Nikki Haley says Trump let GOP down and party shouldn't have listened to him: 'Never thought he'd spiral out'
She is seen as the next big thing in the Republican Party and a probable candidate of the red party in the 2024 presidential election. And Nikki Haley has shown again that she is not one who minces her words. The former UN ambassador, who has often sided with former President Donald Trump in the past, was least impressed with the January 6 attacks at the US Capitol and has already said that history will be harsh in judging his actions since the 2020 presidential election.
Appearing in an interview with Politico recently, Haley, 49, spoke frankly about her thoughts on the party and Trump. She warned the GOP that it followed the mercurial former president down a path that it should never have and “we can’t ever let that happen again”. The Republican Party has found itself deeply split over supporting Trump with many refusing to see his impeachment trial proceed in the Senate. Meanwhile, surveys have shown that several supporters of the party are keen to shift bases if Trump forms his own party, putting the GOP leadership anxious over retaining its unity.
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Haley’s latest interview came when the former president is facing his second impeachment trial on charges of inciting violence at the Capitol when his alleged supporters stormed the seat of the Congress to protest the election of Joe Biden in the 2020 battle. Haley, who served as the UN ambassador in the Trump presidency, broke with him this time saying he let them down. She even refused to acknowledge who the former president is any more.
“We need to acknowledge he (Trump) let us down,” Haley told Politico. “He went down a path he shouldn’t have, and we shouldn’t have followed him, and we shouldn't have listened to him. And we can’t let that ever happen again.” Haley also made a bid for Trump’s supporters — numbering 74 million who voted for him in the November election but yet could not see him win — saying they will be a strong force in the future primaries in the GOP.
Take Trump's good, leave his bad, says Haley
“Nor do I think the Republican Party is going to go back to the way it was before Donald Trump. I don’t think it should. I think what we need to do is take the good that he built, leave the bad that he did, and get back to a place where we can be a good, valuable, effective party. But at the same time, it’s bigger than the party. I hope our country can come together and figure out how we pull this back,” Haley, who served as the governor of South Carolina between 2011 and 2017, said.
Haley also gave a strong indication that she could feature in the run for the White House in 2024 when she replied to a question whether she could do the job of the commander-in-chief, saying: “Yeah, of course I do”. Trump’s supporters still harbor a hope that he would be back to contest the 2024 election and that could happen if he is acquitted in the ongoing impeachment trial. Haley, though, feels that it would not happen. “He’s not going to run for federal office again,” she said, adding: “I don’t think he’s going to be in the picture. I don’t think he can. He’s fallen so far.”
While calling the impeachment trial as a “waste of time”, Haley said Trump’s punishment lied in his isolation from the party and in how his business interests suffer. “I think he's going to find himself further and further isolated. I think his business is suffering at this point. I think he’s lost any sort of political viability he was going to have. I think he’s lost his social media, which meant the world to him. I mean, I think he’s lost the things that really could have kept him moving,” Haley said, referring to the ban that major social media platforms put on the former president in the wake of the January 6 violence.
The GOP leader also said that while she thought it was fine that Trump challenged the election in the court since he had a legal right to do so, she was “deeply disturbed” to see what has happened to the former president since the election. “Never did I think he would spiral out like this... I don’t feel like I know who he is anymore... The person that I worked with is not the person that I have watched since the election,” she added.