Super Tuesday Election Results with Charles Chamberlayne

Live from San Diego. This is the Fox 5 Morning News at 7. Nikki Haley drops out of the Republican primary race. Fox 5 political analyst Charles Chamberlain is joining us now with more. Charles, good morning.

Good morning. No surprise here, obviously, that Nikki Haley is out. She made the official announcement. Your thoughts? Well, it it made sense.

It was time, right? If you look at the showing from her, I mean, she was able to secure Vermont, which was kind of a surprise there, Washington DC, the day before and earlier, but it's just not enough. And, look, she's 52 years old. She's got a political future ahead of ahead of herself.

She's got to do something to make sure that she is politically viable in the future. So, it remains to be seen whether or not she will endorse him. Right? Because she made the RNC pledge. She may or may not.

She's saying that, look, Trump didn't take that pledge, so why should I have to do that? And the RNC is completely different from what it was before, so we'll see. She just spoke a few seconds ago. We wanted to listen in on that just for a quick second, and then we check it out.

I am filled with gratitude for the outpouring of support we've received from all across our great country, but the time has now come to suspend my campaign. I said I wanted Americans to have their voices heard. I have done that. I have no regrets. And although I will no longer be a candidate, I will not stop using my voice for the things I believe in.

She stuck to her words, saying that she wasn't gonna drop out after South Carolina, but my question to you is, after you've been on a campaign trail over the last couple of weeks, you've been saying Mr. Trump poses an existential threat to our democracy in this country. How do you then go back from those words to perhaps endorse the man? I'm laughing because we watch politics. We see these guys flip-flop. But that's a heck of a state, an existential threat to the bottom of the screen.

Like, never mind. You go to the extreme because that's what people hear. That's that's how what resonates with people. If you're wishy-washy on a subject, it doesn't translate. You know, right now, she's gotta decide where's the direction of the party.

Is it going where she is with the traditional conservative views, or is it gonna be a little bit more isolationist, nationalist, where Trump is taking the party? So I think she and her people are gonna get together, think about her future, think about what she needs to do. And, based upon that, she may or may not endorse him. She may or may not flip-flop. She may say, look, me carving my own way with these independents and these more traditional conservatives may be the future, but it may not. So she's gotta walk that tightrope.

Let's talk a little bit about the future. The stage is set now for the presidential race. Now, decisions need to be made, or maybe they already have been made, and we just don't know who Trump's running mate will be.

Look, Trump is the master when it comes to creating the news cycle. Right? So, I think he's gonna wait until it's politically expedient for him to do so. Maybe not – so he's already chosen someone? I think he's looking into it.

I think they're obviously going to have – I don't wanna say, like, Mitt Romney said many years ago – books of people. But they're probably looking into a lot of different candidates, but they announce what will come at a time when maybe the news cycle is talking about something that he doesn't wanna talk about, and they come out and do it. And, or maybe, Joe Biden's got some great news that's out there and is dominating the cycle, and it's going in his favor, but he knows how to ride that and make that change in the news cycle. What's your gut feeling as to who the person might be? Is it one of the names that we've known who have been on that debate stage, the last couple of months, or do you think it's gonna be somebody that – wait a minute.

Who's that? Look. I think the smart thing to do is to go after those Haley voters, those traditional conservatives, those folk, those women voters, those folks that are independents; bring them in because he's got that hard 30 to 40 percent. Could that be the ticket? It could be.

I wouldn't say to me now. Stranger things have happened. No. I don't think that Trump is that type of person – where he could concede to somebody that's been beating up on him for over a year. Mhmm.

I do think he could get some, though. He could get someone in her kind of mold that helps to bring in. There's a because right now, he's got a huge problem with independence and those traditional conservatives.

Here in California, Steve Garvey, I'm shifting gears here, had a strong showing. So, does a Republican have a chance here in California, Charles?

Not chance. Not chance. No. Alright. Look. I think a lot of times, we entertain things for entertainment values, and there's just no shot. A Republican hasn't won statewide in California in years. Mhmm. And it's just the way that it works here in terms of registered voters – in terms of party politics. It's just there's - no, it would be - it would be monumental for a Republican to do that, and I just don't think he has the chops.

It shifts the race to lose at this point. I was trying to go back and research who the last Republican senator California had. I John Seymour 30 years ago? I think it was. Yeah.

It just doesn't happen in this state. No. Outside of Schwarzenegger, just As the governor, but okay. Let's talk about surprises that you saw perhaps around the country. Were there any, or is this kind of, playing out as we expected it to?

I think this race, there's a reason why we sat at this table a couple months ago and said, here we go. And that's what it's been. It's been kind of everything that we've expected and didn't want. And we're just on a collision course right now with the Biden, Trump race and, kind of the politics of what we saw, you know, a couple of years ago and what we have now. State of the Union tomorrow.

Are you excited? What are you gonna I think there's there there's four big things that Biden's gotta address. The first thing is vitality, his age. Mhmm. He's gotta push back on that idea that he's too old.

He's gotta be able to show that he's he's invigorated. He's got – there's some energy in his campaign. Second, he's gonna bring up the economy. Right? Even though all the numbers look good and everything is great right now in terms of, maybe, inflation lowering, people don't feel great.

They don't they don't like where they are, sure. They don't like the fact that groceries and gas and all these things, these kitchen table issues are just too expensive. The third thing is there's a major issue with what's happening in Gaza and Ukraine, and he saw a lot of that stuff pushing especially in the with Gaza and some of the folks in Michigan, there's two, actually, there's two delegates that he's that are now attributed to undecided voters because of that campaign in Michigan. And then last but not least, talking about democracy being that being back on the line and that, you know, Trump may not necessarily be the biggest proponent of democracy.

So he's got a lot to talk about. He's gotta look strong. He's gotta come out and prove everybody wrong and show that he's got some energy, and it should be a good speech. I'd like to set you up in an office here at Fox 5 for the next eight months. Here you are.

I have a sleeping bag. Do you? Charles Chamberlain, we thank you for the insight, as always.