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Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, once an outspoken critic of Donald Trump, gave her strong endorsement of the former president at the Republican National Convention on Tuesday night, urging the Republican party to rally around Trump — regardless of whether they agree with everything he does.
“You don’t have to agree with Trump 100% of the time to vote for him,” she said. “Take it from me, I haven’t always agreed with President Trump, but we agree more often than we disagree. We agree on keeping America strong. We agree on keeping America safe. And we agree that Democrats have moved so far to the left that they’re putting our freedoms in danger.”
The former Trump cabinet member urged Republicans to look beyond their differences and coalesce behind Trump. “I’ll tell you something you won’t hear from the critics, she said.”He appreciated advice and input. Americans were well served by his presidency, even if they didn’t agree with him on all things.”
Haley also swung at Vice President Kamala Harris, accusing her of exacerbating the “disaster” at the US-Mexico border. “Our country is at a critical moment, we have a choice to make,” Haley said. “For more than a year, I said a vote for Joe Biden is a vote for President Kamala Harris. After seeing the debate, everyone knows it’s true.”
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Haley wasn’t initially invited to the convention. But after the attempted assassination of Trump, his campaign asked her to speak. It marked a moment of unity for the party after Haley, who has a fraught history with Trump, challenged him for the presidential nomination last year.
On the campaign trail, she spent months attacking the former president as “unhinged,” but the two appeared to have made amends to some degree. Haley, who worked in Trump’s first administration, didn’t immediately endorse him after announcing the end of her campaign, but said in May that she would vote for him.
Last week, she called for the party to come together as she instructed her 97 delegates to vote for Trump at the convention. The convention speech could also signal an important comeback for Haley, who has laid relatively low since leaving the presidential race. Trump has said she will be in his next administration “in some form.”