Nikki Haley, Donald J. Trump’s last rival standing in the fight for the Republican nomination earlier this year, once again had sharp words of criticism for his campaign on Tuesday, saying that the rhetoric surrounding his effort was driving away the women and minorities he needs to put him over the top in battleground states. Nevertheless, she said she was “on standby” to campaign for the man she endorsed after a bruising primary season.
In an interview on Fox News, Ms. Haley directly criticized the Trump campaign over racist and misogynistic remarks by speakers at a rally in Madison Square Garden on Sunday. “I think it’s harmful,” Ms. Haley said of a speaker at the rally who described Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.” She added that “they also need to look at how they are talking about women.”
She continued: “This bromance and this masculinity stuff, it borders on edgy to the point that it’s going to make women uncomfortable. You have got affiliated PACs that are doing commercials about calling Kamala the ‘C word,’ or you had speakers at Madison Square Garden, you know, referring to her and her ‘pimps.’ That is not the way to win women.”
Ms. Haley has repeatedly offered advice and criticism to Mr. Trump and other Republican candidates from the sidelines, saying in an interview on Fox News last month that Mr. Trump and his running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, “need to change the way they speak about women.”
Mr. Vance was asked at a rally in Atlanta on Saturday about Ms. Haley’s notable absence from the campaign trail. He said he did not know why Ms. Haley was not appearing with the campaign but said that he was open to the possibility.
“I don’t know the answer for why she hasn’t been out on the trail,” Mr. Vance said on Saturday. On Tuesday, at a town hall in Grand Rapids, Mich., he was asked again about campaigning with Ms. Haley, and Mr. Vance said it was “up to her and her schedule.”
Ms. Haley, in her Tuesday interview, appeared to suggest that Mr. Trump had kept her at a distance, saying that she had last spoken to him in June and that she had not been asked to campaign with Mr. Trump or act as a surrogate for his campaign despite her offer.
“They are very aware that we are on standby — they know that we would be there to help,” Ms. Haley said, noting that she had previously helped on some Trump campaign materials soliciting donations. “We are on the same team,” she added. “It is their campaign’s decision on what he needs in these last final days. It does not bother me at all.”
She added: “There’s no bad blood between me and the president. We want Donald Trump to win. I respect his campaign and what they need. If they need something, they will call and ask me.”
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