in third with 16%.

But Haley said the real race is between her and President Joe Biden. The former United Nations ambassador and South Carolina governor has touted a Wall Street Journal poll showing her 17 percentage points ahead of Biden in a potential general election matchup.

"That's a mandate to stop spending and get our economy back on track," Haley said at a town hall event held Friday morning in Des Moines ahead of the Register and NBC News interview. "That's a mandate to get our kids reading again and get back to basics in school. That's a mandate to secure our borders."

Haley says she's running for president, not vice president. And 'maybe' she'd make DeSantis her VP.

Asked if she would agree to become Trump's running mate if he asked, Haley said she's running to be president.

"I am not running to be vice president," she said. "I have said that in every way I know possible."

DeSantis has accused Haley of refusing to rule out the possibility. On Friday, she said she doesn't answer the question because "I don't play my opponents' games."

"I have said I don't play for second. I have said I am not trying to be vice president for anyone," she said. "… I am running for president. Six months from now, I'm happy to talk to you about who's going to be my vice president."

Haley said she would support Trump if he becomes the Republican nominee.

"Absolutely," she said. "Because we cannot handle a President Kamala Harris."

Asked if she would consider DeSantis as a running mate, Haley responded: "Maybe."

"If he wants to join forces with me, I welcome that," she said. "But right now, we've got a race that we feel good about. We've got a surge. We've got momentum. We've had hundreds of people show up at our events. We're doing well in Iowa. We're doing well in New Hampshire. We're going to keep on fighting."

Haley addresses Civil War gaffe and comment that she 'had Black friends growing up'

Haley again addressed her comments made a town hall in New Hampshire last month when a questioner asked her about the cause of the Civil War and she failed to mention slavery.

"The Civil War's always been known about slavery," she told the Register and NBC. "I misread it and thought he was looking for a bigger answer going forward."

When she answered a similar question in a CNN Town Hall Thursday night at Grand View University in Des Moines, Haley also mentioned that "I had Black friends growing up" — a remark that drew criticism from her opponents and from pundits.

She defended the comments Friday, saying she knows what it's like to be subjected to racism after growing up in the only Indian American family in her town in South Carolina.

"Saying that I had Black friends is a source of pride," she said Friday. "Saying that I had white friends is a source of pride. If you wanna know what it was like growing up, I was disqualified from a beauty pageant because I wasn't white or Black, because they didn't know where to put me. So look, I know the hardships, the pain that come with racism."

Comment about New Hampshire correcting Iowa is 'banter' between early states, Haley says

Haley said her joke at a New Hampshire town hall that New Hampshire "corrects" Iowa was simply friendly banter between early nominating states.

"Iowa's always gonna be the first caucus," she told the Register and NBC. "New Hampshire was always gonna be first in the nation. South Carolina was gonna be the first in the South. And we would banter against each other. That's all this is."

DeSantis has attacked Haley over the comment.

"I think that's the problem with politics. People take it all so seriously," she said. "We can have some fun, too. It's OK. And so, yeah, it was all said in fun."

National Democrats have replaced Iowa as the first-in-the-nation state in their party's nominating contest, instead choosing South Carolina to kick off the process. But Haley said on a Friday episode of "Iowa Press" on Iowa PBS that "South Carolina never wants to be first. We like being first in the South."

"I actually would prefer the Democratic caucuses go back to Iowa and it go back to the way it was," she said on the show.

F. Amanda Tugade covers social justice issues for the Des Moines Register. Email her at ftugade@dmreg.com or follow her on Twitter @writefelissa.

Stephen Gruber-Miller covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. He can be reached by email at sgrubermil@registermedia.com or by phone at 515-284-8169. Follow him on Twitter at @sgrubermiller.