“He’s living in the past, and the past is catching up with him in a way that it is causing drama,” she replied when RCP asked if her exhortation against complaining applied to Trump. “And I think it’s been politicized. He’s been abused – the way that he has been treated in office and out of office is wrong,” she added in reference to his most recent legal troubles. “But the American people need to go forward.”
Those same voters, she added, “get the fact that this could be challenging for him to win a general.”
Haley considers Trump “a friend” and says she “was proud to serve in his administration.” But times have changed, and for the good of the nation so must the Republican nominee. “We have to move forward. We can’t deal with the drama that’s following him. We can’t deal with the baggage,” she explained. “We’ve got a country to save.”
[True as far as it goes, but the question is whether it matters to Republican primary voters and caucus-goers. So far it doesn’t appear to be having an impact, but we’re also months away from the question actually mattering, too. It’s interesting to see Haley go after Trump directly at this stage of the campaign, too. — Ed]
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