live from new hampshire, governor sununu is going all in on nikki haley weeks before his state's pivotal primary here. it's endorsement every cha challenger to donald trump wanted. the big question now, can it help hah lee overcome trump's commanding lead. not just here in new hampshire, but in every early voting state. i just finished speaking to vote haley and sununu right here inside the governor's mansion behind me. that interview is coming up. first, i want to get to jeff zeleny here in new hampshire. you are in new port, where haley and sununu will be campaigning together this afternoon. what can we expect? >> reporter: we are about an hour or so west of you. ha we're going to see here is the beginning of the road show. the sununu/haley road show, he's going to try to repeat what he did in four successful gubernatorial campaigns under presidential campaigns, through his popularity and making the case he believes she's the candidate to turn the page. we got a glimpse of that last night in new hampshire. >> we have the momentum on our side, with this just gave it a speed bump. we're excited about going fast. we're just grateful. >> what she's been able to do is i'm not going to tell you what i bring to the table. that's what you want in a candidate. >> reporter: so there's no doubt that six weeks from today, we will find out if this endorsement is successful. the governor says this is a two-person race. that is getting far ahead of things. other candidates in the race, but one thing is clear, she's not only getting his name brand, which is a golden name in politics here in new hampshire, as you well know, she's getting his organization and his work ethic. so they are going to be campaigning around this state at events like this behind me. the crowd is just coming in how. now. he will be continuing on with hr throughout the day. so every one of her rivals would have liked to have the endorsement. she has it. now the hard work begins for the six final weeks of this campaign. >> we'll see that coming up. now to my interview with nikki haley and chris sununu. pit started with a question to governor sununu. why haley? >> obviously, we have been friends for a long time. and more than anybody else in the country, i have been able to spend a lot of time with all the three top candidates. chris, ron, and nikki. it isn't just about the po policies. it isn't just about background. it's about who is connecting with folks, listening, earning the trust. spending the time. that's how we do it here in new hampshire. when i have seen her time and time again when in the diner or someone's backyard, a lot of people like to talk at people. but saying what are your top priorities and your issues? i get excited about the opportunity to have a president that carries that philosophy into the white house. we have seen a lot of republicans try big-government solutions. that's not what this is about. it has to be about the mind set of what's the individual looking for. how do i empower them. it's working. >> i'm just thrilled. i knew in order to earn his endorsement, we needed to work. we needed to work and show that we were willing to do it. and he's the coolest governor in the country. it's great to be able to do this. this picartnership, you can fee the energy we got with hundreds of people and continuing to see, as we move through diners and all this, people get it and feel it and know the responsibility that they have. and i think we're going to see magic here in the granite state. >> ron desantis did a town hall in iowa last night. and he was asked about this endorsement. and he said even a campaigner as good as chris is not going to be able to paper over you being an establishment candidate. what do you say to that? >> you can say something, but it doesn't make it true. i was a tea party candidate when became governor. i was a strong conservative governor that brought an 11% unemployment down to 3% unemployment. we went and we moved thousands of people from welfare to work. we reformed education. we did reform. then you saw me go to the u.n. i took the kick me sign off our backs and america was respected again. everything i have ever done has been strong. it's been economic freedom. it's been individual freedom. ople proud along the way. so he can say establishment or whatever. i don't think labels matter. i think at the end of the day, we're fighting to save america. i truly believe that. and we're going to continue to do it. and chris' endorsement has given us a big kick at a time the momentum was building and this is going to take us where we need to go. >> you wrote an op-ed along with this endorsement. you said in part of it, new hampshire likes to be independent. that includes being independent from what iowa does. you said polls indicate donald trump will win the iowa caucuses. first, do you think that's true? >> what i can tail light you is we're fighting just as much for iowans as we are people for the granite state. we think that's important. we spent the week there last week and the energy was good. they are paying attention now. things are starting to move. so we're going to do everything we can. do people support trump, they do. it's not about whether you support president trump. i think president trump was the right president at the right time. i agree with a lot of his policies. rightly or wrongly, now is a time where we have a country in disarray and a world on fire. we can't afford four more years of chaos and survive it. we won't. i think the people in iowa and new hampshire and south carolina are going to see that. it's a different question to say do you support president trump and appreciate what he did. as opposed to what direction do you want the country to go. that's very different. >> i want to come back to that in a second. first, i want to is ask you about what you intend to do. ambassador haley is behind the former president here pretty significantly. how do you plan to use your endorsement to use your support to close that gap? do you have a ground game? do you have an organization you intend to employ? >> we have about 40 days to go. it's going to be a 40-day ground game. and engaging with voters, like the ambassador talked about, i have talked with folks -- there was a gentleman ai-talked to at a manufacturing facility. i supported the president in 2016. we supported him in 2020. but his thing was intlags. inflation is killing my family. i can bare ly get to work. i would support the former president, with ubut he's going so distracted. i need someone to give 120% of the time to inflation. to the border, he's not going to have it. he's going to have constant distraction. it's not about whether you support him, it's about we need a president that gets results. when when you have a somebody as a former governor with the success she brought, south carolina was in tough shape in 2010 when she came on board. she made that the envy of the southern part of the country. then the international experience, it's results driven. i think in new hampshire, we might have supported the former president before. we appreciate what he's going through. but we need results we're so tired of washington doing nothing and blaming other people. so this is the opportunity we have to get the entire country excited about the prospects of the future. >> on that note just one kind of process follow to that, last night when you were together, you said that this is a race between two people. but it's not a race between two people. >> it will be soon enough. it's between nikki haley and donald trump at this point. >> are you saying that desantis and crhris christie, who is playing hard here, should drop out? >> they'll make that decision for themselves. they are good candidates. but here in new hampshire, this is coming down to donald trump and nikki haley. this is where the country is going to go, wait. the media and everyone has assumed this was just donald trump's race. that doesn't have to be the case. the more folks get engaged, we're going to have a record number of people voting in this state from hard-core republicans to the undeclared. everyone is going to vote if everyone that wants to vote and can vote vooets, she wins in a landslide. the former president can't hold 50% of his base. that's not a good number when you think of that. most former presidents would have 80% now. >> but he's still really far ahead. hillary clinton was really far ahead of barack obama. >> you don't believe it? >> you have to earn it. >> you were asked this week, you mentioned donald trump. if donald trump is fit to be president, and you responded it's not about fitness. i think he's fit to be president. it's should he be president. i don't think he should be president. i want to clarify. you do think donald trump, at stage given everything that's happened, is fit to be president again, if that happens? >> i think he's fit to be president. i think he has the mental capacity, the physical capacity to do it. do i like the idea of two 80-year-olds running for office, no. there needs to be a new generational leader. the country wants to see a new generational leader. that's not what this is about. when you're looking at the fact that it is people feel what's happening in the economy. they feel it at the grocery store. they feel it at the gas station and in their insurance prices and mortgage prices. they are really squeezed. they are worried about the debt. they feel the fact that they are worried only 31% of 8th graders in our country are proficient in reading. there's a the lot of parents worried about that. we have a border out of control. we're asking like september 10th. you have a world on fire. people are nervous. what they don't want is chaos. what they do want is someone who is going to calm it down and get things done and have government work for the people again. >> when you say fit to be president that he is, you're talking about his age and mental capacity. the other people, particularly people here in new hampshire who are looking for somebody other than donald trump, don't think he's fit because of his approach, because of personality and his policies. do you think in those areas he's fit to be president? >> i don't look at the personal side of things as much as i -- >> what about the policy? >> the reason that i'm running is because after i saw the fall of afghanistan, after i saw inflation going through the roof, after i saw us lose the midterms so terribly, that's when i said, we have to run. when i i look at the situation, the economy under trump, was it good, yes, but he put us at $8 trillion in debt to do it. we're paying the price for that. i don't want a president who is going to praise dictators by saying kim jong-un is his friend or praising the 70th anniversary of the chinese communist party. >> so in those areas, he's not fit. >> i just think we need a new direction. we don't need -- with me, i have a different approach. no drama, no whining. it's about work for me. it's about results for the american people. they deserve it. and we're going to work hard to earn it. >> when spoke to you in june and you announced you were not going to run for president, you told me that you would be vocal with people afraid to take on the former president donald trump. do you think ambassador haley is doing enough? >> shower. let's face it. if you're running against the former president, you're making it pretty clear not just you have the chops to be president, but we're not going to support him, as most of the republican party is not going to support him. so what i love about nikki is she doesn't focus on sound bytes. she really gets into details to talk about what she's going to bring to the table in the future. not litigating the past, not whining about all the other stuff we hear from the former president. she's talking about what she's bringing and her experience. that's what people want to know. because at the end of the day, individuals want to know there's accountability in government, which doesn't seem to be a lot of it in washington right now. that's exciting. especially at the top. someone showing that leadership, leading by example with accountability saying the buck stop here's. >> let me just say this, antitrumpers don't think i hate trump enough. pro trumpers don't think i love trump enough. what you see is what you get. i just call it like i see it. wouldn't it be nice if you weren't gauged on whether you love or hate somebody and instead where you think the country should go? so the media loves to sit there and say you're not hating him enough or loving him enough. at the end of the day, i look at it policy by policy. i don't look at the perm side or the political side. >> ahead, more of my interview including what nikki haley thinks of a controversial texas abortion ruling this week. welcome back to "inside politics." we are here in new hampshire, where i spoke with governor sununu and his choice for president, former ambassador nikki haley. here's more of the interview where we discussed one of the trickiest issues for republicans, abortion. >> let's talk about a couple policy issues. you call yourself pro choice on abortion. you call yourself pro life. was that an issue that gave you pause? >> i have to tell you when it comes to the abortion issue, no one has answered the question as well as nikki haley. unquestionably, it's one of the number one positives i hear from both pro choice and pro life people. she's pro life. that's great. but a at the end of the day, this is going to be a state's issue, as the court has said. that's the way it's going to plyplay out. the idea that you're going to try to claim that washington is going to fix this and washington is going to fix that on the abortion issue, nikki haley understands this is a state's issue. the voters have more say in that process, as they should. >> i want to talk to you about what is happening in texas with a 31-year-old. she's a mother of two. she's pregnant. she's told that her fetus has fatal issue, congenital issue. if she carried the baby to term, the baby would likely die and she might not be able to have children in the future. it would be a potential health risk. you say that politicians need to humanize this issue more. if you were governor of the state of texas or if this was happening on your watch, how would you make it more human to let kate cox deal with this? >> uh-uh don't know the exact details of the texas law, but what i i do know is my heartbreaks for her. as someone who struggled to have children, my heart absolutely breaks for her. but this is what i'm talking about. when i say we need to have cam compassion, when you look at someone's experience, we should never want to see someone with a rare condition who has to deliver a baby anymore than we should want to see a mom have an abortion at 37 or 38 weeks. >> so how do you turn that compassion, humanizing into policy? because if you have state's rights, which i understand you both believe in on this issue, what do you say to a woman in a state like that who she was able to leave who doesn't have the means to leave? >> what you're going to see happen in texas is what you're going to see in other states that went on the pro life side. her going to look at when you have the exceptions of rape, incest, life of the mother, medical conditions, like texas had the medical side of it, is there going to get more detailed. they are going to say how can we make sure issue that they should look at when the situation dween the doctor and the woman sees something that is dangerous that might prevent her from having more mbabies or damaging to her body or something, i think you're going to see the medical board make a decision on where is that line? i think you're going to see that play out. when you do something in a state, it's never perfect right off the bat. you learn how to tweak it. i think all of these states need to tweak it in a way that our number one goal is how do you save as many babies as possible and support as many moms as possible. >> i want to ask a foreign p policy is question. you saw yesterday the most contentious back and forth between israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu and president biden over the question of who governs gaza when this war is over. the president wants it to be the palestinian authority. benjamin netanyahu says, no, we don't want that. if you were president right now, how would you solve that? >> first of all, the palestinian authority has done a terrible job at leading. we have seen that. is and you look at gaza and the people that live in gaza have had to live under the oppression of hamas, which is a terrorist organization that's ruined that area. israel doesn't want gaza. that's not the issue. but israel doesn't want terrorists on their door either. we need to support israel being comfortable with who is going to be their neighbors. you need to make sure that the people of gaza, the best way to help the people of gaza is to eliminate hamas. >> so obviously not hamas, then who? >> we're going to have to figure this out. i don't think america has to figure this out. i think israel needs to decide what they want the neighbors to look like. and it's not just israel. look at the arab countries. there's a reason egypt doesn't want to take any of the people from gaza. buzz they don't know with which ones are terrorists and which ones aren't. where are the pro hamas countries? where is qatar? where is turkey? why aren't they taking the people of gaza? they all know the threats of iran and the threats of their proxies. but every country deserves to know that they can have a secure border and not have terrorists living on their step. it's going to take israel awhile to figure out how to get the pal stint yans to find good leadership, but the palestinian authority has not been good to the people at all. they haven't proven worthy. >> know that you decided to endorse nikki haley because you think he's the best person for the job. but the fact that she's a woman, was that a factor? >> not the fact that she's a woman, but maybe the fact that she's a mom. she gets the connection better. >> the fact that she would be the first female president, was that a factor? >> that's a nice line, i suppose, but at the end of the day, it's her connection that i'm watching it's the feedback i'm getting about that connection. she uses the word humanism. she connects with folks on what their background is. not your policy is, but that's peripheral stuff. she wants to know what's going on in your family where has the system broken down? that's a connection. she looks you in the eye and takes the time to listen. she took the time and has earned the trust of the voters here. that's exactly how i do it. that's kind of the brand i try to support here. all the solutions don't happen in the corner office. the opportunity for those solutions happen by spending time with people. so i don't know, maybe that she's a wife and mom and connected and has this amazing background allows that connection to be a little more solid than maybe with some of the other candidates, but it's real and palpable. that's why her numbers are skyrocketing. >> you know he's going to be out of a job in a year. you guys are both gen x'ers. you didn't let me finish my sentence. >> no. >> would you consider him? >> think he would be great at anything. he's proven that. he's been great for the state of new hampshire. they are better off. he didn't do it by raising taxes. he didn't do it by taking away their freedoms or having government mandates come down. he did it by allowing economic tropical storm to grow and listening to the people. and look, think at the end of the day, do i want a younger generation leading in washington, absolutely. because the next eight years are going to be tough. we need energy.