WASHINGTON — Presidential hopeful and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley took a slight dig at former President Donald Trump in an interview that aired Sunday, warning that his legal troubles could cost Republicans the 2024 presidential election.
Trump’s indictments and investigations could distract from other problems the country faces, Haley said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
“We have to move forward. We’ve got to quit living in the past, and I don’t want there to be all of this division over the fact that we have a president serving years in jail over a documents trial,” Haley said, referring to Trump’s federal indictment over his alleged mishandling of classified documents. “I want all of this to go away. It’s why we have to have a new generational leader. It’s why we need to move forward.”
“We can’t keep living with indictments and court cases and vengeance of the past,” she added.
Haley’s comments come as Trump faces a possible third indictment for his attempts to overturn the 2020 election and his actions during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
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Trump was first indicted by a Manhattan grand jury over hush money payments made to two women who claimed to have had sex with Trump before the 2016 election. Trump was indicted for the second time by a federal grand jury over his alleged mishandling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate after he left the White House.
Special counsel Jack Smith filed new charges against Trump in the documents case last week, alleging Trump ordered Mar-a-Lago surveillance footage to be destroyed in relation to the case.
Haley said, on the campaign trail, voters are not worried about Trump’s multitude of legal problems, but “they want to know what’s going to happen, how we’re going to go and change government for the better.”
If Trump secures the GOP nomination, Haley said Trump’s legal cases will dominate the general election, which she doesn’t think will be “constructive.”
“We will have a general election that’s doing nothing but dealing with lawsuits.” Haley said.
“None of us want to be talking about indictments. I don’t even know if it’s the third, fourth, or fifth indictment right now, but what I can tell you is, it’s a distraction,” she added.
