Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley recently dismissed criticism from fellow candidate Chris Christie, who suggested Haley and other GOP presidential candidates do not call out former president Donald Trump.
“Well, I’m not obsessively anti-Trump like he is,” Haley told Fox News in an interview on Wednesday. “I talk about policies.”
“There are times where we’ve disagreed with Trump,” she said. “He thought January 6 was a beautiful day. I said it was a terrible day. He went on a spending binge as president. I’ve said our kids are not going to forgive us if we don’t take on this debt and call out Republicans and Democrats in the process. He thinks Ukraine doesn’t need to be messed with. I know that a win for Russia is a win for China, and we’ve got to make sure Ukraine finishes this. We don’t have to put cash. We don’t have to put troops. But we need to work with our alliances to make it happen.”
“So there are multiple things I disagree with him. But it’ll be on policy,” Haley concluded.
She added that, unlike Christie, “it’s not just not liking someone because of a personal vendetta.”
Christie, a Trump ally turned vocal Trump critic, criticized Haley by name earlier this week while in New Hampshire.
“He’s like Voldemort in the Harry Potter books, he who shall not be named. The other candidates won’t even name him,” Christie said Monday. “Nikki Haley says, ‘the candidate who’s about the past.’ Nikki, it’s okay. Say his name. It’s alright.”
Christie also told Fox News this week that some GOP presidential contenders “are afraid to tell the truth about Donald Trump.”
“I’m in this race because somebody has to,” he said.
Trump remains the frontrunner in the race, polling around 52.4 percent, according to a RealClearPolitics polling average. Haley sits in fifth place at 3.7 percent, while Christie is in seventh place with 2.3 percent.