Milwaukee
CNN
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Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley endorsed Donald Trump’s campaign Tuesday night in her speech at the Republican National Convention, her latest step toward joining forces with her former rival and unifying the party after their bitter presidential primary.
“Let me start by making one thing clear: Donald Trump has my full support, period,” Haley said Tuesday.
As Trump watched the speech from the convention center’s VIP suite, Haley used her speech to defend the former president’s foreign policy record and speak directly to voters who disagree with him on certain issues.
“Some Americans don’t always agree with Donald Trump,” she said. “My message is simple: You don’t have to always agree with Trump to vote for him.”
Haley’s speech Tuesday capped a gradual easing of tensions between the former governor and Trump after a difficult yearlong campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, during which Haley urged Republican voters to support her to avoid the “chaos” she said follows the former president.
Haley, who released her delegates last week and implored them to support Trump, was a late addition to the program. She was only invited to perform in Milwaukee over the weekend, which coincided with the attempted assassination of Trump and the former president’s call for unity themes at the convention.
Unity between Trump and his former primary rivals was a key theme Tuesday. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis used his speech, which followed Haley’s, to call on Republicans to help elect the former president.
“Donald Trump has been demonized. He’s been prosecuted. He almost lost his life,” DeSantis said. “We can’t let him down, and we can’t let America down.”
After losing primaries in New Hampshire and her home state of South Carolina, Haley resisted calls to step down and rally behind Trump. Instead, she turned more heavily toward criticism of the former president and his age.
At campaign events, she has often stressed that polls suggest she would be more competitive than Trump against President Joe Biden in a general election and warned that her legal troubles would dominate much of the campaign cycle.
When Haley ended her campaign in early March, the day after Super Tuesday, she did not endorse the former president as primary rivals like DeSantis had done.
“It’s now up to Donald Trump to win the votes – those of our party and those who didn’t support him. And I hope he does,” she said in her exit statement.
But in May, Haley, who served as Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, said she would vote for the former president, arguing that Biden would be worse for America.
And last week, shortly after giving his delegates permission to vote for Trump, his former rival said he would “look into” inviting him to speak at the convention.
“There was a lot of bad blood there,” Trump told Fox News Radio last week. “She stayed too long. She was soundly beaten every time, but she just wouldn’t leave.”
Michael Whatley, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, told reporters at a Bloomberg event Tuesday afternoon that he thought it was “extremely important” for Haley to speak at the convention.
“We want to talk about unifying the country, and I think that’s really the direction the president wants to go, especially after Saturday,” Whatley said. “So having Ambassador Haley here is very important to us.”
Whatley declined to say exactly when the invitation to speak at the convention was extended to Haley.
Haley won fewer than 100 delegates, compared to Trump’s more than 2,200, and she won only two primaries, in Vermont and Washington. But in the weeks since she dropped out, she has continued to garner tens of thousands of votes in primaries, including in key states like Arizona and Pennsylvania. Biden’s campaign has sought to reach Haley’s supporters through TV and digital ads in hopes of reminding them of Trump’s insults aimed at their candidate.
The question now is whether the unity Republicans displayed at their convention has extended to Haley’s voters. Some supporters believe it will.
“Nikki Haley voters are coming around to Trump,” Katon Dawson, a longtime Haley ally and former South Carolina Republican Party chairwoman, said before her speech. “It may take a while, but they are coming around to Trump.”
Dawson highlighted his own decision to support Trump and argued that, despite Haley’s past criticism of the former president, the country could not handle four more years of Biden.
“She’s doing the right thing,” Dawson said of Haley speaking at the convention.
South Carolina Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, a convention delegate who supported Trump during the primaries, told CNN after Haley’s speech that the address was “exactly what President Trump has been calling for — a message of unity, coming together and growing the party.”
But Tuesday’s crowd also included thousands of Republican Party activists, some of whom told CNN before Haley’s speech that they were still wary of her after the primary.
“I have no problem with her speaking tonight, only if she gives her full support to President Trump,” said Susan Cheatham, an Arizona delegate who said she believed Haley was staying in the race as long as she did to “discredit and disrupt” the Trump campaign.
Aaron Farris, an unpledged delegate from Minnesota – where Haley won nearly 30 percent of the primary vote – said he voted for Trump but respected the former U.N. ambassador’s work.
“There are things that are said during the primaries,” Farris said. “At the end of the day, it’s important that we all come together as we head into November.”
Julia Black, another South Carolina delegate, said she supported Haley when she led the state but had always planned to vote for Trump in the primary. The former governor’s criticism of Trump was simply part of politics, she said.
“Who won?” Black asked. “The politicians. They say what they have to say.”
This story and headline have been updated with additional information.
CNN’s Veronica Stracqualursi contributed to this report.
News Source : www.cnn.com
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