Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley slammed her ex-boss turned GOP rival former President Donald Trump for his previous praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin shortly after it was reported Friday that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny had died in prison.
“Putin did this,” Haley wrote in a post on X Friday morning. “The same Putin who Donald Trump praises and defends. The same Trump who said, ‘In all fairness to Putin, you’re saying he killed people. I haven’t seen that.’”
As her home state’s primary draws closer, the former South Carolina governor has ramped up her attacks against Trump, in whose administration she served as a United Nations ambassador.
On Friday, the Russian Prison Service said Navalny didn’t feel well after he went for a walk. He reportedly lost consciousness afterward before being pronounced dead.
Haley, who trails Trump by double digits in the polls, has frequently targeted the former president on the campaign trail for his apparent chumminess with foreign dictators.
On Valentine’s Day, her campaign put out a series of snarky love letters featuring Trump’s past comments about the leaders of some of America’s chief adversaries. A card satirically addressed to Putin read, "I called President Putin of Russia to congratulate him on his election victory. The Fake News Media is crazed because they wanted me to excoriate him. They are wrong!"
Russia’s next presidential election is slated to be held in March and Putin is widely expected to win another term.
Earlier this month, Haley cautioned against taking “the side of a thug” following Trump’s comments that Russia could “do whatever the hell they want” to NATO nations that are “delinquent” in defense spending.
Trump holds a 35-point lead over Haley in South Carolina ahead of the Palmetto State’s Feb. 24 primary, according to a new CBS News/YouGov poll.