Farah Griffin: Haley's South Carolina results should be a 'five-alarm fire' for the GOP

Alyssa Farah Griffin, former White House communications director under President Trump, said Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley’s strong showing in South Carolina on Saturday should serve as a “five-alarm fire” to the GOP.

On Saturday, Trump won the South Carolina primary by about 20 points, leading Haley 59.8 percent to 39.5 percent, according to The Hill/Decision Desk HQ election results tracker.

In a panel discussion on CNN after the race was called, Farah Griffin said the Republican party should be concerned that Haley was able to get 40 percent of the GOP primary vote — when her opponent was running with all the benefits of an incumbent candidate.

“Somebody who's running as virtually an incumbent — Donald Trump — getting 60 percent, and 40 percent being against him? That's not a mandate,” she said. “Especially with the entire Republican party apparatus behind him, with most elected Republicans behind him.”

“Now, it's unclear what a path could look like for Nikki Haley,” Farah Griffin continued. “I think we're all very open-eyed about that. But she is underscoring the fundamental weakness of Donald Trump, and it should be a five-alarm fire for the party, but for some reason, it is not.”

Haley has pledged to stay in the race, despite calls for her to drop out as her path to victory in the GOP primary remains narrow.

On Saturday, however, she reiterated her commitment to staying in the race and said she thought it was important for voters still to have a choice between candidates, “not a Soviet-style election with only one candidate. And I have a duty to give them that choice.”

Farah Griffin said Haley made the appropriate remarks after the primary concluded Saturday, saying, “She's powering through. She said what she had to say last night.”