Donald Trump’s rival in the Republican primaries, Nikki Haley, called the former president’s recent comments about NATO “chilling” and said the statements strengthen Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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“When you hear Donald Trump say in South Carolina a week ago that he would encourage Putin to invade our allies if they weren’t supporting him, that’s chilling because all he did at that point was empower Putin,” Haley said on Sunday ( 18) on ABC’s “This Week.”
It is worth remembering that Trump said on February 10 that he would encourage Russia to do “whatever they want” with any NATO member country that does not comply with defense spending guidelines.
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“NATO was arrested until I showed up,” Trump said at a rally in Conway, South Carolina, Haley’s home state. “I said, ‘Everyone is going to pay.’ They said, ‘Well, if we don’t pay, are you still going to protect us?’ I said, ‘Absolutely not.’ They didn’t believe the answer.”
Haley’s comments followed the death of Russian opposition leader and Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny while in prison on Friday.
The cause of his death was unclear, but the news drew a strong reaction from Western leaders, including President Joe Biden, who placed the blame on the Russian leader, saying that “what happened to Navalny is further proof of Putin’s brutality.”