Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley made a compelling case why Donald Trump should not be elected on CNBC Wednesday.
But just a few minutes later, she admitted she’ll still support the former president if he’s the nominee.
It happened on “Squawk Box,” when host Joe Kernen asked the former South Carolina governor whether or not Trump’s actions in the aftermath of losing the 2020 presidential election disqualified him from being president again.
Haley avoided a direct answer, but said that the former president “is not the right president going forward.”
She then offered a perfectly rational reason why Trump should not be reelected that might make sense to people who otherwise support him.
“Chaos follows him everywhere he goes. Chaos follows him. And in a time where we need to start getting our act together, do we really want to go that route? I don’t think we do,” she said.
But if Haley made the case against Trump one minute, in the next she admitted that if he is, in fact, the Republican presidential nominee ― despite all the aforementioned “chaos” — she would support him.
“I’ll support the Republican nominee,” Haley said. “I mean, I think that’s important that we support the Republican nominee because I think anybody is better than Kamala Harris at this point.”
You can see the segment below.
Haley has long tried to critcise Trump without angering his supporters to varying degrees of success.
Back in July, she admitted trying to deal with the wrath of Trump voters wasn’t easy.
“You’ve got some people who are mad that I don’t love Trump 90%, you know, 100% of the time. I don’t love my husband 100% of the time,” she said on Fox News.
Trump currently leads all candidates for the GOP presidential nomination in polls with 58.1% of voters, compared to 9.1% for Haley, according to RealClearPolitics.