Haley says she would pardon Trump if convicted: ‘Time to move forward’

GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley said Sunday she would pardon former President Trump if he is convicted of a federal crime, saying it was time “to move forward.” 

“I would pardon Donald Trump because I think it’s important for the country to move on,” Haley said during a Fox News town hall in South Carolina. “We’ve got to leave the negativity… behind.”

Trump, the current GOP frontrunner, is facing multiple legal hurdles, with the most recent development out of his New York civil fraud case being he was barred from operating his business in New York and fined more than $350 million.

Last week, Trump asked the Supreme Court to extend the delay in the trial stemming from Special Counsel Jack Smith’s 2020 election interference case, arguing that he has presidential immunity to protect him from prosecution. His attorneys filed the emergency appeal days after a D.C. appeals court ruled he is not immune from prosecution in Smith’s case.

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GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley said Sunday she would pardon former President Donald Trump if convicted, saying it was time “to move forward.” (Getty Images)

Haley stated she no longer wished for division in the country, and it would not be “in the best interest for America to have an 80-year-old president sitting in jail and having everybody upset about it.”

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“I think this would be the time that we would need to move forward and get this out of the way,” Haley said. 

Haley took several digs at both Trump and the Republican Party during her town hall appearance, while continuing to tout her platform. 

Nikki Haley speaks during a Fox News “Democracy 2024: South Carolina Town Hall,” Feb. 18, 2024, in Columbia, South Carolina. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

“I look at where we started, there were 14 candidates in the race,” Haley said. “We’ve defeated a dozen fellas. I just have one more fellow to catch up to. And through it all, there have been naysayers and that’s OK. I’m used to being an underdog.”

Haley also stated Trump had a “temper tantrum” following the New Hampshire results, where she finished with 43% of the vote. 

Nikki Haley stated Trump had a “temper tantrum” following the New Hampshire results, where she finished with 43% of the vote. (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)

“The night that we got 43% of the vote, President Trump literally became unhinged and went on a temper tantrum,” she said. “And all he did was talk about revenge. And then the next day he said, anybody who supported me was barred permanently from MAGA.”

Haley proceeded to knock both Trump and President Biden for their ages, as Trump is 77 and Biden is 81.

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“Both of those men put us trillions of dollars in debt that our kids are never going to forgive us for. And are we really going to put all of our problems and issues in the hands of two 80-year-olds running for president?” Haley said. “We need someone who can serve eight years fully working, fully disciplined and ready to get the job done. We can’t go and take the chance of doing this with two 80-year-olds.”

Haley’s town hall comes ahead of the Feb. 24 South Carolina primary, where she will face off against Trump.

Fox News’ Landon Mion and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.