President Biden is ‘RUNNING SCARED,’ Nikki Haley tells Glenn. And he's doing it both domestically and abroad. But thankfully, the former U.S. Ambassador to the UN says, we CAN ‘right the ship.' We just need to find the right Republicans — ones who will stand STRONG against Democrats and for conservative values — to get the job done. Haley tells Glenn which candidates have already caught her eye and how the GOP can prove to Americans they deserve power in Congress. Plus, Haley weighs in on the Ukraine/Russia conflict and our growing inflation rates…

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Welcome to the program, Nikki Haley. How are you?

NIKKI: Thank you, my friend. It's great to be with you.

GLENN: It's good to see you.

NIKKI: Great to see you.

GLENN: So I want to talk to you about a couple of things. I have a lot to run through with you.

But let's just start the news around the world. What the hell is happening with Ukraine? This does not feel right. It doesn't feel good.

NIKKI: It shouldn't feel right, and it shouldn't feel good. You know, this is a bigger fight than just Russia and Ukraine. This is a fight for freedom.

And how we handle this matters. You know, we saw how horrible we handled Afghanistan. We can't continue to have those blunders. Because when Afghanistan fell, it let every corrupt dictator around the world say, this is a weak America. We better move now, while we can. And that's what we're seeing happen.

GLENN: Okay. So do you think we should be fighting? Actually in there fighting?

NIKKI: Americans should not be in there fighting, no. And Ukrainians haven't asked us to. But when you see a freedom-loving country, trying to protect their own turf, we should give them every ounce of ammunition they need. We should be pulling in. And I'm glad to see NATO pulling in their weight. Because that was hugely important.

GLENN: Yeah.

NIKKI: They need to be giving everything. And we all need to go and support Zelinsky to win this fight on freedom. And when he wins, no other dictator will try and do this again.

GLENN: Okay. So I agree that we should not go in. I'm a little concerned that Joe Biden was saying, hey, we can't let anybody take these old airplanes. Because that might rope us into it. And we're now openly saying, oh, yeah. We're just leaving them at the bus stop in Ukraine. I mean, what are we -- what happened to where --

NIKKI: It's foolish, Biden is running scared. He's been running scared from the beginning. If he had done sanction before his Putin moved in, we wouldn't have seen this. President Trump had said, we would send them equipment and ammunition in March of last year, when they had already -- Biden stopped it. We were supposed to send another group in June of last year. Biden stopped it. All because he thought it would cause Putin to react. Look at what happens when you don't stand strong. If you stand strong before conflict, the conflict never happens.

GLENN: Why does Putin keep saying that we're on the edge of nuclear war?

NIKKI: Because he has nothing left.

GLENN: Is that a dig -- so does that make him more believable? On that?

NIKKI: He doesn't want to die. And listen -- but at the same time, let's not ignore him. This is a real danger. This is something that is serious. It's why Ukraine needs to win and win strong. If Putin feels like there is a window, he's going to keep going. If we can stop him where he's at, then he will start to retreat. The key to that is, one, making sure that Ukrainians aren't begging for help. That they get the help that they need, including the planes, including the anti-air defense systems that they're constantly begging for. But also making sure we hit Putin where it hurts. He can't continue a war if he's got the money to fuel it. And we have to sanction the energy companies, and Biden still won't do it.

GLENN: Okay. So there was talk last week, that after the French election, that Europe was going to say, no more oil, from -- from Russia.

Do you believe that? Is that in the works?

NIKKI: I think the U.S. needs to be pushing them that way. There is not an option for them to continue to be getting oil from Russia. It puts us all in danger for them to do that. Are they going to struggle?

Yeah, a little bit. Can we double down and start, you know, exporting liquified natural gas? Can we help them go and find other avenues to get it, just like Poland and Lithuania are getting it from Australia? Yes, we can. That's what has to happen.

GLENN: But they're not going to do that. This Biden administration will not release any kind of sanctions, if you will, on our own companies, to go and get more liquefied natural gas. To go get anything. Even for -- for our own self. We're shipping our own strategic oil reserve, to Europe.

NIKKI: Because Biden is scared of the climate change people, like he's scared of the Green New Deal, you know, people that fight for that. And we're seeing it. And it's making America weak. I mean, it's a serious issue, what we've got right here. But we can right the ship. That's a serious thing. I have faith that we can right the ship.

And that first starts by, do we win these elections in November? But more importantly, what do we do when we win?

We have to prove, we deserve to be there. So when respects take control of the House and Senate, which I'm all over the country, trying to help candidates. When they take it, what do they do?

You don't just say no to Biden. What do you say yes to? You say yes, to making sure that we're exporting more liquified natural gas, that we're opening up our energy reserves. You say yes to, we're going to stop all this wasteful spending. You say yes to the fact that we'll be strong abroad, by having a strong voice against terrorism. And all dictators that to threaten America. Or say death to America. We can start doing things. You can say, yes. We're going to take care of our children's education. And we won't let all these teacher's unions do it. We have to say yes to a lot of things, and not just say no to Biden.

GLENN: So how do we say yes to the end of inflation?

How is this going to be solved? Because we're close to the death spiral here, on inflation.

NIKKI: I mean, Glenn, it's so bad, that the average family is spending five to $6,000 more a year.

Now, when Michael and I were raising our children, if you told us we had to spend 5 to 6,000 a year, do you know where we would get it from? A credit card. And do you know what happens to families, when that happens? That's the fear that I have is, what, these families, who are just trying to make it through today? The way you do that is, first of all, yes, we open up our energy sector. We make sure something like that works. But we stop this wasteful spending. Do you know in the last spending package, Republicans and Democrats passed 5,000 earmarks. Totally $10 billion. You want to hear what some of that was?

$12 million for a baseball park in New York.

20 -- $15 million, for New Jersey to apply to get the world cotton. Six and a half million for golf courses in Colorado. This is Republicans and Democrats doing this, Glenn. That is not okay. You can't say and go on TV. And scream that inflation is terrible. And cosponsor an earmark. And open that back up.

Where were our Republicans in this? Why did they allow this to happen? We had stopped earmarks.

GLENN: Well, that's kind of where I am with the Republican Party. I don't see -- I see a few that are standing up. And are fighting the good night. But then you see people like Mitch McConnell.

I mean, you know -- you've got to clean out these -- these federal agencies.

NIKKI: Term limits. Term limits.

GLENN: You have to just clean them out. Well, you're not going to be able to do that if you have a president, without the Congress. Congress has to do it. And you can have, you know, control of the Congress with Republicans, but do they even get it?

NIKKI: Do you know what else Congress can do? Put controls on our border. They can fix this border crisis. Where is Congress? That's what I'm going to keep saying is, we need the fighters. We need those that understand, that you have to make so much noise. The beam will follow you, if you do that. But you can't go on this runaway spending where our debts are more than our economy. Do you know, we're having to borrow money to make our interest payments? Our kids and grandkids will never forgive us for this. We have to right the ship. For the good of our country. For the good of the world, for the good of the next generation. It's time for all this to stop.

GLENN: So one of the things that you do, you're the Founder of Stand for America. And you go out and you try to promote good policies, and also the right candidates. You just endorsed Sarah Palin. Why?

NIKKI: A couple of reasons. First of all, when I was running for governor the first time, there were five candidates. I started as the fifth out of five. Had the at least amount of money. The least name ID. And I got up to the second position, I was running against lieutenant governor, a congressman, an attorney general, a state senator. Got up to the second position, and Sarah Palin, without telling her staff, called me the day before, and said, her -- Todd called and said, we're coming to South Carolina. We're going to endorse Nikki. And she did -- a life -- pro-life speech in the morning. She did an NRA speech in the afternoon. And she came and endorsed me in the evening. And helped push me over the deepened.

So first, I'll tell you, my loyalty to her, will always be strong. But secondly, it's because I believe in her. She had a voice that matters. Glenn, she was canceled before we ever talked about cancel culture. She was vilified by the media, before we ever had all this happen. And she was a great governor. She understood the value of a dollar. She understood what real families went through. And she, and I, they called us the rock star sisterhood. We related on so many levels because the establishment denied me. And the resistance didn't think I was cool enough, or fit the mold for them. And Sarah went through the same thing. And, you know, we need her voice in Congress. I would love to see her walk in the halls of Congress, and reminding them of what the Tea Party was all about. And how tax enough is already happening again. I would love for her to talk about, what energy -- opening up our energy policies, and really doing that.

She's the right person. I would love to have her back.

STU: Where is she? She in Arizona?

GLENN: Sarah. She's in Alaska. She's in Alaska.

STU: She's back in Alaska. All right. So who is the -- who is the candidate that you have seen that went, that you've said, oh, my gosh. This is a new breed.

NIKKI: You know, I think there's been a few. In the last cycle, it was the Victoria Sparks. It was the -- it was the Nicole Malliotakis. It was the Nancy Mace. There were a lot of us just fighters. Just had good fighters about them. Now we're seeing different ones, in terms of like Morgan Luttrell in Texas. Wesley Hunt in Texas. Like, those were fantastic. Tony Gonzalez in Texas. We just did him, as well.

Monica De La Cruz. We're looking at her hard.

You know, there are some really good ones here in Texas, but around the country, we're seeing some really great ones.

GLENN: Good.

NIKKI: And so I just endorsed -- Tiffany Smiley in Washington State. You know, a lot of people are throwing Washington State away. If anybody can win, in Washington State, it's Tiffany Smiley. So we're not just going after the easy races, we're going after the ones that could be really difficult. It's why we endorsed Jack Ciattarelli in New Jersey for governor. He lost by one percentage point. We almost had it. It's why we endorsed Glenn Youngkin Virginia.

It's because we know, when we get in there you got to push these people over the finish line, like Sarah Palin pushed me. Because when you see those fighters. When you see those people that can really move the ball. That you know they're not just going to bring good policy. But they're going to bring good fight. And they're not going to be afraid to stand up to the establishment. Those are the people that we want.

GLENN: Elon Musk. When we come back. Give me one minute.

GLENN: So I -- I am sure I agree with Elon Musk on a lot of stuff. I would vote for him in a heartbeat.

Because he -- A, he's Tony Stark. I mean, he just -- he doesn't care. But the other thing is, is he has a vision of where things are going. You listen to him. And you listen to anybody on television. Anybody in Congress or the White House. And there's no vision there.

What do you think about him taking over Twitter?

NIKKI: I love it. It's a win for freedom.

It's an absolute win for freedom of speech.

But what I love is Elon Musk is not afraid to rattle the cage. Now, maybe when you have that much money, you can rattle all the cages you want. I'm grateful for him. And now my question is: Who is next? Let's keep going. Yeah. Let's not stop with him.

GLENN: Yeah.

NIKKI: And, you know what, there's Facebook. There's Instagram. There's the big media, that we need to go and rattle those cages. Let's do it. And Elon Musk has been the start. Let's not that be the end.

GLENN: Yeah. I don't think it will be. You know, I was thinking about it this morning, we're at the end of that -- of that cycle, that pendulum cycle, in I think 2024, the pendulum starts to swing back to individual liberty. So we're almost there. We just to have make it. By 2030. We just have to make it. And things will swing back and be good.

STU: Can I ask you a question about education? Because we've seen over the past couple of years. Covid presented, with all its horrible negatives. A unique opportunity for conservatives to communicate, what they believe is right, when it comes to education, in a proactive sense, right? People saw what was going on. They were forced to watch the Zoom classes. And saw the crazy stuff that was being taught. And also that the schools wouldn't open up. A lot of conservatives responded to that by saying, we have to open these schools up. And of course, that was the right argument. But isn't there more that we can do here? Isn't this a unique opportunity to talk about school choice and freedom --

GLENN: Abolish the Department of Ed. Abolish the Department of Ed.

NIKKI: You know, but it goes before that, right? So look at precovid. Precovid, 65 percent of fourth graders were not proficient in reading. Precovid, 66 percent of eighth graders were not proficient in reading or math.

STU: Incredible.

NIKKI: Think about that. We had a problem before covid, so don't let them say that covid brought this on. We already had a problem with the establishment, in education, before. So now you go and you look at the fact, that in rural South Carolina, where I was born and raised, covid hits. Think of a child, where both parents had to work.

Here is this kid, using a screen he's never used before.

Used by way of a hot spot, on a school bus down the street. Now think he's in third grade. What he's reading. Reading, refractions, science. Do you think the teacher's unions are going to tell his parents to hold him back? They're not. So what happened after two years of lost education, when we were already behind in math and reading. Who is going to stand up for these kids?

And then you take it a step further, that those kids in South Carolina. When all the wealthy families got to put their kids in private schools. Where did the rest of the kids go?

That's my issue is, one, let's go back and fix what was already broken. You've got some kids. Don't push them through to the next grade. Don't push them through later. If a child can't read by third grade, they're four times less likely to graduate high school. Then we need to open up school choice. We need to open up charter schools, and we need to go put the blame, where it belongs, which is on the teacher's unions. And the Democrats that wanted covid money, more than they wanted to teach our kids, and we have to hold them accountable to that.

GLENN: So I've been saying lately. You can be a great teacher. But if you're a member of the teacher's union. I'm sorry. You're part of the problem. You don't have to be a member of that union.

Stop.

NIKKI: That's exactly right. Your voice will be loud enough without the union. The union is just making money off of you. The union in California, basically made sure they opened schools for one day, just to get the covid money. One day. What did that do for a child? Nothing. But it got them the money they wanted. We've got to start telling teachers, we want to empower you, but the unions aren't going to be the way to do that. The people will be the way to do that.

GLENN: Would you be for abolish the Department of Education?

NIKKI: I think it's completely messed up. We need to bring it back down and start it back over. And the way we start it back over, is give the states control. Give the states control --

GLENN: Because they already have that. You don't need them to. I don't need an office in Washington, DC.

NIKKI: No. Let me tell you, as governor, we did education reform.

Every governor in the country could make an impact, because what the Department of Education does is, says, if you take this money. If you teach this class, we'll give you this much money. If you teach critical race theory, we'll give this much money. If you teach this, we'll give you this much money. States right now, are teaching to the money. They're not teaching to the children. States need do control education. We don't need it controlled from DC. Because one size does not fit all.

GLENN: Right. And the way to do that, is to abolish the Department of Ed. No strings. Nobody is answering the phone in Washington, DC. Let the state --

NIKKI: It's bloated, it's bureaucratic, and it's lost sight of children.

GLENN: Always good to see you. Nikki Haley, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Former south Carolina governor. And founder of Stand for America, which you can find at StandforAmerica.com.