GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley says Donald Trump’s legal cases need to be “dealt with” before the November general election — because he could try to block their prosecution if re-elected.
“I think all of the cases should be dealt with before November,” Haley, 52, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker in an interview Thursday in Falls Church, Va.
“We need to know what’s going to happen before it, before the presidency happens, because after that, should he become president, I don’t think any of it’s going to get heard,” Haley said.
The former South Carolina governor’s comments came one day after the US Supreme Court agreed to take up the case about whether Trump is immune from prosecution in alleged federal 2020 election interference.
The nation’s top court scheduled oral arguments for the week of April 22, but the decision to hear the case could delay the trial into late summer or fall at the earliest and could stretch into 2025.
If Trump gets re-elected and the trial takes place after he’s back in the White House, he could appoint an attorney general who could dismiss the case against him.
“I just think a president has to live according to the laws, too. You don’t get complete immunity,” Haley said of the Supreme Court agreement to hear the case, arguing that presidents shouldn’t get “free rein to do whatever they want to do.”
Some Haley supporters in South Carolina told The Post before the state’s primary there earlier this week that they hoped she would stay in the race in case Trump gets “locked up.”
Haley, a former US ambassador to the UN, has said that for the good of the party, she is “making sure that we as Republicans do everything we can to win.
“Look, he’s already had three verdicts against him now, over half a billion dollars he’s going to have to pay. All he talks about is these court cases, he’s not talking about the American people. And it’s a problem,” she told Fox News Channel’s “America’s Newsroom” last week.
In her response to GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell’s decision this week to step down from leadership, Haley told NBC, “I really commend him for realizing that we need a new generational leader. I wish that our presidential candidates would do the same thing.”
She also said Trump and Biden’s showing at the border Thursday was “comical” because both leaders are “responsible” for the migrant crisis.
Haley said she is “excited” to go into Super Tuesday — the biggest day of the campaign primary season, with voters in 16 states going to the polls — on March 5 and that she’s looking for a “good, competitive showing.”
In remarks Friday in Washington, DC, Haley said she’s “going to fight for Super Tuesday.”
Haley said she will stay in the race “as long as we’re competitive” but refused to disclose when exactly she would consider ending her bid.
“I don’t know that I’m ending my bid for president,” Haley said, NBC News reported. “If you’re in the race, the last thing you think about is not being in the race.”
The Haley campaign has continued to hit the campaign trail aggressively despite repeated losses to Trump. In the lead up to Super Tuesday, she has been zigzagging across the country, speaking to voters and raking in $12 million in February after a record-breaking $16.5 million in January.
She has stressed that the GOP primary is her end-all-be-all and that she would not consider any other pathway to the White House and has dismissed running on a third party-ticket with No Labels, which touts itself as a “common sense” centrist organization.
“I’m a Republican,” Haley told reporters Friday morning, according to NBC News. “If I were to do No Labels, that would require a Democrat. I can’t do what I wanted to express with the Democrats.
“I’ve always believed if you do something, do it right or don’t do it,” Haley added. “And so I don’t think I can do it right. If I ran for No Labels, that would mean it’s about me. It’s not about me. It’s about the direction I think the country should go.”
