On Sunday, February 18, Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley sat with ABC News’ co-anchor Jonathan Karl on “This Week.” During this interview, she cleverly evaded questions about whether she would back Trump if he won all the primaries. Instead, she emphasized his unfitness for office.
In addition, she noted that she was running against Trump “for a reason,” and her aim is not to lose. “I am running against him for a reason. The last thing on my mind is who I’m going to support. The only thing on my mind is how we’re going to win this,” she said.
“I’m not going anywhere. We’re going to do this for the long haul, and we’re going to finish it.” It is not news that Haley has been a vocal critic of Trump. However, she signed a party pledge to support whomever the party’s eventual nominee turns out to be.
Karl asked, “Does that mean you will not support him if he’s the Republican nominee?” “Y’all can talk about support later. Right now, you can ask him if he’s going to support me when I’m the nominee,” she responded.
“Do you think he would [support you]?” Karl asked.
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“Do you think he would?” Haley asked back, laughing. “I highly doubt it.”
As the interview continued, she repeated her criticism of Trump, calling him too unstable to lead the country, especially when there is a crisis in Europe and the Middle East. “This is not the time to talk about America hiding in a bubble and not doing anything with the rest of the world,” she said.
The former South Carolina governor also called out her opponent’s silence on the recent death of Alexei Navalny. He was an imprisoned Russian opposition leader who died on February 16 this year.
Navalny organized anti-government demonstrations and ran for office to advocate reforms against corruption in Russia and against President Vladimir Putin and his government. He died suddenly and mysteriously. However, many speculate that Putin could be involved in this sudden death.
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Haley told Karl, “Either he sides with Putin and thinks it’s cool that Putin killed one of his political opponents, or he just doesn’t think it’s that big of a deal.” “Either one of those is concerning. Either one of those is a problem.”
Without a doubt, a lot of American politicians believe Putin is complicit in Navalny’s death. Even President Joe Biden made comments to that effect. However, the Russian president denies this.
As Trump is always quite vocal about issues like this, Haley found it odd that he didn’t comment on Navalny’s death. Instead, he took to social media and vowed to “bring Peace, Prosperity, and Stability” if elected again.
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The former governor also noted that Trump’s comments earlier this year were some sort of encouragement for Putin. He said that he “encourages” Russia to “do whatever the hell they want” to U.S. allies. Without a doubt, this was disturbing to several people.
“That’s bone-chilling because all he did in that one moment was empower Putin,” Haley said on “This Week.” “We need to remind the American people that Vladimir Putin is not our friend. Vladimir Putin is not cool. This is not someone we want to associate with. This is not someone that we want to be friends with. [Trump] is not someone that we can trust.”
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