Nikki Haley takes ‘no happiness’ in Biden dropping out, blasts Chris Christie’s ‘tortured demons’
Former Republican presidential hopeful Nikki Haley admitted she isn’t gleeful that her prediction of President Biden dropping out came to fruition, and lashed out at former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie for badmouthing her endorsement of Donald Trump.
“I wasn’t surprised and I didn’t take happiness in it,” Haley told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Thursday of Biden’s decision to end his re-election bid. “I think through the whole campaign I fought for mental competency tests. I wasn’t doing it to be disrespectful.”
“I was doing it because I think it’s not just Joe Biden. There is an issue that we have in DC where people will go into office, and they won’t let go. And then their staffers and their family keep propping them up. And it’s a problem for the American people.”
Back in February 2023, Haley, 52, launched her presidential bid with a call for mental competency tests for politicians over 75 and predicted that the GOP would be squaring off against Vice President Kamala Harris.
“The first party to retire its 80-year-old candidate is going to be the one who wins this election,” she chided in January this year.
Ultimately that prognostication came true this past Sunday when Biden, 81, withdrew from the presidential race and paved the way for Harris, 59, to become the presumptive Democratic nominee.
Biden did so in the wake of a pressure campaign among Democrats amid concerns over his mental acuity.
“The Democrats are very smart to put in a younger candidate. I think that that’s what America has craved. But I think what you look at it, they put in the weakest candidate they just put in,” she said with a smile when asked if she still believes that the first party to retire its 80-year-old will win.
Haley then ticked through a laundry list of complaints against Harris, going through her past positions on the border, crime, foreign policy and more.
Both Haley and Harris are of Indian descent. Some Republicans have attacked Harris as a DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) hire. That’s a reference to Biden publicly pledging to hire a female running mate.
Some Republican leaders urged their colleagues to stop those attacks about DEI against Harris.
“It’s not helpful. We’re talking about a liberal senator, who literally has not accomplished very much and what she was given she didn’t do much with,” Haley said.
“You don’t need to talk about what she looks like. Or what gender she is.”
Haley made waves last week when she officially endorsed former President Donald Trump, 78, at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. She had previously indicated that she planned to vote for him.
“I owed the millions of people who supported me — they deserve to know who I’m going to vote for, and why I’m going to vote for him,” she explained.
Christie, 61, one of her old rivals, sniped that her “speech was tortured ambition” and she did it because “she wants to run for president again.”
Haley didn’t mince words on Christie, who infamously had a hot-mic incident when he dropped out of the race before the New Hampshire primary and was heard badmouthing her.
“I think it’s funny coming from a guy who didn’t even play in Iowa and couldn’t even get out of New Hampshire. I think he’s bitter to anybody that he’s ever dealt with,” she shot back.
“It’s comical that it’s coming from a person who in 2016 literally did that one thing — fell all over himself for Trump to get a position in an administration and he still didn’t get it. I wish Chris well. I think he’s got a lot of torture demons inside of him.”
She also denied the notion that she weathered significant pushback from Republicans who backed her in the primary over her backing of Trump. Haley further revealed that she does not have plans to campaign with him.
Haley seemingly implied that Trump should also take a mental competency test given his age. Trump has boasted in the past about acing the Montreal Cognitive Assessment.
“I have said — and it’s not just Donald Trump,” she said. “The American people deserve to know that everybody’s at the top of their game.”
The former South Carolina governor and US ambassador to the United Nations had been the last rival to Trump standing before she dropped out in March.
Trump seethed at her for staying in so long, and at one point even questioned the whereabouts of her husband, Michael, who was deployed overseas with the South Carolina Army National Guard.
“For me, it’s not personal. I know Donald Trump. He’s gonna throw something just to kind of get people upset and I think he got pushback for that,” she said. “What I do feel bad is those that are serving.”
Haley had exchanged a fair amount of fire with Trump on the campaign trail as well, calling him toxic and unhinged. She said she has no plans of taking that back.
“I said a lot of tough things about him in the campaign. He said a lot of tough things about me in the campaign. That’s what happens in campaigns. I don’t think we need to apologize or take anything back,” she reflected.
“I don’t plan on doing that.”
The Palmetto State Republican expressed gratitude for those who supported and helped her 2024 bid. She also revealed that she has no plans at the moment to seek the presidency or a gig in a hypothetical Trump administration in the future.
Haley also took note of the position of vice presidential hopeful JD Vance (R-Ohio) on Ukraine and acknowledged that the Republican Party is splintering on foreign policy.
“I think that there’s a division in the Republican Party on where we should be on foreign policy especially. We have seen that play out with Ukraine. What I will tell you is, when Russia gets a little bit, they want a little bit more and a little bit more,” she warned.
