Nikki Haley, Donald Trump’s only competitor in the Republican primaries in the United States, attacked the former president on Sunday for his silence about the death of Russian opponent Alexei Navalny and for his hostile statements to NATO.
“He sides with Putin”
“The fact that he doesn’t say anything about Navalny (shows) that either he sides with (Russian President Vladimir) Putin and thinks it’s okay for him to kill his political opponents, or he just doesn’t think “Not that it’s a big deal,” Nikki Haley told ABC. The death announced Friday of Alexeï Navalny in an Arctic prison, on which the Kremlin remains silent, provoked a wave of indignation from Western countries, with President Joe Biden having affirmed that his Russian counterpart was “responsible”.
But Republican Donald Trump, predecessor of Democrat Joe Biden in the White House, and who dreams of returning there, did not say a word this weekend about the death of Alexeï Navalny, Russia or Vladimir Putin. His campaign team referred reporters who questioned him to Donald Trump’s latest post on his Truth Social network: “America is no longer respected because we have a president who is incompetent, weak and doesn’t understand what the world thinks.”
Nikki Haley, former UN ambassador under the Trump administration (2017-2021) and former governor of South Carolina, where the Republican primaries will be held on February 24, also criticized the statements “which send shivers down the spine ” last weekend from its competitor against the solidarity mechanisms between NATO allies facing Moscow. “All he did at that moment was to strengthen Putin,” said the Republican candidate.
“Let’s remind the American people that Putin said that once Ukraine was taken, Poland and the Baltics would be next (…) These are NATO countries and that immediately puts America in a position of war,” warned Nikki Haley.