Nikki Haley, the Republican presidential hopeful, suggested that the United States “needs to align” with countries including Russia in a major gaffe on the campaign trail.
Asked by WMUR-TV to talk about regions of the world which she felt the US could pay more attention to, Ms Haley, who served the Trump administration as United Nations ambassador, first said “the Arab world,” saying the US needs Arab countries “to kind of join with us” on opposing Iran.
“You see Saudi Arabia making deals with China, that’s not good for us. We need them to be with us, and then we need to align with others, Russia, Australia, Japan, Israel,” Haley added.
“We need to start focusing on the allies that we have besides the Europeans and make sure that we have more friends – one, for our needs, so that we’re not dependent on an enemy for energy or medicines or anything else, and then two, to make sure that we build those alliances so that the world is more safe.”
On Saturday, Ms Haley’s campaign said the candidate misspoke.
“This is completely ridiculous, she obviously misspoke,” spokesman Ken Farnaso told The Associated Press on Saturday. “No one has been tougher on Russia than Nikki Haley.”
Asked to comment on the interview, Ms Haley, in a statement to AP, called the country an “enemy” and referred to Vladimir Putin as a “thug.” “I fought them at the UN and I will continue to fight them,” Ms Haley said. “They want to destroy us and our allies and they are not to be trusted.”
A critic at the UN
During her tenure as UN ambassador during the Trump administration, Haley was critical of Russia, denouncing its invasion of Crimea, and condemning the country for “holding the hands” of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as the countries sparred over sanctions. She also referred to Russian corruption as a “virus” which is “impeding our ability to achieve complete denuclearisation in North Korea”.
A divide has emerged within the Republican field on how the US should handle Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In response to a query earlier this year from then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Ms Haley said US support for Ukraine was critical against an anti-American regime that is “attempting to brutally expand by force into a neighbouring pro-American country”, saying a Russian victory would only make countries like China and Iran “more aggressive”.
At the time, Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who has since entered the Republican primary race, argued that stopping the aggression wasn’t a vital US strategic interest, characterising the situation as a “territorial dispute”.
A number of fellow Republicans were critical of Mr DeSantis’s initial remarks. Mr Trump, who had called on European countries to share more of the financial burden of defending Ukraine, said Mr DeSantis’ answers were “following what I am saying.” A day later, Ms Haley said she agreed with Mr Trump that “DeSantis is copying him”, writing in an opinion piece that the characterisation of the war as a “territorial dispute” represented “weakness”.
Following those critiques, Mr DeSantis said his earlier comments referenced ongoing fighting in the eastern Donbas region, as well as Russia’s 2014 seizure of Crimea. Ukraine’s borders are internationally recognised, including by the United Nations.
For months, Stand for America, a super PAC (political action committee) supportive of Ms Haley, has been aiming to draw a contrast between the former South Carolina governor and Mr DeSantis.
“While DeSantis changes his policy positions based on the mood of his donors and television hosts, Haley never backs down,” said Mark Harris, the Stand for America lead strategist, in a release last month.
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