Nikki Haley breaks with Trump on IVF proposal, still says she's 'on standby' for campaign

Nikki Haley broke with former President Trump’s stance regarding IVF treatment, but still said she was "on standby" to campaign for the Republican nominee. 

Haley, who was the last Republican presidential candidate to drop from the GOP race before Trump became the nominee, said during an appearance on CBS’s "Face the Nation" on Sunday that she had spoken with Trump in June and that "he’s aware that I’m ready if he ever needs me" to campaign for him. 

With this election, Haley said, "there’s a lot at stake" with two administrations asking to be re-elected. Her main concerns, she says, are her children, with the cost of living and housing so high, the cost of goods up 20%, immigration and safety "with foreign entities coming in and the threats we could face," and energy.

"And so there's just a lot going on," Haley told CBS host Margaret Brennan. "To me, the stark contrast between a Trump and Harris administration are what led me to say, yes, I need to, you know, I'm going to be voting with Trump, and I'm going to speak at the convention. And so that's what I did." 

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Haley noted that Trump's team has not asked her to campaign, and that she has not been advising him for debate prep.

"He can, you know, whatever he decides to do with his campaign, he can do that. But when I called him back in June, I told him I was supportive. I think the teams have talked to each other a little bit, but there hasn't been an ask as of yet. But you know, should he ask, I'm happy to be helpful."

While voicing her overall support for Trump, Haley said she disagreed with his recent pledge to mandate that either the government or insurance companies pay for in vitro fertilization, or IVF treatment, for women. 

"It's not a policy I support any more than it's a policy of Kamala Harris to remove private health insurance, or Medicare for All," Haley said. 

Brennan interjected saying that Trump is head of the Republican Party, but Haley shot back that "you also have to talk about the head of the Democrat Party."

"When you talk about Medicare for All, when you talk about removing private health insurance, you might as well be Canada. You might as well look at socialist health care," Haley said. "We never want to get to that point, because you're not going to get IVF or anything else, cancer drugs or anything else when it comes to that." 

Haley said both of her children are results of fertility treatment. 

"We want that option to be available to everyone. But the way you do it is, you don't mandate coverage. Instead, you go and you make sure that coverage is accessible, and you make sure that you're doing everything you can to make it affordable. That comes with regulations," Haley added. "Kamala has put down – her and Biden put down a lot of regulations on a lot of things. Trump has relieved those regulations so that we need to have more of an important policy conversation than sound bites. And I do think this election has become about sound bites, and I think we have to get to the substance of it."

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Brennan cited CBS polling as indicating that support among female voters has grown to a double-digit lead for Vice President Harris over Trump since Biden stepped out of the race, clearing her to become the Democratic presidential nominee. She asked Haley whether Trump’s vice presidential running mate, Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, is contributing to the divide after remarks resurfaced last week of him highlighting how the head of the most powerful teachers’ union in the country does not have a child of her own. 

Vance's criticism was directed at Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, during a forum held by the Center for Christian Virtue in October 2021 when he was running for Senate. In the resurfaced clip, Vance stated that "if she wants to brainwash and destroy the minds of children, she should have some of her own and leave ours the hell alone."

"He continues to say things that certainly are highlighted as being offensive to women," Brennan offered to Haley on Sunday. "That is going to hurt, won't it, with female voters?" 

"It's not helpful. It's not helpful," Haley responded. "Look, you can either look at style, or you can look at substance. I choose as a voter to look at substance," she added. 

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"The substance is cutting taxes, making housing more affordable, immigration, national security, that's the substance," Haley elaborated. "The style is – no, it is not helpful to talk about whether women have children or whether they don't. It's not helpful to say any of those things that are personality-driven or anything else. I have said that, and I will continue to say to Republicans, ‘Stop it.’ That's not helpful. You know, if you want to talk about things, stick with policy. Americans are smart. They don't need all of this other noise to distract them."