California Gov. Gavin Newsom joked Friday that Nikki Haley — the onetime South Carolina governor and the last remaining major rival to Donald Trump in the GOP presidential primary — is a strong surrogate for Democrats.
“I think she’s one of our better surrogates,” the Democratic governor said of Haley, when asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper on “The Lead” whether it would be easier for President Joe Biden, the likely Democratic nominee, to beat Haley or Trump in the general election.
Newsom also said Haley — who has heavily criticized the former president on the campaign trail — is “spot-on on 99%” of the things she has said about Trump, adding that she’s making a good case against the GOP front-runner.
“So I hope she stays in, hope she does well tomorrow,” Newsom said, referring to Saturday’s first-in-the-South Republican primary in South Carolina. But he acknowledged that Trump is likely to end up as the nominee.
Haley has vowed to stay in the race past the South Carolina primary and through Super Tuesday on March 5, but Trump has won every delegate contest so far and holds a wide lead over Haley in pre-primary polling in her own home state.
Haley, at a campaign stop in Moncks Corner, South Carolina, on Friday made the case that she is the better alternative to Trump.
“Don’t complain about what happens in a general election if you don’t vote in this primary. It matters,” Haley said.
A CNN poll released earlier this month showed Haley with a clear lead over Biden among voters nationwide in a hypothetical general election scenario: 52% supported Haley compared with 39% for Biden. The same poll found Trump only narrowly ahead of the president, 49% to 45%.
“If we can’t win a general election, we get nothing,” Haley said Friday.
Newsom slams Alabama IVF ruling as ‘disgusting’
Newsom said Democrats will “continue to be on the offense” in the wake of a controversial ruling from the Alabama Supreme Court that frozen embryos are children under state law and those who destroy them can be held to blame for wrongful death.
“We’re backed up by the American people,” Newsom said, adding that the “Republican Party is on the defense on this issue for good reason because the American people have had it.”
The Alabama ruling has enraged abortion rights activists and thrown into doubt the ability of women in Alabama to undergo in vitro fertilization to become pregnant, as fertility clinics now weigh new and potentially onerous legal liabilities.
A number of congressional Republicans running in 2024 are attempting to distance themselves from Democratic attacks that the Alabama decision is part of a broader GOP attempt to crackdown on reproductive rights.
Newsom seized on the issue Friday, criticizing Republicans who argue that the ruling protects rights.
“And you talk about freedom? Spare me,” Newsom said. “The Republican Party and this freedom gospel — what about family freedom? What about the right of people who want to start a family?”
Newsom claims GOP cares more about Trump than solving border crisis
Newsom was in Washington Friday for Biden’s meeting with the National Governors Association where the president made the case that the bipartisan border deal is the “strongest border deal the country has ever seen.”
Newsom told Tapper that while the president was unable to get some key provisions into the deal, Biden was willing to compromise, adding, “Which is what we want in a president.”
“But Republicans in Congress are refusing to move forward with that bipartisan immigration deal because of one person: Donald Trump,” Newsom said. “They care more about Trump’s success than addressing this fundamental issue.”
Newsom added that as a border state governor, he could use funding and blamed Republicans for stalling legislation.
“That’s on the Republican Party, that’s on (House) Speaker (Mike) Johnson, that’s on Donald Trump,” Newsom said.
Newsom declined to comment on reports that Biden is considering executive action to restrict migrants’ ability to seek asylum at the US-Mexico border if they crossed illegally, telling Tapper that the governors did not receive any details about the possible order Friday. But he emphasized that the asylum system is “broken.”
“I would prefer to fix in a bipartisan deal working with credible people on the other side, but they don’t exist currently in the Republican Party,” Newsom said.
This story has been updated with additional details.
CNN’s Ebony Davis, Gregory Krieg, Kit Maher, Priscilla Alvarez and MJ Lee contributed to this report.