Less than a week out from South Carolina’s GOP primary, where former Governor Nikki Haley trails frontrunner former President Donald Trump in polls by 30 points on average — though the most recent polls show Haley somewhat narrowing the gap — Haley is making her pitch as to why she’s the better choice for voters.
On Sunday, she joined Jonathan Karl on ABC News’ “This Week” to discuss the race and to level accusations of indifference — or worse, approval — at Trump over the death of Alexie Navalny.
Haley starts out by rightly calling out Vladimir Putin and noting that he is not someone to be trusted.
KARL: I want to ask you about Navalny. I saw your very strong statement, like so many others, putting the blame squarely on President Putin. What would you be doing if you were president right now? How would you make Putin pay for this?
HALEY: I think it’s important to stand with the Russian people, who believe Navalny was really talking for them. I mean, you look at this hero — he was fighting corruption, he was fighting what Putin does — and what did Putin do? He killed him, just like he does all his political opponents, and I think that’s very telling. But this goes back to the fact that 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; this is not someone that we can trust.
Haley then pivots to Trump, with some harsh criticism.
HALEY: And so, 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. And all he did in that moment was 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.”
We have to start waking up to what this means, and that’s why the importance of making sure that Ukraine wins is clear, because we have to prevent further war. And right now, Putin is feeling more emboldened than he ever has.
KARL: Why do you think Trump hasn’t said anything about Navalny yet — nothing?
HALEY: It’s actually pretty amazing that he not only — after making those comments that he would encourage Putin to invade NATO — but the fact that he won’t acknowledge anything with Navalny. 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.
As of this writing, the former president has not commented on his social media platform Truth Social — or elsewhere — about Navalny’s death.
