president of the united states of america . [ crowd chanting nikki, nikki ] when i look to the future, i see america strong once more. we ll end inflation and build an economy that works for all, just like we did in south carolina. in the america i see every child gets a world class education because every parent gets to pick their child s school. and no politician will be able to close those schools ever again. in the america i see, police know we have their backs. and criminals know we have their number. and our states will be safe again. in the america i see, we stop the surge of drugs and illegal immigration. that means having a real border and mandatory e-verify like we got done in south carolina. businesses must hire americans, not illegals. in the america i see, everyone has full confidence in our elections. voter i.d. will be the law of the land, just like we did in south carolina. the america i see is freer and better for all, because washington will finally serve
that ready to spend when the votes are ready to get cast. it s not easy to do. most presidential campaigns don t raise a ton of money, most of them flame out. if you were able to harness that optimism and energy and use it as a sustaining kind of protocol over the next 45 to 60 days, you can see how she could have a nice first act. it s the second act we ll have to see if she can do once de desantis and other people get into the race. this wraps up our special coverage of nikki haley s presidential campaign launch. i m jake tapper. inside politics with john king will start after this quick break. stay with us. because it s powowered by the most potent source of energy there is . you. this is the lexus variety of electrification . inspired by, created for and powered by you.
happy, she s upbeat. donald trump is a grievance politician, he s dark. mexico sends us rapists, there s a deep state. an optimist looking toward the future is generally a positive candidate. in the old days governors were successful in this way. there s something possible here. the question is can she turn this nugget of possibility into something. i would pause it. interesting what republicans think about this. can you straddle, can you be sort of trumpy, sort of reagan, sort of bush or do you have to say i m different. the straddle to me is a much harder thing. at the same time, you run the risk, because a good politician changes the electorate. donald trump changed the republican electorate. i m not speaking as a fan of donald trump. but he changed the republican electorate. can nikki haley change it back? that s the challenge or else this is her best day. david, she hasn t been in electoral politics since early 2017 when donald trump appointed her to be u.s. ambassador to the un
nikki haley off the stage. 26 minutes from the former south carolina two-term governor and former u.s. ambassador to the united nations during the trump administration. a robust defense of her conservative principles and the freedom that america stands for. dana bash, how do you think she did? listen, it was a very rousing speech, particularly for somebody who has not been on the political campaign trail for some time. i wrote down several sentences that she uttered that were all part of the same generational theme. move beyond the stale ideas and faded ideas of the past. america is not past their prime, just their politicians. we won t be ready for the 21st century if we trust politicians from the 20th century. and the biggest doozy saying people who are running for president or are president should have their mental capacity checked after the age
horrible, violent, racist history. and i think she knows that she has to address that. but i m still waiting to see how she really does it outside of this particular context in which she s delivering a message that she knows republican voters will receive in a certain way, in exactly the way they want to hear it. the only thing they want to hear is america is not a racist country but obviously the issues are more complex that and are deeper with that and at some point she ll have to grapple with that. nikki haley presents herself as she said it multiple times today, a daughter of immigrants. someone who has a unique view on difference in this country, but that s not the same thing as really understanding race in this country and the role that it plays. and i think that that s the part where she is going to have to go a little bit further. for the republican primary for now, though, i think she did exactly what they wanted to