LAST UPDATE | 6 Mar

US PRESIDENT JOE Biden, who is running for a second term in office, has said that Republicans who do not support Donald Trump have a place in the Democratic candidate’s campaign.

She did not endorsed Donald Trump as the Republican nominee.

Speaking after Haley’s announcement, Biden said Trump doesn’t want the votes of her supporters.

“I want to be clear: There is a place for them in my campaign,” said Biden.

“I know there is a lot we won’t agree on, but on the fundamental issues of preserving American democracy, on standing up for the rule of law, on treating each other with decency and dignity and respect, on preserving NATO and standing up to America’s adversaries, I hope and believe we can find common ground.”

Both Biden and Trump swept the field in yesterday’s Super Tuesday party primaries, but Haley also picked up one more win – in Vermont – after also winning last week in Washington DC. 

She said it is now up to Trump to convince all Republicans to support him.

“In all likelihood, Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee when our party convention meets in July,” she said.

“Our country is too precious to let difference divide us.

“I have always been a conservative representative and have always supported the Republican nominee.”

She went on to quote Margaret Thatcher: “Never just follow the crowd. Always just make up your own mind.”

BREAKING: Nikki Haley exits 2024 race, does not endorse Trump. pic.twitter.com/eeDC8MICqv

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) March 6, 2024

Haley congratulated wished Trump and wished him well.

“I wish anyone well who would be America’s president.”

She went on to restate some of her political views, such as calling for smaller federal government, which she said is “necessary for our survival”.

“The road to socialism is a road to ruin.”

She also called for term limits for politicians in Washington.

Standing by allies in Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan is a “moral imperative”, she added.

If we retreat further, there will be more war, not less.

Not enough states will have voted until later this month for Trump or Biden to formally become their parties’ presumptive nominees – but both are now certain to be on the ticket in November. 

Haley, 52, was the only woman in the Republican field for the presidential nominee and her campaign website described her as an “outsider”.

Eight people had withdrawn from the race before any state primary had taken place, including former vice-president Mike Pence and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, leaving Haley with an uphill battle against the increasingly popular Trump.

Christie also declined to lend his support to another candidate.

Since as early as the Nevada primary, however, Trump was deemed dead set to handily take the lead in the remaining primaries after Haley’s humiliating defeat in the state. She had also lost the race in her home state of South Carolina.

Quick turnaround

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has endorsed Donald Trump for president in a remarkable turnaround for a politician who blamed the then-president for “disgraceful” acts in the January 6 2021 Capitol attack.

McConnell, who was the last Republican leader in Congress to back Trump, declared his support in a short statement.

The two men had not spoken since 2020 when McConnell declared Democrat Joe Biden the winner of the that year’s presidential election but more recently their teams had reopened talks about an endorsement.

“It is abundantly clear that former president Trump has earned the requisite support of Republican voters to be our nominee for President of the United States,” McConnell said in the statement.

“It should come as no surprise that as nominee, he will have my support.”

McConnell previously criticised Trump as “morally responsible” for the 2021 mob siege of the Capitol.

With reporting by Mairead Maguire and the Press Association