Photo: Julia Nikhinson Agence France-Presse Faced with Donald Trump, ultra-favorite of the Republicans, Nikki Haley threw in the towel in March.
Inès Bel Aiba – Agence France-Presse in Washington
Published yesterday at 7:25 p.m.
- United States
Former Republican candidate for the White House Nikki Haley, who has in the past sharply criticized Donald Trump, announced Wednesday that she would vote for him in November, calling on him to “tend hand” to moderate voters who chose her during the primaries.
This announcement could well revive speculation about the vice-presidential race on the right, even if Mr. Trump recently assured that Nikki Haley was not among the people he was considering for the position.
The former UN ambassador spoke in public for the first time since she left the race for the Republican nomination.
Asked by the conservative think tank Hudson Institute about the best candidate for president, she said she placed her “priorities in a president who […] will secure the border” and “support capitalism and freedom”.
“Trump has not been perfect on these issues. I have made it clear many times,” she added.
But Democratic President Joe “Biden is a disaster. So I will vote for Trump,” she said.
Appreciated by many moderate and independent Republican voters, the former governor of South Carolina told him however issued a warning.
The ex-president should “reach out to the millions of people who voted for me and who continue to support me, and not assume that they are going to get behind him,” she said.
“Courage”
Faced with Donald Trump, the ultra-favorite of the Republicans, Ms. Haley threw in the towel in March. But she continued to collect a notable number of votes in certain primaries, illustrating the refusal of moderate voters to rally behind the billionaire's candidacy.
When she ended her run for the White House, she gave no voting instructions to her troops, indicating that it was up to the real estate mogul to “deserve the votes” she had obtained.< /p>
Once cordial, the relationship between Donald Trump and his former ambassador had for months become acrimonious.
Friend of nicknames unflatteringly, he called her “Sparrow Brain” several times.
Holding outright conservative positions on the market economy, crime and morals, Nikki Haley has seduced many centrist or independent voters by banking on the desire for political renewal.
She constantly said during her campaign that Mr. Trump was synonymous with chaos and that he would cause the Republicans to lose the presidential election.
For political scientist Larry Sabato, however, it was obvious that Nikki Haley would vote for Mr. Trump.
“There are very few prominent Republicans who have the courage of Liz Cheney,” who was among the Republican leaders in Congress before becoming one of the business mogul's main critics, in the wake of the attack on the Capitol by his supporters on January 6, 2021.
Donald Trump's former vice-president, Mike Pence, announced in March that he would not support him for the presidential election.
In reaction to the announcement by Nikki Haley, Joe Biden's campaign team released a video of Donald Trump in which he claims that all of the ex-governor's voters will vote for him.
“And I’m not sure I need much,” he said.