Haley: Trump as GOP nominee would be ‘suicide for our country’

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley issued her latest dire warning Tuesday about the prospect of former President Trump becoming the GOP presidential nominee, arguing it would be “suicide” for the United States.

Coming off of a series of disappointing primary losses to Trump, Haley told the Wall Street Journal she has “serious concerns” about the former president, when asked to reaffirm her commitment to support the GOP’s eventual nominee.

Pointing to the 91 criminal counts Trump faces across four cases, Haley told the Journal: “This may be his survival mode to pay his legal fees and get out of some sort of legal peril, but this is like suicide for our country.”

“We’ve got to realize that if we don’t have someone who can win a general election, all we are doing is caving to the socialist left,” she said.

Despite ramping up her criticism of Trump in recent weeks, Haley has also said that President Biden is more dangerous than his predecessor.

Trump is also facing several civil legal penalties, including a whopping $350 million order in his New York civil fraud case, which he appealed Monday. He was also ordered to pay $83.3 million for defaming longtime writer E. Jean Carroll in 2019, after he was found liable in a previous case for sexually assaulting her in the mid-1990s.

Haley, a former Untied Nations ambassador under Trump, warned earlier this month that Trump would use the Republican National Committee as his “piggy bank” to pay for his legal expenses.

Federal election filings released last month showed Trump spent roughly $50 million on legal costs last year, $29 million of which was spent on lawyer fees and legal consulting in the final six months of the year. The spending was spread across multiple PACs.

In an interview last week, Haley argued Trump will be in the courtroom for a large portion of the coming months rather than on the campaign trail and said “that is not how Republicans win.”

Haley has come under increasing pressure to leave the race after a string of losses to Trump in early states. Fox News’s Bill Hemmer asked Haley last week if she sees herself as “an insurance policy” for the Republican Party if Trump is convicted or found ineligible for office before November.

“Well, what I see myself is making sure that we as Republicans do everything we can to win,” Haley responded.

Trump trounced Haley by nearly 20 points in her home state of South Carolina last weekend and continues to hold a comfortable lead in national polling, according to Decision Desk HQ, a partner of The Hill.

Haley has vowed to stay in the race through Super Tuesday next week and told the Journal she is “doing what I think is right.”

The Hill reached out to the Trump campaign for comment.

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