In a recent political development, Nikki Haley, the Republican presidential candidate, expressed her deep concern over former President Donald Trump’s remarks on NATO. She described his comments as “bone-chilling” and accused him of emboldening Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Speaking on ABC’s “This Week,” Haley said, “When you hear Donald Trump say in South Carolina a week ago that he would encourage Putin to invade our allies if they weren’t pulling their weight, that’s bone-chilling because all he did in that one moment was empower Putin.”
Trump, on February 10, had suggested that he would encourage Russia to do “whatever the hell they want” to any NATO member country that doesn’t meet defense spending guidelines. This shocking statement indicated that he would not uphold the collective-defense clause, a fundamental principle of the alliance, if reelected.
Trump’s controversial remarks were made at a rally in Conway, South Carolina, Haley’s home state. He claimed, “NATO was busted until I came along. I said, ‘Everybody’s gonna 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 criticism of Trump followed the death of Russian opposition leader and vocal Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny in prison on Friday. The cause of Navalny’s death remains unclear, but it has sparked a strong response from Western leaders, including President Joe Biden, who attributed the incident to Putin’s brutality.
Trump, however, has refrained from commenting directly on Navalny’s death. When CNN asked for his response, the Trump campaign referred to a post on Truth Social from the former president that neither mentioned Navalny nor Putin, but instead criticized Biden and claimed that “America is no longer respected.”
Haley continued her critique of Trump on Sunday, accusing him of siding with Putin. “He sided with a guy that kills his political opponents. He sided with a thug that arrests American journalists and holds them hostage, and he sided with a guy who wanted to make a point to the Russian people, ‘Don’t challenge me in the next election or this will happen to you too,'” Haley said.
The former UN ambassador and South Carolina governor also drew attention to Trump’s recent legal troubles on Saturday, suggesting that his silence on Navalny’s death could be due to his distractions. “He may not be saying anything because he’s distracted because of his court cases. That’s a very big possibility. There’s a lot of them. We know he said he’s going to be spending more time in the courtroom than he’s going to be spending on the campaign trail,” Haley said during a campaign stop in Irmo, South Carolina.
Her comments came after Trump was fined $355 million in his New York civil fraud trial and ordered to pay $83 million to E. Jean Carroll in a defamation case. He also faces four criminal indictments.
Reported by Ebony Davis and Michelle Shen, CNN.