Trump campaign targets Haley after debate: ‘Hillary Clinton Is an Inspiration to Nikki Haley’
The Trump campaign lashed out at GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley after she performed well in the second primary debate Wednesday night.
The campaign cited a 2012 interview where Haley, then governor of South Carolina, said then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was an “inspiration” to her political career.
“The reason I actually ran for office is because of Hillary Clinton,” she told The New York Times in an interview. Haley was referencing a speech the former First Lady gave where she advocated for more women in politics.
Trump’s team didn’t provide commentary or context on Haley’s decade-old remark, potentially an attempt to ding the rising candidate by associating her with Clinton — who is still reviled in the Republican Party.
Haley was considered one of Wednesday evening’s top performers, readily clashing with other GOP hopefuls and standing her ground. She has been more openly critical of former President Trump in recent months, including on the stage by trashing his first term policy on China.
“This is where President Trump went wrong,” Haley said at the debate. “He focused on trade with China. He didn’t focus on the fact that they were buying up our farmland. He didn’t focus on the fact that they were killing Americans.”
“He didn’t focus on the fact that they were stealing $600 billion in intellectual property. He didn’t focus on the fact that they put a spy base off our shores in Cuba,” she continued. “They didn’t focus enough on the fact that all of our law enforcement drones in America are Chinese, and we’ve got all these little surveillance cells.”
The Trump campaign also went after her support for Ukraine, saying she is focused on spending “instead of finding a peaceful solution” — similar to the issue she criticized the former president for.
At a campaign event last week, Haley said Trump was getting “weak in knees” on Ukraine during his presidency.
“He was thin-skinned and easily distracted. He didn’t do anything on fiscal policy and really spent a lot of money, and we’re paying the price for it,” she said. “He used to be good on foreign policy, and now he has started to walk it back and get weak in the knees when it comes to Ukraine.”
The Trump campaign memo also lists a collection of old quotes from Haley praising former House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), a common recent target of the former president, as well as previous statements where she praised the former president.
The campaign did not provide attacks on other primary candidates.
Haley moved into second place, behind Trump, in a New Hampshire primary poll this week, her strongest ever poll performance.
In a separate statement Wednesday night, Trump advisor Chris LaCivita trashed the debate, calling on the Republican Party to cancel future events and get behind the former president.
“Tonight’s GOP debate was as boring and inconsequential as the first debate, and nothing that was said will change the dynamics of the primary contest being dominated by President Trump,” he said. “The RNC should immediately put an end to any further primary debates so we can train our fire on Crooked Joe Biden and quit wasting time and money that could be going to evicting Biden from the White House.”
Trump who was notably absent from the debate, has signaled he likely won’t attend the third GOP debate in Miami either. The remaining candidates continue to fight for second place, as the former president still holds a large lead over the field.
According to national polling averages, Trump has garnered about 54 percent support in the GOP primary field, with Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) trailing at 14 percent and Haley in third with about 6 percent support.