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My guest tonight is from my home state of South Carolina. Please welcome Republican Congresswoman Nancy May. Happy to have you here.
It's an honor your first night debut hosting The Daily Show.
It's awesome, absolutely fun.
Fact.
Me and Nancy went to the same high school, Yes, Strafford High School, and our mothers taught at Scrafford High School.
At the same time, the same time, and we both Nancy dropped out.
I dropped out before you did.
I got kicked out.
You got kicked out. I got kicked out.
Now the second high school, I got kicked out of talk Kio.
I was a trailblazer. I did it before you. That's right.
People are saying you're on the shortlist to be Trump's VP after seeing what happened to Mike Tins, someone who you know was once claimed the future of the gop By Cup. Is being Trump's running mate really worth it?
Well?
I haven't been asked yet, and my focus is now on South Carolina as it always will be, and I understand why people might be talking about it. I do a lot for women's issues and Republicans lost women last year. But my focus today is it always will be. I love the low Country where you and I grew up, and that's where my focus is.
Is it intriguing now?
I think it's intriguing, it's interesting, and I think it's It's a conversation we need to have because I want my little girl to know that she can be president one day, and I want to see Republicans put women on the ticket vice president presidential. I mean, I want to see that happen because I want little girls everywhere to know they too can be president one day. So I think it's an important conversation to have. But so are to a lot of other conversations.
You're like one heart attack away. If he was like his VP, well would you be a president? I'm just saying it. Why are Republicans still holding primaries when we know it's gonna be Trump?
Well, I mean Democrats now have a primary with Phillips entering into the presidential nomination process, but I do think it's going to be Trump.
But we'll see.
It's part of the Democrat democratic process to have primaries and have general elections, and just like the Speaker's fight, that's part of democracy. That's how we nominate people, and those are fights and elections that we have to have.
Now that the chaos is open, you've got some probable votes coming up. So I'm gonna ask you a couple, will you vote to expel Santos, even though it might cost the GOPSC.
I have not read the resolution to expel Santos.
I have demanded his resignation from day one when I found out he lied to get into office. The right and honorable thing would be to resign. He hasn't done that yet. I'd want to read it and see what the process is if it goes through. I'm a civil rights person. I do a lot of civil rights work, but there has to be due process. So does it go through the Ethics Committee? That would be my first question before I make a decision on that. We may actually be voting on that this week.
Vote since the representative representative a non pronounced our name wrong for her Israel God's statements, the.
First Amendment is something I want to make sure that we're not violating the constitution. People get elected, but what we're seeing this week, there's going to be a tit for tat. I think Democrats want to censure Marjorie Taylor Green, like, we just.
Got a new speaker.
Israel's under attack, our economy is crumbling, we have millions of people coming across the border, and this is what we're doing this week.
I mean, I just to me it just we have much bigger problems to figure out.
Would you vote for Ukraine and Israel aid together votes?
I want separate votes because when we're doing these spending packages, they should be separate individual spending bills. Like there's a law in the nineteen seventy four Budget and Control Act which says the government the Congress is supposed to have a budget and twelve different spending bills, but what they're going to do is they're going to try to combine it together. So we jammed through over one hundred billion
dollars in spending. It would be better if they were separate so people can have an up or down vote. Do we support this or not? Because the two wars are completely separate and different, and they'rene a different and it would be better for the American people. But what also would be better whether they are combined into one
vote or they are separate votes. We have to have this conversation about the southern border, and what are we going to do to protect our border, protect our national security because there are individuals that are on their terrorism watch lists. They're coming across our sun their border. It will be over one hundred and thirty hundred and fifty this year, and so to have this conversation. We want to make sure we're not spending more money overseas for
other people's borders in our own. And these are all worthy conversations that we've got to have. While we're discussing supplemental aid.
Packages, I'm going to ask you new how do you talk to a poor and disenfranchised person in South Carolina who can barely, you know, put food on the table and have a roof over the head. How do you explain it? Then? Why all this money is going overseas?
I explained that it's the part. It's the fault of both parties.
We are thirty three trillion dollars in debt because both sides, no matter who's president, no matter who's in the majority or who's Speaker of the House, they have added this debt and that debt ceiling deal that Republicans just did back in the spring will make our debt over fifty trillion over the next ten years. And that is why eggs cost six dollars for a dozen, while a gallon of milk is six dollars. It's why you're paying in South Carolina in some cases over four dollars a gallon
of gas. People cannot afford what they're doing. And we had August recess, and I was back home for a couple of weeks and working. But I took my kids to the grocery store. I had we have seven days on, seven days off, you know, when you're two parent house, separate households. And I took my kids to the grocery store and it was almost five hundred dollars for a family of four for a week.
And I just that is not affordable. And that was just meat, fruit and vegetables and no junk fit.
And but you know, the average American family can't afford two thousand dollars of groceries or eighteen hundred dollars a month in groceries.
Who can afford that? Nobody can.
But that is the fault of Republicans and Democrats that have spent us into oblivion, who refused to balance the budget.
The former Speaker promised to have a plan about it's a budget. He buried it in a drawer.
It exists, but we need to have a plan, whether it's ten, twelve, fifteen, sixteen, twenty years, that gets spending in order. And the last time we balanced the budget, for example, was in nineteen ninety eight under Bill Clinton, and before that it was in the seventies under Nixon. It is ridiculous that both parties can't set their differences aside and do what's right for America.
Everybody to mother their political affiliation.
Wow, Republicans want to impeach Biden for corruption and bribery. Do you think that's valid or are they just like a tit for tech because of the two times Trump has been impeached.
Well, I can tell you the former Speaker went to conservatives a few months ago and said, hey, we're definitely impeaching Joe Biden, and then he went to House moderates the same day two hours later and said, We're never going to impeach Joe Biden.
That should not be the answer. That's not leadership.
What we should do is follow the facts, follow the truth, and then come to a decision at the right time.
Once we've had due process.
Once we've shown evidence, whether or not an impeachment is warranted, that's what the American people want, That's what it they deserve, and that's what we should do. And I do believe that the news speaker will follow due process. He's a constitutional attorney, but won't make that decision in haste.
It should be made when it's warranted.
You don't think that's a waste of time. What everything else that's going.
On, Well, corruption is a real problem in this country, and I have seen bank accounts.
It is.
It is, but I have seen bank accounts of the president's grandchildren with money directly from communist China.
That should not be happening in our country, and.
It should be exposed for every for every American to see and then decide whether or not that's okay, whether there's an impeachment or not. I want people to see the evidence that I've seen and make a decision for themselves.
Do you believe the evidence against Donald Trump?
Which which evidence? Charge? Which I mean? Which which indictment?
I mean?
Which one?
It's a lot of let's just say Georgia, Georgia.
That would be with the election fraud, I haven't seen the evidence yet.
I haven't seen it.
There will be a trial and everyone is allowed Again, I do a lot of civil rights work, and everyone is.
Allowed due process under the law, and if they're found guilty, they take responsibility for that. But I haven't seen evidence to show these guilty of that.
Now. There are a lot of people around him that did a lot of things.
There's that Sidney Powell that that took like a database, like a voter database maybe, and I don't.
Know, so, Conference Woman, Matthew, Mats, ladies and gentlemen, thank you. Earlier, I had the opportunity to interview the former governor of my home state of South Carolina. She served as Trump's ambassador to the United Nations and now she's a Republican candidate for president. Here's my conversation with Nikki Haley. How are you, Governor?
It's great to be with you. That's right.
I got another South Carolinian, South Carolinian in the building. You know, let's talk term limits because you said you support term limits, and I actually agree with you on that. Do you think that term limits should be measured in years? Are freezing episodes? I think you should get one freezing episode. You just want one freebie anymore. After that, you've got to retire.
What do you think I think that we'd be kicking a lot of people out then right now, you know, I think that we have to have term limits and a lot it's two reasons. One is, you know, I told you I think the it's the most privileged nursing home in the country. They stay too long, they get used to the power. But the other side of it is, when you run for office, you're as close to the people as it gets. You've listened, you know what people want, and you really know how to go in there and
get things done. The longer you stay, the more you move away from the people. And I think that's what's happened is you look at what's happening in DC and they're so tone deaf. Both Republicans and Democrats don't understand the value of a taxpayer dollar. They don't understand that we've had serious issues with education. They don't understand the fact that crime is high and they're not doing anything
about it. They don't understand that we've got threats facing us everywhere from terrorists, and they're continuing to talk about things that don't matter. And so yeah, I think we need to have term limits because I think we have a lot of people in DC who have literally lost what the American people want, and I think that we need to start having that again. We had term limits when I ran for governor. You've got term limits for
anyone that runs for president. That way, you go in there, you focus on the people, and you focus on your legacy, and I think that's important.
You know, you're a relatively younger candidate, a woman of color, a child of immigrant parents, which on paper makes you more appealing to a lot of younger voters. But besides your identity, how do you plan to appeal to voters who are much further to the left of your platform?
You know, we're doing that now. I've done over one hundred town halls in Iowa, New Hampshire. We're also doing them in South Carolina. We're going to do them around the country and we let them ask any question they want. We don't filter the questions. And what I can tell you, the younger generation, they're different than my generation. They don't care about money as much as they do about really wanting to make a difference, really wanting to contribute to
our country. They care more about the environment, and they want to talk about that. They care more about making sure that they don't watch news because they don't. They think both sides are crazy, and I don't think they're wrong about that, and I think that the younger generation is going to be the group that saves us. They actually have a lot of good common sense. We have to start engaging them. We have to start bringing them in. You know, I look at my kids. They're twenty two
and twenty five. They're very sober about what's happening in the country right now, and they really know that this is not how they want to live and that they deserve better. And so my job is going to be to engage them. We've got forty plus Haley campaign programs in campuses across the country. We've got Women for NICKI groups in every state in the country, and we are really a pea to everybody. I don't want to just get a party, I don't want to just get a demographic.
I really want to talk to everybody and let them know I'm going to work for them, and I'm going to work hard to earn their support.
I want you to engage young voters. I want you to earn their support. But are you willing to promise right now that you will not try to rap in order to do that?
Can I just say this? I loved eminem and that song before then, and Ramaswami just ruined that for me. He ruined it like, no, I will never rap. You don't want me to rap. I've always said, if you ever see me doing karaoke, you better take me home because something's really wrong.
Absolutely yes. Now, why don't you play the identity politics game though, because that's something Democrats like to do. They always talk about how diverse they are. Why don't you get into the identity politics game and play up being Indian more because a lot of voters just think you're a white woman, you know.
I mean, look, I have been. I grew up. We were the only Indian family in a small rural southern town in South Carolina. We weren't white enough to be white, we weren't black enough to be black. And I remember when I would get teased on the playground and I would come home, my mom would always say, your job
is not to show them how you're different. Your job is to show them how you're similar, and that lesson on the playground has played out throughout my life, whether it was in the corporate world, whether it was as governor, whether it was as ambassador. When you're faced with a challenge, if you first talk about the things you agree on, people let their guard down, and then you can talk about how you want to get to the solution. I think the problem is when you start labeling people, you're
assuming that they're different than you. I don't want to just be a woman. I don't want to just be Indian. I don't want to just be a mom. I don't want to just be a Republican. I don't want to just be all of those things. I'm more than that, and I think every person is more than that. And what I know is if you look across America, we agree on eighty percent of the things. It's the twenty percent we fight over. So why add more divisions by talking about labels. I don't want to want to talk
about labels. I think that that's what's caused us to get into this situation where everybody in this country is so divided. I want to talk more about what we can agree on and how we move forward as a country.
Do you think you know being a woman will keep the GOP from fully supporting it. Do you think that the sexism in the GOP could get behind you?
Well, you know, there's never been any lines to the women's bathroom in any of the jobs I've ever had. You know, when I defeated a thirty year incumbent when I ran for the state House seat, we were South Carolina was the lowest in the country on women elected officials. When I won governor, I was the first female, first minority governor in history. I mean of the entire country, much less South Carolina. When I was ambassador at the Security Council, I was the only woman there. I don't
worry about being a woman at all. I mean I wear heels. It's not for a fashion statement. It's because if I get mad, you know, I'm ready to kick any time. And I think that people have always respected me because they know I do my homework. They know I for what I believe in, and I tell the truth. I tell the hard truths, whether they want to hear it or not. And I think that's where I've always been different.
I got a few more questions for you. As a former UN ambassador, when you see Palestine and Israel going at it. You know, you hear talks of Iran might get involved. You hear Russia and Hamas are growing close to China, might move on Taiwan. Biden says, the US of defending the Philippines against China. The Pentagon say they have a nuclear weapon twenty four times stronger than what they dropped on Japan. China is building up into nuclear weapon arsenal. How close are we to World War three?
Do you think the world is on fire? And America better wake up? Because right now America is acting like it's September tenth, and we better remember what September twelfth felt like, because all it takes is one time. And what I will tell you is all of our enemies and I dealt with them every day for two years when I was at the United Nations. Every one of them is looking at Joe Biden and they know he's not at the top of his game. They see him
freezing up, They see that he can't hear. They look at the fact that they see Donald Trump and they see all the chaos that comes with that, and they're just banking on us continuing down this path that is not good for us. We need to be strong, We need to be clear, and we need to do everything it takes to prevent war. A strong America doesn't start wars. A strong America prevents wars. Right now, our enemies don't
fear us, and that's the problem. What we have to do is stop being reactionary and start letting other countries know what we expect of them. That's what I did at the United Nations. That's what I'll do as your president.
Do you think it's potential for a nuclear war in our life?
I think that we have to do everything we can to prevent it. You know, Charlemagne, my husband is in the military, he's deployed right now. And every military family knows that we can only stop a war, that we can only stop bad things from happening if we are strong, if you have a strong leader, if you have a strong military, and if you have people that support our country. And that's what we have to do. We have to
remember what it means to be patriotic again. We have to support our men and women who are fighting overseas for us because they still think this country is worth fighting for. And we need a president that's not going to be scared of our enemies, but someone instead that's going to sit there and talk toe to toe with them and let them know what we expect of them.
We should not assume a nuclear war is inevitable. We should work every day to make sure that they know that they don't ever want to test us on that, and that they'll be hell to pay if they ever try and do anything that's going to hurt one single American.
You know, you've been a staunch supporter of Israel. Israel's war against some moss has already killed over eight thousand guys of civilians, including over three thousand children. Is there anything Israel could ever do to lose your support?
Look, there is no perfect country out there. You know, there are a lot of things that countries could do to lose my support. But let's look at the situation, and this is the hard truth that we need to look at. First of all, what happened on October seventh
than Israel was horrific. I mean the fact that bodies were burned, babies were beheaded, girls were raped, and never forget that when they were dragging those naked girls through the streets of Gaza, what were they saying they were saying death to Israel, but they were also saying death to America. This is a ran, This is what Aroan wants to do. What we're seeing all of these people who do feel sympathetic to the Palestinians. I understand when
they talk about occupation. Yes there is occupation in Kaza. Yes there has been occupation for a long time. But the misconception in all of this is the occupation is not from israelis There's not a single Israeli person in Gaza. There's not a single Jewish person in Gaza. Hamas is the one that has occupied. Hamas is the one that won't let the Palestinians out. Hamas is the one that has treated them so brutally and not allowed them to
have the things that they should have. Hamas is the one that uses them as human shields so that women and children get killed. I've been on the border there, I've seen it. It's not that Israel's perfect, It's that Hamas is evil, and we have to see evil for what it is. And yes, if we want the Palestinians to have a better life, and I do want the Palestinians to have a better life, the way we do that is, we eliminate Hamas so that they no longer have to live the way Hamas is making them live.
Right now, can you eliminate Hamas without eliminating all the Palestinian citizens, our large majority of them.
I know that we have hostages there. We've lost thirty three Americans died. This is going to be surgical precision. Lives are going to be lost. But right now they are taking out Hamas leaders, which is what they need to do. But I've been in those tunnels Charlemagne. They are very sophisticated. And what Hamas has done is those tunnels they put them under schools, they put them under hospitals, they put them under civilian sites because they know Israelis
value human life. Hamas does not value human life. This is going to be messy, This is going to be hard, but we need to remember Hamas has said death to America. Once they're done with Israel, Aron's going to make sure they do it here. And that's why we've got to secure the border and we've got to make sure that we never let those threats come on American soil.
Governor Nikki Haley, y'all, NICKI you hope to see you in studio whenever you come to New York, whether it's the Breakfast Club.
Body Daily Show, Cheryl Man, keep kicking it. South Carolina is proud of you. I'm proud of you. Keep doing what you're doing.
So it's good stuff. Thank you.
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