Nikki Haley continues to criticize Trump and his support for Putin
Washington DC:
Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley lashed out at former President Donald Trump for his recent comments about NATO and accused him of “empowering” Russian President Vladimir Putin, CNN reported.
“It’s chilling when you hear Donald Trump say a week ago in South Carolina that he would encourage Putin to invade our allies if our allies don’t do their part,” Haley said. All that moment did was empower Putin.” Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”
Haley’s comments came after Trump said on February 10 that he would encourage Russia to “do whatever it wants” to any NATO member that does not meet defense spending guidelines.
According to CNN, he made a shocking admission that if re-elected, he would not abide by the collective defense clause at the heart of the alliance.
“NATO was destroyed before I came along,” Trump said at a rally in Haley’s hometown of Conway, South Carolina. “I said, ‘Everybody’s going to pay.’ They said, ‘Well, if we don’t pay, are you still going to protect us? ” I said: “Absolutely not.” “They couldn’t believe the answer.”
Haley’s comments came after Russian opposition leader and outspoken Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny died in prison on Friday.
Although the cause of Navalny’s death was unclear, the news prompted a strong reaction from Western leaders, including U.S. President Joe Biden, who blamed Putin, saying “what happened to Navalny This incident further proves Putin’s cruelty.”
Trump declined to speak directly about Navalny’s death. When asked, the Trump campaign pointed to a post by the former president on The Truth Society that did not mention Navalny or Putin but instead lashed out at Biden and claimed that “America is no longer respected.” “.
Haley continued to criticize Trump and his alleged support for Putin on Sunday.
“He’s siding with a man who kills political opponents. He’s siding with a thug who’s arresting American journalists and holding them hostage. He’s siding with a man who wants to make a point to the Russian people, ‘Don’t challenge me for the next election.’ , otherwise it could happen to you,” Haley said.
The former U.N. ambassador also highlighted Trump’s recent legal woes on Saturday, claiming the reason he hadn’t spoken about Navalny’s death may have been because “he was distraught.”
“He probably didn’t say anything because he was distracted by the court case. That’s a very real possibility. There’s a lot of that. We know he said he spent more time in court than he did in court. There’s more time to campaign,” Haley said at a campaign stop in Elmore, South Carolina, a week before the state’s Republican primary.
Haley’s remarks came a day after Trump was fined $355 million in a civil fraud trial in New York. The former president was also recently ordered to pay $83 million to Jean Carroll in a defamation case, and he also faces four criminal indictments, CNN reported.
Meanwhile, Trump and Haley are expected to face off in the South Carolina Republican primary next week, with the former president coming off two huge wins in Iowa and New Hampshire and the former governor having to show her presence in the state of courage, where she served as governor.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
