共和党总统候选人妮基·黑利周日没有明确表示她是否会回来主要竞争对手唐纳德·特朗普但她强调她会继续与他竞争是因为她所说的他不适合担任公职.
“我和他竞选是有原因的。...我最不想做的事就是支持谁。海莉告诉美国广播公司新闻节目《本周》的联合主播乔纳森·卡尔，当他问她是否会坚持她之前签署的承诺，支持该党最终提名的任何人时，她说:“我脑子里唯一想的是我们如何赢得这场选举。”
“我哪儿也不去，”海莉补充道。“我们将长期这样做，我们将完成它。”
卡尔注意到她已经签署了该党的誓言，于是追问海莉:“这是否意味着如果他成为共和党提名人，你不会支持他?”
“你们可以以后再谈支持。她说:“现在你可以问他，当我被提名时，他是否会支持我。
“你认为他会【支持你】吗?”卡尔问道。
“你认为他会吗?”海莉笑着反问。“我高度怀疑。”
这位前南卡罗来纳州州长在“本周”节目中再次批评特朗普太不稳定，无法在中东和欧洲等其他地方出现危机的时候领导美国。
她说:“现在不是谈论美国躲在泡沫中、不与世界其他国家合作的时候。
她呼吁特朗普在特朗普去世后保持沉默被监禁的俄罗斯反对派领导人阿列克谢·纳瓦尔尼这表明他对俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔·普京的真实感受。
“要么他站在普京一边，认为普京杀死他的一个政治对手很酷，要么他认为这没什么大不了的，”海利告诉卡尔。“其中任何一个都令人担忧。其中任何一个都是问题。”
海利和包括总统乔·拜登在内的其他美国主要政界人士都表示，普京应该为纳瓦尔尼的死负责，克里姆林宫否认了这一点。
特朗普没有对纳瓦尔尼发表评论，而是在社交媒体上誓言如果他再次当选，将“带来和平、繁荣和稳定”。
曾担任特朗普驻联合国大使的黑利也指责这位前总统在本月早些时候发表讲话后助长了普京的气焰他会“鼓励”俄罗斯对国防开支不足的美国盟友“为所欲为”。
黑利在“本周”节目中说:“这令人不寒而栗，因为他在那一刻所做的一切都是在赋予普京权力。”
“我们需要提醒美国人民，弗拉基米尔·普京不是我们的朋友。海莉说:“弗拉基米尔·普京并不酷。“这不是我们想交往的人。这不是我们想与之成为朋友的人。这不是我们可以信任的人。”
黑利说，反对普京还意味着与“相信纳瓦尔尼真正为他们说话的俄罗斯人民”站在一起——称纳瓦尔尼为“英雄”——并与乌克兰站在一起抗击俄罗斯的入侵。
但在卡尔就乌克兰援助立法在国会陷入僵局的问题上施压，众议院共和党议长迈克·约翰逊拒绝就边境政治争端进行投票，哈利转向了总统乔·拜登。
2024年2月16日，共和党总统候选人妮基·黑利在得克萨斯州圣安东尼奥的一次竞选活动中发表讲话。
苏珊娜·科代罗/法新社
“嗯，我认为首先你必须谈谈乔·拜登应该做什么，”海利说。“你看到美国变得更加孤立的原因是，乔·拜登从未与美国人民就乌克兰为何重要进行过对话。”
“不是拜登在阻止国会的援助。卡尔回应道，他注意到拜登早些时候访问了这个饱受战争蹂躏的国家，并在黄金时间就这个问题向全国发表了多次讲话。
“现在不是选择哪一方是对还是错的时候，”哈利回答说，并补充说拜登“需要更多地向美国人民讲述这个一揽子计划的意义”，同时认为国会也“失败了”，“需要做好自己的工作，确保他们为国家安全竭尽全力。”
“他们让这听起来像是你必须在乌克兰和以色列以及保护边境之间做出选择。他们在对美国人民撒谎。这是一个错误的前提。我们可以双管齐下，”她说。
卡尔提到了特朗普多年来对北约的怀疑，并问黑利是否担心，如果再次当选，特朗普“实际上可能威胁到北约联盟?”
海莉说，她“担心很多事情，如果特朗普连任”，包括这一点，称二战后的联盟在防止大规模冲突方面是“75年的成功故事”。
“现在不是脱离联盟的时候。海利说:“现在不是站在暴徒一边，而不站在9·11事件后与我们站在一起的朋友一边的时候。”“我们必须确保自己立场坚定，因为当我们与朋友坚定站在一起时，我们的敌人就会紧随其后。”
在特朗普最近的北约言论引发的争议中，一位竞选发言人为他辩护说，他“通过要求我们的盟友付钱来增加他们的北约支出。...当你不支付国防开支时，你不会对更多的战争感到惊讶。”
周日，黑利还批评了特朗普推动共和党全国委员会任命新领导层的做法，其中包括他的一名高级助手和他的儿媳劳拉·特朗普。
虽然一个政党的总统候选人历来会影响他们周围的政党，但唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)仍在与海利(Haley)进行初选，尽管迄今为止他已经赢得了每个州。
“我担心的是RNC现在将成为特朗普法律费用的储蓄罐，”海利在《本周》节目中说，他认为这样的举动将影响全国各地的竞选。
劳拉·特朗普曾表示，在新领导人的领导下，“每一分钱都将用于RNC的首要和唯一工作，即选举唐纳德·特朗普为美国总统。”
“如果他们所做的一切都是考虑如何支付他的赛季费用，你可以放弃赢得众议院和参议院的胜利或拥有任何资源让我们赢得任何其他比赛，”海利周日表示。
她向选民重复了自己的观点:“我们需要一个不受法庭案件干扰的新一代领导人，一个不会对我们的敌人充满报复心的领导人，一个不会在戏剧中出现的领导人。”
Haley won't say if she'd still back Trump as GOP nominee: 'I am running against him for a reason'
Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley on Sunday wouldn't definitively say if she'll backprimary rival Donald Trumpin the general election but stressed that she's staying in the race against him because ofwhat she called his unfitness for office.
"I am running against him for a reason. ... The last thing on my mind is who I'm going to support. The only thing on my mind is how we're going to win this," Haley told ABC News "This Week" co-anchor Jonathan Karl when he asked if she would stick with the pledge she previously signed to support whomever the party's eventual nominee is even as she has become vocally critical of Trump.
"I'm not going anywhere," Haley added. "We’re going to do this for the long haul and we’re going to finish it."
Noting that she'd already signed the party's pledge, Karl pressed Haley, "Does that mean you will not support him if he’s the Republican nominee?"
"Y’all can talk about support later. Right now you can ask him if he’s going to support me when I'm the nominee," she said.
"Do you think he would [support you]?" Karl asked.
"Do you think he would?" Haley asked back, laughing. "I highly doubt it."
Appearing on "This Week," the former South Carolina governor repeated her criticism of Trump as too unstable to lead the U.S. at a time of crises elsewhere, like in the Middle East and Europe.
"This is not the time to talk about America hiding in a bubble and not doing anything with the rest of the world," she said.
She called out Trump's silence in the wake of the death of theimprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny-- suggesting that it shows how he really feels about Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"Either he sides with Putin and thinks it's cool that Putin killed one of his political opponents, or he just doesn't think it's that big of a deal," Haley told Karl. "Either one of those is concerning. Either one of those is a problem."
Haley and other leading American politicians, including President Joe Biden, have said Putin is to blame for Navalny's death, which the Kremlin denies.
Rather than comment on Navalny, Trump on social media vowed to "bring Peace, Prosperity, and Stability" if he is elected again.
Haley, who served as Trump's U.N. ambassador, also accused the former president of emboldening Putin after saying earlier this monththat he would "encourage" Russiato "to do whatever the hell they want" to U.S. allies who don't spend enough on their defense.
"That's bone-chilling because all he did in that one moment was empower Putin," Haley said on "This Week."
"We need to remind the American people that Vladimir Putin is not our friend. Vladimir Putin is not cool," Haley said. "This is not someone we want to associate with. This is not someone that we want to be friends with. This is not someone that we can trust."
Standing against Putin also means standing with "the Russian people who believe Navalny was really talking for them," Haley said -- calling Navalny a "hero" -- and standing with Ukraine in fighting against Russia's invasion.
But pressed by Karl on Ukraine aid legislation that is stalled in Congress, with Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson refusing to bring it up for a vote over a dispute about border politics, Haley turned to President Joe Biden.
"Well, I think first you have to talk about what should Joe Biden be doing," Haley said. "The reason you're seeing America become more isolationist is at no point has Joe Biden had a conversation with the American people about why Ukraine is important."
"It's not Biden that is stopping that aid in Congress. It's Republicans," Karl said back, noting Biden's earlier visit to the war-torn country and the multiple prime-time addresses to the nation he's given on the issue.
"This is not the time to pick which side is right or wrong," Haley replied, adding that Biden "needs to be speaking more to the American people about what this package means" while contending that Congress was also "failing" and "needs to do their job and make sure that they go and do everything they can for national security."
"They're making this sound like you have to choose between Ukraine and Israel and securing the border. They are lying to the American people. That's a false premise. We can do both," she said.
Karl cited Trump's yearslong skepticism about NATO and asked if Haley was concerned that, if elected again, Trump "could actually threaten the NATO alliance?"
Haley said that she was "worried about a lot of things if Trump is reelected," including that, calling the post-World War II alliance "a 75-year success story" in preventing widespread conflict.
"This is not the time to leave an alliance. This is not the time to side with a thug and not side with our friends who stood with us after 9/11," Haley said. "We have to make sure that we stand firm because when we stand firm with our friends, our enemies stay on their heels."
Amid the controversy over Trump's latest NATO remarks, a campaign spokesperson defended him by saying he "got our allies to increase their NATO spending by demanding they pay up. ... When you don't pay your defense spending you can't be surprised that you get more war."
Haley on Sunday also criticized Trump's push to install new leadership at the Republican National Committee, including one of his top aides and his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump.
While a party's presidential nominees historically shape the party around them, Donald Trump is still in a primary race against Haley, though he's won every state so far.
"The part I worry about is the RNC is now going to be the piggy bank for Trump's legal fees," Haley said on "This Week," arguing that such a move would impact races across the country.
Lara Trump has said that under new leaders, "Every single penny will go to the No. 1 and the only job of the RNC, that is electing Donald J. Trump as president of the United States."
"You can hang up winning the House and the Senate or having any resources for us to win any other races if all they're doing is thinking about how they're going to pay his court season," Haley said on Sunday.
She repeated her pitch to voters: "We need a new generational leader that's not distracted by court cases, that's not filled with vengeance towards our enemies, that's not in the drama."
