Nikki Haley cast herself on Tuesday as a steadfast candidate of last resort to Donald Trump, maintaining she won’t drop out “until the American people close the door.”
Delivering what her team billed as a “state of the race speech,” a defiant Haley vowed to remain in the race even as she polls far behind Trump in upcoming primaries across the map. Without offering any electoral strategy for her path forward, Haley described her candidacy as a battle for something “bigger than myself.”
And she cried as she invoked her husband’s military service, describing how he couldn’t be with her because he is deployed, and that America was worth fighting for.
Instead, Haley unleashed a torrent of criticism against the former president, calling him a “bully” who’s “getting meaner and more offensive by the day.” She argued that Trump is “completely distracted” from the campaign as he splits his time in courtrooms. She repeated her oft-used refrains that Trump has “gotten more unstable and unhinged.” And the former U.N. ambassador painted Trump as weak on national security, bashing him for “inviting” Russian President Vladimir Putin to “invade NATO countries.”
