Nikki Haley insists she’s not dropping out of 2024 race ahead of major address: Live

Related: Nikki Haley says she would pardon Donald Trump if elected president

Ahead of a major address on Tuesday, Nikki Haley told The Associated Press that she will not leave the Republican primary election regardless of the result in South Carolina this Saturday, vowing to stay in the 2024 race at least until after Super Tuesday on 5 March.

The former governor and UN ambassador has yet to win any state against frontrunner Donald Trump.

Ms Haley made headlines over the weekend by declining to say she would endorse Mr Trump but promising to pardon him if she entered the White House.

The former president reacted furiously to those comments, appearing to object to Ms Haley effectively “legitimising” the criminal cases against him, contrary to his baseless insistence that they are all part of a conspiracy being orchestrated by President Joe Biden and his myriad enemies.

Meanwhile, South Carolina Tim Scott, an energetic Trump cheerleader, called on Ms Haley to suspend her campaign, saying he senses “desperation” around her.

In the same interview, Mr Scott made the preposterous claim that Democrats want an open, insecure border, whereas Republicans “know that means you have to control your back door”, despite the fact that it is GOP members holding up relevant spending bills in Congress.

Trump not happy

Trump, in recent days, has shown flashes of fury in response to Haley’s refusal to cede the nomination.

He called her “stupid” and “birdbrain” in a social media post over the weekend and his campaign released a memo ahead of her speech on Tuesday predicting that she would be forced out of the race after losing her home state on Saturday.

“The true ‘State’ of Nikki Haley’s campaign?” Trump’s campaign chiefs wrote. “Broken