What Nikki Haley said at her CNN town hall

Former United Nations Ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley sought to set herself apart from the growing Republican primary field Sunday in a town hall on CNN.

“It is time for a new generational leader, it is time for us to leave the baggage of the past, the negativity to the past and start thinking of our families and the families across America,” Haley said.

Haley, who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Clemson University, said it was time for someone with her professional background to be president.

“I’m not a lawyer, I’m an accountant, and I think it’s time we had an accountant in the White House,” she said.

During the town hall, Haley drew distinctions on foreign policy with former President Donald Trump, criticized Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for his handling of Disney and said she held conservative views on social issues but would seek consensus.

Haley criticized Trump for congratulating North Korean leader Kim Jong Un after North Korea was given a chair on a World Health Organization executive board.

“I don’t think we ever should congratulate dictators,” she said. “Congratulate our friends, don’t congratulate our enemies. It emboldens them when we do that.”

Haley reiterated her support for Ukraine and said, “it is in the best interest of America, it’s in the best interest of our national security for Ukraine to win. We have to see this through, we have to finish it.”

When discussing DeSantis, Haley said he gave Disney favorable treatment and subsidies until they criticized him, and “now he’s going to spend taxpayer dollars on a lawsuit.”

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“It’s just, like, all this vendetta stuff. We’ve been down that road again, we can’t go down that (road),” she said. “Businesses were my partners in South Carolina. We didn’t always get along and luckily South Carolina is very anti-woke, but when you have a company like that, don’t bring the citizen’s taxpayer dollars into it, pick up the phone, settle it like you should.”

Haley called herself “unapologetically pro-life.” She said it was unrealistic to expect that presidents of either party could codify their position on abortion one way or the other because of the difficulty of getting something through Congress, but said she believes there are areas of broad agreement.

“I think we can all agree on banning late-term abortions,” she said. “I think we can all agree on encouraging adoptions and making sure those foster kids feel more love, not less. I think we can agree on doctors and nurses who don’t believe in abortion, shouldn’t have to perform them. I think we can agree on the fact that contraception should be accessible, and I think we can all come together and say any woman that has an abortion shouldn’t be jailed or given the death penalty. Can’t we start there?”

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When discussing legislation effecting students who identify as transgender, Haley said her state didn’t pass a bathroom bill when she was governor because South Carolina let local administrators deal with students individually.

“I didn’t have the bathroom bill come into South Carolina because I knew if we had a transgender child, they would come meet with the principal, the principal would give them their own private bathroom so that they were safe and the majority of the student body didn’t even have to deal with,” she said. “You deal with them individually. That was the safest way for everybody.”

Haley said she wouldn’t touch entitlements for those who’ve already paid in, but “we can’t keep kicking this can down the road” and she’s open to raising the retirement age for young people.

“We shouldn’t take away from anyone who has put into the system,” she said. “We should keep our promises. Everyone who’s been promised should get it.”

When asked about the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, Haley said “I think Jan. 6 was a terrible day.” She said she supports election integrity legislation and that “there’s nothing worse than when a country and their citizens don’t trust the election system.”