Nikki Haley open to veep slot on GOP ticket

“If there is a time where a presidential nominee wants to sit down and talk, of course I will sit down and talk, but you know I am very aware you have 16 really great candidates”, she said.

S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley is generating buzz that she will be in the mix for the Republican vice presidential spot in 2016, following her successful handling of the removal of the Confederate flag from the State House grounds after the shooting deaths of nine African-Americans inside a historic Charleston church.

South Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Jaime Harrison said Haley’s calls for improving opportunities for minorities in the state ring hollow while she refuses to expand Medicaid to more lower-income residents, as allowed under the Affordable Care Act.

Political analyst and College of Charleston professor Gibbs Knotts credits Haley with making progress in South Carolina but said there are some very real problems to deal with, like education and poverty.

“Black lives do matter and they have been disgracefully jeopardized by the movement that’s laid waste to Ferguson and Baltimore”, Haley said.

The absence of violence and growing unity among politicians after the Emanuel shootings and Scott incident are signs of change in the South, she contends. Juliana Bergeron, an RNC member from New Hampshire, said Haley “stepped up on the Confederate flag”.

“We had legislators who truly listened to each other”, Haley said.

Haley wasn’t finished. “Why are you going all the way to this side and talking about birthright citizenship when you haven’t even talked about illegal immigration itself?” she asked.

“In South Carolina we did things differently”, she told the audience. And Haley, although kinder than she needed to be, visited Washington on Wednesday with some sharp words for the man who has become the party’s standard-bearer.

“Time and time again Gov. Haley and the Republican-led state Legislature have failed to lead on key investments that would bring about long-term growth for South Carolinians”, Harrison said.

After the Emanuel shooting, “We didn’t have riots, we had vigils”, she said.

Republican policies, she added, are the best way to lift up all people, the GOP’s approach “often appears unwelcoming to minorities”. As a state, we came together, black and white, Republican and Democrat. “For Indian- and Asian-Americans, for Jewish-Americans, for Mexican-Americans, our party and our principles have so much to offer”.

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In a broad address about race relations, Haley on Wednesday conceded that “black lives do matter”, but accused the movement of using a counterproductive “yell and scream” strategy to accomplish its goals.