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Someone was arrested and put in prison because he paid an informant to have me killed.
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IRGC, the Iranian regime, paid a Pakistani businessman to do it.
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Now let's make some news.
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Why did you leave in 2018?
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It actually wasn't about Trump that I left.
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It was more about John Bolton.
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What are the conditions under which you would run for president in 2028?
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I'm not running for president in 2028.
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What about 2032?
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I'll never say never.
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Nikki Haley, thank you for being here on Builder Break.
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It's so good to be with you.
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Nikki, you know, I told you, I wrote you in in the elections where you ran for president, so you know that I'm a very big fan, but I am going to subject you to the Mexican Inquisition today.
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I would be offended if you didn't.
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Right.
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I want to actually start with something crazy.
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I've known you for many years.
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I remember when you first came to the kind offices.
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I was in awe of you when you were United Nations ambassador because of the way, the depth way you were handling foreign policy.
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But what I like about BuilderBreak is I learned so much.
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And one of the things that I found...
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fascinating about your upbringing is when you were five years old.
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Do you know what I'm thinking of?
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I don't know.
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Yes.
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So, you know, in that small southern town in Bamberg, 2,500 people, two stoplights.
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There's not a lot to do.
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But the one thing they did every year was they had the Little Miss Bamberg pageant.
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And all the moms put their girls in it.
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And one of our neighbors told my mom, she said, you should put your girls in it.
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So my mom decided to put us in that pageant.
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And we were put in, my sister's four years older, she was in it as well.
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And midway through the pageant, the judges pulled my mom aside and said, we need to disqualify your girls.
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And my mom said, why?
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And she said, because we have a black queen and we have a white
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queen.
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And why?
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Each side would be upset if they were in it.
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And she said, well, is there nothing you can do?
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And she said, no, I'm sorry.
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She said, but we'll give them a concession.
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And so they gave me a beach ball.
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And my mom just said, can she at least, can Nikki at least do her talent?
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And they agreed to it.
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And my talent was, this land is your land, this land is my land.
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I mean, it was a song I sang, so I sang it.
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But I swore off pageants after that.
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It was brutal.
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But, you know, that was the time back then.
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You know, when you said, this land is your land, it made me emotional.
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I hadn't captured that part of the story.
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I didn't know that.
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That's so ironic and so crazy.
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And in some ways, I think it defines who you are, like that you said no, because you're not, I like to talk because I'm very impressed with you, first this, first that, but you're not an identitarian person.
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You're just Nikki Haley.
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Yeah.
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And that's, you almost said, that's not going to happen again to other Americans.
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Like I'm going to build together.
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I was on the playground.
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I was in second grade school.
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I had skipped a grade.
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And so it was a new group that I was trying to be friends with.
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And every recess, we would go out and play kickball.
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And so we went out after lunch going to play kickball.
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And all of a sudden, I looked and I saw everybody on the other side of me.
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And I said, are we going to play kickball?
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And they said, we are, but are you?
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And they said, you have to pick a team.
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and there was a black team and there was a white team.
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And I didn't know exactly how to deal with that, and I remember going and grabbing the ball and running and saying, I'm both.
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Like, it was just one of those things, but it was so- And also it was not I'm neither, it was I'm both.
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That says so much about you.
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When I arrived into San Antonio, Texas, in my public high school, Robert Lee High School, nonetheless,
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Also, the black kids would sit here, the white kids would sit here, and they wouldn't talk to each other.
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One day would sit with the black kids, one with the Hispanics, one with the whites, one with the jocks, one with the drama kids.
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And this young woman, Amber Alonzo, who I had a crush on, she was a punk rocker.
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She's like, Daniel, you need to define yourself.
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You have to choose one group or the other.
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And I'm like, I never chose.
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And it was constantly in front of us.
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Do you remember like the standardized tests?
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They would have black, white, and other groups.
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And I was always another.
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You know, it was one of those things that you were constantly reminded you were different.
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And we were the only Indian family in that small town.
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So we felt it.
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I mean, my father wore a turban.
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My mother wore a sari.
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So we stood out.
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So you're not like because the Nikki Haley, you see, you seem...
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You feel the quintessential America and your accent is not like my accent.
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You feel like very South Carolina.
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But as a kid, were you wearing saris also?
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No, I wasn't.
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But, you know, because we were the only Indian family and because my parents looked the way they did, they didn't know who we were, what we were, why we were there.
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Yeah.
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And I would get teased on the playground and bullied.
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And I remember when I would come home, my mom was very stern with me.
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And she'd say, your job is not to show them how you're different.
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Your job is to show them how you're similar.
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And so it's amazing how that lesson on the playground played throughout my life, whether it was in business, whether it was when I was governor, whether it was ambassador, you know, or you go on to be president.
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I'm so grateful for that lesson from the playground, because what I've found is whenever you have a challenge.
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If you first acknowledge with the person who's challenging you the things you have in common, people put their guard down.
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And then you can actually have a conversation.
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So this actually, if you think of the United Nations, when I had to go and debate, you know, or deal, we were trying to pass the largest set of sanctions against a country in a generation with North Korea.
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And the only way I could get that done was with China.
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And China didn't want to move on that.
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And what I knew was...
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China didn't want war on the peninsula, and China didn't want regime change with North Korea because all the North Koreans would want to go into China.
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And so before we even started the negotiations, I just said, let's make one thing clear.
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I said, I want to make sure that we prevent more and we do whatever it takes to prevent more.
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And you should know that this administration has no interest in regime change with Kim Jong-un.
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We just want to make sure that the nuclear activity stops.
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And then all of a sudden you could see them relax a little bit.
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So, you know, I've learned that whether it's business or anything else, you have to think the way your opponent thinks.
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You have to disarm them.
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And the only way you do that is if you get inside what they're thinking, what they want and what their goals are.
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And then you can work through it.
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So let me ask you a tricky question because I was thinking about this a lot.
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Part of why you were so good at the United Nations is because you really developed those personal bonds, relationships, understood them.
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It's not about us versus them.
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It's about listening and then trying to advance America's interests.
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President Trump thinks that his relationship with Putin, his relationship with Xi...
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is making him develop such deep bonds that he gets to accomplish what he wants.
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A lot of people think that they take advantage of him thinking that they're best friends, and whether it's Ukraine or other issues, it doesn't work.
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How do you as a leader figure out when you are advancing the interests, whether it's when they're playing you, and how do you think through that?
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So it's different in business than it is in foreign policy.
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When you are in business, you want to build relationships.
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You want to have those, you know, that's considered an asset.
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That's considered something you'll use down the road.
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When you're dealing with foreign policy, it's important to know who it is you're interacting with.
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There was never any issue with me knowing that Russia was not our friend.
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There was never any issue with me knowing that China wanted to dominate the world and we were standing in their way.
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There was never any issue with me understanding that North Korea was determined to have their way with South Korea.
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There was never an issue with me knowing that Iran...
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wanted to see Israel and the U.S. eliminated.
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Those were very clear to me.
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Now, I still had to work with multiple countries, and I always tell people when I went to the United Nations, every day it felt like I was putting on body armor because I knew there would be a fight.
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I just didn't know what country we were fighting that day.
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The differences and the reason that I was able to get as much done there and that I was respected there was,
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was it wasn't about them liking me.
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That was not my goal.
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What I wanted is for them to respect America.
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And so the way I got them to respect America is I always told them the truth, even if they didn't want to hear it.
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It was hard truths.
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They knew if they came to me, they were going to get the truth.
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They were going to get my intentions.
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They were going to get where America stood, what America was for, what America wasn't.
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And if they didn't do what we wanted, they knew I'd call them out on it because I proved it.
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And if they did do what we wanted,
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I was going to embrace them and call them to be the ally that they were.
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And so it's different than relationships.
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I think you have to be very clear eyed when you're dealing with adversaries that you know what they're up to.
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They need to know that you know what they're up to.
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And also they need to know not to push you with allies.
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You have to be a truth teller, too, because what I saw at the United Nations, everybody wanted the U.S. to do everything.
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You know, countries would say, we want to get this done.
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It'd be a great idea.
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And they were like, we need you to do it.
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And I would always say, you do it.
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We'll support you in it.
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We're not leading on that.
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You want to embolden your allies.
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You want to lift them up.
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Let them do the work.
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We'll support it.
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And when it comes to your enemies, they pay attention to that.
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So going back to.
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digesting.
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I do remember when you were ambassador to the United Nations, everybody was in awe.
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The accomplishments that you had were off the charts from both sides.
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Democrats and Republicans were in awe at what you were accomplishing.
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Did you just learn on the job?
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Because you, am I right?
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You jumped from governor to United Nations ambassador.
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How did you develop and ramp up to get that knowledge?
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And where did that backbone come from?
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You know, I would love to say that I had this history of foreign policy and all that.
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I didn't.
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I knew how to lead a state.
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I knew domestic policy.
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I did not know foreign policy, but I knew that I loved America, was determined to defend her.
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And I had to learn as much as I could as fast as I could.
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And the way that I did that was I set myself up for success.
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When President Trump called me and asked me to do the job.
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He called you out of the blue?
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So I got a call from his chief of staff, Reince Priebus.
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I was about to be the head of the Republican Governors Association at the time.
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And he called me and he said, Nikki, the president wants you to come see him in New York.
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And I said, OK, what's this about?
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And he said, well, he wants to talk to you about secretary of state.
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And I said, right, I'm a governor.
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I can't be secretary of state.
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And he said, well, he wants to see you.
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So you just need to come up here.
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So I went up to New York and I had endorsed Marco Rubio in that race.
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But Trump and I had been friends.
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I had known him.
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He had supported me in my first run for governor.
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And so when I saw him, you know, he said, well, I guess your guy didn't win.
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And, you know, that was his dig.
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I talked to him and I said, look, I'm not your person.
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You know, you don't need someone with a learning curve.
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You need someone who can get to work right away.
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But I will do what I can to help you.
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Fast forward a couple of days.
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Ryan's called and he said, don't say anything.
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Just listen.
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U.S.
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Ambassador to the United Nations.
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I said, Reince, I don't even know what the United Nations does.
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I just know everybody hates it.
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And he said, well, the president's going to call you on Monday.
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You need to be ready with an answer.
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And so Michael and I kind of looked it up and looked at all of what it was going to be.
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And then when the president called on Monday, he said, all right, Nick, are you going to do this?
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And I said, well, it'd have to be on three conditions.
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And he said, what?
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And I said, number one, I don't want to work for anyone.
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I've been a governor.
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I want to work directly with you.
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So I'd need to be a cabinet member.
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He said, done.
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What else?
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I said, well, I'm a policy girl.
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So I'd want to be in the room when decisions are made.
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So I want to be on your National Security Council.
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He said, done.
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And I said, well, I'm not going to be a wallflower or a talking head.
229
00:12:43.682 --> 00:12:45.884
I need to be able to do what I think.
230
00:12:46.424 --> 00:12:50.687
And I will tell you, Daniel, if you're going to do something, be great at it or don't do it.
231
00:12:50.887 --> 00:12:53.749
And I studied and studied and studied.
232
00:12:53.969 --> 00:12:57.151
And I was, I have no problem being humble about it.
233
00:12:57.311 --> 00:12:58.812
If we were going to go talk about...
234
00:12:59.332 --> 00:13:05.136
something in the security council, a certain country, I'd have all the experts come with a map, go through everything.
235
00:13:05.677 --> 00:13:08.119
And I read all the time.
236
00:13:08.299 --> 00:13:10.160
I studied, I asked questions.
237
00:13:10.620 --> 00:13:12.642
I surrounded myself with smart people.
238
00:13:13.002 --> 00:13:14.283
And then I followed my gut.
239
00:13:14.523 --> 00:13:21.828
Then it was just fighting for what I believed in, because what I knew is whatever was in the best interest of the United States, I was going to fight for that.
240
00:13:21.848 --> 00:13:23.850
Do you remember how your name, I don't know,
241
00:13:24.283 --> 00:13:27.205
I think it was the beginning of like the Abraham Accords.
242
00:13:27.245 --> 00:13:38.873
What I remember is observing from afar with fascination because President Trump, whatever you like about his following party seal not, he was not the best human manager.
243
00:13:38.973 --> 00:13:48.359
Like, at least to my eyes, he kept denigrating every single cabinet member and would mistreat people and would put them down and make them look like fools.
244
00:13:48.419 --> 00:13:52.642
And just as a person that had an organization, I found that very unhealthy because...
245
00:13:53.202 --> 00:13:55.142
And the only person he didn't do that to was you.
246
00:13:55.203 --> 00:14:02.004
For during your reign, he eventually got to you when you criticized them after January 6th and run for whatever.
247
00:14:02.024 --> 00:14:03.084
And we'll talk about that a little bit.
248
00:14:03.264 --> 00:14:10.446
I was fascinated that every single one of his cabinet members, he really treated them badly and he treated you as an equal.
249
00:14:10.546 --> 00:14:11.966
And I was in awe.
250
00:14:11.986 --> 00:14:13.927
I didn't understand how that happened.
251
00:14:14.486 --> 00:14:17.408
I think first it was me knowing my role.
252
00:14:17.728 --> 00:14:24.792
So as governor, when I appointed my cabinet members, I didn't appoint people who voted for me or who donated.
253
00:14:25.032 --> 00:14:28.474
I put the best person in the job that I knew could solve the problems.
254
00:14:28.754 --> 00:14:33.317
When I appointed them, I said, I want you to do a few things.
255
00:14:33.697 --> 00:14:34.938
One, I want you to serve the people.
256
00:14:35.558 --> 00:14:36.979
Two, I want you to be creative.
257
00:14:37.559 --> 00:14:40.901
And three, if you see me doing something wrong, say it.
258
00:14:41.462 --> 00:14:47.826
And so I took the same things that I said to my cabinet, and I took that responsibility to President Trump.
259
00:14:48.506 --> 00:14:50.888
So if he was doing something,
260
00:14:51.718 --> 00:14:54.381
I would support, I would rally, I'd fight for it.
261
00:14:55.342 --> 00:14:56.403
I'd give it everything I had.
262
00:14:56.743 --> 00:15:08.855
If there was something I disagreed with him in, or I thought he was getting ready to make a mistake, I would call him or meet with him and say, you can't do this, but instead you could do X, Y, or Z. I always gave him options.
263
00:15:09.395 --> 00:15:13.299
And I think that's what you have to remember is know your role, know your place.
264
00:15:13.920 --> 00:15:14.961
He was the president.
265
00:15:15.201 --> 00:15:16.482
He needed to make a decision.
266
00:15:16.522 --> 00:15:21.965
So instead of saying, oh, this decision's bad or good, give options on what would make it better.
267
00:15:22.205 --> 00:15:24.146
But it's your job to be a truth teller.
268
00:15:24.506 --> 00:15:26.367
Tell them everything good and bad.
269
00:15:26.988 --> 00:15:30.890
And I think that he knew, one, I gave him good solutions.
270
00:15:31.830 --> 00:15:33.211
Two, I never embarrassed him.
271
00:15:34.212 --> 00:15:34.412
And two.
272
00:15:35.023 --> 00:15:40.068
I also made sure that I think he knew he could trust me because I wasn't going to let him fall.
273
00:15:40.388 --> 00:15:42.831
In front of the cameras, you were extraordinarily loyal.
274
00:15:42.851 --> 00:15:44.172
You didn't criticize him publicly.
275
00:15:44.192 --> 00:15:46.034
You and I had this debate multiple times.
276
00:15:46.314 --> 00:15:52.801
You were very, very forceful and respectful about saying, I have my style and my style is to give people feedback behind the scenes.
277
00:15:52.821 --> 00:15:53.501
I'm not here to...
278
00:15:54.382 --> 00:15:55.784
deliberate in front of the cameras.
279
00:15:55.824 --> 00:15:59.367
And in some ways, I really respect that, and it kind of worked.
280
00:16:00.148 --> 00:16:02.731
At some point, that doesn't work, right?
281
00:16:02.771 --> 00:16:11.359
Because you need loyalty, but at some point, President Trump, in his behavior on January 6th, does things that I think all else found problematic.
282
00:16:11.840 --> 00:16:14.262
And at some point, you said, look, you were actually...
283
00:16:14.963 --> 00:16:23.307
probably in the worst place because you criticized it, but not the way the Democrats wanted to criticize it, but more than the Republicans wanted to criticize it.
284
00:16:23.347 --> 00:16:25.929
And just in your own way, you said, you know, I do not approve of this.
285
00:16:26.429 --> 00:16:28.190
And everybody hated you as a result.
286
00:16:28.350 --> 00:16:33.192
And so how do you, how do you, what's the right way to navigate those issues?
287
00:16:33.252 --> 00:16:35.874
Well, I think, you know, when you work for someone,
288
00:16:36.454 --> 00:16:39.477
I think it's important to respect that they're the decision maker.
289
00:16:39.917 --> 00:16:45.122
And so your job is to be a truth teller and tell them things behind closed doors.
290
00:16:45.763 --> 00:16:49.326
If it starts to go in a direction that you don't like, you leave.
291
00:16:50.087 --> 00:16:50.587
I left.
292
00:16:51.067 --> 00:16:52.269
Is that why you left in 2018?
293
00:16:52.289 --> 00:16:52.629
Because...
294
00:16:54.535 --> 00:16:55.676
It was never on the record.
295
00:16:55.696 --> 00:16:56.757
So now let's make some news.
296
00:16:56.858 --> 00:16:58.119
Why did you leave in 2018?
297
00:16:58.139 --> 00:16:58.940
You know, it wasn't.
298
00:16:59.000 --> 00:17:02.163
It actually wasn't about Trump that I left.
299
00:17:02.804 --> 00:17:08.810
It was more about John Bolton and seeing what was happening as national security advisor.
300
00:17:09.230 --> 00:17:10.792
He didn't want to have meetings.
301
00:17:11.152 --> 00:17:14.396
He only wanted to handle things quietly.
302
00:17:14.676 --> 00:17:18.458
That's not too convenient because now he's in the, nobody loves that guy?
303
00:17:18.678 --> 00:17:19.658
I said this in my book.
304
00:17:19.698 --> 00:17:21.759
If you look at, with all due respect, I wrote about it.
305
00:17:22.319 --> 00:17:24.580
What I saw was his comment.
306
00:17:25.020 --> 00:17:28.282
I went to the president and I said, we're not having National Security Council meetings.
307
00:17:28.322 --> 00:17:36.525
These meetings are hugely important when decisions are being made because every cabinet agency has to respond and has requirements.
308
00:17:36.705 --> 00:17:39.927
But John Bolton's answer was, what, you don't have enough meetings?
309
00:17:39.947 --> 00:17:40.327
Yeah.
310
00:17:40.884 --> 00:17:43.306
I mean, these are things like getting out of the Iran deal.
311
00:17:43.546 --> 00:17:47.409
These are things like what's happening with, you know, Ukraine at the time.
312
00:17:47.869 --> 00:17:57.135
These are massive issues that you don't need to have sitting in the oval with a notepad and having that one-on-one.
313
00:17:57.436 --> 00:18:00.318
You need to know how it's going to affect commerce, how it's going to affect agriculture.
314
00:18:00.338 --> 00:18:06.342
But it wasn't also that you felt that maybe President Trump was doing things you didn't like and you didn't want to criticize him, so you felt it was time for you to move?
315
00:18:06.362 --> 00:18:06.462
Yeah.
316
00:18:06.972 --> 00:18:12.713
I felt like I could see how self-absorbed John Bolton was getting.
317
00:18:13.313 --> 00:18:16.934
And I could see that it was going to be all about his foreign policy.
318
00:18:17.194 --> 00:18:23.056
And I could see the direction that he was going one way, Pompeo was going the other way.
319
00:18:23.316 --> 00:18:24.456
I was a cabinet member.
320
00:18:24.656 --> 00:18:28.017
And so the reason I wanted to be a cabinet member was I didn't have to...
321
00:18:28.757 --> 00:18:30.018
respond to either one of them.
322
00:18:30.099 --> 00:18:36.345
And at that time you had a very incredible, I mean, President Trump, I don't know how to describe it.
323
00:18:36.365 --> 00:18:37.166
He was in awe of you.
324
00:18:37.186 --> 00:18:49.539
You even, there was one situation where somehow he challenged you and you stood up very elegantly, not in a mean way, but I seem to recall, do you remember the moment- That wasn't, it actually wasn't him.
325
00:18:49.759 --> 00:18:50.239
It was-
326
00:18:51.740 --> 00:18:56.381
We had had President Trump had decided to put sanctions on Russia.
327
00:18:56.901 --> 00:19:00.902
We had had two National Security Council meetings back to back on that.
328
00:19:01.602 --> 00:19:03.163
And he decided to go forward.
329
00:19:03.663 --> 00:19:07.264
And I met with him on the Friday before in D.C.
330
00:19:07.384 --> 00:19:10.404
He was still going forward and they had asked me to do Sunday shows.
331
00:19:10.644 --> 00:19:13.465
And so I recorded it on Saturday and.
332
00:19:14.345 --> 00:19:21.391
And I made the comment President Trump would be warranted in putting sanctions on Russia if he chooses to.
333
00:19:21.451 --> 00:19:22.912
Something along the lines of that.
334
00:19:22.952 --> 00:19:24.273
Insistence of what he had decided.
335
00:19:24.293 --> 00:19:24.573
Yes.
336
00:19:24.893 --> 00:19:29.637
And so I got a call from Steve Mnuchin on Sunday.
337
00:19:29.837 --> 00:19:32.039
And Steve and I got along very well.
338
00:19:32.079 --> 00:19:34.621
And he said, we've got a little bit of a problem.
339
00:19:36.362 --> 00:19:38.644
Trump's decided not to do the sanctions on Russia.
340
00:19:39.124 --> 00:19:40.325
And the press is calling.
341
00:19:40.585 --> 00:19:42.065
And I said, well, that's not a problem.
342
00:19:42.125 --> 00:19:46.967
Just tell them that he either changed his mind or he's going to pause and do it later.
343
00:19:47.027 --> 00:19:48.227
Just tell the truth.
344
00:19:48.547 --> 00:19:50.188
And he said, we're going to put out a statement.
345
00:19:50.268 --> 00:19:51.108
Everything will be fine.
346
00:19:51.248 --> 00:19:54.429
So they put out a statement and it didn't answer the question.
347
00:19:54.709 --> 00:20:00.931
So I called a couple of them, you know, secretary of state, national security advisor called and I said, look.
348
00:20:02.005 --> 00:20:08.028
I've done this long enough to know that if you don't answer the questions of journalists, they're going to keep asking.
349
00:20:08.148 --> 00:20:10.469
And you are actually making a situation worse.
350
00:20:10.709 --> 00:20:13.230
The next morning, it's still going on.
351
00:20:13.370 --> 00:20:14.251
It's still getting bigger.
352
00:20:14.531 --> 00:20:16.212
So I call both of them.
353
00:20:16.812 --> 00:20:18.933
And I said, you have until four o'clock today.
354
00:20:19.473 --> 00:20:21.494
Either you tell them or I'm telling them.
355
00:20:21.854 --> 00:20:24.856
But one of us needs to tell them exactly what happened.
356
00:20:25.316 --> 00:20:29.158
And shortly after four, Larry Kudlow came out.
357
00:20:30.703 --> 00:20:38.450
to a press huddle and knowing that they were going to ask the question, they must have discussed it.
358
00:20:39.552 --> 00:20:44.616
And they said,
why would she say that about sanctions if it wasn't going to happen?
359
00:20:45.469 --> 00:20:50.610
And he said, you know, Nikki's great, whatever.
360
00:20:50.730 --> 00:20:52.231
I just think she got confused.
361
00:20:52.651 --> 00:20:57.472
And I was literally watching the news when he said that.
362
00:20:57.972 --> 00:21:01.493
And I saw that The Five on Fox was coming on.
363
00:21:01.934 --> 00:21:03.914
And I texted Dana Perino.
364
00:21:04.194 --> 00:21:06.475
And I said, can you put me on the record?
365
00:21:07.295 --> 00:21:10.297
is saying, with all due respect, I don't get confused.
366
00:21:10.818 --> 00:21:15.421
And she picked up the phone and she called me and she said, okay, do I have this right?
367
00:21:15.441 --> 00:21:16.942
And I said, that's all you need to say.
368
00:21:17.303 --> 00:21:20.445
In the last half hour, I was able to get in touch with Nikki Haley.
369
00:21:20.525 --> 00:21:25.449
And she said, quote, with all due respect, I don't get confused.
370
00:21:26.109 --> 00:21:29.932
So there is some clarity, at least from her part on that tonight.
371
00:21:30.513 --> 00:21:33.315
And within five minutes, I got a call from Larry.
372
00:21:34.417 --> 00:21:36.058
And he was like, Nikki, you know, I love you.
373
00:21:36.279 --> 00:21:37.359
You know, I appreciate you.
374
00:21:37.740 --> 00:21:42.964
You know, I just, you know, I happen to say that, but you know, that's, you know, I love you.
375
00:21:43.004 --> 00:21:44.045
You know, everything's good.
376
00:21:44.085 --> 00:21:46.927
And I said, well, I said, I appreciate you calling.
377
00:21:47.228 --> 00:21:49.029
I said, but Larry, I need you to go fix it.
378
00:21:49.970 --> 00:21:50.991
And he goes, what do you mean fix it?
379
00:21:51.031 --> 00:21:53.473
I said, you need to go tell them that I'm not confused.
380
00:21:53.873 --> 00:21:58.096
The decision was that we were going to have sanctions and the president changed his mind.
381
00:21:58.497 --> 00:21:59.578
And he said, I can't do that.
382
00:21:59.598 --> 00:22:01.880
I just told him, I said, oh no, you can and you will.
383
00:22:02.939 --> 00:22:05.620
And I said, and I need you to do it in the next five or 10 minutes.
384
00:22:05.981 --> 00:22:18.027
And to Larry's credit, who I get along perfectly well with before and after all of this, to his credit, he went right out to the press and told what happened and why it happened.
385
00:22:18.447 --> 00:22:19.608
And the whole thing went away.
386
00:22:20.840 --> 00:22:24.886
You had nerves of steel and backbone, like a lot of grit.
387
00:22:25.207 --> 00:22:29.073
Were they trying to tell you, no, just toe the line, take the fall?
388
00:22:30.055 --> 00:22:31.677
And why wouldn't it be the right thing?
389
00:22:32.058 --> 00:22:34.141
How do you navigate between when you need to be...
390
00:22:35.175 --> 00:22:41.241
loyal to the point of just hurting yourself and saying a lie versus be transparent to the people.
391
00:22:41.261 --> 00:22:44.745
I mean, this wasn't in any way disparaging to Trump, right?
392
00:22:44.945 --> 00:22:51.632
This was the other guys doing their thing, not wanting to come out and say it and trying to just sweep it under the rug.
393
00:22:51.652 --> 00:22:51.952
Right.
394
00:22:52.052 --> 00:22:54.194
But that was my integrity on the line.
395
00:22:54.314 --> 00:22:56.276
I don't say things unless I know.
396
00:22:56.296 --> 00:22:59.379
I mean, that was, you know, the reason I had that relationship with you.
397
00:22:59.399 --> 00:23:00.600
And I'm a truth teller.
398
00:23:00.980 --> 00:23:03.162
If I tell you something, you can take it to the bank.
399
00:23:03.582 --> 00:23:05.444
It was important for me to continue to have that.
400
00:23:05.464 --> 00:23:10.909
I want to go deeper on that issue beyond, because this is, for me, what's most interesting about being a politician or not being a politician.
401
00:23:11.944 --> 00:23:14.946
I'm very much like you, very transparent.
402
00:23:15.806 --> 00:23:19.249
In the political world, that does not...
403
00:23:19.269 --> 00:23:24.312
So for me, integrity, transparency, long-term relationship, that's how I, to your point, how I build businesses.
404
00:23:25.072 --> 00:23:28.815
And in the political world, sometimes it's loyalty,
405
00:23:29.615 --> 00:23:33.638
party above country, it drives me nuts.
406
00:23:34.178 --> 00:23:42.004
It drives me nuts that a lot of times, a lot of these decisions tend to put the party over the interests of the country.
407
00:23:42.244 --> 00:23:42.665
I don't know.
408
00:23:42.745 --> 00:23:43.926
How do you navigate that?
409
00:23:44.226 --> 00:23:45.447
Let me tell you a story.
410
00:23:45.787 --> 00:23:51.912
When I won the state house seat in South Carolina, I defeated a 30-year incumbent.
411
00:23:52.632 --> 00:23:53.752
And ignorance is bliss.
412
00:23:53.892 --> 00:23:55.073
I just didn't know any better.
413
00:23:55.173 --> 00:23:58.193
I didn't know you weren't supposed to run against a 30 year incumbent in primary.
414
00:23:59.014 --> 00:24:02.014
And my whole campaign was he's been there 30 years.
415
00:24:02.094 --> 00:24:02.994
No disrespect.
416
00:24:03.095 --> 00:24:05.055
But we have way too many lawyers in the statehouse.
417
00:24:05.075 --> 00:24:06.295
They need a really good accountant.
418
00:24:06.795 --> 00:24:07.436
I'm an accountant.
419
00:24:07.456 --> 00:24:09.316
So that's and I happen to win.
420
00:24:09.336 --> 00:24:13.317
I had been at the statehouse two or three years at that point.
421
00:24:14.432 --> 00:24:19.135
And in South Carolina, a lot of legislation would be read across the desk by voice vote.
422
00:24:19.775 --> 00:24:20.956
All in favor, say aye.
423
00:24:20.996 --> 00:24:21.796
All opposed, nay.
424
00:24:21.816 --> 00:24:22.457
The ayes have it.
425
00:24:22.777 --> 00:24:24.338
I was focused on small businesses.
426
00:24:24.458 --> 00:24:27.960
I was focused on making sure
that we had a good business environment, all those things.
427
00:24:28.520 --> 00:24:34.944
But one day, we're sitting in the chambers, and there's a bill read across the desk that would give legislators a pay raise.
428
00:24:35.964 --> 00:24:37.305
All in favor, say aye.
429
00:24:37.425 --> 00:24:39.006
All opposed, silence.
430
00:24:39.066 --> 00:24:39.867
The ayes have it.
431
00:24:40.946 --> 00:24:45.189
And yet no one would admit that they just gave themselves a pay raise.
432
00:24:45.529 --> 00:24:46.789
I was mortified.
433
00:24:47.250 --> 00:24:50.612
We had a Republican House, a Republican Senate, and a Republican governor.
434
00:24:50.992 --> 00:25:02.739
And I went and the next day filed a bill that said anything important enough to be debated on the floor of the House or the Senate is important enough for the people to see how their legislator voted.
435
00:25:03.159 --> 00:25:06.000
The Speaker of the House came to me and said, put the bill away.
436
00:25:06.561 --> 00:25:07.541
We don't need to have it.
437
00:25:07.681 --> 00:25:10.263
We will decide what the public needs to see and what they don't.
438
00:25:10.403 --> 00:25:17.409
I remember going home to my husband, Michael, saying, if I can't even get legislative votes on the record, what am I doing here?
439
00:25:17.989 --> 00:25:19.250
And he said, then fight.
440
00:25:19.490 --> 00:25:26.056
So I went around the entire state and said, did you know of all the bills passed in the House, only 8% were on the record?
441
00:25:26.738 --> 00:25:30.640
Did you know of all the bills passed in the Senate, only 1% was on the record?
442
00:25:31.161 --> 00:25:40.826
So if you didn't know how your House member voted 92% of the time, if you didn't know how your senator voted 99% of the time, how did you know who to vote for when you went to the polls?
443
00:25:41.447 --> 00:25:43.548
And the people in South Carolina were shocked.
444
00:25:43.808 --> 00:25:47.871
To put it in perspective, my first year in office, I was chairman of the freshman class.
445
00:25:47.951 --> 00:25:49.552
Second year, I was majority whip.
446
00:25:49.873 --> 00:25:51.974
Third year, I was on a powerful business committee.
447
00:25:52.335 --> 00:25:54.216
Fourth year, I was subcommittee chair of banking.
448
00:25:54.656 --> 00:25:59.060
The year that I would not put that bill away, they stripped me of everything.
449
00:25:59.769 --> 00:26:01.770
I lost every ranking, every committee.
450
00:26:01.990 --> 00:26:02.931
I could take the well.
451
00:26:03.611 --> 00:26:04.952
No one would listen to me speak.
452
00:26:05.172 --> 00:26:06.493
I could try and sponsor something.
453
00:26:06.533 --> 00:26:07.654
No one would co-sponsor.
454
00:26:08.094 --> 00:26:09.015
So I ran for governor.
455
00:26:09.415 --> 00:26:18.481
And one of the first things, one of the first bills we signed into law is now in South Carolina, anything debated on the floor of the House or the Senate requires a legislative
vote on the record.
456
00:26:18.621 --> 00:26:22.003
And I took it a step further and did it on every section of the budget as well.
457
00:26:23.103 --> 00:26:25.185
I mean, this is an insane story in so many ways.
458
00:26:25.765 --> 00:26:31.328
First of all, sometimes when they go and get stuff, you double down and you just don't let bullies bully you.
459
00:26:31.809 --> 00:26:35.431
The common thing with everything is that you need to be so strong.
460
00:26:35.451 --> 00:26:39.894
So as a kid, were you born that way or were you built into somebody that has that back?
461
00:26:40.274 --> 00:26:41.375
It was my parents.
462
00:26:41.795 --> 00:26:47.979
I mean, my dad, he was one of the smartest people I've ever met, but he taught me respect and grace.
463
00:26:48.679 --> 00:26:50.159
And always being kind.
464
00:26:50.840 --> 00:26:53.220
And my mom taught me strength.
465
00:26:53.860 --> 00:26:56.221
She was stand up for yourself.
466
00:26:56.481 --> 00:26:57.941
She wouldn't let us get bullied.
467
00:26:57.981 --> 00:27:01.883
And if there was nothing that if I wanted it bad enough that I couldn't go do it.
468
00:27:02.063 --> 00:27:03.043
I mean, my mom was.
469
00:27:03.063 --> 00:27:05.523
She's like a coach, like giving inspirational speaker.
470
00:27:05.543 --> 00:27:06.144
What was it?
471
00:27:06.164 --> 00:27:06.744
She was tough.
472
00:27:06.764 --> 00:27:08.504
All of us as parents want that toolkit.
473
00:27:08.524 --> 00:27:10.365
What was your mom doing to make you strong?
474
00:27:10.385 --> 00:27:10.685
She was tough.
475
00:27:10.705 --> 00:27:11.205
She was tough.
476
00:27:11.485 --> 00:27:11.845
Elaborate.
477
00:27:11.885 --> 00:27:15.527
If she ever saw me cry, she'd say, get a glass of water and go to your room.
478
00:27:15.827 --> 00:27:18.768
We were not allowed to cry in front of anybody.
479
00:27:19.188 --> 00:27:21.229
I would have not made good money in your family.
480
00:27:21.309 --> 00:27:26.451
No, and I could be an emotional person, but it was she taught emotional toughness.
481
00:27:26.792 --> 00:27:28.892
My dad taught me to be comfortable crying.
482
00:27:28.932 --> 00:27:35.495
Like literally, it was very important to him, both in Mexico and in the United States, a man shouldn't cry.
483
00:27:35.615 --> 00:27:36.336
And my dad said...
484
00:27:37.316 --> 00:27:38.056
be yourself.
485
00:27:38.176 --> 00:27:42.659
And he taught me the importance of being comfortable with my emotions and being a human.
486
00:27:43.199 --> 00:27:46.720
And it's interesting because I admire you a lot, but it's a very different lesson.
487
00:27:46.740 --> 00:27:47.781
We had to be guarded.
488
00:27:47.821 --> 00:27:50.822
I mean, we had a hard time in that small town, so.
489
00:27:50.902 --> 00:27:53.163
Which is better because I cannot ever be a politician.
490
00:27:53.183 --> 00:27:53.904
I don't have that.
491
00:27:54.464 --> 00:27:59.706
And so I guess if you wanna build time to let them cry,
if you wanna be president.
492
00:27:59.986 --> 00:28:01.707
I learned mental toughness from her.
493
00:28:01.827 --> 00:28:03.548
I learned emotional toughness from her.
494
00:28:03.788 --> 00:28:05.249
You tried to teach the same to your kids?
495
00:28:05.649 --> 00:28:12.531
I think I've taught my kids to be strong, but I've never told them, if you're going to cry, go to your room.
496
00:28:12.631 --> 00:28:13.991
I never took it to that level.
497
00:28:14.011 --> 00:28:15.331
Are your mom and dad still around?
498
00:28:15.871 --> 00:28:20.752
No, they both passed away a year apart right after I suspended the campaign.
499
00:28:21.132 --> 00:28:21.753
You're kidding.
500
00:28:21.913 --> 00:28:22.153
Yeah.
501
00:28:23.173 --> 00:28:24.913
You decide to run for president.
502
00:28:25.573 --> 00:28:27.994
Michael gets- Deployed.
503
00:28:28.034 --> 00:28:29.314
Deployed for a year.
504
00:28:29.774 --> 00:28:32.695
You're running this very difficult campaign
505
00:28:33.153 --> 00:28:34.635
I had a daughter that was getting married.
506
00:28:34.675 --> 00:28:37.017
We had to get her married during that as well.
507
00:28:37.477 --> 00:28:38.979
And I had two sick parents at home.
508
00:28:39.259 --> 00:28:42.002
And then you suspend and then they pass away.
509
00:28:42.723 --> 00:28:44.404
First of all, were they very proud of you?
510
00:28:44.444 --> 00:28:45.345
Were they, are you crazy?
511
00:28:45.365 --> 00:28:46.326
Why are you running for president?
512
00:28:46.346 --> 00:28:47.147
So proud.
513
00:28:47.487 --> 00:28:48.028
So proud.
514
00:28:48.048 --> 00:28:51.751
I mean, they were the ones that, like, they were my biggest cheerleaders.
515
00:28:51.771 --> 00:28:52.833
They would have never imagined.
516
00:28:53.373 --> 00:28:59.618
They would have never dreamt that you're going to be governor, let alone UN ambassador, let alone run for president.
517
00:28:59.638 --> 00:29:00.819
They would never imagine that.
518
00:29:00.839 --> 00:29:06.844
Like on debate nights, debate nights, you know, my dad would be wearing a Nikki Haley for president hat.
519
00:29:06.884 --> 00:29:10.767
My mom would be wearing the t-shirt, you know, right in front of the TV and I'd get a picture of them.
520
00:29:10.807 --> 00:29:12.088
Like they were so proud.
521
00:29:12.856 --> 00:29:14.556
They never saw anything like this coming.
522
00:29:14.576 --> 00:29:16.777
Or did your mom say, you can be anything you want, you can be present?
523
00:29:16.797 --> 00:29:21.418
She always, my parents always told us, whatever you do, be great at it.
524
00:29:21.478 --> 00:29:23.598
And they always believed in God's blessings.
525
00:29:23.718 --> 00:29:27.239
And they would say the best way to appreciate God's blessings is to give back.
526
00:29:27.699 --> 00:29:31.360
And so service was very much a part of our family.
527
00:29:31.780 --> 00:29:36.921
Both your parents were Sikh and you converted to Christianity when you married Michael.
528
00:29:37.321 --> 00:29:39.501
Were your parents heartbroken when you became Christian?
529
00:29:39.541 --> 00:29:42.202
They weren't because my parents, when I was growing up,
530
00:29:43.568 --> 00:30:05.742
my mom would always take us to different churches and she would always say it's important that you know that everybody has their way to god and what we care is that you find your way and so would they have loved for me to stay seek yes i know they would have but at the end of the day it was the relationship that we had with god that was the most it sounds like they supported you when you were crazy enough to want to
531
00:30:06.442 --> 00:30:13.687
Going to run for state office when you became governor, when you became ambassador, when you ran for president, put yourself in that situation.
532
00:30:14.027 --> 00:30:19.050
What were the pivotal moments that brought you to run for office?
533
00:30:19.432 --> 00:30:28.701
The story that really stands out in my mind is when I got my first job and I was accounting supervisor for a company and the six of their subsidiaries, it was an all-male company.
534
00:30:29.242 --> 00:30:42.575
And I remember I'd been there maybe three or four weeks and we were having a meeting and the president comes flying in like 10 minutes late and the CFO looks at me and says, Nikki, why don't you go get Paul a cup of coffee?
535
00:30:44.076 --> 00:30:51.158
And I remember thinking, I didn't know what I was going to do at that moment, but whatever I did was going to affect how they treated me.
536
00:30:51.658 --> 00:30:54.139
And I said, absolutely, no problem.
537
00:30:55.239 --> 00:31:03.522
And I leaned to the phone in the center of the table and I called my assistant and I said, Pam, will you please get Paul a cup of coffee?
538
00:31:04.322 --> 00:31:06.403
They never asked me to get a cup of coffee again.
539
00:31:07.385 --> 00:31:09.588
You very elegantly said, don't do that.
540
00:31:09.788 --> 00:31:13.912
Because that was the side of my dad, which is you don't have to embarrass people.
541
00:31:14.132 --> 00:31:15.854
You don't have to talk down to people.
542
00:31:16.455 --> 00:31:18.637
People don't always know the right thing to do.
543
00:31:18.697 --> 00:31:20.800
Your job is to show them what to do.
544
00:31:20.820 --> 00:31:24.564
This is an essential part of who you are that I've noticed helped you solve problems.
545
00:31:24.584 --> 00:31:24.864
Right.
546
00:31:25.044 --> 00:31:26.545
And a lot of people misunderstand it.
547
00:31:27.065 --> 00:31:29.286
And it's really an essential part of being a builder.
548
00:31:29.447 --> 00:31:35.990
Example, when my team was preparing the brief with me for this, one of the things that, well, why didn't you call out this person?
549
00:31:36.010 --> 00:31:37.411
Why didn't you call out this person?
550
00:31:37.811 --> 00:31:45.135
And I'm like, because, and you said in a quote, something about like a leader is not meant to take sides.
551
00:31:45.595 --> 00:31:46.876
And I was like, yes, take sides.
552
00:31:46.976 --> 00:31:49.578
And sometimes taking sides doesn't actually solve the problem.
553
00:31:49.818 --> 00:31:53.039
Well, I, you do, I strongly believe you take sides.
554
00:31:53.060 --> 00:31:53.940
Yeah.
555
00:31:54.120 --> 00:31:55.742
But how you do it matters.
556
00:31:55.982 --> 00:31:57.843
You know, so many people look at the act.
557
00:31:58.604 --> 00:31:59.725
I look at the future.
558
00:32:00.345 --> 00:32:08.172
How you do things will affect how people treat you, how they see you, whether they want to work with you again, whether they want to do something again.
559
00:32:08.252 --> 00:32:14.617
And I think, you know, that moment about the coffee, they weren't trying to disrespect me.
560
00:32:14.838 --> 00:32:16.459
They just didn't know any better.
561
00:32:16.859 --> 00:32:21.003
And so I could have screamed and yelled and said, oh, this is, you know,
562
00:32:21.343 --> 00:32:22.564
But you're also not meek.
563
00:32:22.584 --> 00:32:23.886
You don't just let it happen.
564
00:32:24.326 --> 00:32:25.868
You find an elegant way to.
565
00:32:26.448 --> 00:32:30.653
But instead, it was more productive for me to show them what they should have done.
566
00:32:31.153 --> 00:32:32.114
And that's what I did.
567
00:32:32.254 --> 00:32:38.881
And you could tell on their faces that they were embarrassed, but I didn't have to say something to embarrass them.
568
00:32:38.962 --> 00:32:40.183
I just needed to show them.
569
00:32:40.483 --> 00:32:51.942
a very important build or break moment for you was in 2015, a white supremacist murders nine black parishioners at the church in their Bible studies and,
570
00:32:53.484 --> 00:33:01.028
You've talked with respect about the confederate flag standing for heritage, but you learn about what happened.
571
00:33:01.728 --> 00:33:09.052
And all of a sudden you start real because the shooter had a confederate flag that he was wrapped around.
572
00:33:09.612 --> 00:33:15.756
And you rise up to the moment, flanked by Senators Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott and say, OK, we're going to.
573
00:33:16.416 --> 00:33:23.920
make a change, and all of a sudden, not just all of South Carolina, but the entire country pivots following that task.
574
00:33:24.661 --> 00:33:35.787
Walk me through how you approach that, how you dealt with that, and then also how you navigate, to your point, not judging people that grew up respecting the Confederate flag.
575
00:33:35.827 --> 00:33:39.328
It's not about, A, you're a bad person, but finding a way to evolve.
576
00:33:39.388 --> 00:33:41.269
Walk me through how, as a leader, you do that.
577
00:33:41.289 --> 00:33:42.170
That was amazing.
578
00:33:42.450 --> 00:33:49.153
The of all the things I look at my life, that was the hardest that I personally went through.
579
00:33:49.173 --> 00:33:51.734
There was a lot that went into what you saw on TV.
580
00:33:51.754 -->
00:33:54.576
There was a lot of behind the scenes that went on.
581
00:33:54.876 --> 00:34:00.038
And, you know, I'll start by saying you have to understand the scene of it.
582
00:34:00.578 --> 00:34:04.100
You know, South Carolinians went to Bible study every Wednesday.
583
00:34:04.280 --> 00:34:05.821
That's just a Southern thing.
584
00:34:05.841 --> 00:34:06.821
You know, you would have that.
585
00:34:07.181 --> 00:34:08.582
And on this Wednesday night.
586
00:34:10.408 --> 00:34:11.989
12 people went to Bible study.
587
00:34:12.309 --> 00:34:17.250
And what made this amazing was that on that night, someone else showed up.
588
00:34:17.951 --> 00:34:19.131
He didn't look like them.
589
00:34:19.491 --> 00:34:20.652
He didn't act like them.
590
00:34:20.852 --> 00:34:21.972
He didn't sound like them.
591
00:34:22.432 --> 00:34:23.533
They didn't call the cops.
592
00:34:23.973 --> 00:34:24.973
They didn't throw them out.
593
00:34:25.433 --> 00:34:29.855
Instead, they pulled up a chair and they prayed with him for an hour.
594
00:34:30.235 --> 00:34:35.477
And when they bowed their heads in that last prayer, he began to shoot.
595
00:34:35.697 --> 00:34:36.817
Was he sick?
596
00:34:38.418 --> 00:34:39.478
These were people...
597
00:34:41.352 --> 00:34:42.313
like Ethel Lance.
598
00:34:43.073 --> 00:34:51.459
Her daughter had died from breast cancer a couple of years prior, but she would go around Mother Emanuel Church cleaning, singing, one day at a time, sweet Jesus.
599
00:34:51.839 --> 00:34:53.240
That's all I ask of you.
600
00:34:53.881 --> 00:34:56.602
Give me the strength every day to do what I have to do.
601
00:34:57.263 --> 00:35:02.126
Tywanza Sanders was our youngest victim, had just finished college, had the world in front of him.
602
00:35:02.607 --> 00:35:06.870
And on that night, he stood in front of the killer, in front of his great
603
00:35:08.165 --> 00:35:15.490
87-year-old great Aunt Susie, he stood between her and the killer, and he looked at the killer and said, you don't have to do this, we mean no harm to you.
604
00:35:16.050 --> 00:35:22.755
Or it was people like Cynthia Heard, who was a librarian, and it was just her life motto to say, be kinder than necessary.
605
00:35:23.455 --> 00:35:24.876
That's who these people were.
606
00:35:25.056 --> 00:35:33.682
They weren't famous, they weren't well-known, but they loved their family, they loved their church, and they loved their community.
607
00:35:35.723 --> 00:35:37.004
And this was a kid that,
608
00:35:38.184 --> 00:35:40.206
that decided he wanted to start a race war.
609
00:35:40.826 --> 00:35:43.749
The pastor of that church was a senator.
610
00:35:44.089 --> 00:35:50.654
And so when I got the calls that all of this happened, I immediately called, he was a Democrat senator, I immediately called- State senator.
611
00:35:50.755 --> 00:35:54.438
Yes, I immediately called him and I said, Senator Pinckney, I've heard what's happened.
612
00:35:54.758 -->
00:35:56.679
I'm coming down there first thing tomorrow morning.
613
00:35:56.920 --> 00:36:02.144
Whatever your congregation needs, whatever we need to do, we will take care of this and we will find him.
614
00:36:02.564 --> 00:36:06.608
And what haunts me to this day, he was supposed to be at the state house.
615
00:36:07.982 --> 00:36:11.186
But on that night, he ended up going to that Bible study.
616
00:36:11.986 --> 00:36:18.554
And it haunts me that my phone call, the phone was ringing in his pocket when I called.
617
00:36:19.394 --> 00:36:22.097
So South Carolina was broken.
618
00:36:22.778 --> 00:36:26.702
We'd never, there had never in the country been a shooting in a place of worship.
619
00:36:27.283 --> 00:36:30.305
And the Confederate flag had been an issue for a very long time.
620
00:36:30.946 --> 00:36:35.710
Governor David Beasley, prior to me, called for it to come down and he was defeated.
621
00:36:36.330 --> 00:36:41.234
And so I was sitting the next day just trying to get my head around it.
622
00:36:41.574 --> 00:36:45.877
And there was the killer that came out with this manifesto draped in the Confederate flag.
623
00:36:46.818 --> 00:36:54.419
And I called my staff on that Saturday and I said, I want you to schedule four meetings for me on Monday morning, first thing.
624
00:36:55.260 --> 00:36:58.660
One, I want it to be with Republican leadership.
625
00:36:59.300 --> 00:37:01.521
The second one, I want it to be with Democrat leadership.
626
00:37:01.541 --> 00:37:03.781
The third, I want it to be with the federal delegation.
627
00:37:04.441 --> 00:37:09.022
And the fourth, I wanted it to be key community leaders, very small group that we knew we had.
628
00:37:09.702 --> 00:37:13.183
And I said, and don't tell them why we're meeting because I knew they wouldn't show up.
629
00:37:14.557 --> 00:37:22.301
And on that morning, I went and in each meeting I said, Today at four o'clock, I'm going to ask for the Confederate flag to come down.
630
00:37:23.322 --> 00:37:25.983
If you will stand with me, I will forever be grateful.
631
00:37:26.283 --> 00:37:29.485
And if you won't, I'll never tell anybody you were in this room.
632
00:37:29.785 --> 00:37:35.788
And I've kept my word to this day on who was with me and who wasn't with me, what they said in that room, all that.
633
00:37:36.028 --> 00:37:37.729
I will take that to my grave.
634
00:37:38.089 --> 00:37:42.192
And at four o'clock, I had my husband there because I thought he was going to be the only one standing with me.
635
00:37:43.032 --> 00:37:50.639
But instead, we had House members, we had senators, we had community leaders, Blacks, whites, we had Strom Thurmond's son.
636
00:37:51.299 --> 00:37:52.460
Everybody was there.
637
00:37:52.921 --> 00:37:57.985
And I said, a flag is a living, breathing, symbolic thing.
638
00:37:58.485 --> 00:38:00.547
This flag deserves to be in a museum.
639
00:38:00.947 --> 00:38:01.888
That's where it needs to go.
640
00:38:02.008 --> 00:38:04.831
If you want to fly it on your private property, you can fly it.
641
00:38:05.091 --> 00:38:09.515
But in front of the statehouse, we need to put it in its rightful place.
642
00:38:09.995 --> 00:38:15.220
I had to do it in such a way because part of the state saw the Confederate flag as heritage and service.
643
00:38:16.041 --> 00:38:18.403
The other half of the state saw it as hate.
644
00:38:19.244 --> 00:38:21.326
My job wasn't to judge either side.
645
00:38:21.726 --> 00:38:24.549
My job was to get them to see where we wanted to go.
646
00:38:24.910 --> 00:38:30.215
And so over the next few days, the hardest part was me getting the legislature to try and move on it.
647
00:38:30.235 --> 00:38:31.316
Blossing what you did, I...
648
00:38:32.757 --> 00:38:37.459
A tool I use a lot is also move people forward because if you went to the past, it's very hard.
649
00:38:38.020 --> 00:38:38.500
Who's right?
650
00:38:38.540 --> 00:38:39.240
Who's wrong?
651
00:38:40.101 --> 00:38:42.582
You know, I've worked really hard on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
652
00:38:42.642 --> 00:38:50.566
If you litigate in the past, close to a puzzle, if you focus on what's the future you want for your children, much easier to build consensus.
653
00:38:50.606 --> 00:38:51.346
So I get that.
654
00:38:51.787 --> 00:38:53.668
I didn't get the how and why
655
00:38:54.568 --> 00:38:59.637
You wanted to give a free pass for those that wouldn't have the courage to stand with you.
656
00:38:59.697 --> 00:39:02.762
Why did you allow people to say, stand with me and I'll be loyal to you?
657
00:39:02.862 --> 00:39:03.423
I get that.
658
00:39:04.104 --> 00:39:04.845
And if you don't want...
659
00:39:05.863 --> 00:39:07.083
Just no problem.
660
00:39:07.123 --> 00:39:08.344
I won't tell them you're here.
661
00:39:08.544 --> 00:39:09.764
Why were you so kind to them?
662
00:39:09.824 --> 00:39:12.045
Because it was about the people of South Carolina.
663
00:39:12.225 --> 00:39:14.285
It was about those families of those victims.
664
00:39:15.325 --> 00:39:17.386
No one needed to see any more separation.
665
00:39:17.406 --> 00:39:19.966
You didn't want to create us versus them and attack.
666
00:39:20.006 --> 00:39:20.306
No.
667
00:39:20.427 --> 00:39:30.089
And, you know, actually, the entire country came to the statehouse because trying to get that legislation passed was a whole nother act of violence.
668
00:39:31.499 --> 00:39:32.759
I mean, that was God sent.
669
00:39:32.839 --> 00:39:40.741
But you're doing what you did, and just trying to translate a really interesting tool I hadn't thought about, by telling people, stand with me and I will stand with you.
670
00:39:41.142 --> 00:39:44.282
Don't stand with me, it'll be, I won't do anything.
671
00:39:44.783 --> 00:39:49.404
You were signaling, join me those that I want, but I don't want to start fighting and dividing others.
672
00:39:49.444 --> 00:39:54.145
And then they were
smart enough to also not then attack, because then it...
673
00:39:54.525 --> 00:39:56.006
And we didn't need any more division.
674
00:39:56.166 --> 00:39:58.248
I was trying to unify the state at this point.
675
00:39:58.568 --> 00:40:00.349
You know, we had Jesse Jackson come in.
676
00:40:00.390 --> 00:40:01.911
We had Al Sharpton come in.
677
00:40:02.051 --> 00:40:03.852
I attended every single funeral.
678
00:40:04.593 --> 00:40:09.516
And I remember Al Sharpton stood up at church at one of the funerals.
679
00:40:10.492 --> 00:40:12.314
And it was the very first one.
680
00:40:12.354 --> 00:40:14.996
And he raised all this cane and all this division.
681
00:40:15.056 --> 00:40:17.918
And he said, and there sits Governor Nikki Haley.
682
00:40:18.519 --> 00:40:25.625
And he said, the number of times I've protested outside of her office, and now she wants to be at the funeral.
683
00:40:25.665 --> 00:40:27.306
So then I had to speak after him.
684
00:40:28.247 --> 00:40:33.632
And I said, first of all, Reverend Sharpton, you have never once protested outside of my office.
685
00:40:33.952 --> 00:40:37.235
I said, because if you did, I would have invited you in and hugged you.
686
00:40:37.535 --> 00:40:39.497
And then I went on and said what needed to be said.
687
00:40:39.517 --> 00:40:40.758
I just made that one comment.
688
00:40:41.178 --> 00:40:44.701
Afterward, he came running up to me saying, I didn't mean anything.
689
00:40:44.742 --> 00:40:45.362
I didn't mean anything.
690
00:40:45.382 --> 00:40:46.643
And I said, let me tell you something.
691
00:40:46.743 --> 00:40:47.844
Our state is divided.
692
00:40:48.285 --> 00:40:51.908
If you are coming here to create further divisions, there's no place for you.
693
00:40:52.288 --> 00:40:57.091
If you want to help us bring this state together, then you are more than welcome to be here.
694
00:40:57.592 --> 00:40:58.252
And he left.
695
00:40:58.632 --> 00:41:05.997
There's so many people that use division to rule, to divide and conquer, and rather than to solve problems.
696
00:41:06.037 --> 00:41:10.040
And one of the essential things that a builder does is to avoid that.
697
00:41:10.360 --> 00:41:13.862
Can you walk me through what you did right and also what you did wrong?
698
00:41:13.922 --> 00:41:21.107
A couple of very practical pieces of advice, not just for someone that wants to run for governor or run a state, but as an executive leader.
699
00:41:21.247 --> 00:41:22.928
I mean, two things in particular.
700
00:41:22.948 --> 00:41:27.509
You know, we had a 13% unemployment rate at the time.
701
00:41:28.449 --> 00:41:30.710
And South Carolinians were down on themselves.
702
00:41:30.730 --> 00:41:33.731
They had put all their resources in the textile basket.
703
00:41:33.831 --> 00:41:37.952
And when the textiles went overseas, so did all the jobs for South Carolina.
704
00:41:38.032 --> 00:41:42.673
And so I knew that if I was going to help the economy, I had to bring in jobs.
705
00:41:42.773 --> 00:41:47.155
We had to change the chemistry of what South Carolinians were known to do.
706
00:41:47.355 --> 00:41:47.835
And so...
707
00:41:48.255 --> 00:41:52.056
Immediately streamlined all our agencies, got rid of paperwork.
708
00:41:52.076 --> 00:41:54.956
We were very focused on being efficient, helping small businesses.
709
00:41:54.976 --> 00:41:57.257
But then I started to sell South Carolina.
710
00:41:58.097 --> 00:42:02.638
And what I did when I recruited, I didn't want to just take a company from another state.
711
00:42:02.758 --> 00:42:04.538
I wanted to make things in America.
712
00:42:05.078 --> 00:42:08.919
So I went and recruited outside to bring manufacturing jobs in.
713
00:42:09.759 --> 00:42:15.260
And so when we brought those companies in, I would say, I'm only going to ask you for two things.
714
00:42:15.280 --> 00:42:15.500
One.
715
00:42:15.840 --> 00:42:20.761
One, when you need your business needs, I'm going to ask you to use our small businesses in South Carolina to do that.
716
00:42:21.241 --> 00:42:25.263
The second thing is we will send people to your country.
717
00:42:25.503 --> 00:42:27.243
We will learn how you train.
718
00:42:27.543 --> 00:42:29.124
We will learn how you manage.
719
00:42:29.464 --> 00:42:30.344
We will come back.
720
00:42:30.504 --> 00:42:34.225
If you will let me teach my South Carolinians, you can interview them.
721
00:42:34.945 --> 00:42:39.131
And all I ask is that you interview them before you bring somebody from somewhere else.
722
00:42:39.892 --> 00:42:42.796
We trained them in our technical schools.
723
00:42:42.996 --> 00:42:44.538
97% of them were hired.
724
00:42:44.799 --> 00:42:46.741
These are people who used to do textiles.
725
00:42:47.182 --> 00:42:49.846
And by the time I left, we were building planes with Boeing.
726
00:42:50.286 --> 00:42:52.228
More BMWs in any place in the world.
727
00:42:52.248 --> 00:42:55.711
We brought in Mercedes Benz, Volvo, five international tire companies.
728
00:42:56.132 --> 00:42:58.554
They were referring to us as the beast of the southeast.
729
00:42:58.614 --> 00:43:06.181
But the beautiful part is we went down to a 4% unemployment and all those jobs were our South Carolinians.
730
00:43:06.221 --> 00:43:07.943
They didn't have to bring other people in.
731
00:43:08.003 --> 00:43:08.884
That's the first thing.
732
00:43:08.924 --> 00:43:12.768
The second thing is I was obsessed with our prison system.
733
00:43:13.734 --> 00:43:19.658
I wanted to know how people got in there, what their life was like in there, and what happened when they got out.
734
00:43:20.058 --> 00:43:21.679
And I went to the prisons.
735
00:43:21.739 --> 00:43:22.839
My security didn't like that.
736
00:43:22.859 --> 00:43:29.503
But I went to men's prisons, maximum security prisons, women's prisons, all of that to understand.
737
00:43:29.664 --> 00:43:34.026
And what we started doing in South Carolina, we started teaching them
financial literacy.
738
00:43:34.787 --> 00:43:36.528
We taught them how to do a resume.
739
00:43:37.388 --> 00:43:40.289
We gave them faith services.
740
00:43:41.029 --> 00:43:44.251
And then I asked my businesses to put equipment behind the fence.
741
00:43:44.651 --> 00:43:46.191
We started teaching them a trade.
742
00:43:47.212 --> 00:43:51.913
Now in South Carolina, when someone leaves the fence, they have a job to go to the next day.
743
00:43:51.973 --> 00:43:55.095
South Carolina has the lowest recidivism rate in the country.
744
00:43:55.115 --> 00:43:55.655
Are you serious?
745
00:43:56.175 --> 00:43:56.455
Wow.
746
00:43:56.655 --> 00:43:59.117
Because when you, you have to lift people up.
747
00:43:59.157 --> 00:44:00.098
You train a lot of these training people.
748
00:44:00.258 --> 00:44:03.179
You have to lift people up because what I saw is- So you have an alternative.
749
00:44:03.199 --> 00:44:04.660
These women would get out of prison.
750
00:44:05.101 --> 00:44:08.062
The only places they could go was in a restaurant or a bar.
751
00:44:08.283 --> 00:44:10.864
They weren't making enough money so they'd have to- Why has that not become the rule?
752
00:44:10.884 --> 00:44:12.325
Why is that so logical?
753
00:44:12.966 --> 00:44:18.369
It takes more time, it takes more effort, but you're changing someone's life for the better.
754
00:44:18.689 --> 00:44:21.210
And everybody in South Carolina benefited from that.
755
00:44:21.610 --> 00:44:25.291
And it's just putting a little more thought, not just thinking about the number.
756
00:44:25.311 --> 00:44:26.252
Did you have opposition to that one?
757
00:44:26.272 --> 00:44:26.812
No opposition.
758
00:44:27.092 --> 00:44:28.913
I don't even think people knew I was doing it.
759
00:44:29.213 --> 00:44:31.814
You've had two styles of leadership or execution.
760
00:44:31.974 --> 00:44:35.455
One is you turned a crisis into an opportunity to change
761
00:44:36.115 --> 00:44:42.278
the confederate flag and put it in a museum, but on the prison stuff you did it just quietly without galvanizing people.
762
00:44:42.298 --> 00:44:47.160
And then going back to generating jobs, you were using marketing, you were using your own persona.
763
00:44:47.421 --> 00:44:49.101
Do you mind going back for a minute?
764
00:44:49.121 --> 00:44:53.083
Because I find that stunning what you described, that you got Boeing in there, you got all these companies in there.
765
00:44:53.464 --> 00:44:59.627
A couple more very practical tools on how you got Boeing or any of these other companies.
766
00:44:59.647 --> 00:45:03.268
Like just give us a story of how you pushed it through.
767
00:45:03.288 --> 00:45:04.469
Because that's not easy to achieve.
768
00:45:04.509 --> 00:45:09.915
The same negotiating skills that I learned on that playground apply to when you're recruiting companies.
769
00:45:10.235 --> 00:45:11.617
Many were fearful of unions.
770
00:45:11.857 --> 00:45:13.398
Many were fearful of
government.
771
00:45:13.719 --> 00:45:15.821
Many were fearful of promises.
772
00:45:16.362 --> 00:45:19.425
And what I did was I didn't give the house away.
773
00:45:19.525 --> 00:45:20.986
I didn't believe in giving a lot of money.
774
00:45:21.727 --> 00:45:26.712
What I did believe is you give them the infrastructure around, whether it's the roads, the bridges, whatever they need.
775
00:45:27.413 --> 00:45:31.019
And then you put the trained workers in front of them so that they have those resources.
776
00:45:31.119 --> 00:45:32.641
And I gave them a liaison.
777
00:45:32.661 --> 00:45:33.803
And you probably were also very charming.
778
00:45:33.903 --> 00:45:36.607
I gave every single one of them my personal cell phone.
779
00:45:37.067 --> 00:45:40.753
And I said, when you come here, you'll never have to call anybody.
780
00:45:40.773 --> 00:45:41.814
You can call me directly.
781
00:45:42.315 --> 00:45:50.862
looked at it is I worked for those companies because if they took care of our South Carolinians, I was going to make sure we took care of them and made sure a business environment was healthy for them.
782
00:45:50.902 --> 00:45:53.744
I want to pivot back now at the United Nations.
783
00:45:54.325 --> 00:45:58.768
Can you tell us a couple tips of how you achieved some of what you achieved?
784
00:45:58.808 --> 00:46:03.012
Walk us through one example of something you did, and then I'm going to ask you an even tougher question.
785
00:46:03.092 --> 00:46:03.292
Yeah.
786
00:46:03.392 --> 00:46:07.736
The one that I think was the most consequential was getting out of the Iran deal.
787
00:46:08.497 --> 00:46:14.822
And, you know, when President Obama first decided to get into the Iran deal, he didn't do it through Congress.
788
00:46:14.842 --> 00:46:16.224
He did it by executive order.
789
00:46:17.064 --> 00:46:20.688
And when he did that, Congress wanted to have accountability.
790
00:46:21.048 --> 00:46:28.355
So what they did was they passed a bill and said every 90 days, a president has to decide whether that is still in the best interest of the United States.
791
00:46:29.397 --> 00:46:30.518
So President Trump comes in.
792
00:46:30.558 --> 00:46:32.480
We have our first National Security Council.
793
00:46:32.860 --> 00:46:34.241
His 90 days is coming up.
794
00:46:34.482 --> 00:46:36.023
He's asking all the right questions.
795
00:46:36.183 --> 00:46:40.167
Everybody's pretty much telling him, yes, you know, we just need to keep doing this.
796
00:46:40.187 --> 00:46:41.068
We need to keep doing this.
797
00:46:41.188 --> 00:46:43.190
And he was asking a couple extra questions.
798
00:46:43.210 --> 00:46:46.653
Like it was legit that he and the questions he was asking were good ones.
799
00:46:46.873 --> 00:46:48.954
And I saw that he was kind of nervous about it.
800
00:46:49.315 --> 00:46:55.979
I was nervous because Iran was violating every single UN resolution that they were supposed to be holding.
801
00:46:55.999
--> 00:46:57.460
They were selling ballistic missiles.
802
00:46:57.720 --> 00:47:02.743
They were funding terrorist organizations, everything they weren't supposed to do and being held by a resolution.
803
00:47:03.163 --> 00:47:04.984
They were lying and they were cheating and doing it.
804
00:47:05.244 --> 00:47:09.767
So I went to the president and I said, I understand you're uncomfortable with this Iran deal.
805
00:47:09.967 --> 00:47:10.488
I am too.
806
00:47:11.208 --> 00:47:18.997
If you will let me, I would like to go to Vienna, where the International Atomic Energy Agency is, and ask them questions about this deal.
807
00:47:19.498 --> 00:47:22.401
And then I will come back to you, let you know everything I have.
808
00:47:22.541 --> 00:47:26.485
And then at the next 90 days, you'll have all the ammunition you need to make the decision.
809
00:47:27.453 --> 00:47:31.214
Against Rex Tillerson, who didn't want me to go, Trump said, go.
810
00:47:31.934 --> 00:47:39.556
So I go and I asked the panel, we know Iran is building this nuclear material and we know they're doing research in the universities.
811
00:47:39.716 --> 00:47:43.637
How often do you inspect the universities?
812
00:47:44.337 --> 00:47:46.097
They said, we don't inspect universities.
813
00:47:46.597 --> 00:47:50.398
I said, OK, well, we know the production is happening at their military installations.
814
00:47:50.999 --> 00:47:53.639
How often are you inspecting their military installations?
815
00:47:54.559 --> 00:47:57.060
They said, we're not allowed to inspect their military installations.
816
00:47:57.460 --> 00:47:59.681
So I said, okay, what is it that you inspect?
817
00:48:00.161 --> 00:48:07.803
And they said, well, if we get a tip, we give them 45 days and then we go and we inspect.
818
00:48:08.663 --> 00:48:15.305
I came back and told President Trump, not only should you get out of the Iran deal, it would be irresponsible for you to stay in.
819
00:48:15.605 --> 00:48:22.887
And at that point, I went out and made the case for why he could get out of the deal so that we could get the public engaged.
820
00:48:23.667 --> 00:48:23.867
And...
821
00:48:24.547 --> 00:48:26.828
he went and made the decision to get out of the Iran deal.
822
00:48:26.928 --> 00:48:30.590
That, to me, was one of the most consequential things.
823
00:48:30.610 --> 00:48:32.431
I mean, you look at the war that we have now.
824
00:48:33.031 --> 00:48:35.092
But the whole point was they've lied.
825
00:48:35.252 --> 00:48:36.212
They've always lied.
826
00:48:36.232 --> 00:48:38.073
They've always wanted to destroy America.
827
00:48:38.093 --> 00:48:39.734
They've always wanted to destroy the West.
828
00:48:39.774 --> 00:48:41.315
They've made no bones about it.
829
00:48:41.915 --> 00:48:45.697
And us giving them money doesn't make them nicer or make them less hateful.
830
00:48:46.145 --> 00:48:49.366
Let's talk for a minute about the Islamic Republic regime.
831
00:48:49.546 -->
00:49:11.310
47 years, they've been saying death to America, death to Israel, deploying the largest sponsor of terrorism by far, it's not even close, today spending billions of dollars on social media with bots trying to undermine and divide Americans, killing their own people just in two days, somewhere like 58,000 people
832
00:49:13.733 --> 00:49:18.798
The vast majority of Iranians hate that regime that's oppressing.
833
00:49:18.818 --> 00:49:20.200
They're such good people.
834
00:49:20.260 --> 00:49:21.722
They deserve a better life.
835
00:49:22.122 --> 00:49:30.531
Like when I post content about what's going on, they love me because I just talk about what these people are suffering through.
836
00:49:31.612 --> 00:49:39.616
And I do understand that it's difficult that the oil prices are up and people are seeing that on their bills.
837
00:49:39.996 --> 00:49:48.340
Yes, this is so painful, but it's been 47 years of pain and it's only going to get worse if we don't bring this regime down.
838
00:49:48.800 --> 00:49:52.022
Then tomorrow they're going to try again and again until they figure it out.
839
00:49:52.502 --> 00:49:59.172
If you were the president of the United States or you were advising the president of the United States, what would you do different of what this current administration is doing?
840
00:49:59.192 --> 00:50:06.261
Because I personally don't love the Trump administration, but honestly, at least this government is trying to stand up to this regime.
841
00:50:06.722 --> 00:50:07.844
But what would you do different?
842
00:50:08.272 --> 00:50:11.437
Obama thought giving them money would change their behavior.
843
00:50:11.677 --> 00:50:12.358
It didn't work.
844
00:50:12.738 --> 00:50:16.384
Biden thought trying to appease them would change their behavior.
845
00:50:16.504 --> 00:50:17.145
It didn't work.
846
00:50:17.585 --> 00:50:19.668
Trump was courageous to get out of the Iran deal.
847
00:50:20.049 --> 00:50:20.930
Very good move.
848
00:50:21.891 --> 00:50:22.813
This go around...
849
00:50:23.353 --> 00:50:28.739
I think he was right to go in and strike Iran because they were the weakest they had ever been.
850
00:50:29.140 --> 00:50:30.942
The difference I would have done.
851
00:50:31.763 --> 00:50:35.286
This is when a National Security Council matters the most.
852
00:50:35.727 --> 00:50:38.450
Because what you do is you have everybody around that table.
853
00:50:39.031 --> 00:50:42.274
And as you were preparing for those strikes, what you would have heard is...
854
00:50:43.175 --> 00:50:47.237
Well, this is what it will do to agriculture, fertilizer, all those.
855
00:50:47.517 --> 00:50:49.238
This is what it's going to do to oil prices.
856
00:50:49.258 --> 00:50:50.499
This is what will happen to commerce.
857
00:50:50.799 --> 00:50:52.920
But what would happen in the Strait of Hormuz?
858
00:50:53.361 --> 00:50:54.701
Are we looking at the Red Sea?
859
00:50:54.761 --> 00:50:55.622
What's plan B?
860
00:50:55.662 --> 00:50:56.242
What's plan C?
861
00:50:56.582 --> 00:50:59.284
You play it out so that there are no surprises.
862
00:50:59.864 --> 00:51:06.428
And I think coming off of Venezuela, which was another great thing when he extracted Maduro, this was never going to be easy.
863
00:51:07.168 --> 00:51:08.969
And so I think he went and did the strikes.
864
00:51:09.109 --> 00:51:12.950
And the mistake made was the Iranians always say, oh, we want to talk.
865
00:51:12.970 --> 00:51:13.730
We want to talk.
866
00:51:14.090 --> 00:51:15.031
Let's negotiate.
867
00:51:15.771 --> 00:51:19.992
Whenever they say that, that's code for we're going to refuel.
868
00:51:20.232 --> 00:51:21.233
We're going to rearm.
869
00:51:21.613 --> 00:51:24.414
They build back up so that they can hit you again.
870
00:51:24.874 --> 00:51:26.934
You can never trust the regime.
871
00:51:27.555 --> 00:51:31.576
Now the Trump administration is finally doing what needs to be done.
872
00:51:32.036 --> 00:51:33.817
You have to choke them economically.
873
00:51:34.137 --> 00:51:35.758
The regime has no problem suffering.
874
00:51:36.498 --> 00:51:38.139
They knew this was a game of chicken.
875
00:51:38.639 --> 00:51:40.420
They knew it was who folded first.
876
00:51:40.961 --> 00:51:48.044
They knew that Americans weren't going to have the stomach, politically or economically, to wait this out the way they could.
877
00:51:48.264 --> 00:51:50.085
The gas prices started to go up.
878
00:51:50.365 --> 00:51:52.907
Politically, Trump was feeling the heat.
879
00:51:53.127 --> 00:51:54.647
Elected officials have felt the heat.
880
00:51:54.988 --> 00:51:59.270
And then economically, we're seeing it in utility bills and gas bills, all those things.
881
00:51:59.770 --> 00:52:01.611
Bottom line, don't let them breathe.
882
00:52:01.991 --> 00:52:16.237
Economic sanctions, which Secretary Besant is doing, why are they not bombing some of their oil infrastructure or finding more of their missile facilities or hitting the... Well, first of all, understand that what Besant's doing is not just sanctions.
883
00:52:16.417 --> 00:52:19.778
Finally, what they're doing is they're going after their shadow fleets.
884
00:52:19.958 --> 00:52:22.819
The Chinese have bought so much of their oil for so long.
885
00:52:23.139 --> 00:52:24.760
They're getting supplies from Russia.
886
00:52:24.780 --> 00:52:26.080
They're dealing with North Korea.
887
00:52:26.541 --> 00:52:27.141
All of those things.
888
00:52:27.341 --> 00:52:29.562
When you start to sanction those...
889
00:52:30.732 --> 00:52:32.293
that's when you truly stop.
890
00:52:32.673 --> 00:52:35.974
And blocking the Strait of Hormuz so that none of their oil can get out.
891
00:52:36.395 --> 00:52:38.696
Those two things together are pretty powerful.
892
00:52:38.736 --> 00:52:41.777
They have not yet sanctioned the Chinese banks.
893
00:52:42.557 --> 00:52:49.220
And I think they should, the second they do it,
China's gonna put their hands up because they don't care enough about Iran to suffer for them.
894
00:52:49.781 --> 00:52:52.662
They just like helping Iran because it's needling us.
895
00:52:53.262 --> 00:52:57.364
And so when you truly put the economic chokehold on them,
896
00:52:57.704 --> 00:52:59.225
That's the one thing they care about.
897
00:52:59.286 --> 00:53:05.271
And the thing they fear the most is Iranian citizens standing up in that protest.
898
00:53:05.291 --> 00:53:11.016
Do you know to this day in Iran, when they wake up, they see bodies hanging from the trees?
899
00:53:11.557 --> 00:53:15.060
They do that to remind them, this is what will happen to you if you protest.
900
00:53:15.080 --> 00:53:15.761
Still right now?
901
00:53:15.841 --> 00:53:16.761
Still today.
902
00:53:17.042 --> 00:53:18.363
Why doesn't the media talk about it?
903
00:53:18.383 --> 00:53:20.145
There has been knots that the media does not.
904
00:53:20.805 --> 00:53:23.127
Because they have social media cut off.
905
00:53:24.221 --> 00:53:25.302
Some is still getting through.
906
00:53:25.322 --> 00:53:25.922
No, in the U.S. media.
907
00:53:25.962 --> 00:53:27.363
Why doesn't the U.S. media...
908
00:53:28.044 --> 00:53:29.225
I don't know about these bodies.
909
00:53:29.645 --> 00:53:30.546
And I care about these issues.
910
00:53:30.586 --> 00:53:31.506
I didn't even know about these bodies.
911
00:53:31.526 --> 00:53:34.409
No, and you think about what we talk about in America.
912
00:53:34.449 --> 00:53:42.154
Can you imagine waking up with your children and walking down the street and seeing bodies hanging so that you are so fearful of saying anything?
913
00:53:42.515 --> 00:53:45.036
Can you imagine living the way they live?
914
00:53:45.116 --> 00:53:47.618
Because the regime is just fed off of them forever.
915
00:53:47.698 --> 00:53:47.939
I mean...
916
00:53:49.139 --> 00:53:52.561
No one deserves to live the way these Iranians are living.
917
00:53:52.841 --> 00:54:01.366
But the regime, the one thing that makes them squirm is when they stop with the money and we're seeing them squirm and now they're saying they want to negotiate again.
918
00:54:01.686 --> 00:54:03.567
And the key is we cannot fall for it.
919
00:54:03.727 --> 00:54:05.188
You have to hold China accountable.
920
00:54:05.208 --> 00:54:06.570
You have to hold Russia accountable.
921
00:54:06.810 --> 00:54:08.571
You have to hold their finances accountable.
922
00:54:08.752 --> 00:54:11.354
And then I know Trump is looking at Pickaxe Mountain.
923
00:54:11.834 --> 00:54:16.419
What we know is they have gone and stored a lot of their things in Pickaxe Mountain.
924
00:54:16.459 --> 00:54:22.224
I think if they go and see that there's more nuclear activity there or there's more to be done with the oil, I think they will.
925
00:54:22.664 --> 00:54:28.910
But you always want to do economically first before you go in and do anything major.
926
00:54:29.190 --> 00:54:36.695
I
think what's more important is the Iranian people aren't going to feel like they can stand up unless they have the weapons to defend themselves.
927
00:54:37.495 --> 00:54:45.060
That's the real question is at what point and how are you going to arm the Iranian people so that they can?
928
00:54:45.520 --> 00:54:46.981
Because once they stand up.
929
00:54:47.001 --> 00:54:47.762
What's the answer to it?
930
00:54:48.519 --> 00:54:54.842
I mean, the U.S. has been known before that we can go and supply things to help, but you have to get them on their knees first.
931
00:54:54.862 --> 00:54:57.343
You have to get the regime on their knees.
932
00:54:57.363 --> 00:55:00.325
You have to get them fully weakened so that people feel strong enough.
933
00:55:00.865 --> 00:55:02.186
And are they going to trust it?
934
00:55:02.746 --> 00:55:05.628
Because they went out to the streets when they were told to go out to the streets.
935
00:55:06.148 --> 00:55:09.710
And they watched thousands of people die, and they're living with it every day.
936
00:55:09.790 --> 00:55:11.731
So, I mean, this was a—this was—
937
00:55:12.491 --> 00:55:39.268
tragic traumatic and the spine that they had the courage that they had is gone i'll ask you one last question on foreign policy and then i want to pivot to uh you're running for president on that journey but uh and also about partisan politics but would you would there be anything you could use the united nations for on this front or the un is so dysfunctional that there's nothing they could do vis-a-vis iran today
938
00:55:39.835 --> 00:55:52.922
I said to the secretary general and I said to my ambassador friends when I left is the only way the United Nations will ever be relevant is if they have the courage to talk about things that are uncomfortable to talk about.
939
00:55:53.682 --> 00:55:59.765
They have yet to talk about covid, what China knew, what they didn't do to protect people.
940
00:56:00.065 --> 00:56:06.429
They've yet to talk about the World Health Organization and how they stayed silent and the connection between them and China.
941
00:56:06.749 --> 00:56:06.869
Right.
942
00:56:07.149 --> 00:56:17.192
I mean, millions of people died because of COVID and they haven't had one hearing on what happened and what the world needs to do to prevent it from happening again.
943
00:56:17.252 --> 00:56:20.032
Not one, because they don't want to touch China.
944
00:56:20.292 --> 00:56:20.892
You know, they won't.
945
00:56:21.153 --> 00:56:22.773
You're going to have high level week soon.
946
00:56:23.373 --> 00:56:30.675
And Taiwan, the officials in Taiwan aren't even allowed in the United Nations building unless they claim to be Chinese.
947
00:56:31.095 --> 00:56:31.775
Think about that.
948
00:56:32.075 --> 00:56:38.098
That's a full democracy and you're not going to allow them in the building until they're not a member state.
949
00:56:38.338 --> 00:56:41.439
No, because China will not allow them to be a member state.
950
00:56:41.879 --> 00:56:46.341
But the idea that even with a Taiwanese badge, they can't walk in the doors of the UN.
951
00:56:46.401 --> 00:56:47.802
And I tried to change that.
952
00:56:48.002 --> 00:56:49.562
And we were making progress.
953
00:56:49.923 --> 00:56:55.745
And China went in and just read the riot act to secretary general and threatened him and he backed off.
954
00:56:56.105 --> 00:56:57.667
to local politics.
955
00:56:57.707 --> 00:56:58.928
Do one last one on China.
956
00:56:58.968 --> 00:57:03.312
What would be your advice for President Trump in his negotiations with China right now?
957
00:57:03.565 --> 00:57:07.489
Understand that they want to achieve world domination.
958
00:57:08.410 --> 00:57:13.054
And if you know they want to achieve world domination, know that that's at America's expense.
959
00:57:13.634 --> 00:57:21.261
And so stop allowing thousands of Chinese students to come work in our research areas here in America and study at our schools.
960
00:57:21.882 --> 00:57:27.307
Start to focus on these Chinese police stations they have throughout the country that's policing people.
961
00:57:27.427 --> 00:57:29.190
Chinese nationals that are here.
962
00:57:29.731 --> 00:57:37.102
Look at the labs that we've found that have living viruses in them by Chinese nationals that have been found in our country.
963
00:57:37.682 --> 00:57:42.069
Start to look at how they're stealing all of our AI technology.
964
00:57:42.850 --> 00:57:46.891
And that stealing that, they're going to try and make it stronger to do harm to us.
965
00:57:46.931 --> 00:57:48.512
There's so many things.
966
00:57:49.012 --> 00:57:53.013
Understand adversaries are adversaries for life.
967
00:57:53.333 --> 00:57:58.354
Which ones are enemies and which ones are frenemies between Islamic Republic regime?
968
00:57:58.874 --> 00:58:01.295
Clearly an enemy, but the people are a friend.
969
00:58:01.555 --> 00:58:02.815
So that one I will answer.
970
00:58:03.156 --> 00:58:05.876
They're an enemy, the government, but the people are a friend.
971
00:58:06.737 --> 00:58:11.098
Russia, China, North Korea, Qatar, Turkey.
972
00:58:12.158 --> 00:58:15.500
Walk me through who is an enemy and who's a frenemy and who's a friend.
973
00:58:15.700 --> 00:58:20.964
So the regime, like it's not even worth communicating with them because they are going to be terrorists.
974
00:58:20.984 --> 00:58:21.764
That's who they are.
975
00:58:22.285 --> 00:58:24.466
All of these other countries, we need to talk to them.
976
00:58:24.806 --> 00:58:25.026
Right.
977
00:58:25.066 --> 00:58:33.252
So it's not like you cut off communication entirely, but you say only what needs to be said and you don't let them pull the wool over your eyes.
978
00:58:33.272 --> 00:58:40.857
You know, China just passed legislation that now high level Chinese officials can no longer travel.
979
00:58:41.971 --> 00:58:54.706
to the United States or outside of China, because they
don't want to happen to them what they do to Americans when they go to China, where they surveil them, where they steal from them, where they get intellectual property, all of those things.
980
00:58:54.967 --> 00:58:56.709
They're starting to really protect.
981
00:58:56.789 --> 00:58:59.392
That's why they're doing export controls and everything else.
982
00:58:59.893 --> 00:59:01.254
China's getting smarter.
983
00:59:02.135 --> 00:59:04.976
And we can't be weak in front of them.
984
00:59:05.296 --> 00:59:08.317
There's a lot of things that they've done to hurt us with the Iran war.
985
00:59:08.618 --> 00:59:12.019
There's a lot of things they've done to hurt us with the Russia-Ukrainian war.
986
00:59:12.359 --> 00:59:15.080
There's a lot of things they're trying to do to hurt us with Taiwan.
987
00:59:15.340 --> 00:59:17.781
And there's a lot they're trying to do with AI and other things.
988
00:59:18.301 --> 00:59:22.963
Don't give them an inch because they will turn it into something much bigger.
989
00:59:23.043 --> 00:59:24.203
We have to be smart.
990
00:59:24.383 --> 00:59:30.506
So let's pivot to American policy and understand what President Trump talks about America first.
991
00:59:31.386 --> 00:59:36.631
Is America First America's strength and leadership in the world?
992
00:59:36.831 --> 00:59:43.077
Or is America First American withdrawal and not being involved in other things?
993
00:59:43.097 --> 00:59:46.060
Because I think it's a very big question for the Republican Party today.
994
00:59:46.080 --> 00:59:51.024
I'm very curious how this is going to play out and what you will do about it.
995
00:59:51.084 --> 00:59:54.948
Well, first of all, America's people are America's strength.
996
00:59:55.548 --> 01:00:07.472
All day long, I will say that it is the heart of who we are and how we feel and what we believe and our love of freedom and democracy that makes us the strength that we are.
997
01:00:08.112 --> 01:00:13.494
You know, we just had to endure the 25th anniversary of 9-11.
998
01:00:13.854 --> 01:00:16.155
The number one lesson you take away from 9-11.
999
01:00:17.795 --> 01:00:23.343
is when you focus just on America, those that hate us will come here.
1000
01:00:24.224 --> 01:00:27.088
Our goal is to prevent another 9-11.
1001
01:00:27.168 --> 01:00:31.293
In order to prevent another 9-11, you have to deal with terrorists there.
1002
01:00:31.834 --> 01:00:33.436
That's why we're involved with Iran.
1003
01:00:33.756 --> 01:00:36.457
That's why we're trying to stop them from having a nuclear weapon.
1004
01:00:36.537 --> 01:00:40.019
That's why we're trying to stop them from doing more terrorist activities.
1005
01:00:40.439 --> 01:00:44.241
You have to control it overseas so that it doesn't touch Americans.
1006
01:00:44.261 --> 01:00:47.483
That's the number one rule is we have to keep Americans safe.
1007
01:00:47.583 --> 01:00:49.264
That's financially safe.
1008
01:00:49.584 --> 01:00:51.665
That's from a national security perspective.
1009
01:00:51.965 --> 01:00:53.406
Are you protecting freedoms?
1010
01:00:53.826 --> 01:00:55.587
Are you protecting individual liberties?
1011
01:00:55.667 --> 01:00:57.208
Those are the things we should focus on.
1012
01:00:57.248 --> 01:00:59.949
But understand safety and national security.
1013
01:01:00.369 --> 01:01:03.491
We have to be dealing abroad in order to keep ourselves safe.
1014
01:01:03.531 --> 01:01:05.992
This is about preventing war, not starting a war.
1015
01:01:06.132 --> 01:01:12.955
So what happens, whoever gets the nomination in 2028, how would you approach your role in the Republican Party?
1016
01:01:13.035 --> 01:01:15.657
I think the American people have to approach
1017
01:01:16.417 --> 01:01:20.240
their role in what American politics are going to look like going forward.
1018
01:01:20.560 --> 01:01:21.741
This is about our children.
1019
01:01:21.801 --> 01:01:23.162
This is about our grandchildren.
1020
01:01:23.222 --> 01:01:25.884
This is about making sure another 9-11 doesn't happen.
1021
01:01:26.304 --> 01:01:27.385
None of us wants war.
1022
01:01:27.645 --> 01:01:32.188
I'm the wife of a combat veteran who did two deployments.
1023
01:01:32.248 --> 01:01:33.349
He was in Afghanistan.
1024
01:01:33.589 --> 01:01:37.072
I know as a military spouse what that feels like.
1025
01:01:37.292 --> 01:01:41.975
I don't want anyone's spouse to have to go or son or daughter to have to go.
1026
01:01:42.776 --> 01:01:45.899
But you do things to prevent them having to go.
1027
01:01:45.999 --> 01:01:47.600
That's what we should have done.
1028
01:01:47.620 --> 01:01:51.924
Iran was not dealt with when it needed to be dealt with all 47 years.
1029
01:01:52.084 --> 01:01:55.907
What are the conditions under which you would run for president in 2028?
1030
01:01:56.027 --> 01:01:57.829
I'm not running for president in 2028.
1031
01:01:58.069 --> 01:01:58.629
For certain.
1032
01:01:58.890 --> 01:01:59.410
For certain.
1033
01:01:59.690 --> 01:02:04.975
But there's no scenario where things are getting so bad and other leaders don't rise that you'd run in 2028.
1034
01:02:04.995 --> 01:02:05.555
What about 2032?
1035
01:02:05.615 --> 01:02:07.617
How do you think about, as a leader...
1036
01:02:08.097 --> 01:02:12.658
who is the only woman to have ever won a Republican primary.
1037
01:02:12.718 --> 01:02:13.799
I'll never say never.
1038
01:02:14.239 --> 01:02:15.179
I'm not going to do that.
1039
01:02:15.199 --> 01:02:17.340
I'm not going to pigeonhole myself that way.
1040
01:02:17.660 --> 01:02:24.562
But I know enough to know in 2028, Americans, like, I don't know what the landscape of the country is yet.
1041
01:02:24.902 --> 01:02:25.702
And I don't think...
1042
01:02:27.173 --> 01:02:30.214
We're going to find out in the midterms and we're going to find out after that.
1043
01:02:30.914 --> 01:02:33.875
But we really have to see where Americans are.
1044
01:02:34.195 --> 01:02:37.196
It's about them getting the leadership they want.
1045
01:02:37.496 --> 01:02:47.419
And I think whatever that leadership is- Are there circumstances under which you would be more engaged in helping the candidate on circumstances and say, no, I'm not going to be involved at all because this is-
1046
01:02:48.575 --> 01:02:51.196
an isolationist or this or this?
1047
01:02:51.276 --> 01:02:54.678
How would you decide about your- I'm only going to help people I believe in.
1048
01:02:55.098 --> 01:02:58.599
I mean, I'm only going to fight for- I mean, that's just at the core of who I am.
1049
01:02:58.679 --> 01:03:01.300
Like, it has to be- What are your, like, red lines?
1050
01:03:01.560 --> 01:03:02.741
Mine is very clear.
1051
01:03:03.061 --> 01:03:05.582
National security and keeping America safe.
1052
01:03:05.722 --> 01:03:07.623
And that means you have to prevent war.
1053
01:03:07.723 --> 01:03:11.965
And preventing war means that, yes, you have to keep our enemies at bay.
1054
01:03:12.165 --> 01:03:12.885
The economy-
1055
01:03:13.425 --> 01:03:18.790
Our debt, $40 trillion in debt, and Republicans and Democrats are both to blame.
1056
01:03:18.910 --> 01:03:20.711
They're spending like drunken sailors.
1057
01:03:21.232 --> 01:03:22.553
No one's talking about it.
1058
01:03:22.953 --> 01:03:27.917
Entitlements, Social Security will go bankrupt in six years.
1059
01:03:28.038 --> 01:03:30.720
75 million Americans are going to be affected by that.
1060
01:03:30.740 --> 01:03:31.440
25%.
1061
01:03:33.773 --> 01:03:35.295
of their benefits are going to go away.
1062
01:03:35.695 --> 01:03:37.838
And no one in Congress is talking about it.
1063
01:03:38.178 --> 01:03:45.367
Neither the Republicans nor the Democrats are solving issues that 80% of citizens can agree on 80% of the solutions.
1064
01:03:45.648 --> 01:03:50.253
And the Democrats and Republicans are more focused on scoring points and on solving them.
1065
01:03:50.313 --> 01:03:53.457
So what can we as citizens do to hold them accountable?
1066
01:03:53.457 --> 01:04:00.818
But also look at the one thing no one wants to talk about, which is the foreign influence that is now happening in our campaigns.
1067
01:04:01.438 --> 01:04:10.600
And I can tell you when there were 13 of us running for president, Trump and I were the last two standing.
1068
01:04:10.860 --> 01:04:19.461
And in New Hampshire, after Iowa and New Hampshire, the intelligence community asked to meet with me and met with me and said,
1069
01:04:23.362 --> 01:04:24.743
are meddling in your campaign.
1070
01:04:26.083 --> 01:04:31.205
What they do, the Russians, the Chinese, the Iranians, the North Koreans, to some extent, they all do this.
1071
01:04:31.546 --> 01:04:32.986
They look for division points.
1072
01:04:33.186 --> 01:04:36.888
But more than that, there was just a Chinese bot farm that was found.
1073
01:04:37.468 --> 01:04:40.669
And what they do is they try and create the narratives.
1074
01:04:40.870 --> 01:04:42.410
The Russians started that in 2016.
1075
01:04:42.550 --> 01:04:43.731
I saw it this morning.
1076
01:04:43.771 --> 01:04:44.851
This morning, I saw a post.
1077
01:04:45.552 --> 01:04:45.732
And...
1078
01:04:46.652 --> 01:04:51.999
There were so many comments and you'd click and the person commenting has zero followers or two followers.
1079
01:04:52.019 --> 01:04:53.381
Yes, those are all bots.
1080
01:04:53.661 --> 01:04:55.944
Why are social media companies not doing something more about it?
1081
01:04:55.965 --> 01:04:57.767
Why is the government not doing something more about it?
1082
01:04:57.787 --> 01:04:58.888
How can we hold them accountable?
1083
01:04:59.069 --> 01:05:01.952
I have called the tech companies out in two ways.
1084
01:05:02.233 --> 01:05:04.376
One, they should show us their algorithms.
1085
01:05:04.476 --> 01:05:04.636
One.
1086
01:05:04.896 --> 01:05:09.540
Every citizen in this country deserves to know why do they see what they see.
1087
01:05:09.800 --> 01:05:10.480
That's the first thing.
1088
01:05:10.500 --> 01:05:16.465
The second thing is these tech companies should be required to disclose the number of bots.
1089
01:05:16.905 --> 01:05:17.846
I have asked them.
1090
01:05:18.466 --> 01:05:21.108
They all give you excuses and say, oh, but we're trying.
1091
01:05:21.128 --> 01:05:22.189
But think about it, Daniel.
1092
01:05:22.629 --> 01:05:28.554
The reason the tech companies don't want to let you know, their valuations would go through the floor.
1093
01:05:28.854 --> 01:05:33.097
I observe on both political parties how loyalty sometimes...
1094
01:05:34.416 --> 01:05:36.877
actually hurts our country and their own party.
1095
01:05:37.197 --> 01:05:45.119
Which Republican candidate for you, you would not support because they fall below your standards?
1096
01:05:45.479 --> 01:05:48.520
Oh, I'm not going to say that now because we don't know who the candidate's going to be.
1097
01:05:48.560 --> 01:05:53.562
But the bigger question that we need to be asking, Daniel, is how do we end up with candidates like this?
1098
01:05:54.422 --> 01:06:00.385
And the reason we end up with candidates like this is because less than 15% of people vote in primaries.
1099
01:06:00.705 --> 01:06:03.506
And why do less than 15% of people vote in primaries?
1100
01:06:03.566 --> 01:06:04.687
Because in school...
1101
01:06:05.794 --> 01:06:10.496
Growing up, we're taught the importance of voting in a general election.
1102
01:06:11.177 --> 01:06:15.379
And in school, they do not talk about the importance of voting in a primary.
1103
01:06:15.499 --> 01:06:16.799
That's so important.
1104
01:06:16.879 --> 01:06:18.480
And I said through my campaign.
1105
01:06:18.500 --> 01:06:25.343
The single most important piece of advice that Nick is giving you today, if you care about your country, vote in the primaries.
1106
01:06:25.463 --> 01:06:28.065
And what I said in the campaign was...
1107
01:06:29.280
--> 01:06:34.086
In a general election, you're given a choice, but in a primary, you make your choice.
1108
01:06:34.927 --> 01:06:35.848
Make your choice.
1109
01:06:35.968 --> 01:06:38.872
Be a part of who's going to represent you in the party.
1110
01:06:38.932 --> 01:06:39.653
Be a part of that.
1111
01:06:40.033 --> 01:06:44.139
You can't complain once you get to the general if you were never involved in the primary process.
1112
01:06:44.947 --> 01:06:50.470
Give us something that we don't know about running for president, that experience.
1113
01:06:50.530 --> 01:06:59.134
I mean, that must have been quite a heady, challenging experience because you challenged President Trump, who didn't take that lightly.
1114
01:06:59.154 --> 01:07:03.917
I mean, you have to be able to endure an enormous amount of pain.
1115
01:07:04.217 --> 01:07:08.203
You have to be able to, it pushes every limit.
1116
01:07:09.345 --> 01:07:11.508
There were 16, 17-hour days.
1117
01:07:11.969 --> 01:07:14.413
You're in a different place every day.
1118
01:07:14.433 --> 01:07:15.474
You don't know where you are.
1119
01:07:15.594 --> 01:07:18.278
I didn't do the DeSantis route and fly private.
1120
01:07:18.899 --> 01:07:19.620
We were flying...
1121
01:07:20.381 --> 01:07:22.262
commercial the entire time.
1122
01:07:22.522 --> 01:07:29.486
We were staying in hotels that were gross, like the whole thing, because we wanted every dollar to go to touching a voter.
1123
01:07:30.126 --> 01:07:33.108
And to do that, I had my staff buy their own trash cans.
1124
01:07:33.148 --> 01:07:35.649
I mean, we were super economical.
1125
01:07:36.149 --> 01:07:42.873
And at the end, what I'm so proud of is at the end of the campaign, when I suspended, we sent donors back money.
1126
01:07:43.935 --> 01:07:45.719
That's how my check you did.
1127
01:07:45.779 --> 01:07:46.340
I promise.
1128
01:07:46.540 --> 01:07:49.926
But more importantly, I think the biggest thing about running for president is
1129
01:07:51.154 --> 01:07:52.875
is what I did to get ready for it.
1130
01:07:53.636 --> 01:07:55.457
And that was I ran a half marathon.
1131
01:07:56.218 --> 01:07:56.518
Really?
1132
01:07:56.778 --> 01:07:58.399
I had not run before.
1133
01:07:58.419 --> 01:08:00.781
I mean, played tennis in high school.
1134
01:08:00.801 --> 01:08:01.562
You had the stamina.
1135
01:08:01.662 --> 01:08:02.182
I wasn't around.
1136
01:08:02.202 --> 01:08:03.203
It was a physical aspect.
1137
01:08:03.223 --> 01:08:14.091
I needed to know before I put my family through it, before I put my team through it, that I had the mental strength, the emotional strength, and the physical strength to endure any amount of pain
1138
01:08:14.391 --> 01:08:15.912
What about for the mental and emotional?
1139
01:08:15.932 --> 01:08:22.458
When you're running a half marathon and your body starts to shut down, it's your mind that keeps you going.
1140
01:08:22.598 --> 01:08:29.084
And your mind tells you, forget the pain, mute out all the noise and mute out all the distractions.
1141
01:08:29.224 --> 01:08:35.931
And then the emotional strength is when you think you can't take another step, you dig deep.
1142
01:08:36.611 --> 01:08:38.614
And you say, yes, I can.
1143
01:08:38.634 --> 01:08:43.802
Because your body tends to make you think something, but your mind is the one that's going to make the decision.
1144
01:08:43.822 --> 01:08:46.186
What's the craziest story that happened to you on the campaign trail?
1145
01:08:46.727 --> 01:08:47.368
So many.
1146
01:08:47.388 --> 01:08:51.134
But, you know, one, we were leaving New Hampshire and we were leaving New Hampshire.
1147
01:08:52.073 --> 01:08:57.337
And when we were walking out, getting into the car, somebody tried to jump into the car.
1148
01:08:58.058 --> 01:09:01.040
One of the people got him out of the car and then he jumped in the front seat.
1149
01:09:01.120 --> 01:09:05.463
And then they got him out of the front seat and then he jumped on the hood of the car and was just screaming.
1150
01:09:05.924 --> 01:09:07.745
Against you or just mentally?
1151
01:09:07.865 --> 01:09:10.988
Against that he was so angry I was running against Trump.
1152
01:09:11.588 --> 01:09:12.689
Oh, he was like during the.
1153
01:09:13.295 --> 01:09:13.615
Yeah.
1154
01:09:14.376 --> 01:09:14.656
Yeah.
1155
01:09:15.416 --> 01:09:30.765
You know, those or even- That's what's dangerous about our political moment is that on the left, there's all this cancel culture and on the right from President Trump, there's punch down culture and a combination of them intimidates people from speaking up and being themselves.
1156
01:09:30.845 --> 01:09:36.529
Not only that, it was just a few months ago, someone was arrested and put in prison and
1157
01:09:37.129 --> 01:09:41.151
Because he paid an informant to have me killed.
1158
01:09:41.531 --> 01:09:48.254
He was an IRGC, the Iranian regime, paid a Pakistani businessman money to,
1159
01:09:50.215 --> 01:09:57.356
And that's the reason why I'm so adamant about Iran is they are targeting Americans on American soil.
1160
01:09:58.217 --> 01:10:00.837
They have tried to get Trump multiple times.
1161
01:10:01.577 --> 01:10:06.858
Like we should not be giving them even a breath when they're doing things like that.
1162
01:10:06.978 --> 01:10:09.499
But that's because I speak out against the regime.
1163
01:10:09.679 --> 01:10:11.119
We have to be truth tellers.
1164
01:10:11.379 --> 01:10:17.340
Well, now that we've reached the moment of truth, we're going to move to the Mexican Inquisition.
1165
01:10:19.252 --> 01:10:23.353
So I'm going to ask you tough, tough questions, and you have to choose.
1166
01:10:23.693 --> 01:10:26.034
You can't give me a political, diplomatic answer.
1167
01:10:26.054 --> 01:10:27.014
You need to make choices.
1168
01:10:27.434 --> 01:10:32.435
First question, who is an unlikely hero that helped you get to this moment?
1169
01:10:33.235 -->
01:10:43.458
President Trump, who nominated you to the United Nations, or Hillary Clinton, who in 2003 gave a speech that inspired you also to run for politics?
1170
01:10:43.478 --> 01:10:47.959
That's so tough, because before I ran for the statehouse,
1171
01:10:48.902 --> 01:10:53.284
I went to this Women in Leadership Conference and Hillary Clinton was speaking.
1172
01:10:53.784 --> 01:10:57.246
And everybody told me I shouldn't run at that point, except my mom.
1173
01:10:57.466 --> 01:11:04.429
And Hillary Clinton said on stage to the group of women, for every reason people tell you not to do it, that's exactly why you should.
1174
01:11:05.150 --> 01:11:07.351
And I walked out of there and I said, I'm running for the statehouse.
1175
01:11:07.829 --> 01:11:10.451
So had it not been for that moment, maybe you had not done it.
1176
01:11:10.511 --> 01:11:11.252
I wouldn't have done it.
1177
01:11:11.352 --> 01:11:15.855
Like that was just, I thought, all I knew was everybody was telling me all the reasons why I couldn't.
1178
01:11:15.995 --> 01:11:18.097
And she was like, those are all the reasons you should.
1179
01:11:18.117 --> 01:11:20.399
So should we give her the unlikely hero?
1180
01:11:20.819 --> 01:11:22.160
Because she's the unsung hero?
1181
01:11:22.240 --> 01:11:26.244
I can say that, you know, between her and a fortune cookie.
1182
01:11:26.284 --> 01:11:30.827
The second thing was I opened a fortune cookie when the race was really nasty.
1183
01:11:31.288 --> 01:11:35.571
When I ran for that statehouse seat and the fortune cookie said, winners do what losers don't want to.
1184
01:11:35.851 --> 01:11:40.495
So I should have put Fortune Cookie or Hillary Clinton.
1185
01:11:40.796 --> 01:11:46.701
Which famous South Carolina do you think you would have a more fascinating dinner conversation with?
1186
01:11:47.282 --> 01:11:53.487
Stephen Colbert, the former host of The Late Show, or Ben Bernanke, the former Fed chair?
1187
01:11:54.048 --> 01:11:57.171
So I've met Stephen Colbert, so I would have to say Ben Bernanke.
1188
01:11:57.803 --> 01:11:59.364
Because it's someone new that you haven't met?
1189
01:11:59.404 --> 01:12:00.524
Yeah, I love to learn.
1190
01:12:00.544 --> 01:12:04.606
And so as much as I can learn, I would just love to hear that conversation.
1191
01:12:04.726 --> 01:12:11.208
Which historical figure, if you could choose one strategic advisor and only one, would you choose?
1192
01:12:11.748 --> 01:12:20.252
Henry Kissinger, the former Secretary of State and National Security Council head, or Margaret Thatcher, the former British Prime Minister?
1193
01:12:20.272 --> 01:12:21.312
That was epic also.
1194
01:12:21.728 --> 01:12:27.812
I had the pleasure of spending a lot of time with Henry Kissinger when I was at the UN, but Margaret Thatcher.
1195
01:12:27.952 --> 01:12:35.037
I mean, it's just, it's remarkable what she did during her time against all the challenges she went through.
1196
01:12:35.437 --> 01:12:37.579
What's one thing that broke you?
1197
01:12:38.434 --> 01:12:41.636
and then built you back into who you became and are today.
1198
01:12:42.277 --> 01:12:56.367
Being the outsider governor of South Carolina with constant attacks from within, including ethics investigations and efforts to unseat you, or when you ran for president and Michael was deployed to the Horn of Africa for over a year.
1199
01:12:56.848 --> 01:13:03.913
What broke me and built me back up was the murders of Mother Emanuel.
1200
01:13:05.161 --> 01:13:17.791
I was at my lowest, lowest point after attending all those funerals and getting that flag down that I remember being on my knees saying, God, I can't do this.
1201
01:13:18.311 --> 01:13:19.052
I need you to help.
1202
01:13:19.312 --> 01:13:29.200
And the strength I was able to get after that to continue what needed to be done, that really was my breaking point, my building point.
1203
01:13:30.441 --> 01:13:32.843
It was an important moment for our country.
1204
01:13:32.863 --> 01:13:33.003
Mm-hmm.
1205
01:13:34.510 --> 01:13:41.032
It's tragic, though, sometimes that horrible facts are what needs to then move us.
1206
01:13:41.272 --> 01:13:43.293
Yeah.
1207
01:13:43.993 --> 01:13:46.234
What shaped you more into who you are today?
1208
01:13:46.954 --> 01:13:58.197
Growing as the only Indian family in a South Carolina town of 2,500 people or converting from Sikhism to Christianity at 24 after marrying Michael?
1209
01:13:59.178 --> 01:13:59.878
I mean, both.
1210
01:13:59.978 --> 01:14:00.278
Both.
1211
01:14:01.368 --> 01:14:05.429
Those are, I mean, those are such integral parts of my life.
1212
01:14:05.489 --> 01:14:11.831
They, like, one really shaped my character, and the other truly shaped my faith.
1213
01:14:12.191 --> 01:14:16.873
And, like, both of those are so strong, I couldn't pick between the two of those.
1214
01:14:17.375 --> 01:14:21.098
Which early job or experience was more formative for you?
1215
01:14:21.758 --> 01:14:28.403
Running for the pageant and then being pulled because you didn't fit the black or white kid thing?
1216
01:14:29.143 --> 01:14:33.286
Or working for your mom, doing all the accounting for her clothing store?
1217
01:14:33.707 --> 01:14:35.788
I started doing the books for the family business at 13.
1218
01:14:35.828 --> 01:14:35.928
And-
1219
01:14:38.850 --> 01:14:47.395
What I learned from that was when times were tough, you learned how to stretch a dollar and you got creative and you got stronger.
1220
01:14:47.815 --> 01:14:51.637
And when times were good, you never celebrated because you knew the bad times were going to happen again.
1221
01:14:52.018 --> 01:14:54.159
So that was definitely a huge thing.
1222
01:14:55.134 --> 01:14:56.655
What drives you?
1223
01:14:57.075 --> 01:15:03.378
Advancing American values to win on behalf of America and prevail?
1224
01:15:04.419 --> 01:15:11.643
Or an instinct to achieve justice in the world to prevent the
bad guys from doing evil to the world?
1225
01:15:12.463 --> 01:15:13.764
I want to fix things.
1226
01:15:14.164 --> 01:15:23.452
I don't know what the answer is to that, but that's what drives me, is seeing a problem and fixing it and having everybody else benefit because you did the work.
1227
01:15:23.753 --> 01:15:27.776
Okay, Nikki Haley, we're moving to our final stretch, build or break.
1228
01:15:27.816 --> 01:15:30.899
If it's something that you believe in, it's a thumbs up, you say build.
1229
01:15:31.239 --> 01:15:33.962
And if something you don't like, thumbs down, break.
1230
01:15:34.542 --> 01:15:36.664
Build or break the palmito bowl.
1231
01:15:38.377 --> 01:15:38.697
Build.
1232
01:15:39.397 --> 01:15:45.940
Build or break $5,000 payments to every family if Republicans retain Congress.
1233
01:15:46.500 --> 01:15:50.501
I'm all for people getting their money back because I think government's wasting it.
1234
01:15:50.701 --> 01:15:52.002
But where are you getting it from?
1235
01:15:52.022 --> 01:15:56.143
Because that's a trillion dollars more and I don't want to see us a trillion dollars more in debt.
1236
01:15:56.163 --> 01:16:00.685
So break until you can give me answers as to where that's coming from.
1237
01:16:01.363 --> 01:16:03.124
Build or break the United Nations.
1238
01:16:03.624 --> 01:16:04.364
Oh, break.
1239
01:16:05.525 --> 01:16:08.686
Build or break running for president in the future.
1240
01:16:09.247 --> 01:16:11.068
It's not a break, so I'll say build.
1241
01:16:11.228 --> 01:16:11.508
Good.
1242
01:16:12.768 --> 01:16:18.011
Build or break post-employment lobbying moratoriums for elected officials.
1243
01:16:18.411 --> 01:16:19.031
Oh, build.
1244
01:16:20.132 --> 01:16:20.512
100%.
1245
01:16:21.252 --> 01:16:22.813
Build or break the Tea Party.
1246
01:16:23.637 --> 01:16:24.197
Oh, build.
1247
01:16:24.898 --> 01:16:26.298
I was a product of the Tea Party.
1248
01:16:26.458 --> 01:16:30.500
It was taxed enough already, and I still am a product of the Tea Party.
1249
01:16:30.520 --> 01:16:31.501
But what happened?
1250
01:16:31.521 --> 01:16:33.621
Has it deformed more?
1251
01:16:33.701 --> 01:16:34.182
What happened?
1252
01:16:34.202 --> 01:16:42.545
You know what happened is, it was this great uprising of the people saying, we're taxed enough already, didn't trust government, not enough transparency, too much spending.
1253
01:16:42.665 --> 01:16:45.887
And then what happened is, it started to get fringe groups.
1254
01:16:46.167 --> 01:16:49.228
But the original thought of the Tea Party was great.
1255
01:16:49.989 --> 01:16:51.849
Build or break child beauty pageants.
1256
01:16:52.670 --> 01:16:53.010
Break.
1257
01:16:55.718 --> 01:16:58.859
Build or break getting to live in the governor's mansion.
1258
01:16:59.599 --> 01:17:00.499
Oh, build.
1259
01:17:00.520 --> 01:17:02.140
It was a great experience with the kids.
1260
01:17:02.580 --> 01:17:05.361
Build or break getting locked out of
the governor's mansion.
1261
01:17:05.441 --> 01:17:06.161
Oh, break.
1262
01:17:06.481 --> 01:17:11.303
Michael was deployed in Afghanistan, and he just sent me an email that was like, really, Nikki?
1263
01:17:11.323 --> 01:17:12.883
How was the story?
1264
01:17:13.484 --> 01:17:15.464
That, you know, I was getting the kids out.
1265
01:17:15.504 --> 01:17:16.605
Michael was deployed.
1266
01:17:16.625 --> 01:17:17.785
I was governor.
1267
01:17:18.205 --> 01:17:22.507
And my son had to have, he was doing this event that day, so he had to be dressed up.
1268
01:17:22.968 --> 01:17:25.589
And he couldn't get, he was like, Mom, I need help with my tie.
1269
01:17:26.310 --> 01:17:28.991
And so I went to go help and it shows how bad I am.
1270
01:17:29.011 --> 01:17:30.732
It was a clip-on tie and I still couldn't get it.
1271
01:17:31.212 --> 01:17:36.615
And so I got him, put him out, you know, got him outside, handed him to security at the time.
1272
01:17:36.636 --> 01:17:38.537
And I was like, kissed him, said, have a good day.
1273
01:17:38.897 --> 01:17:40.598
And I turned around, I'm in my robe.
1274
01:17:40.658 --> 01:17:42.339
I turned around and I go to open the door.
1275
01:17:43.733 --> 01:17:44.634
And it's locked.
1276
01:17:45.534 --> 01:17:46.655
And there's security cameras.
1277
01:17:46.695 --> 01:17:48.176
And I'm looking at the security cameras.
1278
01:17:48.296 --> 01:17:50.058
It felt like forever.
1279
01:17:51.439 --> 01:17:52.660
It was probably just a minute.
1280
01:17:52.700 --> 01:17:54.481
And then all of a sudden, my daughter opens the door.
1281
01:17:54.501 --> 01:17:57.483
And she's like, Mom, what are you doing outside in your robe?
1282
01:17:57.523 --> 01:17:58.564
And I said, I got locked out.
1283
01:17:58.965 --> 01:18:00.226
I go and get her dressed.
1284
01:18:01.165 --> 01:18:07.568
And I happened, it's my own fault, I happened to tweet out what not to do getting locked out with your robe on.
1285
01:18:07.989 --> 01:18:11.931
And I got into the car and security said, Governor, I'm sorry you've had such a tough day.
1286
01:18:11.971 --> 01:18:13.452
And I was like, oh, did you see my tweet?
1287
01:18:13.472 --> 01:18:15.293
And he said, no, I heard it on the radio.
1288
01:18:15.753 --> 01:18:17.134
And I went, oh, my gosh.
1289
01:18:17.634 --> 01:18:22.016
And then the next thing I know, my team was calling and all the comms had blown up.
1290
01:18:22.476 --> 01:18:25.258
And they were like the TV stations asking for the video.
1291
01:18:25.378 --> 01:18:27.259
And it just, it was on the Today Show.
1292
01:18:27.279 --> 01:18:28.259
It was on CNN.
1293
01:18:28.299 --> 01:18:28.800
It was on...
1294
01:18:29.580 --> 01:18:31.682
Everybody was talking about me getting locked out.
1295
01:18:31.782 --> 01:18:34.825
And that's when Michael sent the email and was like, really, Nikki?
1296
01:18:34.865 --> 01:18:35.605
And I was like, uh.
1297
01:18:36.046 --> 01:18:38.868
But what I find funny is to hear that your kids are your kids.
1298
01:18:38.888 --> 01:18:42.551
That's the coolest thing about your story is your mom.
1299
01:18:42.971 --> 01:18:49.637
Like you're the governor of South Carolina, the first female Indian American minority.
1300
01:18:49.817 --> 01:18:52.379
And mom, none of that matters.
1301
01:18:52.399 --> 01:18:55.862
And I always anybody that's that's looking to, you know.
1302
01:18:56.382 --> 01:18:58.184
run for office or ask me anything.
1303
01:18:58.204 --> 01:19:01.426
I always said if I was a good mom and a good wife, I'd be a good governor.
1304
01:19:01.687 --> 01:19:04.049
If I was a good mom and a good wife, I'd be a good ambassador.
1305
01:19:04.069 --> 01:19:07.051
If I was a good mom and a good wife, I'd be a presidential candidate.
1306
01:19:07.492 --> 01:19:09.073
It's always family first.
1307
01:19:09.433 --> 01:19:13.677
The kids will tell you I was very conscious about making sure that they felt normal.
1308
01:19:14.117 --> 01:19:15.778
And also they made you be normal.
1309
01:19:15.878 --> 01:19:16.158
Yeah.
1310
01:19:16.238 --> 01:19:17.938
That's for me, that's what's important about kids.
1311
01:19:17.958 --> 01:19:20.939
When I was running kind and I had incredible days or terrible days.
1312
01:19:20.959 --> 01:19:21.779
They humble you.
1313
01:19:22.019 --> 01:19:30.241
They're just, you're the parent with all your imperfections and they will treat you like their parent, not like the governor of South Carolina.
1314
01:19:30.281 --> 01:19:30.681
That's right.
1315
01:19:30.701 --> 01:19:31.762
It's true.
1316
01:19:32.242 --> 01:19:34.302
Nikki, it's such a pleasure having you on Builder Break.
1317
01:19:34.322 --> 01:19:35.543
Thank you so much for being here today.
1318
01:19:35.563 --> 01:19:36.643
Thanks for the conversation.
1319
01:19:37.897 --> 01:19:39.539
We want you to become a builder with us.
1320
01:19:39.859 --> 01:19:44.203
So subscribe to Builder Break now and leave us a comment or a review.
1321
01:19:44.663 --> 01:19:55.413
We're trying to build a movement and you can be part of it by hitting the notification bell and telling us what you think about this episode and by telling all your friends to watch too.
1322
01:19:55.873 --> 01:19:56.274
Thank you.