Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich speculated about the results of tomorrow’s GOP South Carolina primary with Maria Bartiromo on Fox News today.
While Gingrich says former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley — whom he calls the “anti-Trump candidate” — has “every right” to run in her home state, he suggests that when she loses by “a huge margin,” that it would be the ideal time for her to drop out of the race, leaving former President Donald Trump to take the nomination outright.
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Gingrich said about Haley: “This theory that if she stays in, and anything happens to Trump, that the convention will turn to her, gets less and less likely.” He added, “The delegates are going to be all pro Trump and they’re are going to pick anybody but Nikki.”
Bartiromo prodded Gingrich to elaborate, asking “if something happens to Trump with all of these indictments and him going to trial” and if Haley doesn’t become the nominee (as Gingrich suggested), “who would [the nominee] be?”
Gingrich prefaced his reply by saying he believes Trump will be the nominee and the next president, and then answered the question: “All I would say at this point is who knows. I mean the Trump family under any circumstance will have enormous influence in the Republican party. And Donald Trump, Jr. will be one of the players that would be real.”
Gingrich was quick to say that though Trump Jr. is an option — if his father’s nomination is waylaid by convictions — he would have competition, adding: “We have a very deep bench of governors, senators and a couple of house members — there’d be a lot of potential people. And it would be an interesting convention because we haven’t had that kind of open convention.” The 2024 Republican National Convention is scheduled for July 15-18 in Milwaukee.