Republican presidential nominee Nikki Haley said Monday that Donald Trump is “not qualified” to lead the country again after recent comments about her husband in office.
“He has shown that he is unfit to be president of the United States with this disrespect for the military, because I don’t trust him to protect them,” Haley said.
During a rally Saturday afternoon, Trump mocked Haley and her husband as they talked about meeting up at their Florida resort.
“Then he comes to see me at Mar-a-Lago. “Sir, I will never go against you.” She brought her husband,” Trump said. “Where is your husband? Oh, he’s far away. He is far away. What happened to her husband? What happened to her husband? where is he He’s gone! He knew. knew”.
In the past, Trump has been dubious comments About the Hayleys’ marriage.
Michael Haley, a commissioned officer in the South Carolina Army National Guard, left for a year of active duty in June — a fact Haley has often mentioned at campaign events.
Haley fired back at Trump on social media over the weekendand then, in a statement to reporters on Monday, compared her husband’s service to Trump’s “never going near a military uniform.”
“He never had to fight for a living because so many of them sacrifice to go,” he said. “The worst thing he’s ever had is a golf ball hitting him on a golf cart.”
Haley said Monday that she did not believe Trump’s comments were a coincidence.
“This was not a slip of the tongue for Trump,” he said. “When he comes off the teleprompter, he speaks from the heart, and this is an example.” He cited examples from Trump calling the military “suckers” and “losers,” according to his former chief of staff, John Kelly, and others is said to have made disparaging comments While visiting Arlington National Cemetery.
in 2020 Haley praised Trump’s record when then-candidate Joe Biden shared a video invoking the terms “losers” and “suckers,” he defended and opposed the military. Haley said at the time: “All of us who work with us [Trump] I witnessed great love and respect for our army.”
Haley, who signed a pledge to endorse her party’s nominee before participating in last year’s GOP primary debate, did not directly answer a question about whether she would vote for Trump again in 2024, saying she was “still trying to beat him.”
But Haley added, “Anyone who would put their military members on the ground, anyone who would say on deployment — it’s pretty disgusting — you really want that person to be a leader of those who have to fight. war?”
“There is no greater advocate for our brave military than President Trump,” Trump’s national press secretary, Caroline Leavitt, said in a statement.
He added: “Nikki Haley is in favor of more foreign intervention and supports endless wars that will kill more American heroes. It’s a good thing that he will never be the commander-in-chief.”
Haley has stepped up her rhetoric against the former president ahead of the Feb. 24 primary in South Carolina, with early voting in the contest starting Monday. His campaign debuted last week, calling the former president “too chicken to debate.” He also started giving mental ability tests at campaign events. And Haley’s team ran a mobile billboard outside a Trump event in South Carolina over the weekend featuring Trump and Biden on a poster for the movie “Grumpy Old Men.”
Haley spent the weekend raising money from Trump’s Saturday comments, selling pro-military T-shirts and asking supporters to help “defeat Trump and elect a commander in chief who supports our troops and understands the sacrifices made by our military families.”
Trump has never served in the military. But going back to his first presidential campaign, he sometimes made disparaging comments about what happened.
In 2015, he went after Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and mocked his service and experience as a prisoner of war.
“He is not a war hero“said Trump. “He’s a war hero because he was captured. I love people who don’t get captured.”
Also during the 2016 campaign, Trump insulted his parents After a fallen Muslim US Army captain spoke out against him at the Democratic convention that year.