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| Reuters |
Republican presidential pre-candidate Nikki Haley criticized her rival, former U.S. President Donald Trump, this Sunday for his closeness to Russian leader Vladimir Putin and for his comments on NATO.
"We have to remember that Russia is not our friend. If Putin opens his mouth it is to lie and we must be aware of that," Haley said at a question and answer meeting with voters, organized by Fox News a few days before the primaries in South Carolina.
The former U.S. ambassador to the UN considered Trump's words last week harmful, when he assured that he would urge Russia to do whatever it wants with the NATO countries that fail to meet defense spending quotas.
"He encouraged Putin to invade our NATO partners instead of defending our allies," Haley reproached.
The Republican politician also held Putin responsible for the death in prison of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, an event that Trump has not yet spoken about.
"Putin kills his political opponents, arrests American journalists and uses them as hostages, and does not hide the fact that he wants to destroy the United States. The best thing we can do with Russia is to let them know that we will go after them," she expressed.
Trump is the undisputed favorite to win the Republican nomination for the presidential elections next November after having swept the party's caucuses in Iowa and the primaries in New Hampshire and Nevada.
Nikki Haley is the only rival to Trump left standing and will have a game test next Saturday in the South Carolina primaries, a state where she was governor between 2011 and 2017, but where she is down in the polls.