Washington: Indian American Nikki Haley has said she will consider a vice presidential ticket next year if given a chance but is currently focused on her job as Governor of the US state of South Carolina.
“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, and that means you're going to have 15 very potential good vice presidential candidates,” Haley, 43, told members of the National Press Club at a luncheon meeting here. Haley said she did not want to waste her time thinking about this now.
“I really don't think about that. I want to keep my promise to the people of South Carolina, which is to make every day better than the day before it. If a nominee asks me to sit down, of course I'll talk to them, and then we'll go from there,” she said.
“I'm going to let all of this play out. That's what I care about. That's what's important to me.. If there's a time and place to think about it, we'll do it then. But I'm not going to waste any energy on that now,” Haley said. She said the people of the country are extremely frustrated right now with both Republicans and Democrats because they have gotten so used to shouting and yelling that they want that they have forgotten to listen.
“All the people of this country want is action. That's not too much to ask for. That's what we were sent to our offices to do,” she said, adding that there is no accountability on any members of Congress or Senate to have to do anything. “I think, as a public, we have to demand action. We can't demand yelling. We can't demand great speeches. We can't demand quotes in the paper. We have to demand action, and you either deliver or you don't,” she added.
Responding to a question, Haley described Donald Trump - a frontrunner Republican presidential candidate - as a friend and a smart businessman.
“He's been a supporter of mine and I consider him a friend.. He's a smart businessman. He's accomplished a lot during his career. It accomplishes nothing to get mad at anybody that criticises you. So every time someone criticises him, he goes and makes a political attack back. That's not who we are as Republicans. That's not what we do. That's not what I want my South Carolinians to do.
That's not what I want us to do going toward,” Haley said. “What Americans want to hear, is policy. They won't want to hear how someone offended you. They want to know they're sending someone up to the White House that's going to be calm and cool-tempered and not get mad at someone just because they criticise them. We would really have a world war, if that happened,” she said.
