President Joe Biden has been reaching out to supporters of former presidential candidate Nikki Haley shortly after her exit from the Republican primary race while taking swipes at former President Donald Trump.
“You don’t have to agree with me on everything to know MAGA extremism is a threat to this country. We need everyone on board,” Biden said in a statement on social media. The statement included a screenshot of a January post by Trump allegedly threatening Haley supporters, ABC reported.
“Anybody that makes a ‘Contribution’ to [her] … will be permanently barred from the MAGA camp. We don’t want them, and will not accept them,” Trump’s post read.
Haley dropped out of the race following her near-total loss on Super Tuesday, as reported by The Dallas Express. She won just one state, Vermont, making any path to the nomination impossible. Haley has yet to endorse Trump.
Some Haley supporters have said they will not vote for Trump in the general election.
“I really cannot vote for her opponent, and that’s the decision I’ve made,” Kelly Schofield told CNN. “I really, truly want somebody who will protect the U.S. Constitution and who will have civility and dignity, and I’m not secure with my vote going to the other candidate.”
Schofield, however, added that “Biden is not an option for me,” noting that border security and the economy were the reasons she would not back the current president.
Polling from Quinnipiac University indicates that Biden will have to do more to attract Haley supporters than Trump. The poll found that around half of Haley’s supporters would vote for Trump, according to reporting by The Washington Post. The same poll found that only 37% of Haley supporters would flip to Biden.
Many of the 40 Haley supporters interviewed by the Post said they would not vote for Biden because of their opposition to his policy decisions. Many commented that they have questions about the mental fitness of both Trump and Biden.
“It’s the greater of two evils,” said Joe Young, a 2016 and 2020 Trump supporter who backed Haley this year. “You’ve got Biden who physically cannot speak… He’s not mentally there, whereas Trump is at least able to function.”
