Washington
CNN
—
Former President Donald Trump has began making a fictional declare in regards to the political previous of Nikki Haley, his remaining opponent for the Republican presidential nomination.
On social media final week and at a marketing campaign rally final weekend in South Carolina, the place Haley served as governor from 2011 to 2017, Trump claimed that Haley had been a supporter of Democratic President Barack Obama – and even that she had at the very least briefly supported Obama over his Republican opponent within the 2012 election, Mitt Romney.
In Trump’s social media post on Friday, he claimed that Haley was not solely a “flunky” for Romney, a frequent critic of Trump who’s now a US senator for Utah, however that “she was additionally a Barack Hussein Obama supporter as seen right here,” pointing to a video clip from the 2012 marketing campaign. At a rally the following day, Trump said Haley was not solely a good friend of Romney however that “she really dropped Romney for a short time for Obama.”
Info First: Trump’s claims that Haley had been an Obama supporter and that she had hung out supporting Obama over Romney are each false. Haley was a vehement Obama critic and a staunch Romney supporter, endorsing Romney for president in opposition to Obama before the first votes were cast in the 2012 Republican primary that Romney ended up profitable. Haley was additionally an early Romney endorser within the 2008 Republican presidential main he misplaced. There was no interval by which she deserted Romney in favor of Obama.
Haley, who was South Carolina’s Republican governor on the time of the 2012 marketing campaign cycle, said in a December 2011 statement about her endorsement of Romney: “Neither South Carolina nor the nation can afford 4 extra years of President Obama, and Mitt Romney is the best particular person to take him on and get America again on monitor.” She additionally mentioned within the assertion that “our nation will want actual management to undo President Obama’s failed insurance policies.”
So what’s Trump – who also endorsed Romney during the 2012 primary – even speaking about? His marketing campaign didn’t reply to CNN’s requests for a proof. However the one piece of supposed proof Trump has supplied, the 2012 video clip he posted on social media, is just not proof in any respect.
The clip exhibits Haley showing with Romney at certainly one of his marketing campaign occasions in 2012 however flubbing her common remark about how Romney wished to strengthen the navy, unintentionally saying Obama wished to strengthen the navy.
The clip exhibits a smiling Romney letting her know she had blended up the names and a smiling Haley saying “nooo!” in acknowledgment of the error. A Patch.com news report from the 2012 event shows that Haley criticized Obama’s dealing with of the navy only a few phrases prior in the identical sentence, and that she went on to right her inadvertent comment.
Trump is actually entitled to spotlight a previous Haley slip; through the 2024 main, she has been highlighting his recent verbal stumbles to question his mental fitness for the presidency. However Trump’s social media declare that this single gaffe exhibits Haley had been an Obama supporter is nonsense. And his context-free declare on the rally, by which he advised the group with no clarification that Haley had “really dropped Romney for a short time for Obama,” is considerably worse.
Trump repeated the declare in barely softer kind at one other rally in South Carolina on Wednesday, saying that Haley “severely considered supporting a gentleman, identify is Barack Hussein Obama” however “determined to go along with Romney as an alternative.” There can also be no proof for the declare that Haley ever “severely thought” about supporting Obama over Romney.
South Carolina’s Republican main can be held on February 24.