Nikki Haley doubles down on White House bid, blasts ‘unhinged’ Donald Trump
Nikki Haley has doubled down on her long shot bid, blasting ‘unhinged, unstable’ Donald Trump as Joe Biden seeks to capitalise on the former president’s ‘crazy’ remarks.
Republican presidential hopeful Nikki Haley has doubled down her long-shot White House bid, blasting an “unhinged” Donald Trump in a passionate speech in South Carolina as President Joe Biden reportedly urges his top staff to more forcefully call out the former president’s “crazy shit” in public.
Four days out from the third major Republican primary contest, in South Carolina, the state’s former governor and last remaining competitor to Mr Trump for the GOP’s presidential nomination issued her strongest criticism yet of her former boss.
“He’s getting meaner and more offensive by the day … He’s gotten more unstable and more unhinged … He’s completely distracted … And everything is about him,” Ms Haley told supporters and media in Greenville, South Carolina, on Tuesday (Wednesday AEDT).
“He’s so obsessed with his demons in the past that he can’t focus on the future Americans deserve.
“Many of the same politicians who now publicly embrace Trump, privately dread him.
“They know what a disaster he’s been and will continue to be … I feel no need to kiss the ring, and I have no fear of retribution,” she added, in a speech convened at short notice that had prompted speculation she might pull out of the race.
Her comments came a few hours before Mr Trump drew outrage for likening his treatment in Manhattan courts to the plight of the now dead, perhaps murdered at instruction of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Alexei Navalny, who died in a Russian prison last week.
“It is a form of Navalny,” the former president said at a town hall hosted by Fox News.
“It is a form of communism, of fascism.”
Separately, CNN reported on Tuesday that President Joe Biden, who was headed to California for a series of campaign events, had personally directed his most senior staff to highlight the “crazy shit” that Mr Trump says in public.
Mr Biden also told reporters on the White House lawn on Tuesday that he “didn’t care” whom he faced off against in November’s presidential poll.
The White House has ramped up its attacks on Mr Trump in recent weeks, first for his revelation that he told NATO leaders in 2018 that he would encourage Russia to invade them unless they lifted their military spending, and second for his refusal to publicly condemn Putin for dissident Alexei Navalny’s death.
“Donald Trump’s admission that he intends to give Putin a green light for more war and violence, to continue his brutal assault against a free Ukraine, and to expand his aggression to the people of Poland and the Baltic states are appalling and dangerous,” the President said, reflecting his new habit of mentioning his predecessor’s name as much as possible in his public statements.
Ms Haley’s speech, which she dubbed State of the Race, came hours after a fresh poll of South Carolina voters suggested the former president, who easily won the first two primary contests against her in Iowa and New Hampshire, was poised to win 63 per cent of the vote on Saturday (Sunday AEDT) to Ms Haley’s 35 per cent.
The Suffolk University/USA Today reflected the average of major polls conducted in the strongly Republican state’s voters maintained by FiveThirtyEight, which have barely budged over the past month.
Ms Haley, governor of South Carolina for six years until 2017, homed in on allegations that Mr Trump was using campaign donations to help fund his legal fees, and his controversial remarks about NATO, US policy toward which has become an unlikely political issue in US domestic politics.
“It’s not normal to spend $50m in campaign contributions on personal court cases. It’s not normal to threaten people who back your opponent, and it’s not normal to call on Russia to invade NATO countries. Donald Trump has done all of that,” Ms Haley said.
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