OREM, Utah — Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley on Wednesday called on Republican National Committee members to hold an on-the-record vote on a draft resolution that would curb the national party’s ability to direct its funds toward legal fees, including former President Donald Trump's.
“All Americans, and Republicans especially, deserve a vote on the record on that resolution,” Haley said while campaigning here. “We deserve to know how the RNC is going to spend their money and if it’s going to go towards legal fees.”
Trump co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita — whom Trump plans to install at the RNC along with other loyalists, including his daughter-in-law, following the resignation of longtime chair Ronna McDaniel — previously told reporters that the RNC would not be paying for Trump's legal fees, but Haley campaign officials have not trusted the statement.
Haley went on to question if the RNC would end up shifting support from down-ballot Republicans to a “legal slush fund.”
“Are you going to ask the question about what happens with that resolution that says you can’t spend it on legal fees?” she asked reporters.
RNC members will meet in Houston in early March to select a new chair and potentially vote on resolutions including two put forward by a Mississippi committee member, Henry Barbour. One focuses on slowing the RNC from coordinating with a presidential candidate until the candidate meets the delegate threshold to win the nomination. The other one would prohibit the committee from paying any candidate's legal fees.
“We brought forth these two resolutions to make sure there is a serious discussion about protecting the primary process while there are still two candidates competing and preventing the RNC from paying the legal bills of any political candidate unrelated to the election cycle,” Barbour said in a statement to NBC News last week.
On the campaign trail ahead of Super Tuesday, March 5, Haley dodged a question from NBC News about whether having leadership teams announced in states past Super Tuesday — for instance, Georgia — meant she could guarantee staying in until that point.
“I don’t want to talk about how long y’all think I’m gonna stay in,” she said.
When pressed that voters might want to know how long they’ll have her as an alternative to Trump, she sidestepped again: “No … I want the conversation to be, where are we going in the country?“
Haley also reacted to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s announcement Wednesday that he planned to step down from his leadership position.
Haley told reporters that she applauds McConnell “for realizing that it is time for new generational change."
“I think what’s more important is, we need to understand we don’t just need new generational change in Congress,” she said.
