Nikki Haley, a Republican running for president, implied on Tuesday that former President Donald Trump is attempting to “take” the 2024 race by elevating his daughter-in-law, a former adviser, and a current campaign adviser to positions of high GOP leadership.
“Now he has decided he has fired the RNC chair,” Haley remarked at a gathering in her hometown of Bamberg, South Carolina, on Tuesday morning. She was alluding to Trump’s support of Ronna McDaniel’s replacement should she choose to step down in the near future.
“He’s named who’s going to be the new RNC chair. His daughter-in-law will be the co-chair, and he is making his campaign manager the officer that runs the party.”
“Think about what’s happening right now,” she went on. “Is that how you’re going to try and take an election?”
At an unrelated function later in the day, Haley declared that Trump will “try and continue to take the party so that it does what he wants it to do.”
Trump said he supports his daughter-in-law Lara Trump for co-chair and endorsed Michael Whatley to lead the Republican National Committee in a statement released on Monday.
“I think my friend Michael Whatley should be the RNC’s next leader,” Trump stated, adding that Whatley “has been with me from the beginning, has done a great job in his home state of North Carolina.”
Whatley is general counsel for the Republican National Committee and the chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party. He was a member of the Trump-Pence transition team in the past.
Trump announced on Monday that he is also endorsing Chris LaCivita, a top advisor to his reelection campaign, to lead the Republican National Committee as its chief operational officer.
There have been indications lately that McDaniel, who has led the RNC since January 2017, may soon relinquish her job. The Associated Press and The New York Times are two of the media sources that have reported that McDaniel may step down following South Carolina’s GOP primary on February 24.
Special Counsel Jack Smith has accused Trump of illegally attempting to tamper with the results of the 2020 election. Trump has frequently made irrational allegations that the previous presidential election was “rigged” against him. He has entered not guilty pleas to comparable allegations in Fulton County, Georgia.
