Nikki Haley threw her support behind Donald Trump in a speech in Washington on Wednesday, dramatically revealing she would vote for her former rival who derided her as a “bird brain.”
She did so during a question-and-answer session at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington.
“As a voter, I place my priorities on a president who will support our allies and hold our enemies accountable.” Who would secure the border, no more excuses,” she told the Hudson Institute.
“Trump has not been perfect on these policies, I have made that clear many times. But Biden has been a disaster. So I will vote for Trump,” she said.
She also talked about “support for capitalism” and said we need a president “who understands that we need less debt, not more debt.”
Vote for Trump: Nikki Haley announced she would vote for Donald Trump in November
“That said, I stand by what I said in my suspension speech,” Haley said. “Trump would be smart to address the millions of people who voted for me,” she warned.
Haley was the last Republican standing after a brutal primary campaign. It ended with an escalation of her attacks on Trump, who ridiculed her as a “birdbrain” and mocked her on several occasions.
On Wednesday, she once again called on Trump to respect his supporters, after multiple statements from Trump that he didn’t need to.
His comments come as Trump has surrounded himself with loyalists, bringing many to his secret trial in Manhattan, with fewer signs of publicly courting his former rival.
Haley also had a warning for Trump when she ended her campaign after Super Tuesday in March after losing her home state.
“It is now up to Donald Trump to win the votes of those in our party and beyond who did not support him. And I hope he does,” she said. “At its best, politics is about rallying people to your cause, not pushing them away. And our conservative cause sorely needs more people.
Haley had prominent staff members in the audience for her speech, where she used a teleprompter for her formal remarks. She didn’t address the campaign until interviewer Peter Rough asked her about it.
Campaign manager Betsy Ankney, who was in attendance, would not say whether Haley would participate in other campaign activities when asked by DailyMail.com.
“I’ll let his comments speak for themselves,” she said.
Trump, who leads Biden in national polls and in key states, has remained tight-lipped about his potential vice presidential prospects.
One of the candidates, Doug Burgum, appeared in Manhattan criminal court with Trump. Others on his list, including Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, have defended Trump against criminal charges.
Trump publicly rejected the idea that he needed to court Haley’s supporters, although voters continued to cast “zombie” votes for Haley even after she withdrew from the race.
“She got very few voters,” Scripps said on television a few days ago. “And these voters are all coming to me, and there may be a lot of Democrats because they have a very delicate little system.” But these voters are coming to me.
Haley is part of a long line of politicians who have supported a rival despite past verbal attacks, but outbursts between her and Trump became increasingly personal as Trump began to view her as his main threat.
He went after her husband, Michael, who was with Haley in Washington DC and who she said was returning from his deployment to Djibouti.
Trump made fun of her because her husband wasn’t with her on the campaign trail.
Haley called the remarks “disgusting” and “disturbed” during an appearance on CNN.
“If you don’t respect our military, how should we think that you’re going to respect them in war, and prevent the war and prevent them from continuing? Haley said. “If you don’t have respect for our military and our veterans, God help us all if that’s the case.”
“The most harm he ever suffered was when a golf ball hit him on a golf cart,” she said on the track in South Carolina. “And you’re going to go make fun of our men and women in the army?
Her remarks Wednesday came after she didn’t even mention Trump in her prepared remarks, where she took aim at Biden as well as House Republicans who voted against emergency funding for the Ukraine and Israel.
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